by Sky Winters
“How do you know all this?”
“You don’t get very far in this business without knowing stuff like that.”
“I don’t know how much I’m going to learn. He seems to only want someone to fetch his coffee, run his errands, and take notes in his meetings.”
“Then you’re learning.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Keep your eyes and ears open. Nasteau isn’t the man you’ll learn from, the people around him are. Tolerate him and learn from them. If it gets too bad, I can always help you find a place elsewhere. I hated seeing how rude he was to you after our meeting.”
“I’m getting used to it. Thanks for the advice, though.”
He shrugged, pulling into a parking lot near an upscale Italian place called Spinose. She waited while he walked around and opened her door, walking with her up the sidewalk and around to the entrance.
“Two for Ulrich,” he told a young lady at the front entrance. She glanced at her reservation book and nodded, picking up two menus and walking them to a table. Jaycee seemed a bit nervous. It occurred to him that he hadn’t gotten to know much about her during their first date. He wondered if she was used to places like this, as she seemed a bit like a fish out of water.
“Does this look okay?” he asked as they were seated.
He had picked the table purposely when he called to make reservations. It was in a smaller section away from the main part of the restaurant. There were only four tables in the alcove where it sat, and he’d reserved them all to keep them empty so they could talk freely.
“Oh, yes. Sure.”
“Because the Omega Ouzeria is just down the block if you think you’d fit in better there,” he said with a slow smile, unable to resist the bit of name play on the Greek tavern nearby. He had considered taking her there for drinks and finger foods, something a bit less formal, but decided it might send the wrong message.
“Very funny.” She turned her attention to her surroundings. “This is very nice.”
She seemed to lighten up as the conversation turned toward her and her pack. Turned out, she was from a very different lifestyle, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Most packs weren’t into corporate wealth. They lived much simpler lives with fewer restraints on their natural instincts and traditions. They were bikers, creatives, or farmers − anything that allowed them to live on the fringe of society without being too much a part of it.
“It must be very different for you here,” he remarked.
“Yes, but that is why I came here. I don’t want to spend my life as a farmer or as an Omega raising litter after litter of pups.”
“So, you don’t have any desire to settle down?”
“Not right now. Maybe someday, but I’ve got plenty of time for that later. I want to be successful at more than just motherhood.”
“I see,” he said.
He felt a bit dejected by it. She might be young, but he wasn’t, and she was his natural mate. There was zero possibility of finding what they share with someone else and slim chance of finding something at least compatible enough to live a happy life. Then again, it was a physical reaction and how compatible were they if they couldn’t get along outside a monthly mating session?
“I don’t think you do, but that’s okay too.”
“No. I get it. You just want the same thing from life that Alphas enjoy as a matter of course. Your status in life was determined the moment you were born based on your genetic makeup. Alphas take it for granted. You have to work for it . . . and deny who you are.”
“Deny who I am?”
“Yes. I understand what it is you want, but you were born to do something else. It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
He knew immediately that it had been a poor choice of words. It killed all conversation, leading to nothing more than minimal responses on her part to his attempts to reignite the conversation. Date one, disaster. Incredibly hot and life-altering disaster. Date two, kiss of death.
Good going, putz.
There was no goodnight kiss. She didn’t want to be walked to the front door, much less up to her apartment. It was polite rejection but rejection, just the same − and already, he was debating if he should keep trying. Then again, how could he not?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jaycee
“How did your date go?” Val asked on Monday as they stood in the break room waiting for a new pot of coffee to brew. Jaycee had forgotten she had even mentioned it to her.
“Bombed. Not much in common.”
“That’s too bad. Story of my life.”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting much. It was our second date. I guess I was just hoping it would go . . . differently.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing. He’s damned near perfect, but he’s older and he wants to get married and have a family. I don’t.”
“Ever?”
“I don’t know. Maybe someday.”
“Oh well, there are other fish in the sea. You’ll find one for that when and if you’re ready.”
Other fish in the sea, but are there other wolves in the woods?
“I suppose so. Gotta go!” she replied, holding up the freshly poured cup of coffee she was fetching for Nasteau.
If anything had come of last night, it was confirmation that Thad wasn’t for her. She had given him two chances. One had gone completely off the rails, thanks to their predetermined physical compatibility. The other had not been horrible until he started spouting off about their places in their society. He was older and he was old-fashioned. She needed someone who would always view her as their equal, their partner.
“Did you have to go pick the beans yourself?” Nasteau barked at her as she sat it down on his desk.
“Yep. In Columbia.”
He looked up at her with a single eyebrow cocked. She stood her ground, not backing down from having made a snarky remark. If she’d gotten one thing from her dinner with Thad last night, it was a new perspective on her boss. He was a nasty piece of business, and she was taking no shit from him anymore.
She’d talked to enough of her coworkers now to know that he had seemed hell bent on breaking every last one of them. Whether they completed their internship with him or not, most were picked up by other departments. Her discussion with Thad last night had confirmed she’d never have a place directly with Nasteau, as he was on his way out. There was a good chance, the entire company would go down with him, either due to his declining reputation or absorption into whoever he was selling out to.
The best she could do was to do her job and get the attention of others who would stay behind in their current capacities or go elsewhere and possibly take her with them as a fellow combat survivor in the Nasteau trenches. It didn’t mean she had to be docile and servile, though. As long as she served her sarcasm with a smile, she’d be fine.
“You can go,” he said in a dry tone.
Non-plussed, Jaycee returned to her office to find a delivery had been brought up for her from the front desk. She looked at the large vase filled with white roses and sprigs of lavender. It was gorgeous, but she knew who had sent it without reading the card. Sure enough, she pulled off the small card and pursed her lips as she read it.
Thank you for dinner last night. I hope to see you again soon. − Thad Ulrich
She stuck it back into the plastic holder, the message side facing in, so it wasn’t readily available for anyone to read from a casual glance. It was amusing that he felt he needed to sign his last name as if she wouldn’t know it was him from the first. After all, she’d known without even looking at all. She left the office and made her way down to legal to pick up the final copies of the Hutchins deal, complete with notarized signatures of associated internal departments and such.
While she was there, she asked Keith if he knew anything about Nasteau’s last-minute contract changes. He looked stricken, glancing around to see if anyone had overheard before pullin
g her away from other cubicles and nearer the copy area where the noise would drown out their conversation.
“Don’t mention that. It’s a sure way to get fired, but yeah. We all know. No one says anything because they don’t want to lose their job.”
“It’s not illegal?”
“No. Just unethical. If people sign something without realizing what the changes mean, it’s not his fault. It doesn’t make it right, though.”
“So, they are just letting him do it without saying anything?”
“No one is going to slit their own wrists just to climb onto some moral high ground. This world doesn’t work that way. I know you are fresh out of college and new here, but it’s a lesson best learned early.”
“Thanks for the advice. Do you have the Hutchins paperwork?”
“Yes, curiously free of the very thing we are talking about,” he said, turning to lead her back to his cubicle.
“Not all that curious, really,” she said as he handed them to her. He looked at her inquisitively, but she didn’t elaborate. “Thanks” she told him, making a hasty exit.
She took the contracts to Nasteau, laying them in his inbox quietly so as not to disturb the phone call he was on. He hung up as she turned to go.
“Hold up, speedy. What am I supposed to do with all of those?”
“I don’t know. You asked me to retrieve them. I did,” she said quietly.
“They need to be delivered, not plopped down on my desk. Leave one here and get the rest to the people who signed off on them over at the Hutchins group.”
“Okay. I’ll get them prepared for the mail room.”
“If I had wanted them mailed, I would have told the legal department to do it straight from there. Hand deliver them. There should be five that go to various people over at Hutchins and one that goes to that prick, Ulrich.”
“You want me to hand deliver one to Ulrich too?”
“Did I stutter?”
“No. I’ll do it now.”
“I’m sure you will. He did send you such lovely flowers and all.”
Jaycee whirled around at that and looked at him. She had no doubt that she looked as angry as she felt, but part of it was at herself rather than him. She should have pulled the card off completely. Still, he had no right to read it. It was an invasion of privacy. Being a dick all the time was one thing, but he had crossed the line.
“Excuse me?”
“How do you know Thad Ulrich?”
“I don’t. Not really.”
“Must have made quite an impression on him to get a bucket of flowers like that.”
“I’ll get these delivered for you,” she told him through gritted teeth, turning to leave before she said or did something she’d regret − like quit and stomp out.
Or shift and tear him limb from limb. It would be a community service.
“Might as well go home from there. Take those flowers with you and tell your boyfriend not to send anymore. This is a place of business, not a dating forum.”
“Sure thing,” she said.
Her voice was now saccharin sweet, with a smile to match. She was still plotting his death, but he had just given her the afternoon off. No way was she hand delivering those to each of the recipients. Everyone but Thad could get them from the receptionist she would hand them to for distribution and the latter could get his from her kind new neighbor and his driver, Barron.
She was home within the hour, quickly realizing she didn’t know which apartment he lived in. She couldn’t exactly sit around on his floor and wait for him to turn up. Instead, she went to her own apartment and changed into jeans and a t-shirt before making her way back down to the communal area with the contract and her tablet to find a seat facing the front doors.
Opening the Alpha Meets Omega app, she scanned through the guys, mostly other Betas, who had answered her ad. It might be best to stick with those for now. It was probably better to continue posing as a Beta and date those who considered themselves an equal. Plus, Betas tended to be more fun and less relationship centered.
It wasn’t that she was opposed to a relationship, but after her experience with Thad and all the pressure from work, perhaps it was better to just have fun. She looked up and saw Barron coming across the lobby. Jumping up, she darted toward him before he could get on the elevator.
“Barron!” she called out.
He looked around, smiling broadly when he saw her.
“Hey, neighbor.”
“Hey, yourself. Sorry to accost you in the lobby, but I wasn’t sure which apartment is yours.”
“203, but what’s up?”
“Will you be seeing Thad tonight?”
“No. I’m on weekdays and emergencies only since he decided to go out and buy himself a new car.”
“Ah, okay. Well, that’s fine then. Can you give him this for me in the morning? It’ll save me a bus trip across town.”
“Sure. No problem. It’s not a subpoena, is it?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Kidding. I’ll make sure he gets it. Or, I can take you over there now, if you want to hand it to him in person.”
“That’s okay. Tomorrow will be fine.”
“I see. Okay. I’ve got you covered.”
“Thanks,” she replied as the elevator doors opened.
“Going up?”
“No, not yet. Thanks.”
They said a quick goodbye as he stepped in the elevator and she returned to where she had been sitting, picking up the sweater she had brought down, in case she got chilly, and her tablet before returning to the elevator herself. Back in her apartment, she opened a bottle of wine and went back to her tablet.
Perhaps, she had made a mistake in accepting this internship. Perhaps, she had made a mistake in accepting a date with an Alpha. But she hadn’t made a mistake in coming to Seattle and she was going to make it work, one way or another.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Thad
“What’s this?” Thad asked as he slid into the front seat beside Barron.
It had become normal now for him to sit in the front unless he was being dropped off someplace where it would look odd for him to be riding in the front with another dude. Getting out of the back made it obvious he had a driver instead of looking like he had one of his bros drop him off because he didn’t have a car of his own or had one too many DUIs.
It was one of the many small nuances that didn’t matter to most people. In his business, it was all about appearances and stupid, petty things like that had influence. Sometimes, he wished he could just walk away from it all and live off grid somewhere, but his Alpha side enjoyed his work, mostly. It was just the pomp and circumstance that went with it that was a drag.
“My neighbor asked me to bring that to you this morning.”
Thad picked it up and looked at it for a moment before dropping it on the seat and looking out the window to hide his expression from Barron. So, this was how it was then. A woman who wanted to see you and had an excuse to do so, would take the opportunity. She deliberately sought out Barron as a go-between to avoid contact.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks for bringing this to me.”
“No problem.”
The rest of the ride was quiet as he sat and looked out the window. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling. It was foreign to him. Women came. Women went. He was never attached to them. In fact, there were quite a few he had to be the one who stepped up to the plate and tell them not to keep calling or stopping by. He’d dated his fair share of crazies, and Jaycee wasn’t the first woman who had not felt he was her cup of tea. She was the first one that mattered, though.
Work seemed to take on a gray tone. She was all he could think about for a while, but he eventually managed to focus on his job. By four, he felt mentally and emotionally exhausted, but he had one last meeting with the Hutchins group at their new building. There was some hope that she’d be there, but he knew there was no reason for Nasteau to
attend and thus, no reason for her to be present.
“Thank you so much for this, Thad. We are super excited to have everything signed so we can start making plans for the renovations,” Darryl Hutchins, the elderly leader of the Hutchins Group told him, shaking his hand with a pretty fierce handshake for an eight-six-year-old man.
“You’re welcome. More than happy to help,” Thad replied. “Just come by the office tomorrow with your lawyers. We’ve got a copy of the purchase contract from Nasteau, but we’ll need you to sign off on some final papers with us. Once that is done, we’ll cut the check to finalize the deal.”
“Fantastic. Thanks again.”
Thad excused himself and returned to the car, this time climbing into the backseat. Back at home, he felt drained, and rather than doing any work in his office or going for a night run as he sometimes did in wolf form, he had a simple meal of pâté on crackers and a few glasses of wine. Putting her out of his mind, he finally went to bed, but his dreams only brought her back to him.
This time, there was no resistance. In his dreams, she became his, giving in to his Alpha and accepting his dominance.
She stood in front of him, waiting for his command and when he gave it, she slipped to her knees, gently licking the tip of his cock as he slipped it back and forth across her lips. He pushed further against them each time, enjoying the way she looked up at him like a picture of innocence.
Her mouth opened to accept the tip of his cock as his pre-cum formed and lubricated her lips. He leaned in, letting her take more and more of him in, his hands tangled in her long, thick hair and guiding her. A moan escaped the back of his throat as she reached up with a single hand and took hold of his shaft, slowly slipping it up and down to meet her mouth as she pulled more of him in.
He growled deeply as she took him all in; her tiny mouth accepted his considerable dick with some difficulty but she was unwilling to give up. He was hard, so hard that she gagged against the stiffness filling the back of her throat. His hips pumped forward and back, giving her only seconds to catch her breath between thrusts. She made slurping noises that only made him hornier.