Phoenixcry: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 1) Read online

  I nodded and ushered myself out of her cubicle, my ears burning. The office was mercifully mostly empty, so I didn’t think too many people overheard our conversation. I steeled myself and walked toward the ominous glass French doors in the far wall. A shadow popped up beside me, and then I realized it was the hot rockstar guy from earlier.

  “Hey,” he said, putting a hand out to stop me in my tracks. Hot or not, I was annoyed at being stopped for a second time that day by a guy trying to get into my way. What was it with extremely attractive men and their belief that ladies needed to screech to a halt for them? I was nervous enough, and unsure about what I was walking into since the band hadn’t left the meeting room after I bolted. They would be there, waiting for me, all five of them since Charlie had rejoined them.

  “Uh, hey,” I said, glancing past him to look at the door I needed to be walking through, like, yesterday. There was something disconcerting with how hot the guy in front of me was but at the same time I really wasn’t into it. He just gave off a vibe that made me uncomfortable.

  “Look,” he said with a slow shake of his head. His hair was cut shaggy, and drooped in his eyes, his head dipping in what had to be a practiced move he used on fangirls. “I know it’s tough, being at the label for the first time, but it’s okay. Do you want a signed CD?” he asked, his words dripping with assured confidence and pride, like he just knew I’d be grateful for him offering that.

  “Uh,” I said, queen of verbosity, as I tried to figure out a way to let him know that I had no idea who he was without offending him. He stood in front of me like he owned the room. He probably thought that my silence was some fannish embarrassment, because his lips split into a handsome smile that grew wider by the moment. Not wanting to risk pissing off someone who was a big enough name to think I knew him on sight, I nodded without another word.

  “So you’re Darcy Llewellyn,” he said, reaching over to a nearby desk and plucking a CD off the top of a stack. “I heard we were getting a new intern,” he continued as he split the wrapping on the CD with practiced ease of someone who’d done it a thousand times. He probably had. Although, given how he was acting, he probably had someone to strip the plastic wrap off of his CDs for him at signings. He produced a Sharpie from mid-air it felt like, and he’d flicked out the CD insert.

  “Yeah, that’s me, Darcy,” I replied, painfully aware that any moment Willa could stand up at her desk and see me acting like a total amateur instead of the professional I was supposed to be.

  “Hey, it’s okay, baby, no one is gonna give you shit while you’re with Jake Tupper,” he said with a playful wink.

  “Right.” I knew the name, of course, because Jake Tupper had been all over college radio with a massive summer indie hit, but his stuff wasn’t the style of music I liked. Too much harmonizing gang vocals and a lot of ‘Hey! Ho!’ in a song wasn’t my thing. I wanted driving guitars, and a heavy drum beat that I could feel in my blood, not some guy with a man-bun crooning over his mandolin about the rust flaking off of society or whatever. Plus the rumor on the street was he was a dirtbag who’d dumped a loyal girlfriend as soon as his career had started taking off. Also, he’d just called me baby. Ew.

  “There you go. The prize of your collection now,” he said as he tucked the insert in and snapped the CD case close. He held it out to me, and I took a breath before wrapping my fingers around it and gave him what I hoped was a happy smile.

  “Thanks, that’s so thoughtful,” I lied, “but I really gotta get to my meeting.” I pointed at the French doors to the meeting room. Jake Tupper made my skin itch in a way that made me think that even facing down a pack of werewolves was a better option than staying in his presence for a moment longer.

  Jake gave me another once-over like he had earlier, his eyes lingering on me in a way that made me wish I had enough power left in me to spark him, hard. Some men looked at you like they wanted to eat you alive, possess you in a way that would consume you, like you’d be yanked in by their gravitational pull and never emerge the same, if you got out at all. I took an involuntary deep breath as a moment passed between us where all of that hung in the air and my gut instinct was telling me to get away, and fast.

  Was it weird that I was having a more eerie response to a normal human like Jake Tupper than I had to the werewolves waiting for me in the meeting room? I tried not to parse that thought, and ducked around him.

  Jake gave a low chuckle that set the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up, but he didn’t say anything else. I made a beeline for the doors and opened it, feeling the weight of his gaze on me the entire way.

  As I entered, the wolf pack as I was starting to think of them in my head, looked up as one. They were ranged on the couches, out of direct-line-of-sight out the door. It hit me again as I stood there, door clicking shut behind me, that they were werewolves, and I was an enemy of theirs, a witch. I waited for the same fear to rise up in me that Jake Tupper had inspired, but it never came.

  “So you get reassigned to sorting old cassette tapes?” Cash asked, a hint of irritation in his voice and something else I couldn’t quite place.

  “Nah, Willa wouldn’t do it. She thinks that Darcy here is a good match for us, seems to like her spunk,” Charlie drawled, and when Cash’s shoulders fell, relaxing minutely, I realized that he’d been afraid. Afraid I’d be reassigned, that they’d get someone else as a manager. Why he would even want me managing his band, when like Charlie said I was just an intern, was confusing. I pushed the thought away.

  “Yeah, well, this is apparently going to be a thing, so we’re going to have to set some ground rules on working together,” I said, picking a small armchair to settle in. Five sets of intense eyes across two couches stared at me, and I felt the weight of their attention settle over me like a wave of heat rising from an oven.

  “Ground rules?” Finn asked, leaning forward where he sat. He’d had his ankle slung over one knee, but he dropped his foot to the ground, his elbows pressing into his thighs as he clasped his hands. “What kinda ground rules? We already signed a no-harassment policy.”

  Finn’s twin grunted in agreement.

  I took a breath to steady myself.

  “Yeah, that’s not really enough for my comfort,” I said. “This internship is pretty time-intensive, but I still have other school obligations, so outside of when I’m here at the label or attending your events, I’m going to ask you to not seek me out. Text me if you have to, but no coffee-shop meetings, or anything like that. We meet here, in the office, or we don’t meet at all.”

  Ace was nodding before any of the others.

  “Sounds good to—” he started, but Finn’s twin interrupted him.

  “You wanna give us a reason why?” He asked, and I was struck again by the flare of power I felt whenever he spoke. Of all of them, he gave off the air of being the oldest, and being in command, something like an alpha wolf, if such a thing existed in werewolf pack dynamics. I didn’t know, it wasn’t really something they covered in the short chapter on werewolves in my schooling.

  “I don’t really think I need to explain—”

  “Hell yes you do,” he said, “because if you’re managing us, you’re managing us. We’re a team, and we work together.” He looked at the other guys, although I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. My cheeks were flushing, although I didn’t know why. “If you’re gonna set limits on when we can and can’t see our manager, you need to tell us why.”

  My lips parted to speak but he pushed on.

  “I think you’re not as far out of the magic world as you’d like to be,” he said, accurately pinpointing my feelings with no regard at all to my privacy. I exhaled a breath.

  “Eli,” Finn muttered, a warning. The air in the room was tense, and I could feel the crackle of electricity humming right under my skin, a sure sign that my own stress levels were through the roof. It usually took effort to call on my power, but when it came unbidden, I knew that things had gotten more heated than I
could deal with.

  “Llewellyn, right?” Eli, Finn’s twin, asked. “Like the council Llewellyn’s?”

  My stomach dropped.

  “I think we’re good here, I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” I said as I stood up, picking up my bag. Eli was on his feet and over to me in a second. My breath caught in my chest as I looked up at him. Close up he was even more intimidating, towering over me like he had earlier in that day, and I nearly broke.

  “Your family’s council, aren’t they?” he asked, and beneath the surface of his words was that current of power, demanding I answer, demanding I give in.

  “Leave her alone, Elias,” Ace’s voice cut through the haze and he stepped into Eli’s space, pushing him aside. “Forgive him. He’s used to bossing us around and us listening,” he said turning to me with an apologetic smile. “Let me walk you out.”

  Ace’s arm came around my shoulders, but it had the opposite effect from Eli’s presence. Ace was warm and comforting and relief flooded through me.

  “Sounds good,” I said, with a quick glance back at the other guys. Cash’s face was stormy, Finn’s amused, and Charlie looked thoughtful. I didn’t look at Eli.

  When we stepped out onto the production floor, there was no sign of Jake Tupper which further relaxed me. Ace walked me to the top of the stairs. Of all the wolves, he was the least intimidating, and I wondered if I would actually become friends with him.

  No, it wasn’t possible. It was just too dangerous. I’d have to keep myself at an arm’s length, emotionally, with the band and not let our relationship develop past cool professionalism.

  “I’m really sorry about that,” he said, his voice low so that no one walking by would hear. He huffed out a breath and scratched the back of his head, an act that was so basely canine, that I couldn’t help but grin. “What?” he asked, attitude turning self conscious.

  Now that I was away from Eli, I could breathe again.

  “He’s pretty intense,” I said, finding my tongue.

  “I can tell him to lay off.” Ace looked over his shoulder to where we’d come from. “He doesn’t always listen, but he’s got a good heart.” He glanced back at me and bit his lip, an almost sweetly nervous gesture. “He just looks out for us, and I think that pressure makes him . . . yeah, anyway, we can talk about it later. We’ll see you tomorrow?” His eyes searched my face as if he was worried I’d suddenly say no. If all I’d had to go on in terms of werewolf experiences was him and his behavior, Ace would have made me think they were all adorable, earnest, and puppy-like.

  “Yeah, I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” I reassured him. I couldn’t say no and hurt his feelings. He was too nice, and just because Eli had a stick up his ass, didn’t mean I wouldn’t do my job. I’d grit my teeth and get through the internship however I needed to.

  “Great, cause we’re going over the final masters tomorrow after they make the tweaks our producer asked for,” Ace said with a wide grin, all his nerves melting away. “You’ll love it. The tracks are killer.”

  “You don’t even know what kind of music I like,” I replied, tilting my head to the side to give him a funny look. His grin never faltered.

  “I know your type, Darcy Llewellyn,” he said, with a subtle buzz of heat in his tone that made my heart give a weird squeeze. “You’re gonna die for our music.”

  Five

  When I got back to the dorms after meeting my band of werewolves, I found a note from Max (along with a Snickers bar because she felt that bad news should always be accompanied by a sweet treat) saying that her dad had called her home. Apparently he needed her for an emergency Talk About Something Serious so she’d taken the train. Her note finished off that saying she would text me when she got to her town and had service again. I spent the evening binge watching videos on Youtube of Irish people eating food from the around the world, and fell asleep in a messy cocoon of blankets without hearing from Max.

  It wasn’t the most unusual thing, but I sent her a text message the next morning when I woke up, just in case, before heading off to the XOhX offices. My stomach was fluttering on the bus ride over. This time I hadn’t slept in, so I didn’t need to take a ride-hail. I’d thought that I would have wolfy dreams or nightmares all night, but my sleep had been surprisingly peaceful. It was only when I got off the bus on the street where the label’s offices sat, that my tummy butterflies turned into hornets.

  Leaning against the building outside was Eli, leather jacket draped over his shoulder, one foot propped up on the brick wall so his knee stuck out. He looked the picture of 1950’s bad boy and, for a moment, it was all I could do to simply take in how good he looked. His hair was roughly tousled. It swooped low across his forehead in a way that made my fingers ache to brush it behind his ear, like when you need to fix a painting that’s crooked.

  “Dick,” I muttered under my breath. He had no right looking so sexy when he was a pushy asshole. I’d given it a bit of thought and I’d decided that even if he was used to bossing his band members around, he wasn’t going to get a free pass from me. Even if he was a werewolf and capable of literally putting me in my place if he so desired. He didn’t know that, and he wouldn’t if I had any say in the matter.

  He lifted his head as if he heard me and I stopped still in my tracks. Could he have heard me? Did he have enhanced hearing? Crap. I took a breath, pulled up my invisible big-girl pants in my mind, and made a beeline for the door, pretending he wasn’t there.

  He stepped in my way again, and moved to grab my arm, but he let his hand fall as if he thought better of it. I looked up at him.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, without hesitation, his voice low. “I behaved like an animal yesterday.”

  I snorted and bit my lip. His cheeks went pink and he looked away. Was he... flustered?

  “Go on,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. He took a deep breath and glanced back at me.

  “I treated you without the respect you deserve,” he said, “and I’m sorry. I overstepped. I’m used to... a certain amount of—”

  “Obedience?” I asked with a raised brow. His eyes tracked the movement of my eyebrow before he met my eyes again.

  “You could say that,” he said. “I don’t have time to talk about it now, but if you’re with us for a year—”

  “Did you remember when I said no meetings outside the label office?” I asked and gestured around us. “Where are we?”

  His pink cheeks went red.

  “This isn’t easy,” he said. I glared at him.

  “Apologizing shouldn’t be. And hello, we’re still outside,” I retorted. He grabbed the door and opened it, holding it for me.

  “After you,” his voice was barely above a low growl and I felt a small pang of guilt as we took two steps forward and one step back. Well, he hadn’t listened, and if he was going to be in the business of apologizing for his mistakes, then he also needed to work at not making them in the first place. The mere thought of my family catching me fraternizing with a werewolf... or a whole pack of them...

  My shoulders gave an involuntary shiver as I stepped into the office. Behind me, I heard Eli close the door.

  “You going to meet us down in the studio?” he asked. “We’re all there now...”

  I turned, making up my mind to forget the events of the day before.

  “You’re forgiven,” I said to him. “I just... have things I’m sensitive about I guess and, yeah...” I trailed off as he looked at me, an understanding in his eyes.

  “You running from who you are?” he asked. That hit way too close for me and I didn’t answer. I stared back at him, trying to let him know with non-verbal cues not to push it. He didn’t know me well enough to be allowed to ask that. He surveyed me for a long moment before looking away with a heavy sigh. “You’re not the only one. You coming?” He gestured to the studio door.

  I shook my head.

  “I’m going to put my stuff down at my desk first and check in with Willa. S
he texted me and said my office space was ready early, so I’ll get set up there and then come down, if that’s alright with you.”

  “You’re the boss,” Eli said although he had a small, wry smile on his face. “Whatever you say... goes.” Was he being sarcastic? I decided I wasn’t going to ask.

  “Good, glad we have that sorted out then,” I replied. “I’ll be down in a bit.” I turned and walked up the stairs, and when I got to the top I felt the heat of his gaze still on me. I looked down to the bottom of the stairs but he was already gone. Shaking off the uncertainty of his apology and our talk, I entered the production floor only to be immediately stopped by Jake Tupper.

  “Darcy, hey,” he said casually, a grin on his face. “Willa is out with the big boss for a quick meeting, but I overheard her telling Chrissy where your desk was so I thought, maybe—” He pointed in the direction of the far corner of the room. “Let me show you.”

  I looked around for a brief moment and wondered if it was worth offending him by trying to find Willa myself. Besides, he wouldn’t lie, would he? Like, there was no point to that. I gave him a brief smile.

  “Sure, then I have to get down to studio,” I said, carefully giving myself an out to escape him as soon as possible.

  “Uh huh,” he replied, not listening to me as he walked me to my desk. There were more people in the office this time than there had been yesterday and a few of them eyed me as we walked. While their presence took the edge off of my discomfort at Jake’s sudden appearance by my side, I wasn’t sure if it was going to hurt my reputation to have him paying me special attention. I really didn’t want to become ‘that’ girl.

  “Thanks,” I said as I turned around the corner of my cubicle wall and stopped short. On my desk was a small, flowering cactus. The rest of the desk was clear except for a dock for my laptop, along with a phone and a pad of paper. I looked over my shoulder at Jake.