"You're allowing a stranger into your home," Mina barked as soon as she entered my office.
I didn't look up from the contract I was reviewing. "Your point?"
"Isn't it enough that you risked your reputation housing an unconscious woman for three days?" She marched towards my table. I could feel her anger radiating across the desk. "If word of what you did had leaked, or she had died, it could affect the new drama. You still need to get approval from—"
"Don't forget your place, Mina. I am not your child." I set down my pen and looked up at her. "I'm still pissed at getting stood up by the Sterling family. Shouldn't you be worried that we might not get the clearance we want before this drama premieres?"
She folded her arms. "I'm worried about everything, but if you don't start caring about your reputation, everything we've worked for in the past two years will go down the drain and all for a human."
The way she said 'human' made it sound like an insult, as if Naya were beneath us. Maybe she was right. But something about dismissing Naya so easily sat wrong with me.
I exhaled and rose to my feet, then walked around my desk to where Mina stood.
"Mina," I placed my hands gently on her arms. "You're overreacting again."
"I'm not—" she whispered, her eyes shimmering with tears.
"You are." I kept my tone soft. "I know you care, and I do too. But this isn't a big deal, as you're making it out to be. We still need to get to the root of Naya Rivers trying to poison me."
"But you've done everything except that," Mina fired back. "You keep pushing it away. I asked you to make an appointment with the police department, to at least start an investigation, but you keep shutting me down, and now she's in your Penthouse, not even I have had the privilege to pass a night there."
"I told you," I bit back an exasperated sigh, "This is just a means to keep her in my sight. I have a lot of work, I don't have time to bother about a poisoning that didn't happen."
Mina stared at me with surprise, shaking her head slowly. "This is so unlike you, Hansel. Please come to your senses. Does she turn you on so much that you want to fuck her?"
"Mina!" I growled out a warning.
"Yes!" She didn't stop talking. "I've seen the way you look at her, you want to sleep with her, right? You're never going to punish her for trying to poison you. How convenient."
Her chest was heaving now, and I watched as she swiped at the tears that rolled down her cheek. gods! I hate to see a woman cry. Partly because it can trigger my Raze, and partly because it reminded me of my mother.
I took a step towards her. "Please, can you stop crying?"
"I care, Hansel," she said in between hiccups. "You know that. I've been with you from the beginning, when Apex Entertainment was just an idea on paper. When everyone said you'd fail. When your family wrote you off as the stray who'd never amount to anything."
I knew all this. Mina was my first hire. She'd transitioned from an ordinary Delta in the pack house who always looked out for me to my assistant. She'd seen me at my worst.
"I've watched you build this empire," she continued, the tears were flowing freely. I watched you fight for every inch of ground and rise above the Ward name to build something for yourself, and now you're going to throw it all away? For her?"
"I'm not throwing anything away."
"You are!" her voice rose. "You're letting your attraction to this woman cloud your judgment. She tried to kill you, Hansel. And you're giving her a place to stay?"
Attraction.
Was that what this was?
I thought about Naya. About the way she'd kissed me at the club. The way she'd begged on her knees—the tears on her face.
Yes. There was attraction, I couldn't deny that. That voice in my head hasn't been back either, but it wasn't clouding my judgement. I was using her, nothing more.
"It's fine," I said and pulled her close, wrapping my arms around her as I rubbed soothing circles on her back. "You don't have to worry, Mina. I know what I'm doing."
"You better," her voice was muffled against my chest, "because I won't watch you destroy yourself."
We stood like that for a moment. This was our pattern and had been for years. When Mina worries, I reassure and calm her down.
It was a professional, platonic gesture and nothing more. At least, that was it for me.
We stayed like that until a throat-clearing sound made me notice someone had slipped into the office.
I looked up and saw Andrew. Instantly, I stepped back from Mina while she wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself.
"Did I interrupt something?" Andrew asked, amusement flickering in his eyes.
"No," Mina responded without looking at him. "I was just leaving."
She walked past him towards the door, and as soon as we were alone, Andrew turned to me with raised eyebrows.
"Don't," I said, walking back to my desk.
"Don't what?" he sat in the chair across from me with a huge grin on his face. "I didn't say anything."
"Your face says it all," I glared at him.
"Fine. Are you dating your assistant now?"
"No." I pulled out a bottle of whiskey from the small drink cabinet by my table and poured two glasses. "Mina is nothing more than a little sister to me."
"Hmm." Andrew took the glass I offered. "Does she see you as a brother?"
I didn't answer because I didn't want to think about that question.
Mina was someone I grew up with. She'd always been a part of my life, from her days as a servant in the pack house. She'd proven her loyalty a thousand times over. If she had feelings beyond the platonic relationship we had, I couldn't acknowledge them.
I didn't do relationships or feelings. The Raze made that impossible.
"Did you find anything?" I asked, changing the topic.
Andrew nodded, instantly slipping into business mode. "Yeah, and you're not going to like what I found."
"Tell me."
He pulled out a folder and slid it across the desk to me. "The Sterling Family. Your family's favourite rivals."
The Sterling family were a Vampire dynasty that ruled the Western Territories with an iron fist. Every filmmaker who wanted to shoot west of the border had to go through them.
And they hated my family.
"I've tried to meet with Cassian Sterling three times," I said. Cassian Sterling, the Patron of the Sterling family, though werewolves and vampires have learned to co-exist, there existed a generation-long squabble between our families. "Three times, Andrew. And each time, they cancelled the meeting at the last minute with some bullshit excuse."
"Tell me about it," Andrew sighed and leaned back into his chair.
"Tonight was the worst," I downed my whiskey and poured myself another one. "I arrived earlier than the proposed time for the meeting and waited three hours at the hotel, only for the hotel manager to tell us that Cassian Sterling won't make it. He didn't even have the decency to call himself."
"He's purposely doing it, Hansel. Since that peace treaty was signed, the vamps seldom work with us. It's not just you. A lot of my clients have had deals cancelled right in the middle of a business year and before the expiration of their contracts without any explanation."
"The question is why?" I opened the folder. "They agreed to the treaty, why are they trying to play victims?" I started reading the document I pulled out. "What did you find?"
"Not much. The Sterlings keep their business locked down tight, and it seems Cassian Sterling is sick. An insider said it's his son Cahir who runs the family now, but there's been no official announcement to that regard. Anyways," Andrew took a sip from his drink. "I found something interesting, too."
"What?"
"Naya Rivers." He pulled out a photograph and slid it to me again. "She's Cassian Sterling's goddaughter."