Chapter 15

---------------

"What the hell are you doing here?" Adrian asked.

Here was the rooftop of the hotel where Maxwell was perched with a bottle of whiskey a few glasses and a bucket of ice. It was early night. He was feeling claustrophobic in the room and this open rooftop was providing him some calm.

"My wolf is very restless, I don't know why. I wish I could just shift and go for a run."

It was determined that it was not safe for them to shift, so they remained in human form and would do so throughout this trip. Adrian had got a panicky radio call from the security team when Maxwell headed for the roof.

"Any idea how soon we can get out of this place?" Maxwell asked.

"We should wrap things up by tomorrow evening, we can be on our way out tomorrow night itself"

"hmmm" Maxwell said deep in thought.

"How many people are we leaving behind?" Maxwell asked, they would leave people behind to help Nick build his pack and also to offer protection, just in case someone felt adventurous. They were in no shape to protect themselves.

"About fifty, the rest are packing up and would leave shortly"

Maxwell just nodded, he had multiple thoughts occupying him.

"What about Charles?" Maxwell asked.

"What about him?" Adrian asked.

"Do you believe that story that Drake fed her?" Maxwell asked in a neutral tone, he genuinely wanted to know what he thought.

Adrian answered carefully "Maxwell, I hate that bastard as much as you do. But I believe he is telling the truth. He was completely broken after Roma left him, the guards were telling me he was crying inconsolably"

"Where is he?" Maxwell asked.

"He is gone, we shipped him out yesterday and if he knows what's good for him, he will never show his face again."

Maxwell nodded.

"So, we need to find this guy Charles."

"We will find him Maxwell" Adrian assured.

"I know" Maxwell said confidently. They would find him if it was the last thing they did.

"But, I want to accelerate the process" Maxwell added.

"How?" Adrian asked lost, they were doing everything.

Maxwell looked at Adrian and told him "I want you to call Sebastian...."

Adrian carefully listened to Maxwell's plan.

***

Evelyn was back in the hotel with Ria, she had finished her shift in the afternoon but today they were shot staffed and had asked if she could come in for evening for a few hours. She would of course be paid for it. So she came in during the peak dinner time and she and Ria could get off the shift at the same time in a few hours.

She had readily agreed as once she started school it would become difficult for her and she might just quit this job if she was not able to handle both school and this hotel job. So if she could make some quick buck, why not?

Ria and Evelyn were again on cart duty as they were supposed to deliver this huge load of dinner to the top floor so both of them were pressed in to service. When they reached the top floor they went through the same amount of checking Evelyn went through early in the morning. As they reached the door. Evelyn saw Adrian step in to the hallway from a fire escape door.

"Hello" he said walking over towards her.

"Hi, Adrian" Evelyn smiled to the brother of Alex, that's what she still considered him.

Ria was looking at them both wide eyed.

"This is Ria" Evelyn introduced.

"Hi" she said shyly.

"Hello" he responded politely.

"So, you on room service duty?" He asked his focus back to Evelyn.

She simply nodded.

He opened the door to the suite and looked in, he knew Maxwell was drinking himself to glory on the rooftop and Roma was nowhere to be seen.

"Why don't you guys come in and put the food on the table?" he asked.

The guards moved out of the way and Evelyn and Ria rolled the cart in to the suite.

Adrian stood guard as they were transferring food on to the table

"So" Evelyn started to break the awkward silence "Alex made himself scarce" she commented, she had not seen him since today morning even though he should be around.

"Yeah, he is up in his nose in one of those computers of his, he has a room on the third floor I believe" he said, letting her know where he was staying just in case she wanted to find him, but not getting any response from her he added "But I will let him know you were looking for him."

He still was not sure what the deal with these two was.

She just smiled. She was just trying to make small talk, she did not want to give Adrian wrong impression of what was between her and Alex.

Just then the door of one of the rooms opened "Adrian is that you? I thought I heard...."

Ria and Evelyn looked at the voice, her eyes went wide.

"Holy, fucking god!!" Ria exclaimed and having realized what she said, clamped her mouth with her hand.

***

Sebastian was staring at his cell phone, he had received a call from Adrian with Maxwell's instructions. He was not entirely sure if this was a good idea. Especially involving humans in a Werewolf hunt but this was indeed an excellent thought, this would accelerate their search exponentially. He weighed the options and found the idea had merit. Of course it should be executed extremely carefully to avoid risk but again that was why Maxwell involved him, he was a specialist in this.

He pulled out the draw on his desk where he as sitting and flipped over a bunch of visiting cards and then found what he was looking for, he grabbed his desk phone and dialed the number. This was an official call so he would use his official number. The number he was calling would surely track the source of the call.

After all he was calling one of the world's largest clandestine agency.

***

The silence was awkward.

But the girls were in shock, the woman was taken aback for a moment but then walked in to the room. She mentally shrugged, what was done was done.

She had got up from a quick siesta, her senses were not on their best, she though she heard Adrian but if she would have been a little alert she would have realized that neither the scent nor the voice of the others were familiar and she would have stayed in her room.

"Hello" She said politely, trying to break the silence.

"You!...you! Are her!" Ria blurted.

"And who would this her be?" Roma gently asked, amused.

"Roma! You are Roma!"

"Yes that would be me" Roma confirmed.

"Oh my god!" Ria exclaimed and then again put her hand back on her mouth to stop blurting anything out.

"Your grace!" The girl said and executed an extremely clumsy curtsy.

Evelyn just stood shocked, she was standing in front of the werewolf worlds Monarch, the Queen! The Queen of Roma! It didn't get bigger than this, she was completely frozen.

Adrian tried to salvage the situation

"I am sorry Roma...." He started

She waved him off "no harm done" knowing what happened was not his fault

"This is Evelyn...Alex's friend" He introduced one of the girls, trying to salvage the situation. The way he said the word friend implied something more.

Roma looked at Evelyn interested "Really? Well, very nice to meet you Evelyn" she offered her hand.

Evelyn looked at her hand frozen, it was the Queen's hand for fuck's sake!

She might have stared at it dumbly without realizing that she was insulting the Monarch without taking her hand. But Adrian nudged her and she broke out of her stupor.

"Your Grace!" she said awkwardly and shook her and then pulled her hand back as if it burnt her.

Roma was too amused to be insulted.

"You can refer to me as Roma" she said. Roma was the name of the country she ruled. Roma was also her last name inherited by marring the king or the prince which he was when she married him. The ruling monarch was always referred to as "Roma" when her husband was alive he was referred to as "Roma" and she his Queen consort but now she was referred to as Roma as the reigning monarch. When her son would take over the throne he would be referred to as "Roma" so Roma was also a title.

"Well carry on what you were doing" she said and walked back in to the room and closed the door.

They wordlessly finished placing the food on the table and were about to leave when Adrian said

"I appreciate if you can keep this to yourself. It is for her safety, I hope you understand"

Both of them nodded vigorously, he escorted them out of the room and towards the elevator.

As the elevator doors closed he could hear Ria through the doors "Oh. My. God. What the fuck just happened!?!?"

He just shook his head and hoped the girls would keep their mouth shut. Anyways they should be leaving in a day.

***

"Mr. Knowles! A pleasure to hear from you, how have you been?" The caller greeted.

"It's been a long time indeed Mr. Bartley and please call me Sebastian" Sebastian responded.

"Then its Michael to you" Mr. Bartley responded back.

"Michael, I need your help" Sebastian didn't beat around the bush, both of them knew this was a professional call.

"I am all ears, Sebastian" Michael added sitting back in his chair preparing for the conversation to follow.

***

Maxwell was on the rooftop for may be a couple of hours, he was standing overlooking the parking lot of the hotel. His drink had finished, he had a decent buzz but not high. A full bottle of Jack Daniels had just given him a buzz. Thanks to his werewolf genes.

He was about to step away when he saw two girls exit the building talking quite animatedly. One of them was jumping around clearly excited about something.

Suddenly his wolf stirred again and he felt something in his gut, was it lust? It had been a while since he last had a woman warm his bed.

His eyes narrowed, why was he feeling this now, why was his wolf feeling this now? His wolf never cared about his liaisons between blankets not that he had too many to begin with.

The two girls bundled in to the car and drove away, one of the girls was wearing a staff uniform so maybe they worked here and were from Nick's pack and maybe he would meet them again. Why did he even care? He shook himself out of his thoughts and walked back to the stairs and to the floor below. He opened the door and found Adrian and a few others helping themselves to the food on the table while his mother was on her iPad.

He walked further in to the room and froze what was that goddamn smell?

He took a whiff and Roma looked up from her iPad with a questioning expression.

"What's that smell?"

"What smell?" Adrian asked.

"The same damn smell from morning" Maxwell said.

The smell was not strong, but it was more of a lingering scent, but of what?

"Is something wrong?" Adrian stopped eating his heckles raised. Maxwell had good instincts and he would be a fool to ignore them.

Maxwell looked around to identify the source but was clearly lost. May be it was the stress of the long day or the buzz from his drink, he was making something out of nothing a good night's sleep would clear his mind.

"Nope. Never mind, I am just going to go and crash. I am beat." Maxwell shrugged off and went inside his room and closed the door.

Roma was sitting upright something occupying her mind. Whatever Maxwell said had clearly bothered her.

"Roma" Adrian asked hesitantly, she was looking at the door to the room very keenly. Clearly something on her mind.

"Adrian" She said and he walked over to her.

"Yes Roma" he asked clearly intrigued.

"I need the list of everyone who entered this room from the time we came in, especially people who served food to us in the room" She was still looking at the door as if it would provide answers.

"Sure" he was still a little lost.

She looked at him "Make it your top priority, I need it in an hour" she added, clearly she was not going to offer any explanation.

He nodded, his dinner left at the table he stepped out of the room. He needed to get to work.

But, what the fuck was going on here?