DIMITRIBefore she said a curt 'Good evening', I knew from the slight squaring of her shoulders, the tilt of her head that she was angry with me about something. For the life of me, I could not imagine why. I thought back to the last twenty four hours, and then beyond. We hadn't had a row, not so much as a disagreement, since the incident at the parking lot, since I had taken her to the pack to meet my people.Or maybe I was wrong. She had been waiting up for me after all. Maybe she was a little upset that I was late. I smiled, leaned in for a hug. Her palm, raised in front of her face stopped me from going further. The smile on my lips froze in place, then died."There is something I have to show you," she said in the same curt tone she had used before."Valeria," I called after her as she stood up and began to march away. "What-""Come with me," she called back, without turning to see if I was following.Wondering what on earth was going on, and feeling certain I was not going to li

VALERIAThe chances were that the baby and I were perfectly fine, I thought as the doctor began to examine me with a meticulous air, but there was just something about hospitals that made people tense whether or not they wanted to be that way. "Relax, Valeria," the doctor said, sensing my unease and pausing in his work to give me a reassuring smile."I'm relaxed," I said.I returned his smile and proceeded to try to suit the action to the word. After several endless hours- to me at least- he told me he was done."You are doing quite well," he said. "The baby is quite healthy too. You have nothing to worry about."The relief I felt at those words was exquisite. I thanked him. Since I was at the hospital, I went to pay a short visit to Grandma Reese. I found her awake and alert. But was it just me or was she looking rather wan?"Valeria dear," she said, grinning from ear to ear and patting the spot on the bed next to her. "This is a pleasant surprise. Did you just get here?""No. I've

DIMITRII waited impatiently for the last person to leave the meeting room. I bowed him out and then I left, shutting the door behind me. On my way to my office, I stopped at Valeria's on the off chance that she had forgiven me and that we were all over the issue we were having. I was surprised to find that she wasn't there. Her desk was very well arranged, not the usual way it used to be before she got off work. It almost seemed as though she had clocked off for the day. I shut her door, called on the man crossing the corridor at that time."Sir?" he said, looking expectant."Valeria," I said. "Do you know where she is?""Oh. She isn't here at the company. She left a while ago and hasn't come back since. I think she left for the day," he volunteered.I called Vance and was surprised to hear he wasn't with Valeria."Why the hell not?" I exploded. "And where is she?""She's at home. I dropped her there on her request... that was after she visited her Grandma at the hospital. She told m

VALERIAEveryday it was the same; the steady, monotonous drip drip drip of water leaking somewhere. Most times, the sound haunted me in my dreams. It was all I could usually hear in the silence of this place. I had cried so much that it now seemed as if my tears had dried up. The worst thing about being kidnapped, placed in an underground room and chained to the wall like a dog was the silence. There was no one to talk to, no sounds at all except the sounds I made on the occasions that I cried. I had not even been told why I was here.In this hellhole, there was no way of knowing night from day. All hours of the day looked the same. Although judging by the long, long hours I had spent here, I figured I had been kidnapped for days already. Exactly how many days I had no way of knowing.And then I thought of Dimitri. The thought of him brought fresh tears to my eyes. I wondered how he was faring now. No doubt he would be worried sick about me and our baby. Maybe he would think I had r

DIMITRIThis phase; that is if it was a phase (I was seriously beginning to think it wasn't) had not passed yet. Valeria was still behaving as weirdly as ever, even more so. With every passing day, I saw a new facet of her character. I would have been a liar if I said her attitude wasn't giving me a cause for concern. At home and at work, it was the same thing. It was like she had gotten a whole new personality, albeit an unpleasant one. One thing I was sure of was that I had to get to the bottom of this. My work lying abandoned, I thought of ways by which I could get to know what was really going on with her. First, I had to be sure that Valeria's new attitude was not all in my head. Someone else had to confirm that Valeria had changed, that I was not just imagining things.Having come to this decision, I quickly left my office, went over to the corridor where Vance was standing guard. I gestured for him to follow me to a place where we could not be overheard. "I have a job for you