My Bad Boy Werewolf Quadrillionaire Space Lord

Regroup and Prepare

I was coaxed out of slumber by the faint light of the morning sun, and the deliciously pungent smell of good coffee.

And let me tell you, being coaxed out of sleep is the best way to wake up. Normally I'm dragged or pushed out, by alarms or alarm clocks or the need to get a bad decision out of bed. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I woke up ready and willing to get out of the sheets. Of course, someone else making coffee definitely helps that. One of my great ambitions in life was to own a ship with a decent automated brewing apparatus.

I sat up and glanced around, and was surprised by several things. I was still clothed, which was a moderate disappointment. Luca wasn't in the bed; a more significant disappointment. He also wasn't the one making coffee, and the fact that someone else was had to be the most profound disappointment of the morning.

I pulled the sheets off and got out of bed, to see a woman at a table, pouring herself a cup of coffee as she watched the sunrise. She was dressed oddly, it was clearly an expensive suit, but it didn't quite look right on her. Like seeing a linebacker in a suit, or a fashion model in overalls, something just looked slightly off.

Her head turned, and she looked at me as soon as my feet hit the floor. I finally recognized the woman, as she looked at me with that unnaturally calm expression that made me think of Luca's father, Lito. I felt as if I had already been sized-up, and that she had already decided how she was going to kill me if she needed to.

I rubbed my hair and walked over to her, trying my best to smile as I talked with Luca's personal secretary, Viviana. "So, uh, hi. Make enough to go around?"

Viviana sat a hand on the coffee pot and looked at me as if she was daring me to take it from her. "We'll see," she said.

I stretched my shoulders and decided to try a more tactful approach than I normally would. "I didn't sleep with him, if that helps at all."

The woman's expression might as well have been on a painting for all it changed. "That actually makes me more nervous."

Thought train successfully derailed. I blinked, opened my mouth like a fish in the middle of a fart, started to say something, then closed it when I realized I had no idea what was about to come out of my mouth.

"Honestly, do you know how many women Luca has slept with? The list actually includes the entire cast of two different ballet troupes. There's an ongoing betting pool on Luna guessing the day he knocks up some oil baron's mistress, and it's at 22 billion dollars," Viviana explained.

"Twenty-two billion? Wonder if he'd go halfsies with me on it," I mused aloud.

Viviana laughed. "Now there's a pirate's mind at work. But I'd like you to take my next question seriously. Don't answer it right away, but treat it as if I was going to put you out an airlock if you screw with me."

I didn't see it happen. I didn't even see her move. The gun in her hand might as well have fallen out of a portal into her hand. "Okay," I said. "What would you like to know?"

"Who hired you to go to Mars?" Viviana asked.

"I wasn't hired," I said quietly. "I was tipped off about a mysterious account that had been accessed by a distant tight-beam radio connection originating from Mars. It was hinted that the score could be extremely lucrative."

"Hinted by whom?"

I thought for a moment, remembering until it finally dawned on me. "It was BIRD. It made the connections for me."

"BIRD?" Viviana turned her head to the side and frowned. "Your automated personal assistant drone?"

"Yeah. Turns out it's actually a super-intelligent AI that's been working with the Brotherhood of Billionaires," I explained. "Fabulo referred to it as 'boss'."