Weakened Mountains (Artemis University Book 4) Read online

  That was a lot to swallow and I was glad it was a conversation with Hudson, so he didn’t push me as I mulled it all over. It was probably several minutes before I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  I swallowed loudly, realizing he wanted more from me than that. “I think part of my snapping is Darby doesn’t know about you. He knows not to push me for more or exclusive, but… I haven’t told him yet. We’ve had some bumps too and I keep thinking he’s not going to want an idiot like me for real.

  “I’m trying to figure this ‘normal’ thing out. But I also have so, so much on my plate. All I’ve been doing is work this break, Hudson. I really wasn’t just ducking you because you had a date. I was snarky with that, but I was panicking again. This time what the elders would do if they found out I only had a 9th grade education.

  “I’m trying to fit almost a full year of high school into one winter break. There’s other shit even my friends don’t know about, not even Mel. I want to tell them, but knowing is a burden and could make them a target. Now I did this thing with crystals. My boyfriend almost went feral because I’m powerful. I just can’t get above water.

  “And I’m going to drag everyone with me. It’s mostly self-inflicted too. But how can I not help? I just ignore the hobgoblins or how female supes are treated? All the other stuff? How can I say I deserve what I have and not deserve it? Every time I turn around I feel like I’m about to drown.”

  “You won’t. We won’t let you,” he promised. “You’re not alone.” He reached over and moved his arm around me. “You’re not alone.”

  “I know. I just feel it too often,” I whispered sadly. “And yes, I did want a killer dress to make it clear I should be the only date you wanted. I just wanted it for Darby too.”

  “Thanks for being honest. It got me ridiculously hard to think you wore that to get my attention.”

  I snorted. He always paid attention.

  And it didn’t take much to get him hard.

  “People do dance with their friends even if they’re on a date. I maybe shouldn’t have said what I did but it seemed wrong to not tell you how amazing you looked.”

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t have gotten laid for a while if you hadn’t said anything.”

  He didn’t respond for several minutes. “Any chance I’ll get laid while you’re here?”

  “None.”

  “Soon?”

  “Yeah, soon.” Pushy damn dragon.

  Who was I kidding? I fucking loved it. The man knew how to give chase, that was for sure, and something I had to start giving him credit for.

  4

  “Hi, Mr. Smith?” I asked the waiting group, doing my best impression of that annoying receptionist we all want to strangle in any office we unfortunately have to visit. I glanced around and locked eyes with Marshall, who was playing our decoy and wearing a flattering glamour. “Yes, hi, sorry, but you didn’t pass our background check, Mr. Smith.” I handed over the folder to him with a smirk.

  He frowned, taking it from me and sputtering when he read what he said. He was a good actor because he totally knew the role he was playing. “Council spy? I’m no such thing! How can you accuse me of something like that?”

  “I’m so sorry, decisions are final,” I taunted. “You may use the portal to run back to your master. Don’t worry, we’ll be having words with them too and making sure all the other elders know they sent spies to a nonprofit. Have a wonderful day, Mr. Smith.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned to leave, noticing two other people were trying to slip out of the large room and head for the door. I snorted and gestured to the fleeing rats.

  “Clearly you weren’t the only one,” I purred, knowing the backup teams we had watching would flag those people and figure out who they went with. That had been the whole point of this, after all. I won that bet. Mr. Rothchild must be grinding his teeth to the gums. I glanced down at my clipboard. “Sam Felton, you passed our background check and aren’t a council spy. Please follow me.”

  “It was a good call to come here. This is absolutely a perfect place to recruit. They’re making their disdain for the elders clear from the beginning. I was right to text it in.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t a good guy either. He “passed” on to the bad stage, but we needed to see how deep things went. I was honestly excited to be around my first person from the Underground. Not excited like I thought I’d make friends with them—fuck no—but I could get the nagging worries everything I was told about them wasn’t as it seemed handled.

  And he did that fairly quickly.

  Sam Felton was a human. From what I’d already pieced together from the three Underground we had apply and I’d busted, their newest shtick was to find reclusive humans without family and steal their identities… By killing them. Yeah, not just the fraud kind.

  It was like a level of initiation for them to jump ranks in the Underground. They found one they could physically pass for with minimal adjustments—small glamours or they gained/lost weight kind of thing. And then they had the perfect cover with legs that should stand up to any background check.

  My computer genius was just better and had figured out something was off. I got the rest from their heads and now we had a huge lead on how to track others of the Underground.

  Let the games begin. I smiled brightly at him as I brought him into the next room. “We have a more in-depth questionnaire now that you’ve passed the background check.”

  “Another one?” he sighed.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “You were warned there were going to be multiple rounds and levels of interviewing. There’s also the training after and—”

  “Yeah, no, sorry, they just make me nervous that my favorite color is going to tell them I’m a bad fit,” he cut in, sounding contrite. “Gods, will she just shut the fuck up? She’s seriously hot and if she’d use that mouth for something better, I’d bang her all over the place. But seriously, what a dumb bimbo who thinks she’s so important as the damn secretary.”

  Great guy.

  I handed it over with a smile, waving him off to the table where he could fill it out. I knew the glamour I was wearing was meant to distract them and let me see what kind of thoughts they had about women. Everyone had been shocked when I’d been the one to suggest it.

  Yeah, duh, this was a sanctuary for women. We needed to test they wouldn’t want the job so they had a pool of people they could take advantage of.

  So, my outfit was a super-sexy, nowhere near office professional suit with a super-short skirt. I sat at my desk and sighed, taking off my jacket and showing I was wearing a next to nothing blouse under that showed my bra. Once I knew I had his eyes, I fluffed my short black wig and stretched. The light green eyes of the glamour and serious push-up bra helped to make it all come together.

  “Shit, she has got to be a fucking perk, right? The bosses won’t mind if I take any of these women for a spin. If I can’t recruit them. If I can, then the bosses will try them out—they always do. But yeah, I can have my fun too.”

  I leaned forward and started typing, my skills vastly improving with my dedication to typing out two classes of textbooks. Plus, my high school computer class. By the end of the year I was confident I wouldn’t be behind on basics, but probably ahead of the spoiled elites.

  Time to get on with the questions.

  Do you prefer to work as a team or alone? Why?

  He mentally snorted. “Alone. Half the time I can’t trust the other guys won’t stab me in the back and take the credit to the bosses. Rogue is great, but there is no honor amongst thieves for sure. They don’t want that answer. Yes, I’m a team player. Duh. How stupid do they think we are to not see what answer to give?”

  Why do you want to work at this nonprofit?

  “Oh for the love of… I want to recruit for the Underground. Gods, they’d die if they saw that answer. I bet this pretty bitch would wet herself. Maybe she likes a bad boy. Hmm, something to think about. I want to work here for hot
pussy as a bonus to the assignment to recruit and get close to this powerful unknown everyone’s talking about.

  “The bosses want her. They want her power and money. They just have to figure out what move to make. Right, a real answer. Wolves have a protective nature and being a lone wolf has been harder than I thought, and the idea of community sounds nice again, blah, blah.”

  If you could change one thing about your personality at the snap of your fingers, what would it be and why?

  “A bigger cock. Oh, personality. Patience. Yeah, wolves are known as being impatient. That’s a good one. I don’t really care but it sounds good for them.”

  Tell us why you’re thinking about coming back into the fold of supe society.

  “Because you’re stupid enough to give us a prime target like this? Because your security sucks and we got past your background checks? We want to learn everything and get at this Tamsin and her money? Right, real answer, test the water. This seems like a community building something better than I was born into and willing to work hard for real change. That’s something I want to be a part of.”

  Tell me about a time your manager wasn’t satisfied with the results of your work. How did you discuss the issues and what did you do differently the next time?

  “I got my ass handed to me and shot in the thigh. Next time I didn’t trust anyone I was on assignment with. I knew there couldn’t be a next time or I’d get that bullet in the head.” He swallowed loudly and then wrote something bland and normal.

  What are you passionate about?

  “Bringing down the elders and their fucking lackeys. We should rule this world and the humans, not hide and allow their corruption. The Underground will see to it even if I don’t always like them either. Can’t put that. Animal conservation? Yeah, a wolf should like animals and this place is bleeding hearts.”

  Whoa, red flag. Huge fucking red flag. World domination, table of I didn’t know how many. Shit. So yeah, no chance this was a Demolition Man situation. This was bad guy city for sure.

  That still didn’t make the elders the good guys. They sucked too.

  What types of activities or hobbies do you enjoy outside of work?

  “Getting my cock sucked and you’re going to suck it. I’m definitely going to make that happen, now lean over and show me more of those titties you—”

  “Did you need something?” I asked him, cutting through his annoying rant. I raised an eyebrow as he seemed to snap out of it. “You were staring. Did you need something or are you incapable of respecting women?”

  Rage flashed in his eyes. “We all dress nicely to be appreciated—men and women—but I didn’t realize I was staring. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I was trying to think of how to spell, um, spelunking. I can’t ever remember how to spell it and I didn’t want to look stupid.”

  “Oh, yeah, on the spot spelling isn’t my forte either.” I focused on my computer and looked it up for him. I spelled it out and gave him a wink. “We can’t have you looking stupid for something like that.”

  “Thanks.” “Huh, maybe she’s not such a bitch. Makes sense. I’d be snarky and short if council assholes were all up in my shit.” It almost made me think he wasn’t quite as big of an asshole as well. “But she’s still going to suck my cock and choke on it.”

  Or not.

  He listed some other adrenaline-filled hobbies that would fit in well with shifters and guys willing to jump into the mix to protect people. He was good. Too bad his thoughts betrayed it all.

  Do you have any current or previous issues with the elders, councils, or supe leaders? Being a misfit is something we welcome, but we need to know if trouble is coming to our doorstep as a haven. Please explain any situations we should know about that we can either help with or prepare for if you join our community.

  “Well geez, where to start, you idiot bleeding hearts? I hate all the elders, the councils I want to blow up, and the leaders should all eat shit and die. The system is completely flawed and fucked, and the Underground can lie all they want for their recruiting lines that they’re fighting the evil power, but once they take them all out, we’ll all just be kings ruling our areas. It will be glorious.

  “Maybe I’ll keep the little secretary here as one of my concubines to serve me. Yeah, a few more years and that’s exactly how all my work and service will pay out. Damn, I’m getting hard just thinking of making her my slut.”

  His thoughts didn’t get better from there. And it wasn’t shocking where his mind went for the last question: Where do you see yourself in five years?

  But the answers he put on the questionnaire were good. The Underground had their act together enough to prep them on what we’d want to hear or get back.

  “I’m all finished,” he told me when he was done. “That last one was tough.”

  “Yeah, I have no idea where I’ll be in five years,” I chuckled, locking my computer before standing and sliding on my jacket again. “They just finished up with someone, so if you’ll follow me, you can get on to the interview. I’ll need your cell so if you have any last texts or messages to send, do it now because if you’re accepted, you’ll go right into training.”

  “And outside electronics aren’t allowed and will be held onto for security reasons as the other haven locations are secured and undisclosed,” he said, trying to get a gold star he paid attention to announcements we sent out. “We will have access to a landline and monitored computer if we need to check our email or banking stuff. Got it. Let me just text my brother I passed.”

  I smiled politely and nodded, already knowing everything he was doing was being tracked. He finished and handed his phone over after he shut it down. I pulled out a scanning wand that looked like one airport security used but it had runes on it and was used to check for magic.

  “What’s that?” he asked, frowning at me.

  “We’re also checking for outside charms and magic,” I answered as I moved closer. “Can’t be too careful that you’re being tracked magically or you’re all glamoured up, right?”

  “Yeah, smart,” he muttered, cursing mentally, praying that it wasn’t powerful enough to catch what he had.

  Oh, it was, but now he’d just told me exactly what he had too. I asked him to assume the position and as I slowly moved along, his thoughts pinpointed the locations and what to get off of him first. Perfect.

  “Okay, you’re clean,” I declared brightly, knowing he couldn’t tell if I was lying and didn’t have that charm. Idiot. Who goes on an undercover job, has the option for such a thing, and doesn’t get one?

  “Never doubted it,” he chuckled.

  Uh-huh. I smiled and opened the door, waving for him to follow me. He grabbed his bag, his thoughts laughing at me that I didn’t check it for anything as it was loaded too. I led him down one hall and the other past the privacy wards so no one would hear what was going on.

  I opened the correct door and gave him a reassuring smile. “Go ahead. They’re waiting for you.”

  “Thanks. I’ll see you around,” he muttered, glancing from me to the room.

  I winked at him, smirking when he went right in, completely confident we were clueless. I followed after him and closed the door behind me. “He’s Underground. He’s got charms on right inner thigh, left bicep, two on his belt, and left shoe.”

  “What the—” he exclaimed, eyes wide as he stared at me in shock before trying to fight off the two Rothchilds who grabbed him to get the charms off.

  I clucked my tongue at the bad guy. “Killing a poor human to get a cover and take over their life? Bad boy. You won’t be recruiting here, hon. Oh, and I won’t be sucking your cock. Ever. Gross.”

  He growled, struggling as he put the pieces together. “You’re a telepath.”

  “Yup,” I jeered, popping the P loudly.

  “And so am I, so let’s get started,” Tanesha purred, glancing over her tablet. “Damn, the answers you got from his mind are disturbing.” She smiled at me. “You comfortable n
ow that the Underground really are the bad guys and it’s not all propaganda against thinking for yourself?”

  “Yeah, so far. I mean, he’s a bad guy. It still doesn’t make the elders and councils the good guys. There were at least two spies in that waiting room that booked it, so I didn’t bust them.” I smirked at Mr. Rothchild. “I expect you to pay out on that bet.”

  He crossed his arms over his wide chest and nodded. “I will. I never thought they’d be so blatant. What do you want?” I could tell from his thoughts that he was worried where I would go given how hard of a time he’d been giving me.

  “You support Mel taking this job with Artemis. She wants to. She really wants to. It terrifies her how many are completely cannon fodder and unlike the dragons who get how scary the world is—or at least your clan and the Vogels—they live in bubbles of bullshit they’re safe. She has an idea how it won’t be the normal elite bullshit and to truly make a difference. You support her and listen to her idea. For real.”

  “That’s it?” he muttered, studying me closely.

  “Yeah, that’s it’s, Mr. Rothchild. I’m not your enemy. You’re pushy and overbearing. Just because I tell you no doesn’t mean I’m the bad guy either.” I left, done with the conversation and knowing there was a lot to do still. We were only three people in and already found our first Underground.

  On the bright side, the first two were recommended by Jeremy Sims—the lone wolf who worked for Ganter Evans and protected the hobgoblin sanctuary I started—and passed with flying colors. So, we might be attracting the bad guys, spies, and bullshit… But we were also bringing in other misfits who wanted a community too.

  And that was a win in my book.