Business with Pleasure

Isabella's point of view

IT'S BEEN NO DOUBT a very joyous day, one of the best I have had in a long time. I had breakfast with Gabe, Lance, Alexa, Dixie and Iris. I would have loved it if Dimitri was around to join us but he has been very busy these past few days attending to matters of Castellan Corp.

After breakfast, Gemini gave me and Iris a proper tour around the pack. She told me stories about the great Blood Moon pack and about the pack's ancestors, then she showed me places in the pack and we went downhill. She took me to a large area filled with numerous houses where the werewolves stay. It was behind a road that goes left, and I saw a clear view of a creek that has a bridge over it. There are so many houses, and some buildings look to be like dorms, all resident areas for werewolves. I don't even know how many acres of land this could be. Like two hundred?

She also showed me to the pack's witches quarters located in a cave near the ancestral cemetery. Gem said that so many great and powerful pack werewolves and witches were buried there, and that wasn't a big surprise because you could feel a very strong magical energy emanating around the cemetery, it had a very powerful aura and connection with the ancestral world for sure.

After all that, when I got back to the pack house. I noticed that Dimitri's car was now parked up in the driveway, so on the whims of the tireless voice in my head I went to his room. I didn't really have anything to talk to him about but I just needed to see him, even if it was just a little peep. I needed to get a glimpse of him.

I knew that he wouldn't be in his room at this time of the day so I went to his office, jerking the door open. He was seated in his office chair with a tight look on his face, but he wasn't alone, he had company. With him was Lance, Gabe and the pack's head witch, Celeste. I haven't really had the chance to talk with her personally but I could tell she was a really powerful witch and she had a tattoo with a stone in the middle on her wrist.

Immediately I opened the door they all stopped talking, they all turned around looking at me.

Oh shit, I should have knocked first. I just interrupted their secret meeting, with the look on all their faces it seemed to be gravely important.

"Oh shit!" I whispered underneath my breath.

"Um, I'm sorry. I'll just come back when you aren't busy." I said awkwardly, and was about closing back the door when Dimitri spoke up.

"No it's fine, you can stay, we are done here anyway." With that the three stood up, giving a courtesy bow to their Alpha seated before them, then they left. It was just him and me now.

Dimitri's POV

I came back home immediately after the council's meeting furious as hell. Valor's words haunted and burned at my soul.

He wanted me to find and kill the chosen one. My mate!

I smashed the glass of whiskey I held in my hands. I was in a state of frenzy, my mind couldn't think. The only thing I knew was that I needed to protect Isabelle from them all even if the world was against me on that. I was willing to go against them all.

I sent a mind link to Celeste, Gabe and Lance to come to my office immediately. We needed to discuss about this fucking twist the council had me in.

In less than a minute they all arrived at my office and I informed them about the meeting with the council.

"I can't believe this." Celeste said first after I debriefed them about what transpired at the meeting earlier today. "Isabella is the chosen one." I know it was hard to believe, it even took me a long time to figure out. She was the one chosen by the moon goddess Selene, to hold all the keys to the universe. That's why I couldn't get into her thoughts. No wonder all these damn monsters want her so bad, they need her powers for their evil desires..

"The council has gone nuts if they think that they are going to get Isabelle. She is our Luna and belongs with our pack. Valor and Rafael can go burn in hell." Gabe scoffed pacing around, he wasn't taking any of this. No pack would willingly surrender their Luna.

"But she isn't part of the pack yet and she isn't our Luna until Dimitri marks her and completes the mating ceremony." Celeste pointed out. "Alpha the final moon eclipse is only eight days away and the blood moon will be upon us all in sixty-nine days. If you and Isabelle don't perform the mating ritual and the spell to break the curse, you will die, killing all of the Blood Moon pack. We are running out of time. Isabelle needs to know the entire truth and about her role in helping us to break the curse." Celeste expressed.

"She is not ready for this. I can't just drop this huge responsibility of the entire pack lives on her." I defended myself. She wasn't ready for that type of burden and responsibility.

"You are forgetting this is her pack too. And she is our Luna, it is her burden to bear too." Celeste says urgently. She and this whole talk was beginning to piss me off. Breaking the pack curse was a heavy burden to shoulder, I couldn't let her suffer with me.

"Enough Celeste. No one will tell Isabelle anything about the curse or even that she is my mate until I say so. Do you understand?" I growled, my lycan form threatening to be let out. I felt Lance place a hand on my back, attempting to calm me but it was futile. Only she could. Only the simple touch of my mate was capable of gentling me.

"I understand Alpha. Your will is my command." Celeste finally let out, bowing her head. The door was suddenly pushed open permitting in a little ray of sunshine.

"Oh shit!" Isabelle whispered under her breath. I could feel Luca finally calming down upon seeing her, he was restless ever since the council's meeting. She was like the air that we needed to breathe.

'Mate.' Luca whimpered.

"Sorry. I'll just come back when you aren't busy." She let out a nervous laugh. I could hear her heart beat loudly within her chest.

"No it's fine, you can stay. We were done here anyway." With a bow the others stood up and took their leave. It was just the two of us. I was lost admiring how divine she always managed to look without putting in much effort. She was in a tight white t-shirt and faded denim blue jeans.

'Mark her! Mark mate!' Luca urged, I was staring at the perfect spot on the nape of her neck. But I couldn't do that. I held myself back from marking her right here and now. I quickly stood up heading to the mini bar in my office. I needed a drink to cool off.

"Whiskey?" I asked, pouring some whiskey into my glass.

"Hmm... Sure." She said walking around my office and observing the decor on my walls. After filling our cups I handed her one. I watched her, laughing as she coughed after taking a big gulp. Her eyes fix on the numerous books arranged on my top shelves. Great classics like the little prince, pride and prejudice, wuthering heights, and my favorite .

"You read novels?" She breathed, sounding a bit surprised.

"Yeah. What? Do I strike you as the type that despises literature?" I asked with a small smile tugging my chin.

"Not that. You just didn't strike me as the type that read a lot." She giggled, and instantly fell with the sound of her earnest laughter. They were as soothing as the forest lullaby or like the sound of raindrops taps or my window sill.

"I know it is odd for someone as good looking or handsome as I am to like books. And I already know I'm amazing." I tell her with a grin.

"No, you are just conceited." She says, shaking her head at me and I chuckle.

"So what brings you to my office? Did you miss my charming face so quickly." I joked, sipping on my whiskey.

"You wish." She said, her cheeks burning red. "I came to talk business." She said with a long smile.

Business? Well I'm intrigued.

"Business with pleasures I assume, Miss Santacruz?" I teased her again, with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, business... But without the pleasures." She corrects me with a small smile, her face heating up and her heart beat moving faster. Seeing her smile just a little bit was priceless to me. "I am very thankful to you for allowing me to stay here with you and your pack." She said.

"And you can continue to stay here for as long as you want to Isabelle. You are more a part of the pack than you know." I assured her. She did deserve a place in this pack more than she had known. She was my mate.

"Yes but I don't want to feel like a burden here to anyone, no? I want to work just like everyone else in the pack. I want to be useful at least. It's the least I could do, right?" She spoke with so much passion and determination, I admired that. She wasn't lazy and didn't want to be seen as irresponsible, she wanted to be useful around the pack.

"Oh I see. So what would you like to do?" I leaned back partially on the Italian wooden desk behind me.

"Uh... I'm not really sure, maybe I could help Seth with the kitchen or I could help clean around the house, I don't know." She suggested, with a small shrug. But there was no damn way that I would allow my mate and Luna to clean around the pack. She was no one's maid.

"Listen Isabelle, you are still my guest, there is no way I'm going to allow you to work around in the pack." I tell her looking into her blue ocean for eyes. This was when Luca whispered a brilliant idea to my mind.

"But I have a job for you." A tremendous thought just popped in my head. I couldn't help the smirk that curled up to my lips.

Her eyes widened in excitement, "What type of job is it?"

"My secretary just quit today. She claims she couldn't put up with my charms and unique selfness. And I will really need someone to help keep my things in order and make sure I meet my appointments on time." I told her, and she just nodded with a small smile.

"Sure thing Alpha. I would love to be your secretary." She said really happy.

"Good, you start tomorrow." I told. I loved seeing her like this, happy. I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I could do with her as my secretary.

"Thank you." She said, giving me a small hug. I don't know why I was getting so excited over a little hug, having her so close was exceptionally tempting. I could breathe the air that surrounded her up close, I could feel her heartbeat.

'Mark her human!' Luca barked at me. He was getting more and more out of control, he was dying to mark our mate.

She withdrew herself quickly, as if feeling the electricity between us. "Good night." She quickly walked out.

What the hell was I thinking about letting her become my secretary? I don't think I will be able to control my urges next time if she is this close to me. Still it would help me better having her so close to me. Under my close watch and protection.

***Author's note***

Hello readers. How was this chapter, Any thoughts?

This was a really fun chapter for me to write and a lot is still yet to come, like I say, their story is just beginning.

Chapter's Soundtrack: Anything could happen by Sigrid