The Shifter's Gift

by Haley Weir

  Isabella stood up once the door shut. She really did not want to give up on Noah. Even if the date had gone horribly, she enjoyed being with him. There was an instant, inexplicable connection that she’d never felt with anyone else before. She chewed on her lower lip, trying to figure out her next move. Who knew if he even felt the same way about her as she did him? Besides, it seemed crazy to give up her job after one date. Still, she could not convince herself to forget about him.

  Not knowing what else to do, she sat back down in her chair. She took a deep breath and opened her top desk drawer. The burner phone didn't have any new messages, not like she'd expected any. Maybe fate didn't want them to be together? Or maybe it was something else.

  Ms. Prince's words about Isabella's trickery being the cause of the date going poorly came to mind. It felt pointless to keep this stupid thing active if she was never going to get a call. Why bother going through the motions at all when it clearly wasn't meant to be?

  She canceled the burner phone's service and tossed the phone into her purse. It didn't matter anyways. Maybe if she knew her feelings for Noah weren’t just her mind tricking her, she would not want to throw in the towel this soon. If she had any idea of where things might go with him, she'd even start looking for a job that didn’t make her feel like crap, like Prince Dating Agency often did.

  She had five unread emails, but not even that could stir her from the sudden, crushing apathy she felt. From the names and subject lines, she could tell they were from her high priority clients who were as confused about being reassigned as she was. What did it matter? Even before all of this happened, Ms. Prince took away one of her clients without bothering to let her know.

  Part of her wanted to walk out of there right then and there, but she needed her paycheck. She pulled her phone from her purse and sent a text message to Sophie. She needed someone to talk to about all of this; someone who cared about her feelings.

  * * *

  Noah sat in his desk chair and propped his bare feet on his bed as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. While he didn’t like the idea of someone else handling his problems for him again, he couldn’t help but feel relieved at being home. His mother baked some triple chocolate brownies earlier, and they were delicious.

  He scanned his contacts for Isabella’s phone number and dialed it. The phone barely rang before an automated voice came over the line telling him that the number he’d reached had been disconnected. He pulled it down from his ear, looking over the numbers again. This was the number she gave him. He blinked at the phone. What was going on?

  He tried to think through various reasons why this might be happening. Maybe she’d accidentally gave him the wrong number and hadn’t realized it. Either way, he felt like he needed to talk with her. If anyone knew how to get in touch with her, it would be the Prince Dating Agency. The phone rang a few times before the formerly cheerful receptionist answered in a more somber tone than before. He briefly wondered what was wrong. "Hello, Prince Dating Agency. We're here to help you find your perfect match. How may I help you?"

  Noah cleared his throat away from the phone. "Hi, it's Noah Sinclair. I had a date last night with a woman—"

  She took a sharp breath, then said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Sinclair. I think it's best if I let you speak with Ms. Prince about your date last night."

  Before he could let her put him on hold, he spoke up, "Wait a second. Is there something wrong?" Could this be why he hadn't heard from Isabella? Was she hurt? Dead? Had something happened to her? It might explain why this woman was acting so strangely. He drew in a few deep, stabilizing breaths before shaking those thoughts away. No, he shouldn't jump to conclusions. There could be a rational explanation for all of this. Maybe she told Ms. Prince about their horrible date and that she hadn't wanted to see him again.

  "N-no. What do you mean? Why would there be? Let me redirect you to Ms. Prince. One moment please." In seconds, the soothing spa music was playing over the phone line.

  He leaned his head back against his chair and shook it from side to side. He hadn't needed his powerful sense of smell to detect the receptionist's lies. Something was definitely going on. He stared up at the ceiling, waiting and waiting as the spa music tried to lull him into a cat nap, but it didn't help with his worry. Anger rose up inside of him, and his beast reared its head. A growl escaped his throat before he could hold it back.

  "Excuse me, Mr. Sinclair? My apologies. It's me again. Ms. Prince asked if you could come to the office. She'll be able to give you more information herself and in person. Do you have a time when you'd be available to see her?" the receptionist asked, sounding almost frightened.

  "I'm on my way to your office now. I want answers. Tell her that I'll see her soon." He refused to back down. Ms. Prince was used to bossing people around and getting her way, but he wasn't about to let himself cower or bend to her will. If the woman couldn't get on the phone with him for a brief moment to explain what was happening with his date last night, then he would be coming to her to figure out what the fuck was going on. His family trusted her services, and paid good money for them. He would not be jerked around.

  "N-no, I don't think that's a good—"

  He disconnected from the call, not waiting to hear any more. He didn't need to know why or if it wasn't a good idea. He just knew what he had to do, and he was damn well going to do it.

  The drive to the Prince Dating Agency didn't take long. He pulled up to see the parking lot wasn't as full as it had been the previous time he'd been here, but it was a little later in the day. He walked through the door, spotting the receptionist immediately. She stood up, and her mouth fell open in surprise as if she hadn't actually expected him to come in.

  "Hello, Mr. Sinclair. If you could sit in the waiting room, Ms. Prince will be with you in just a moment." Her gaze darted toward the area beyond the waiting room before returning to him and darting back again. It was like she was looking for someone.

  Part of him wanted to dart back there to confront Ms. Prince himself, but he did as he was asked. “Fine. Let her know I’m here.” He contemplated getting a coffee, but that wouldn’t be a good idea. He was already feeling antsy and irritated as it was. He took a seat, but he didn’t bring out his phone or even pretend to seem like he was waiting patiently.

  Something was obviously up with Isabella, and he was determined to find out what. After waiting for a few minutes, he pulled his phone from his pocket and tried her number again. Just like last time, no luck. It went straight to voicemail.

  He let out a breath. Wasn’t he supposed to be relieved? He did his part trying out the agency, and it seemed to be working out as he originally hoped it would. If he let this go now, he would not have a woman in his life to deal with, and his family would leave him alone. But, to his surprise, he didn’t feel better. Talking with Isabella and hearing what she said about having a man by her side to enjoy life made sense to him. Despite their disastrous date, something about her inspired a change within Noah. Isabella made him want to try a committed life, and his bear wholly agreed with him on that.

  Chapter Twelve

  The thought of never seeing Noah again was too much for Isabella to bear. Not being able to see if their attraction was destined for something greater would be such a waste. Life was too short to be unhappy. While it might not be pleasant, if worse came to worst, she could borrow some money from her parents, even if that was far from ideal.

  Ms. Prince had made that option more appealing with everything she’d done today to punish Isabella. How in the world was she going to approach Noah about all of this? Should she tell him the truth? Tell him that she’d worked for the dating agency and the reason their date had been awful was because she’d lied to her boss? He’d probably just think she was crazy.

  Did he need to know the dirty truth at all? She could give her resignation to the dating agency, call him on her actual phone...but that wouldn’t work either. Once he learned more about her, he’d know the
last name she gave to him was fake. If he knew that, why would he want anything to do with her? He’d seemed to take honesty seriously when they’d been together last night. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like she’d shot any chance of a future with him in the foot by going through the whole process. But then she probably never would have met him at all.

  She glanced at the short resignation letter typed up on her computer as the notification of her only appointment today popped up on her screen. Letting out a sigh, she collected herself by taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly before heading out into the main hall. Employees would likely be waiting around to see how she appeared now. Plastering a smile on her face, she opened the door to her office and kept her eyes staring straight ahead.

  Even from this angle, the waiting room didn’t appear very full, and she wondered just how many people had been in today. Their customers were a pretty close knit group of businessmen. They didn’t like it when things changed. It very well could have pissed them off to find out their dating expert was being switched without receiving any notice. Or, maybe Ms. Prince had rescheduled a whole bunch of people to keep the awkward atmosphere plaguing the office away from her clients. If she hoped for everything to magically get better tomorrow, she was crazy.

  Standing in the entryway between the waiting room and the offices, Isabella was shocked to see Noah sitting there. Her hand went to her mouth. What was he doing here? Was this all part of Ms. Prince’s plan to get her to dump him? No, she doubted that. The woman didn’t want her to have anything to do with him anymore. Why would she bring him here?

  The look of relief and joy on his face when he spotted her took her breath away. He climbed to his feet and took a step toward her. “Hey,” he said. “I tried to call you. You must’ve accidentally given me a wrong number.”

  “Y-you did? I…”

  The distinct clack of high heels on the hardwood floor behind her sent a chill up her spine, and it took all of her willpower not to hunch her shoulders and flee back to her office with her client, who was frowning at the two of them. He tried to catch her eye a couple times to flash her an impatient look, but she only had eyes for Noah.

  “Mr. Sinclair, if you would come with me. That’s enough talking, Isabella. Take your client and do your job,” Ms. Prince ordered, her voice terse.

  Noah’s eyes narrowed on Ms. Prince, then he turned that gaze to Isabella. “What’s going on here?”

  If Isabella didn’t take control of this situation soon, then she would be screwed on both fronts. “My apologies, Mr. Morris. Our receptionist can arrange your meeting with another of the Prince Dating Agency’s dating experts. If you’ll excuse me.” She lifted her chin and bounced her gaze between Noah and Ms. Prince. “I need to speak with both of you in Ms. Prince’s office. I’ll be there in just a moment. Thank you.” Her heart raced in her chest, but she kept her head high as she walked through the sea of gawking people on her way back to her office.

  She opened up the resignation letter and clicked print. After signing her name, she glanced both ways to try to find them. They weren’t where she’d left them near the waiting room, and Ms. Prince’s door was closed. She caught sight of Lyndsey nodding toward Ms. Prince’s door with a subtle thumb’s up.

  She mouthed a thank you to Lyndsey and headed toward Ms. Prince’s office with the letter in her hand. With only a quick knock, she opened the door before her boss could invite her in. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what the woman thought. What she enjoyed about this job was the feeling of helping people, but Ms. Prince just wanted to take that away from her. She knew she’d find something else that she was meant to do.

  Instead of the two of them intensely talking as she’d expected, they sat there in silence on Ms. Prince’s couch waiting for Isabella. Noah glanced in her direction, and he raised an eyebrow at the paper in her hand.

  While Isabella didn’t want to sit on the couch beside them, she knew it would look awkward to do anything else. “I won’t take up much of either of your time. First of all, Noah, I’m really happy to see you. Regardless of how the date went, I truly meant what I said. I really enjoyed meeting you. I’d love to get to know you further if you’re still interested after I’ve explained everything. If not, I’m sorry, and I completely understand.” She folded her hands over the resignation letter on her lap. “As you know,” she continued, keeping her attention on Noah, “three of my best friends are in the process of getting married. They’d had great results with the process here. I’ve started dodging their text messages because I’ve felt like an oddity around them; single and without any prospects. I want someone that I can have fun with and share my life with like I told you last night. For instance, I love to cook, but I never do it. What’s the point of cooking for one person?” Isabella shook her head and took deep breath before pressing on. “Anyways, the Prince Dating Agency has a policy that states employees cannot date clients.” She briefly turned her gaze to Ms. Prince before staring at Noah again. “There was a prior incident with—”

  “With your brother, Mason Sinclair. Isabella was the dating expert to help him. She also helped his wife miss out on a place to work here.” The pompous sound of her voice made Isabella want to punch Ms. Prince, especially since she was leaving out some very crucial details.

  “No! I was assigned to Mason Sinclair.” God, so that was how she knew that last name. Noah was related to Mason Sinclair? That meant he was super rich, too. Her stomach churned with nerves. It didn’t matter. That wasn’t why she liked him. “But I didn’t exactly play a part in Ms. Daniels not gaining employment here. That was on the hiring manager.” Angry heat warmed her cheeks.

  "Just let Isabella continue her story," Noah cut in. His voice sounded relatively calm. he cleared her throat.

  "Knowing that I could lose my job if I wanted to join the program, I learned that some of our high priority clients are able to forgo the in-person appointment if they are wealthy and busy. I created a story to do that since I wanted the chance to find someone of my own. I kept a lot of my own interests and things about me in to keep the process as legitimate as possible.So, I gave them a call on a burner phone. I was accepted as a client, and we were matched. My intentions were pure. I just wanted to find someone to love and spend my life with. Meeting you, regardless of the craziness, was... really great."

  Isabella turned back to Ms. Prince now. "After coming into the office this morning, Ms. Prince confronted me about the date. She'd found out, and stripped me of my high priority clients and has been nothing but rude to me all day long. She told me that the only way for me to keep my job is to have nothing to do with you." She climbed to her feet and held out the letter to Ms. Prince now. "So you know what? I quit. Here's my resignation letter, effective immediately."

  "Clear out your office. You're done here," Ms. Prince replied, not even bothering to read the letter. She tossed it on the coffee table as if it wasn't worth her time. "I'll have the receptionist mail you your last paycheck. I don't want to see your face here again."

  Shaking her head, Isabella headed for the door to the office. She'd felt Noah's watchful eyes on her, but he hadn't said anything. He remained quiet, and let her walk away. Maybe she'd been right; he didn't want anything to do with her. Why would he? He was probably pissed off that he'd gone on a date with her instead of someone less complicated.

  She headed to her office, feeling heat continue to warm her face. When she got there, she didn't bother closing the door behind her. She grabbed one of the boxes that held some files waiting to be sorted and stored. She arranged her things away from her desk before turning the box over onto it, letting someone else deal with sorting them. It wasn't her job anymore.

  A few of the papers spilled to the ground, and she shook her head. That was ridiculous. She couldn't be making a mess for the next person to handle. She wasn't that kind of person. Maybe it was just as well that she was leaving. Ms. Prince had a negative impact on her attitude.

  She p
acked away her things in the box, making sure to grab everything from her desk, the walls, and the shelves in the room. As Ms. Prince said, she didn't want to see her face around here anymore, so she needed to be sure that didn't happen. Just as she was wrapping up, she heard a tentative knock on her office door. Her gaze jerked up to see Noah standing there.

  "Uh, hey. Can we talk?" he asked, nodding toward the chairs in front of her desk.

  Her heart raced, and she nodded. “Sure. Um, maybe we can get out of here? After that conversation in Ms. Prince’s office, I really don’t want to be here.”

  “That’s fine. Maybe we can grab a coffee or a bite to eat, if you’re hungry? Somewhere we can sit and talk.” He stepped forward and picked up her box of personal items, causing his muscles to flex.

  She chewed on her lower lip, watching the tempting play of muscles. Even if she just wanted to go home and bury her head under her pillow, she didn’t want to blow Noah off, especially if he still wanted to have anything to do with her.

  “Sure, I’d love to get a bite to eat with you,” she agreed.

  They walked out to her car, and he put the box in her trunk before heading off to a quiet cafe not far from the office. Her nerves bunched up in her stomach as she parked and saw him pull into the spot next to her. Everything was going to be okay. She had to believe that, or she might as well drive away as fast as she could right now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After hearing what Isabella said in Ms. Prince's office, Noah couldn't find it within himself to be anything but impressed by her honesty. He was stunned, but mostly, he was impressed. Seeing how Ms. Prince treated her, he understood why the receptionist acted so nervous. Their boss might have helped out his brothers with finding their mates, but he’d refused to let the woman freely stomp on Isabella.