by Leela Ash
“I think it is very impressive that you were able to bridge the gap between human and shifter athletes. I feel that your work has been fundamental in helping to bring shifter issues to light in human communities and open an important dialogue.”
“A dialogue?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow. It was rare that an intern showed any concern for the bigger picture that Howlers Inc. represented. They were mostly hoping to impress Dean with their business savvy.
“Yes…relationships between shifters and humans have been deplorable. I feel that by appealing to one area where both shifters and humans show unparalleled interest–sports–you are providing an important opportunity to bring the disparities shifters suffer at the hands of their human counterparts to light.”
Dean pursed his lips and looked down at the papers on his desk. Janie might not be the next centerfold wearing his jersey, but she was smart. The wolf, who had been pacing in boredom at the prospect of yet another stupid interview, had stopped just long enough to listen. And apparently, it liked what it heard.
“Can you start today?” Dean finally asked, turning his gaze back onto Janie. She looked startled for a moment, and Dean couldn’t help but smile. She just looked so cute.
“Of course,” Janie said.
“Great, I’ll have someone come in and show you around the office. You can wait in the lobby while I arrange it.”
“Thank you,” Janie said, standing up and reaching her hand out excitedly. “I’m so honored to-”
Dean stood, and strode to the door, opening it. He wouldn’t be able to focus for the rest of the day if she stayed much longer. Hopefully, she would get the hint and leave.
She did, and walked briskly to the doorway.
“Just don’t let me down,” Dean said, and closed the door behind her. When she was safely down the hall, Dean sighed heavily and sat back down at his desk. “What the hell are you thinking, you old rascal?”
He scolded himself quietly, trying to empty his mind of all thoughts of Janie. What good would there be in claiming a girl half his age? She was an intern for crying out loud. Besides, he had his plate full with the divorce.
Still, as he got back to work, his thoughts lingered heavily on Janie. Sure, the wolf was happy with her, but would she make it as his intern? They would just have to wait and see.
4.
Janie was shocked by just how fast paced her new work environment was. She was even more surprised at the amount of pay she was set to receive. She’d heard many horror stories from friends who had interned for companies that had promised great benefits, once all their ducks were in a row, of course, and never saw a penny for their efforts. Even getting a letter of recommendation was like pulling teeth.
But Dean’s company didn’t work like that. Janie’s starting salary was impressive, and if she understood correctly, she would soon be eligible for health insurance through Howlers. It wasn’t that good-for-nothing coverage either. It was actually really incredible.
“To get you started, we’re going to get you to work on a PR campaign,” Mary, the woman giving the tour, said. Janie could tell that Mary was a shifter too, but she didn’t seem very friendly. Despite the company’s dedication to bringing human and shifter relationships to a more humane level, there was still animosity between the races. Shifters had good reason to distrust humans. Janie would be the first to admit it. Although it was a little bit upsetting, she couldn’t blame Mary much for her attitude.
“What kind of PR campaign?” Janie asked.
Mary led her through the doorway of a big, open office where a group of people were sitting at a large, oval-shaped desk. In the back of the room was a big bulletin board with pictures of Dean Resner from his days playing receiver for the Wyoming Riders, the first team ever composed of shifters and humans alike. A team organized by Dean, who, despite his dark and troubled past, had a dream of seeing shifters and humans working together against all odds.
“Mr. Resner wants the world to understand the goals of Howler’s Inc., and we feel one way is through a successful ad campaign. Your job will be to help come up with a powerful message that will communicate the company’s mission statement without compromising Dean as the focal point of the message.”
“He’s been getting some bad press lately,” a thin man in glasses said from the opposite end of the table. “We want him to look good.”
“The divorce is really stiffing him!” another man, a gruff-looking shifter with shaggy black hair and deep black stubble said. “People are spreading all kinds of rumors about him. Lying through their teeth, really. We’ve gotta look out for Dean. Get the people back to singing his praises. If they don’t, the company could go under.”
Janie nodded. “I hadn’t heard about how difficult the divorce has been on him…”
“You been living under a rock?!” a woman asked, setting down a box of colored pencils to give Janie a dramatic, shocked expression.
“Actually, I’ve been very busy. I just graduated from university and moved from California to Stonybrooke without any help. So, needless to say, that doesn’t leave me much time for the tabloids.”
Janie raised an eyebrow at the woman who shrugged and sat back down at the table.
“Clearly, there is plenty for you all to talk about,” Mary said, backing out of the room. She smiled falsely at Janie as she gripped the doorknob to shut it behind herself as she left. “Welcome to Howlers.”
5.
Dean awoke with a start and squinted at his watch. It was half past nine. Most people left the office around 5:00pm, the rest no later than six. He peered out to the hallway and sighed. The lights were dim, and he was hungry.
Dean stretched heartily, wondering if he would be able to make it to the diner in time to beg Maurice to keep it open just half an hour later so he could pick up something to eat. It was worth a shot, and on days like this, sometimes Maurice made an exception.
Dean strolled through the building, stopping suddenly when he caught a whiff of something familiar. Something comforting.
He furrowed his brow as he attempted to recollect what it might be, and followed his nose down the winding hallways of the office building. Finally, he found that he had stopped in front of a half-open door, with a dim light shining inside.
“Ms. Alexander?” he asked, surprised as he pushed the door open and walked inside. The wolf was instantly alert, and he had to try to push it down to keep it from acting inappropriately. Nobody else was there. Who would know? But he couldn’t let himself give in.
“Mr. Resner!”
Janie jumped up from the table and put her hand over her heart. “You startled me.”
“I’m sorry,” Dean said. But he couldn’t help but grin. The look on her face was priceless. “Why are you still here?”
Janie looked down at the table as if embarrassed before finally taking a deep breath and meeting Dean’s eyes. “I feel like the people working on this ad campaign for you are totally missing the point. I wanted to put a few ideas together while I had some time to myself.”
“You’re not enjoying the team you were assigned to?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrow at her.
“It’s not that,” Janie stammered. “I’m a team player as much as anybody, but…”
“You work better alone…on creative tasks?”
Janie cringed and didn’t answer, which was enough of an answer for Dean. He admired an independent spirit, but it would be fun to keep her in hot water for a bit. Just to see what she was capable of.
“Well then, let’s see what you’ve come up with,” Dean said, moving to Janie’s side. He could sense her tension, and a hint of another smell, a sweet, familiar, almost musky smell, that enticed him, but he forced himself to pay attention to the task at hand.
“They keep wanting to make you out as this incredible football hero,” Janie said, her voice tense. “But I just don’t think that’s what your image needs right now. Everybody already knows you were a great receiver. And they know your te
am was the first of its kind. Those are things that are already common knowledge. I just feel like the approach is all wrong.”
“Well, what would you suggest?” Dean asked. He agreed, but he wanted to see her flounder a little bit. Figure out if she really had what it took to speak her mind and get a job done, everybody else be damned. Even him.
“I think you would probably have a higher likelihood at success if you were to show the public something new along with something familiar. Instead of a picture of you kneeling with a touchdown, maybe you should show something a little bit more powerful.”
“Like…?” He liked where she was going with this, but she was taking an awfully long time to get to the point. And he was hungry.
“Um…”
“You know what? Just come with me. I’m starving, and the building is supposed to be empty. I can’t leave knowing somebody is still here.”
“I’m sorry! I…”
“No, it’s fine. You’re showing initiative. I just need you to leave with me. Now. We can talk at the diner.”
“The… Okay.”
“Good.”
Dean walked Janie to the door and led her out of the office building.
“Come on,” he said, climbing into his car. “I’ll drop you off at your car when we’re done.”
“Okay…”
She wasn’t sure about him, he could sense it, but she was even less sure about losing her job. Dean grinned and shook his head as she rounded his car to open the passenger’s side door. In a way, it never got old being able to read people.
“Are you ready?” Dean asked, turning the key once Janie was settled in.
Janie nodded and closed the car door, and suddenly, the whole vehicle was filled with her scent. It was intoxicating, and he glanced at her. The wolf was back to panting, eying the firm mound of her breasts and the gentle expression of her face. Janie didn’t have the same bitchy features or malicious, self-centered energy of most of the women he’d slept with in the past. Being in such a closed off space with her, in the quiet, was surprisingly comfortable.
“Have you been to the diner yet?” Dean asked, speeding down the street. Janie gripped the armrest of her seat and he grinned privately to himself. She was a girl who couldn’t handle the fast lane. He wasn’t sure yet whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“No,” Janie said. “I’m new here.”
“New?” Dean exclaimed. “Then you don’t know any of the good things about this place, do you?”
“Only what I’ve read,” Janie said.
“Well, there’s both good and bad. You know you have to be careful, right? This is a shifter town. If you get too mixed up in shifter business you can get yourself hurt. And you’d only have yourself to blame.”
“I know a lot about shifters, thank you,” Janie said quietly. “I’ve been interested in shifter culture since I was young. I know how to stay out of trouble.”
Dean grinned. Was that so?
“Well, it’s not just wolf shifters you have to look out for. There have been a lot of bear shifters lurking around the place recently. They’re shitty with everybody, human and wolf alike. If you think you see one of them, you’d better just get the hell out of there and don’t look back. You understand?”
Janie nodded without looking at him, worry heavy in her eyes.
“They’re trying to drag my name through the mud. Kiera, my ex, has been getting them to spread rumors about me to make it easier for her to take things from me in the divorce. But otherwise, if you avoid the bear shifters on the outskirts of town, it’s a great place to live,” Dean said, suddenly feeling awkward. He shouldn’t try to burst her bubble like that, right? It wasn’t very nice. She was new there. And so far, she was a better intern than all of the others combined. “You just have to know your way around, that’s all.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Janie said quietly.
Dean sighed heavily. He was great at putting his foot in his mouth. But he was hungry. It hardly mattered. What did matter was getting the hell to the diner before it closed. Who the hell could expect an alpha to carry on a conversation or act rational when he was hungry?
Finally, he rounded the corner and celebrated inwardly when he saw that the lights were still on inside.
“Perfect,” Dean mumbled, whipping into the nearest parking space and opening the door. He could see Maurice through the huge windows, and Maurice spotted him right away. He walked to the door and unlocked it, opening and holding it so that Dean and Janie could walk inside.
“Thank you,” Janie said quietly to Maurice.
Dean exchanged a bemused look with him. It was such a peculiarly human thing to do; thanking someone for doing something they wanted to do. He could understand thanking them for things that were demanded, but not something done willingly by another person. Wolves were unapologetic, and did what needed to be done without needing recognition for it unless the alpha deemed recognition the suitable reward.
“That’s all right, dear,” Maurice said good-naturedly. “You guys just made the cut-off point.”
Maurice winked at Dean, who grinned at his dearest friend. Maurice was an older man, nearly sixty, in fact, and Dean had always looked to him as a mentor. He had made his first dollar at this diner.
Even after he’d made billions of dollars throughout his career, both as an athlete and as an entrepreneur, he would have taken a meal at Maurice’s diner over a five-star restaurant anywhere in the world. In fact, sometimes he had flown in just to have dinner, only to return to Japan or Germany when he had finished.
“I’ll bring you two a menu.”
Dean nodded appreciatively and he and Janie settled into a booth near the door.
“So tell me more about your idea,” Dean said, tucking a napkin into his shirt and taking the menus from Maurice. He handed one to Janie, who held it awkwardly before opening it.
“I know it would be a lot of trouble, but what about a photoshoot?”
“A photoshoot?” Dean asked, looking up from his menu in surprise. He’d always hated being in front of the camera, but somehow, he always found himself there. Whether it was because people saw him as an enigmatic, mysteriously handsome wolf-shifter or he was just too famous, everybody was trying to get a picture with him.
“Hear me out,” Janie said, seeming to sense his displeasure at the idea. “Everybody knows what you did…back in the day. They even know that now you’re doing great things to help make sports safe and accessible for humans and shifters alike. But that’s stuff in the back of their minds that’s so familiar it’s almost numb. I think…”
Janie’s thought was interrupted by Maurice arriving at the table with a little pad of paper, ready to take their orders.
“The usual?” he asked Dean, who nodded. “And for you, miss?”
“Oh…”
Janie looked down at the menu, her face and body language the epitome of self-consciousness. Dean had seen it all before, especially with women who had body-image issues. They wouldn’t want to eat in front of him or share an enjoyment of food because they thought he might judge them for enjoying one of the greatest pleasures of the human body. Did she have a problem with those curves of hers? If she had any idea how sexy the wolf seemed to think they were…
“Everything here is amazing,” Dean said, doing his best to smile comfortingly at Janie. “And, of course, I’m picking up the tab. We ought to order one of everything just to show you what Maurice can do in the kitchen.”
“Oh…I would rather you didn’t,” Maurice said with a good-natured laugh.
Janie seemed to relax and smiled up at Maurice. “Surprise me.”
Dean snuck a glance at Maurice, who got a twinkle in his eye. “All right, my dear. A surprise it is.”
Maurice disappeared back behind the counter and Dean’s stomach rumbled. He hated being hungry. It gave him bad memories.
“So what were you saying?” Dean said edgily, impatient to get to the root of Janie’s idea
.
“A photoshoot. With a junior team of football players. One that’s integrated. Maybe you could coach for a day or something. It would really drive the point home that you’ve made the world a better place for young shifters and humans alike.”
Dean considered this quietly, and Janie focused her gaze on the salt and pepper shakers in the middle of the table, doing her best not to rush him into any kind of decision. He appreciated her patience. It was rare to find someone who allowed him time to think, particularly in the business world. Most people were eager to get the results they wanted right away. Or a pat on the back for having an idea. It was disgusting.
“I think I like it. But I’m not a big fan of photoshoots. They’re too unnatural. Tell you what. Why don’t you set it up with a local team? I’ll coach for a few weeks and you can have a photographer do their thing. But I’m not posing. It’s too fuckin’ fake.”
Janie brightened up, excitement lighting her clear, beautiful eyes.
“That’s perfect. And actually, I minored in photojournalism, so if you wanted…”
“I wouldn’t have to pay extra for a photographer? We can give it a shot. Get me your portfolio tomorrow morning and I’ll let you know.”
“All right,” Janie said, smiling at him from across the table. Dean couldn’t help but gaze at her; there was something about her he just liked. But he shouldn’t like anyone. Everyone who got close to him either got hurt or hurt him. It wasn’t safe to like anybody.
“Dinner is served!” Maurice said brightly, placing large plates of food in front of Dean and Janie. He smiled at them before retreating, and Dean sighed.
“Finally,” he grumbled, digging into his food. Janie smiled gently at him and followed suit.
He guessed it wasn’t too big a deal to find an intern likeable. It wasn’t like they were going to date or anything. This was business, after all. Besides, she was half his age. Dean allowed himself to relax, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying an impromptu dinner with his new intern. There was no harm. He was fuckin’ hungry.