Warrior Fae Trapped (Warrior Fae 1)

Roger clasped his hands on the desk. His biceps jutted out. “Time moves at the same pace, but travel time within the Realm fluctuates depending on the path. Getting from here to, say, the other side of the world could take merely an afternoon if the right paths were traveled. It could also take ten years if they weren’t.”

“I see. Okay, well, tomorrow I work in the admin office, and then Tuesday I have classes. So…I gotta go. It’s been…great, but I think it’s time for you to show me the way home.”

“You think you can just move on from this place and go back to a normal life?” Roger asked, and Charity couldn’t tell if it was a genuine question or a threat. Magic clearly existed in the world, and Roger’s job was to keep normal people from knowing about it. He’d done a bang-up job so far, since Charity still couldn’t wrap her head around any of this, but did what she’d seen incriminate her? Was knowing about the magic like seeing your kidnapper’s face?

“He wasn’t threatening you,” Devon said, as if reading her mind.

Charity didn’t mask her sigh. “Oh, good. Well, then…I think I can. I mean, I’ll always look harder—and probably avoid—the shadows, and I’ll certainly wonder about people’s secrets, but this is just one more speed bump on my life’s nightmare journey to dreamland. I can’t derail now when I’m three years away from graduating. I’ll never get another opportunity like this again. I have to move on, and so…I will.”

“I’m not asking you to give up your life,” Roger said with a glimmer in his eyes she didn’t much like. Her flight reflex kicked up a notch. “I am asking if you want to work for me.”

Roger’s stare beat into Charity’s skull and then bounced around in there for a while, turning her defenses into jelly. Her body shivered from the strain of holding that ferocious, predatory gaze. Violent energy coiled within his skin, threatening to break free.

Devon sat unnaturally still, probably to keep from drawing that intense, commanding stare. Good Lord, Roger was terrifying.

“There are a few reasons why I don’t think that would work,” she began slowly, working through what felt like lockjaw. “First, I don’t turn into anything besides grumpy—”

Devon snorted.

“Second, I barely got out of that house. I would constantly be a hindrance. And third, I don’t have any spare time. I’m working and studying constantly. That party was a rare occurrence.”

“Quit your job at the administrative office,” Roger said. “You can’t be making much there.”

“It’s a cushy job that lets me study while I work. I need it. My scholarship won’t cover all my expenses.”

“You have a scholarship?” Roger leaned back with a quirked eyebrow. “Impressive. How much does it cover?”

“It was a full ride, but that’s just for school, books, and a meager stipend for rent. I still have to come up with money for food, clothes, and other supplies.”

Roger’s eyebrows nearly brushed his hairline now. “Wow. You must be extremely intelligent and hardworking.”

Heat filled Charity’s cheeks, and she squirmed in embarrassment. Although he was clearly trying to butter her up, it was nice to get recognition. Only her mother had ever praised her for doing so well in school.

“I did what I had to, plain and simple,” she mumbled as she picked at her nail. “But you can see now why I need to treat my education like a gold bar.”

Roger leaned forward against the desk. It almost looked like he was ready to pounce.

She gulped audibly, her whole face hot now.

“My organization pays more than your job at that school,” he said. “Much more. Quit the admin job and work for me. Devon and his men will keep you out of harm’s way”—Devon jolted, clearly hearing that news for the first time—“and I’ll make sure your balance of school and work is perfect. All you have to do is help extinguish a few vampires. Your life will only change for the better.”

He wanted to send her into battle against those nightmare creatures, and her life would change for the better? Was he joking?

She scrubbed her stupid palm against her leg, trying to quell that insufferable itching.

“Any day,” Devon grumbled under his breath.

Devon wanted her to say no. Desperately. She could see it in the tightness around his eyes, in his sagging lean against the elbow he’d planted on the chair arm, feel it in his magic beating on her, trying to subdue her. To put her in her place—beneath him.

She gritted her teeth and turned away, fighting that flame within her. This was crazy. All of it. She didn’t care about the pack social structure and where she fit within it. She didn’t care about pretty-boy jackasses with a dominance complex. And she certainly didn’t have a problem saying no when it went against everything she was working so hard for in her life.