Chapter Seven

Zach

“Zach, you needed me?” Ethan burst through the door of Zach’s office without knocking.

“Who gave you permission to barge in here without even knocking?” Zach got up from his chair and raged with anger. Zach seemed furious for such a trivial thing.

“I am your boss, show your respect! You of all people should know how to behave around your boss!” Zach’s face turned red.

“Er, sorry, Zach. I thought you needed me urgently, so yeah…” Ethan shrugged and looked at his feet. He had no idea why his boss was so furious.

When Zach saw Ethan’s submission, he took some deep breaths to calm himself down. “Sorry, Ethan. Sit.” Zach gestured to the chairs in front of the desk and dropped into his own leather chair.

“I am not myself today. Forgive me.” He looked at his best friend, who sat down quickly, still a bit shocked from his outburst.

“You want to talk about it?” Ethan asked, back to his normal self. “You know I’m here for you.”

“I sensed my destined.” Zach sighed. He put his elbows on his desk and dropped his face in his hands.

“I haven’t seen her, and it is so frustrating. I don’t know who she is. I had this gut feeling, and my instincts kicked in, but I didn’t find her. I couldn’t sleep last night. I am restless.”

“Oh, no, this is not good,” Ethan was a bit shocked. “Not good at all.”

“I know. My instincts are putting up a serious fight, and I don’t know if I can keep it up to fight back. I’m getting frustrated. I don’t know what to do.”

“But your destined, she is here?” Ethan asked.

“She was last night. Right now, I don’t know,” Zach sighed again, still frustrated.

“So, what did you need me for? Did you call me to find her?”

“No, I didn’t call you for that reason. I did call you because I need you to think about something.

“This afternoon I am planning on a meeting with the board, our captain, advisor, and the council, but I want you to think about it in advance. My brother Adrian called yesterday during dinner.

“They seem to have a big problem with unknown enemies. He asked me for help to deal with them, but also, he warned of potential attacks on our grounds. It seems to be a bunch of them that attack in small groups.

“At first sight, everything seems under control, but they keep coming, and they are getting closer to the compound. Adrian’s boss wants to handle all of them at once, but he needs our help with that.

“Think about what we should do. I’ll call the others this afternoon to see what they think about it.”

“Okay, will do.”

“Thanks.”

After a while in his office, he decided to go outside to blow off some steam. He couldn’t concentrate on anything he was doing.

He just kept thinking about his destined. How he just missed her. It was so frustrating; it was so infuriating. He didn’t know what to do. She was right there, and he’d missed her by seconds.

He ran down the stairs, trying to avoid anyone who might want to talk to him, and he quickly ran through the back door. Once outside, he took off running, not even bothering to change clothes. He didn’t have time. He felt like he was going to burst.

He decided to go further and higher. Once outside the forests, only grasslands remained. And when he went even higher, there was nothing but rocks.

It was desolate. When he turned and looked at the view, he gasped. It had been a while since he’d been there.

The sky was blue, the clouds white, and the forests below him were green. There was no one there; no one would interrupt his thoughts. When he got like this, he had to do something physical. His instincts couldn’t always sit still. He had made sure to not head directly towards West Shaw Heights. When he needed to blow off steam, it was best that no one was around. He had gotten into fights before, for no apparent reason. His intense training had given him enhanced abilities, but sometimes he couldn’t handle the burden, and had to indulge his baser instincts.

After a while of enjoying the view, he decided to go back down. Back in the compound, he walked straight back to his office. He really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone just then.

His office seemed to be the perfect place to hide. He knew that later he had a meeting with the leaders of his family, but until then, he liked to be on his own.

His wilder instincts had been calmed for the time being. They didn’t feel restless anymore; they’d let go of the whole destined thing, for now. Zach was back in charge.

But Zach didn’t feel any better. Yes, he enjoyed the quiet time on the mountain, but he didn’t feel any calmer. He only found himself getting more determined to find his destined.

He had to find her—no, he must find her. He needed her, he wanted her…hell, he didn’t want to be without her anymore, even though he hadn’t seen her yet.

While he was deep in thought, the phone on his desk started ringing. “Hunter,” he said when he picked it up. He rubbed his face with his free hand to get his attention on the person at the other end of the phone.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Hunter, it’s Saunders.”

Saunders was his representative. He saw to everything concerning the company in the city.

Zach sighed. He really didn’t feel like talking business at all. “Saunders, I just left Rockdale. Now you’re calling me already? Can’t I have a little downtime?”

“I’m sorry, sir. A problem seems to have occurred after you left.”

“Saunders, cut to the chase. What’s up?”

“The CEO of Mercer and Sons does not want to negotiate with us anymore. He only wants to meet with you, sir.”

Zach sighed again and rubbed his face. Couldn’t these people do anything without him? “What went wrong?” Zach asked.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, sir, he just doesn’t feel like working with us anymore.”

Mr. Saunders got a little nervous; Zach could hear it in his voice.

“I have some problems to solve here, but I think I will be able to come back by Monday. Make sure you arrange a meeting with him, then I can solve this problem.”

“Alright then,” Saunders said. “I look forward to your return, sir.”

“Saunders.” Zach put the phone down and sighed again. He took a folder that was on his desk and threw it against the wall opposite him. He roared, wiped his desk clean, then toppled it.

Loud curses left his mouth; he couldn’t contain his growing frenzy anymore. It was his own frustration now. A gentle knock on the door got him out of his rage for a second. “Leave!” he bellowed.

The door opened a little. Jackson slipped his head through the small opening.

“Zach, are you alright?” he asked.

“I said, leave!” Zach roared again.

“Zach, calm down. We are supposed to have a meeting, remember? All the leaders are here,” Jackson whispered. “They can hear you, you know.” Jackson slipped in completely and put his hands on his brother’s shoulders.

He looked him straight in the eye. “Zach, get it together. Please, I need you to calm down. The council will lose their trust in their boss if he just loses it.”

The door opened again, and Ethan slipped in and shut the door behind him. “Guys, is everything alright? The council is waiting, and they are becoming impatient.”

“I don’t know what is wrong with him, but as you can see from this mess, Zach is freaking out.”

Ethan looked at his boss with a worried look. As he’d said earlier, this was not good, definitely not good. Zach’s behavior was worrying. “Is this about your destined?” Ethan asked.

Jackson’s head shot up, and his eyes switched between Zach and Ethan. “Destined?”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Leave me alone! Just leave!” Zach roared again, looking for more things to destroy.

Ethan and Jackson tried to restrain Zach together.

“Zach, stop it! Sit down!” Ethan tried to convince Zach. “We will help you find your destined, but you have to calm down first.”

“Take deep breaths,” Jackson said. He put his hands on Zach’s shoulders again, looked him in the eye, and tried to make Zach breathe with him.

Eventually, Zach looked back at Jackson and his breathing slowed down.

“Good…easy,” Jackson said with a calming voice.

Zach sank down against the wall. He buried his face in his hands. “Sorry, guys, I don’t know what got into me. I just lost it. I can’t take it anymore.”

Ethan knelt in front of him. “You are not alone in this, Zach. Just talk to us. You can talk to me, to Jackson…you just have to call us.”

“I know, I’m sorry. Give me a minute to clean myself up. Meet me in the conference room. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Sure. I’ll tell the council to go there and wait for you. I’ll call someone to clean this mess up,” Ethan said.

“Let me do that, then you can reassure the council,” Jackson suggested. “They need assurance. I’ll go and make sure this mess is cleaned up.”

After one last look, they both left the office. Zach retreated to his suite to freshen up.