9. Michael Larson
Lara didn't know his reasons for the odd job he gave her, but still she did it nonetheless. She started going over the records until the time to leave the office came without her realizing.
Stefani advised her to continue them tomorrow morning and she gratefully agreed. She was tired.
She immediately arranged the documents and piled them neatly on her desk.
She looked at the president's office. The CEO already left early that afternoon and because she was so immersed with her work she didn't realize he had left.
Coming out of the building, Lara and Stefani said their goodbyes. They separated ways since Stefani had a date with her beloved fiancé Miggy, while Chance and Rachel, on the other hand, were waiting for her outside the entrance.
"Let's go!"
The three went together to the nearest barbeque restaurant in the area. And it was there that the actual interrogation really started for Lara.
What happened during lunch time was just a warm up for Rachel and Chance. And her friends really grilled her with questions this time regarding all she knew about the situation and she wasn't allowed to hold back any information from them.
Lara sighed, giving up. "Promise me that everything I tell you guys will stay between the three of us." She warned them and they immediately nodded
"I won't tell a soul." Rachel raised her glass in the air, a little bit tipsy now.
"Me too..." Chance said while Rachel who was now leaning back and forth like a pendulum ordered for more beer. "I promise I want- excuse me *burp* won't!" he corrected himself. "I won't tell anybody..."
Lara seriously looked at them both, "Promise?"
And they both pledged their hearts while bobbing their heads. "Promise!"
She sighed, "I think thats good enough..." After that, Lara started talking.
And all she said was history...
Anyway...
Even though she was tired, Lara forced herself to stand up and go to the bathroom to take a warm bath to freshen herself up before bed.
She removed her charm necklace and did her nightly rituals. After that, she went straight to bed after drying her hair, forgetting to wear her protective necklace again.
She didn't realize the moment she closed her eyes and fell asleep. Someone was inside her room, watching her...
***
Noah stepped out of the shadows, stalking towards his bride with silent steps, careful not to wake her up.
His electric blue eyes gleamed in the darkness when he caught sight of her necklace.
He picked it up and examined it. The strap was made of pure silver but the stone was made of a high grade moonstone that was the size of his thumb. It was shaped in a tear drop and it's surface was cold and smooth.
He can feel the power radiating from it when he ran his fingers on the surface, tracing the white and blue colours swirling inside it.
It may look inconspicuous at a single glance, like a normal necklace anyone would wear. But the necklace was special, and it is blessed with the ability to hide the aura of a non-human, cloaking it's user, making him or her seem human from the others.
The corner of his lips arched up, "No wonder you're so different from the moment I saw you." he murmured, finally arriving to a conclusion about his mate's identity.
Listening to her irregular heartbeat, she was clearly Half-vampire and Half-human.
There's only one person aside from his father who existed in this world who was a half-breed.
She must be the daughter of Sebastien Dragomir.
He chuckled lowly at this discovery. He always knew the fated mate the moon goddess will choose for him was not going to be someone common. In this world, there are 3 powerful races that exists.
The Humans, the Werewolves and the Vampires...
Hundreds of year ago, after a long war between the Vampires and the Werewolves, the humans finally intervened and put an end to the slaughter.
A peace treaty was then formed between the three clans having the leader of the human clan as the head of the council to act as a mediator between the vampires and the werewolves.
Years past, a lot has happened and the leaders of each of the clans have already changed. The races still maintained a harmonious relationship with each other on the outside, but the majority of the human race have forgotten about the existence of the creatures of the night.
Only one clan, the very family who headed the council, knew of the monsters hidden in the darkness of the world and that is the Angeles Clan- where the finest hunters and huntresses are bred and trained to guard and fight against the werewolves and the vampires when they try to break the peace.
Noah placed the necklace back to where he took it from and then stared to his bride, watching her sleep. He can smell the blood of a pureblood running in her veins. He should have sensed it the moment they met but the necklace effectively hid her identity from him, which was a very clever move.
He would not know one of his employees was a half-breed vampire if he didn't discover she was his mate. And Lara wouldn't know what he was to her since the charm necklace has been supressing her powers all this time.
"Quite clever indeed..." Noah chuckled as he leaned down and ran his fingers slowly on her temples down to her chin.
"So beautiful..." he said, admiring her beauty. "Now that I know who you really are, it just made my claim on you so much easier..."
He left a chaste kiss on her forehead as called her name, "Lara, my mate..."
***
The next day, Lara was in a daze as she thought of her weird dream last night on her way to work.
She can remember the dream vividly inside her head, like it was real, like it really happened to her.
There was a black wolf with blue eyes watching her sleep. And instead of feeling fear for the beast from of it's huge size, she felt safe and protected instead...
What a weird dream...
"Good morning."
Stefani was the first one there.
Her singsong voice mirrored her good mood. Her beautiful face lit up in a giant grin when she saw Lara arrive.
"You look good. Did you sleep well?" Stefani asked.
"Yes."
"No nightmares?" She added, examining Lara's face.
Lara stopped, suddenly thinking of her big, black guardian of a wolf last night. "I think I did... Last night..." She said weirdly, placing her bag on her desk.
"That's good." Stefani retreated back to her desk looking at her wrist watch, "Noah will be here shortly. Shall we start working?" She said.
Taking a seat on her chair, she nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this."
Stefani clapped her hands together and started going over the papers. Lara also started going over the files she left behind yesterday when right on cue, Noah came out of the elevator. She immediately stood up to greeted him.
"Good morning, president."
While Stefani just casually nodded and said, "Morning, your highness!"
Noah halted on his steps and looked then Lara's direction. "Good morning." then went straight to his office.
Stefani looked at Lara- who was looking at the office door Noah disappeared into.
"Well, that was a first..." Stefani said. An amused grin spreading on her face. "Looks like he's in a good mood today too..." She said, going back to her work.
Lara sat back on her chair and looked at Stefani. "So, president is usually not like this?" She asked.
Stefani chuckled. "The CEO has his mood swings but today, today must be a special day. Something might have happened to him last night that made him this happy. And there aren't many people who can do that." She said mysteriously, intently wiggling her eyebrows at her.
It must be the girl he's pursuing then. She thought.
***
At lunch time, Lara was alone. Stefani and Noah went to take care of some business outside the company so when lunch time came she texted her friends to meet downstairs for lunch.
"Hey,"
Lara looked up and saw Michael Larson leaning over her desk, a grin on his charming face.
"Sir Michael!" She was surprised, she didn't sense him approaching at all. "What are you doing here?"
Seeing her surprise, his grin widened even more, "Well, I'm here because yesterday I promised that we'll continue our talk but yesterday, when I came out, you were nowhere to be found."
"Oh!" Lara suddenly remembered what happened yesterday.
"Sir Noah told me to fetch something in the HR department so... yeah. What do you want to talk about?" She asked, giving him her full attention.
"Hmm." Michael looked at the time. "How about we talk it over lunch."
"Oh," Lara blinked. "but I have plans to eat with my friends so..."
"That's great! They can join us then. I'll pay."
Lara shrugged, "If you insist…"
***
"So, what did Noah tell you to get there yesterday, if you don't mind my asking." Michael asked as they rode the elevator together.
"Hm, by there, you mean- about the HR department?"
"Yeah."
"Oh! Uhm. Employee records. Sir, Noah told me to fetch the employee records."
He nodded, "I see, for what purpose?"
"Well... Sir Noah wanted me to track down the employees who have birthdays during the month of October to December..."
A weird expression came on Michael's face.
"Really?" Isn't there already a list of records for the employee's birthdays?
Michael wanted to ask more but he stopped himself. Noah, must have his reasons, he thought.
"I bet you're busy... There are actually a lot of employees at SI."
"I know." Lara smiled knowingly, "Good thing I don't easily tire and I'm almost done so..."