my head up and locked eyes with her brown ones. They filled with fury when mine narrowed.
“You are my employee. I found you a new office right next to mine, if you haven’t noticed.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t touch her. I fisted my hands and ground my teeth. She wore a short white dress with a low neckline. The small wooden pendant rested between her breasts. And those boots? They had long thin heels that could dig into my ass as I pressed her against the wall and fucked her brains out. I blinked that image away and continued when a blush of rage crept up her neck. On her chest, Rain’s fair skin showed patches of red. It happened when she was angry, and now she looked like she’d burst into a tantrum. Which would be the end of me. For sure. “It’s a big office. Even bigger than mine, with a view your president would want to pay for. It comes with an assistant. Instead of being cooped up in my small quarters, now you have a room and a bed for fae to experiment on. Feel free to skin any of them. After the mating season. Also, while we’re at it, Dohan will be fired from his post as a security guard. I’m telling you in advance.”
Rain nodded. Surprised she didn’t protest, I lifted an eyebrow before she said, “You need to come in for a booster. I want to examine your new graft. We’re still testing and…” A pause and she inhaled deeply, then continued, “and you shouldn’t have touched ground last night.”
What the fuck? Human females thought of the weirdest shit, I swore it. “I took care of myself, so you can work and not worry about me.”
For a while, she was quiet, and I thought she’d walk out.
“I come to work at nine sharp. I knock on the door and let myself in. I take care of your grafts, and I work from your room. I don’t want the new office or an assistant, and I don’t want you to take care of yourself, because that’s my job.”
“And you will take care of the grafts. After the mating season.”
“I want to take care of you during the mating season. I don’t want you to go down there. Did you go down there?” She pinched her lips. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
I stood and slapped my palms on my desk. I bared my teeth and leaned in. “I am Titan. I do not fuck around. My soul mate is not down there, and you can’t take care of me during the mating season. Get back to work. In your new office. When the season is over, we’ll meet. I’m very sorry about what happened yesterday. I crossed the line.”
Rain contemplated what I’d said, her emotions passing over her eyes. Hurt, understanding, anger, and after a minute, she snatched my pen. I’d thought she was angry when she’d been hurting, but now I knew she was angry. I snapped my head to the right. It cracked my neck, stretched my muscles nicely. Then I rolled my shoulders, waiting to see what she’d do with the damn pen. Maybe she was meant to be a fae female after all. I might get myself stabbed.
“I’m going back to my old workplace,” she said. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. You are mine.” She wrote “MINE!” on a piece of paper, licked the back of the paper, and slapped it on my forehead. “Doodle that, Titan,” she said and stormed out the door.
Good thing I’d replaced the door.
Seven
Titan
I stared at the piece of paper in my hand and felt claimed. I didn’t know if claiming meant the same to humans as it did to us. I should probably hit their Internet and look it up. Hell, I hadn’t even known human females claimed. The fae females didn’t claim, at least not in such a brutal way. Mine , she’d written, and I read it over and over again, unsure what to make of it, so I shoved the claim in the back pocket of my jeans and returned to doodling. But this time, I changed it up. I drew little human monsters with white dresses and perky little tits.
A few minutes later, I heard nothing when I should hear chatter from a