Siren Song (36 page)

Duncan sat in front of his computer, the glow of his desk lamp the only light in the other-wise dark room. For almost two weeks he had worked non-stop, not allowing any thoughts non-work related filter into his head. Tomorrow was his last day at the
lavish
offices and he would be able to move on, get on with the rest of his life. It didn’t matter if he was shattered inside; he was still an Alpha, still in charge.

Rubbing his eyes, he leaned back in his chair, deliberately not thinking about any tempestuous vixen. He was going to offer her a pay raise when she did return, via a memo, of course. Her column had breathed new life into the magazine and he hadn’t even realized. All he had known was
lavish
was an excellent investment; an established magazine that seemed to be increasing its sales in the harsh climate. It wasn’t until after he looked over the figures and compared them to her arrival that he realized she was the reason why.

He had been an idiot, about a great many things.

Giving himself permission to indulge himself for five minutes, he closed his eyes and pictured her as she had looked in the kitchen the Monday he let her go. Her hazel-green eyes sparkled as she went to her knees and, after unzipping his pants, she eased his erection out and slowly stroked the rigid length took. Taking his cock into her hot, wet mouth, she looked so sexy and he could still feel the pleasure as she took his cock deeper and deeper.

Mechanically, Duncan freed his erection from the bindings of his pants, stroking the hard flesh as he continued picturing Lexi on her knees, pleasuring him with her lips and tongue. Sensation had shot up his penis, into the base of his spine and he hadn’t known if he would be able to remain standing. And then the wicked little minx started playing with his testicles and his brain exploded. She had looked so self-satisfied after she brought him to his knees.

He concentrated on her expression as she wiped the excess semen from her lips and stuck the finger into her mouth, the sheer seductiveness of it. Straining, desperate for release, he fucked his palm imagining it was her tender touch.

I love you,
his wolf whispered in Lexi’s voice and his body tightened as an orgasm tore through him. The wolf snickered as Duncan fell forward in the chair to clean up the mess, angry with himself and angry with the wolf.

“
I had no choice but to let her go,” he said out loud to the empty room. Tucking his cock back into his pants, he scowled even more as he realized he hadn’t even had an erection for the past two weeks. He could try to convince himself it was because he had been working so hard but he knew that was a lie. He hadn’t allowed himself even a moment to think about Lexi and the moment he did…. “Fuck.”

Almost violently, he powered up his computer; he was going to check his email one last time and then he was going to get out of there for the night. If his suspicions were correct he was going to find a way to kill the fucking wolf who was destroying his life.

Taking a few breaths to calm down, he half expected to see something from Lexi, now that he allowed himself to think about her. His heart leapt in his chest when he saw the subject line titled “Lexi Darling,” and with a trembling hand, he clicked on it.

Mr. Tremain-

What would you like me to do with Miss Darling’s final paycheck? She left no forwarding instructions and she has not returned any of the messages I have left for her.

-Mrs. Reynolds

Duncan flew out of his chair and opening the door to his office with such force it slammed against the wall. Mrs. Reynolds jumped, spinning around in her desk to face him with wide eyes, “Can I, er, help you, Mr. Tremain?”

“
Lexi Darling quit?” he asked through clenched teeth, the veins on his neck popping out until he felt like his head was going to explode.

“
I gave you her resignation letter and final column almost two weeks ago,” she calmly explained as she pushed her chair a little further away from him. “It was in a folder marked ‘Lexi Darling.’”

That would explain why he hadn’t seen it; he refused to allow her into his thoughts and so he had ruthlessly denied anything having to do with her. “Get her back. Now.”

“
Um, she hasn’t been returning my calls,” she repeated the words from her email. “Her roommates tell me that she is on indefinite vacation and will forward any messages to her but they couldn’t make any promises that she would return them.”

Duncan’s fingers squeezed into a tight fist and he wanted to punch a hole through something, preferably his wolf’s mangy ass. “I want her address, her phone number, the Rudnar’s phone number….”

“
Why do you want the Rudnar’s phone number?” Mrs. Reynolds asked slowly even as she wrote down the items he had rattled off.

Duncan froze as a hazy memory came ripping through his head.
“One last secret, Duncan; I’m a Rudnar; Alexandra Rudnar, the youngest daughter you wanted me to interview.” She laughed but it was so full of sadness he couldn’t fathom it coming from her. “I’m also a Siren and I am so, so sorry.” Standing up on her toes, she pressed her lips against his, “I love you.”

Slowly he looked at his secretary, “She loves me.”

“
Well, of course she does,” the woman scoffed. “Anyone with two eyes could see it. Miss Darling was a flirt but she never actively pursued anyone until you came along.” She chuckled at her memories, “That little girl was tenacious; it’s no wonder she quit when you broke up with her.”

“
What makes you think I was the one doing the breaking?” he asked, aghast at his behavior yet powerless to stop. He needed to know everything about Lexi – about Alexandra.

“
Pshaw,” Mrs. Reynolds rolled her eyes. “As if that girl would do the breaking. I swear men are so oblivious.”

“
Mrs. Reynolds,” Duncan murmured firmly. “I’d like to remind you that I sign your paychecks. Now if you please, find me the information I requested because as you may have realized, I am not oblivious any longer.”

She beamed up at him and then frowned, “Um, Mr. Tremain, you have… something on your shirt. You may want to take care of that.”

Duncan looked down and swore when he saw the viscous fluid on the front of his shirt; it was obvious to anyone with eyes what it was. Acting like it wasn’t there, he nodded his head in his secretary’s direction, “Very well. Now, about those phone numbers….”

He disappeared back into his den to the sound of Mrs. Reynolds’s laughter. Swearing yet again, he tore the shirt from his body and threw it across the room. Irritated, he put on a clean shirt as he made a mental list of things he needed to accomplish: kill the wolf, learn everything he could about Sirens, pay a visit to Ashley, find Lexi. And as he let thoughts of Lexi fill his head, he felt the familiar rush of sensation as his penis thickened and grew and he amended his list: discover anything about Sirens; his brother had dated a Siren, he might know something. Otherwise he could hunt down one of the Rudnar women and pry the information from them. Then, once he knew something, he'd pay a visit to Ashley and then he'd kill the wolf.

And then there would be nothing preventing him from hunting Lexi down and claiming her for his own; the wolf couldn't have her.

*****

Ashley had just stepped out of the shower when there was a furious knocking at her front door. Wrapping a towel around her body, she left the humid heat of the bathroom and answered it, surprised to see her Alpha standing there looking worse for the wear. His cropped black hair was slightly longer than usual and standing on end; his silver eyes were red-rimmed, his clothes were wrinkled and he looked like death. “You look like hell, Duncan.”

Without a word, he clasped her head and smashed his mouth against hers in the least finessed kiss he had ever given her. There was desperation in his kiss as he thrust his tongue into her mouth and tugged at the towel. As the towel fell, he guided her backwards against the wall, his lips growing more desperate and frantic with each heartbeat.

Grabbing her wrist, he guided her hand to the front of his pants, holding it over the flaccid penis as he frantically humped her palm, his hips thrusting almost violently. He growled against her lips, “Tell me she isn’t my mate.”

Trailing kisses along her neck, cupping a breast in his hand, he rasped, “Tell me.”

Before she could tell him what he wanted to hear, his face was pressed against the curve of her neck and his arms were wrapped around her damp and naked body. He pulled her into him and held on to her as if he were a man drowning and he had nothing else to hold onto. Awkwardly, she patted the shuddering back, “Duncan, what is it?”

“
My wolf claimed her,” his voice shook with strong emotion. “My fucking wolf claimed a Siren for a mate; she's mine and he claimed her!”

Ashley gasped; how could Duncan be surprised by his wolf’s actions? Weren’t they bonded? “I see; does Lexi know she’s your mate?”

“
No,” he ground out, abruptly letting her go and stepping away from her. His cheeks colored as he saw her standing there, naked. Shrugging out of his coat, he handed it to her as he turned around, giving her some privacy which was ridiculous since he had seen her naked plenty of times. Dragging his fingers through his wildly messy hair, he spat, “She probably thinks I don’t remember her because in her fucking selflessness she gave me the Siren’s good-bye kiss.”

“
What’s that?” Ashley asked, clumsily putting the proffered jacket on, breathing in the wild, musky scent of Duncan and loving it, even though she was in a relationship and unexpectedly madly in love with the man.

“
A Siren can return a person’s memories, or rather, erase a person’s memories, with a kiss,” he bit out, pacing relentlessly back and forth across Ashley’s carpet. “In their fucked up heads, it’s their way of letting a person go and I suppose it is kinder than simply banishing them but, damn it, she kissed me good-bye.”

“
How do you know this?” Fascinated by Duncan’s aberrant behavior, she sat down on the edge of the seat and continued watching him wear a path in her floor.

“
I’m an Alpha,” he said simply, arrogantly, not quite meeting her eyes. “It is my business to know these things.”

“
Why would she kiss you good-bye?” she asked slowly, her mind struggling to catch up to everything her Alpha was dumping on her.

He snorted, “Sirens believe in love and all of that nonsense.”

“
And you don’t love her.” It was a statement but Duncan didn’t know how to respond to it. He already liked Lexi; she had a quick mind and a thousand watt smile that fried his brain, but love? She was… Lexi; it had been easy to say the words to her when he had thought their time together was limited but he didn’t
love
her, not in a sunshine and roses and rainbows way; his feelings for her were far too tempestuous. In time he supposed he could love her but it didn’t matter because she was his mate; he really had no choice.

The fucking wolf took that away from him when he claimed her.

“
If she’s your mate, why didn’t you know?” Ashley’s simple question interrupted his musings before he could reach a satisfactory answer because when he was with Lexi the only organ doing any thinking was his dick.

“
Because I didn’t allow myself the luxury of thinking about her,” he muttered through tight lips. “Because I hadn’t realized it had been two weeks since I’ve had an erection until the moment I thought about her. Because she's mine, not his; he shouldn't have claimed her.”

Ashley bit her lips to prevent a giggle but it didn’t help; a burble of laughter escaped and she looked at Duncan with sympathy, “Poor Duncan; two weeks without an erection is a lifetime for a wolf.”

“
Only if the wolf is unmated,” he grumbled.

“
So, what happens now?”

The question was deceptively hard to answer because he didn’t know if Sirens had the same physiology as humans, if they work react as negatively as humans did to the wolf’s venom. Or would they have a worse reaction? Once, his brother had come close to taking a Siren for a wife but then Stacey had come along and the Siren married some other poor sap.

Since Lexi was his mate, whether he wished it or not, he would discover a way to keep her safe. Otherwise he would never have sex again, which was, quite frankly, the most depressing thought he had ever had. Of the two extremes: sex with Lexi or sex never again, he knew which one he preferred. But first he had to find Lexi. And if she didn’t love him, despite Mrs. Reynolds’s belief that she did, he hoped that in time she may grow fond of him. He’d keep her so sexually sated she wouldn’t be able to even think about leaving him. Also, he could try wining and dining her, or whatever it took to win her heart. Maybe he would take her tandem jumping from an airplane; that seemed like something she’d appreciate.

“
Look, if you see her or her roommates, let her know I’m looking for her,” he sighed in resignation; he was a mated wolf. “And, um, I’m sorry about…” he motioned with his hand to her state of undress. “All of this. Thank you, Ashley.”

“
No problem,” she said with a soft smile, watching him as he let himself out of her house.

The door to her bedroom opened and Dima was standing there with a dark scowl on her gorgeous face. Crossing his arms over his scrumptiously naked chest, he glared at her, “You were going to let that prick fuck you just because he wanted to prove something to himself?”