As Cassandra walked away from the private space where she had left Rose, her jaw was clenched so tight it hurt.
Her teeth ground together. Her hands curled into fists at her sides.
The text she had received was from an unknown number. Just one line that made her blood boil:
"Are you feeling the heat of my actions already?"
Cassandra's eyes flashed red as she walked down the hallway toward her office.
The perpetrator behind every bad thing that had been happening to her, was taunting her.
"This is not a game, you fool!" She growled under her breath. As she approached her office, she was already making a call.
"Lawrence. My office. Now. And bring Davina."
Less than three minutes later, Lawrence walked into Cassandra's office with a young woman in tow.
Davina was in her early twenties, dressed in casual tech-company attire: jeans and a hoodie that looked out of place in the polished corporate environment. Her red hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and she carried a laptop in one hand.
"Sit." Cassandra commanded, gesturing to the chairs in front of her destroyed desk.
Davina's eyes widened slightly as she saw the destroyed desk and she swallowed hard. Despite having worked for Cassandra for long and witnessed some of her moments of rage, Davina, being human would never get used to it.
Davina sat, slightly fidgeting while Lawrence remained calm.
Cassandra held up her phone, showing the duo the message.
"I need you to track down the address of this sender. You have thirty minutes."
Davina's eyes shot up as she looked at the screen. Her fingers were already moving, pulling out her laptop and opening it on her lap.
"Thirty minutes?" She repeated, her voice uncertain.
"Is there a problem?" Cassandra's tone was dangerously soft.
Davina's fingers flew across her keyboard, her eyes scanning lines of code that appeared on her screen. After a moment, her expression fell.
"Ms. Drayke, this number has heavy encryption. Military-grade security protocols. Whoever sent this knows what they're doing." She looked up, meeting Cassandra's gaze for just a second before looking away then added as a matter of fact;
"It's going to be hard to track."
At that, Cassandra saw red. Literally. Her vision tinged with it. Her wolf surged forward, demanding violence, demanding she break something or someone.
Her hands gripped the arms of her chair and the wood began to crack under the pressure.
But then...
An image flashed in her mind. Rose Bennett, sitting just one room away, eating.
"No, My Rose needs peace while she eats." Cassandra reminded herself inwardly then took a deep breath.
Slowly, the red faded from her vision. Her grip on the chair loosened.
She leaned back, forcing her body to relax even though one part of her was screaming at her to lash out.
Lawrence's brows furrowed in confusion as he stared at her in shock.
This wasn't like Cassandra. Not at all. Usually, by now, the office would be a disaster zone. Furniture overturned. Glass shattered. Her controlling her temper like this in a situation like this was unheard of, unseen before.
"How long?" Cassandra asked, her voice cold but controlled. Not violent, not screaming, just cold.
Davina blinked, clearly surprised she wasn't being yelled at then she quietly replied;
"Um... looking at the layers of security here, I'd say... a whole day. Maybe more."
Cassandra's eye twitched.
"A whole day? Then why am I paying you a huge salary if you can't give me what I want when I need it?" Her voice rose slightly.
Davina flinched.
"Maybe I should just replace you then." Cassandra continued, her tone sharp enough to cut.
"Boss..." Lawrence started gently.
"You have any idea concerning who should be her replacement?" Cassandra snapped, turning her glare on him.
Lawrence held his ground.
"Davina is the best tech person in this entire city. If she says she can't crack this encryption until after a day, then nobody else in the city can do it faster." He pointed out and Cassandra's nostrils flared.
She wanted to argue, to demand the impossible but she couldn't deny that
Lawrence was right.
She scoffed harshly looking away, then after a second, she turned to Davina;
"You have until the end of today, Davina. And you better not disappoint me."
Davina opened her mouth, clearly about to protest that timeline was still impossible but Cassandra's hard gaze seemed to kill the words in her throat.
"Yes, Ms. Drayke." She just nodded quickly.
"Get out. Both of you." Cassandra ordered and the duo scrambled to their feet and left.
The moment the door closed behind them, Cassandra stood.
She needed to see Rose, to be near her. So that her intoxicating scent could calm the rage still simmering beneath her skin.
She walked quickly back down the hallway to the private space.
Her hand was already reaching for the door handle, anticipation building in her chest when her nostrils flared, notifying her that the sweet vanilla and strawberry scent was getting faint around the space.
She pushed the open to find an empty room, her eyes immediately scanning every nook and cranny of the space.
"She left?" She blurted into the empty room.
The table still had food on it. Plates had been used but most of the feast remained untouched.
She could see that the woman had barely eaten anything.
"I told her to stay and eat and wait for me... But she left!" Cassandra began in a whisper then her eyes narrowed on the seat Rose was supposed to be sitting in and she yelled.
"Why? Why would she leave?"
The anger that Cassandra had been carefully holding back, controlling for Rose's sake, suddenly had no reason to be contained anymore.
It rippled through her like a tidal wave.
Her hand swept across the table, sending plates and dishes crashing to the floor. Glass shattered. Food splattered across the expensive carpet.
She grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it. The heavy furniture crashed onto its side with a deafening bang.
A decorative vase on a shelf? She hurled it against the wall. It exploded into a thousand pieces.
The comfortable couch? She raked her claws across it, tearing through the fabric like paper.
"Why won't she at least eat first?!" Cassandra roared at the empty room.
Her eyes were fully red now. Her wolf was right at the surface, demanding to be let out, demanding to hunt, to find their mate and drag her back.
She kept destroying everything within reach until finally, breathing hard, surrounded by wreckage, Cassandra stood in the center of the ruined room.
Her chest heaved. Her hands were still clawed. Her eyes still glowing.
~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, across the city, Lilian rushed down a busy street.
Her phone was clutched in her hand, the screen showing a text message she had received a few minutes ago.
She had barely had time to eat a few bites before the message came through. And when she'd read it, everything else had stopped mattering.
As she walked, her heart pounded. Not from exertion but from fear.
The message had been from Ellen.
Lilian didn't know this woman, had never met her. But she'd seen the text history between Ellen and Rose Bennett, which explained that the duo were best friends.
And now Ellen was in danger.
Lilian glanced down at the screen again as she hurried forward, reading the words that had made her abandon everything:
*"Rose I'm trapped. On the verge of death. Please come to this address immediately. I need you."*
An address followed, some location on the industrial side of the city.
Lilian had no idea what she was rushing into but she knew one thing with absolute certainty:
Rose Bennett would have gone.
Rose would have dropped everything to save her best friend.
And if Lilian wanted to keep living as Rose, she had to do the same, despite what it might cost her.