Page 2 of Secretly Mated To My Monster Alien Boss
His lips curled, mustache puffing up. “Listen here, you–”
She raised her chin, ready to give the scolding of her life. The man’s gaze widened with fright. Huh? She could give a mean side-eye, but nobody actuallyfearedher.
But he wasn’t looking at her. Not anymore. He was staring right behind her.
A deep, raspy voice echoed in the atrium. “Do we have a problem here?”
Kiara instantly relaxed, the tension and stress from the past few days seeping from her limbs and tight shoulders. She turned with a smile, looking up, up, up at Deryg’s solemn face. She’d never admit it out loud, especially to him, but she sometimes had a weird feeling he’d been born to be head of security at Alien Inc.
He was tall–taller than any human and all the Deruzians she’d met–with broad shoulders and an unforgiving glimmer in his bright eyes. Fire danced behind his elongated irises, making him seem even more dangerous.
He looked like the perfect protector. Or maybe predator.
His big, muscly arms could bend and snap anything without much effort, his long legs carried him faster than should have been possible, and he had this sexy way of filling his shirt. Unbuttoned at the top and with his sleeves rolled up. He looked badass, from the tips of his sharp, ebony horns, down to his massive leather boots.
If she was being completely honest, Kiara had found him intimidating at first. Well, not him exactly, but his face. High, sharp cheekbones. Long, dark silver hair, braided and falling inone precise line across his muscular back. Even his eyebrows looked cutting, at a severe angle that made some people quiver.
Then there were the horns. Tall and curved, reaching toward the back of his head in all their obsidian glory.
He looked menacing, no point in denying it.
But Kiara knew the humor that hid behind those unforgiving features. The one Deryg himself hid so well from most people. Not her, though.
“No problem here,” Kiara said, turning back toward the worker whose scared eyes had remained glued on Deryg’s imposing horns. “Right?”
The worker gulped and nodded. He took a shaky step back. Then another and another, not letting Deryg out of his sight, as if he was afraid the Deruzian would attack if he turned.
His steps quickened until he almost ran out of the room, dashing between servers and delivery men.
Kiara scoffed. “They always like to play tough in front of me, then scurry away when you show up.”
“I’m sorry I robbed you of the satisfaction of destroying him with a few words,” Deryg said in that low, gutural way of his that made some of the servers swerve away from their vicinity. Like they could sense the power he had and didn’t want to risk being on the receiving end of it. Which was ridiculous, because Deryg always needed a solid motive to bust his strength out. He was careful when he used his immense power. “Would you like me to bring him back so you can dismiss him properly?”
Kiara shook her head. She wouldn’t put it past Deryg to actually do it. He hated people who didn’t do their job right. All Deruzians did. If someone agreed to do something–orpromised, like they said–then it was a done deal. No excuses.
A promise made was a promise kept.
Alien Inc. paid above average wages and Deryg expected good work for it. So did Kiara. Nobody had to tell her twice to do her job right. It was a matter of principle.
“Are you sure?” Deryg went on, a hint of a smile in his voice that Kiara was sure only she heard. His face did look extra grumpy today, marred with a scowl. “Maybe yelling a bit would help loosen those knots in your shoulders.”
Kiara huffed a laugh. Those Deruzian eyes of his saw everything. He could tell when she was pissed off by the way her heels clanked against the floor in the morning. Or how she held her coffee cup.
“They’re not that bad today,” she said and rolled her stiff shoulders, feeling the strain.
Deryg chuckled. The sound vibrated through her chest. “You need to relax.”
“Says the guy who spent the past five hours inspecting every crate.”
“Yes, soyoudon’t have to stress. It’s my duty. And I haven’t inspected them all–yet.”
He did his duty well. Maybe a bit too well at times? Always watching, always suspicious.
The only times when Kiara had seen his smile–fanged and a bit jagged, like he wasn’t used to doing it all that often–was when they planned some big event at the company. Her job was to plan, his was to protect.
They’d stay behind after closing hours, order some take-out–Kiara always chose their meal for the evening and Deryg always grimaced at the food before devouring almost all of it–and laugh in-between arguing over the seating arrangements.
But he was being particularly watchful today. No wonder, since the Rynar and Alissia’s ambush had rattled a few horns.
