Seduced By The Wall Street Werewolf (Interracial Paranormal Shifter Romance BWWM)

by Cj Howard

  —which ended up happening anyway ten minutes later when Mr. Clarke buzzed me, informing me I’d forgotten to print the extra copies of the quarterly report. Another ugly mark on my so-far dismal record with this firm. “I’m sorry, sir, I’ll bring them right away,” I said.

  I sighed, heading for printer. Could I have been any more of a mess if I tried?

  __________________________________________

  *

  The morning meeting proceeded fairly normally, save for a few upsets. Theo had the pages we needed, but it turned out his new secretary had forgotten to print extra copies of the quarterly statement to pass around. I commented that she was off to a great start.

  “She’s still new,” he shrugged. “Cut her some slack.”

  So he buzzed the instructions to her, she apologized, and we proceeded to discuss other topics until there was a knock on the door. Someone got up to open it, and in she strode.

  Whatever business I may have been concerned with discussing was forgotten immediately.

  She couldn’t have been more than 26, with a dark, mocha-colored complexion and a face framed by a head of thick, frizzled hair. She wore no makeup, and her business attire was just barely neat enough to avoid being called frumpy. Her walk and demeanor were the epitome of awkward. Then I noticed her scent.

  It was a scent I hadn’t smelled on a woman in years, and as soon as I caught it on her my eyes were nowhere else.

  And at the same moment, she caught my scent as well. And her attention was squarely on me.

  “Thank you, Zoe,” Theo said as he got up and took the printed reports from her, and began to pass them around.

  I bullshitted my way through the rest of the meeting. I hardly listened to anything that was said, and made up answers when I was asked direct questions. I was unable to tear my attention away from Zoe. Officially she was supposed to return to Theo’s office in case he got a call, but instead she hung back against the door and waited. No one seemed to notice the wallflower hanging around except me, and no one seemed to care that she was remaining consistent in not doing her job very well.

  She tried to hide it by looking down at the floor, but each time my gaze turned back to her, her eyes came up again to meet mine.

  When the meeting finally ended, she seemed to suddenly remember that she was supposed to be somewhere else, and made haste out the door as everyone was getting up from their seats. I hung back as we exited the meeting room, my eyes fixed on the open door to Theo’s office where Zoe was working. As Theo walked by me, I grabbed his arm to stop him. “Hey, what can you tell me about that girl?”

  “What, you interested in her? You’d be the first, as far as I know.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Well, there’s not much I can tell you yet. She doesn’t really mix, if you know what I mean. Keeps to herself, eats alone, and if you ask me, I’d guess she hasn’t been laid since Facebook was invented. She is very uptight. Personally, I don’t think she’s gonna last.”

  I think he went back to his work then. I wasn’t watching him and I didn't care.

  I somehow regained enough focus to get back to my own work too. I made phone calls, I traded stocks; I did the job that had made me rich. And then it got to be 1:00, when most of my coworkers were breaking for lunch and the crowd of brokers was thinning out. I meanwhile went searching to feed a different kind of hunger.

  Zoe had already left Theo’s office. I followed her scent to one of the smaller break rooms, one usually reserved for morning coffee breaks. It wasn’t one of the better ones, either; the coffee machine was always breaking down, and there was only a single small table with room for three people at best. I guessed Zoe had chosen it on purpose for that very reason. She sat alone, quietly indulging in a sandwich, which she seemed to forget about when she noticed me.

  She stared back at me over her shoulder. For a long while, neither of us spoke. I could see the tension in her shoulders from where I stood.

  “You seem anxious,” I said. “What are you afraid of?”

  She said nothing.

  I began slowly approaching her. Instantly she began gathering up her lunch and hurrying out of her chair. “I’m sorry, Mr. Lupis,” she said, “I’ll find somewhere else to eat.” But as she tried to rush by me, I grabbed hold of her arm.

  She kept her eyes down, not daring to meet mine. I paused, taking a moment to breathe in her scent, savoring it. After so many years, to smell this kind of scent on a woman again…

  “Look at me,” I softly commanded.

  Slowly, she raised her eyes to me. With a soft growl in my throat, I let her see my wolf’s eyes. And reflexively, she revealed hers.

  As soon as I saw her eyes shift from brown and white to yellow and black, I released her arm—and she bolted from the room.

  Chapter3

  My heart raced and I fought to catch my breath as I returned to my desk. Okay, he wasn’t from my pack; that much was for sure. And he was the top trader at this firm, which meant he’d been here for years, whereas I was the newbie. Obviously he didn’t come here looking for me.

  But what if Lawson knew him? It was possible. What if he was telling Lawson where I was right now?

  What if I was becoming a paranoid wreck?

  I had damn near passed out from panic when I walked into that meeting room and caught his scent, and realized that he was right there, looking at me. If I’d been thinking clearly, I knew I should have gotten out of there as soon as I handed Mr. Clarke those copies. Technically I was supposed to do that anyway. And yet I’d been unable to move. I couldn’t stop looking at him, seeing him watching me.

  When I realized he wasn’t from my pack I’d started to relax a little… and then he tracked me down to that break room. And he grabbed me like that. And when he showed me his real eyes, and I let my mask slip and showed him mine, I felt certain I’d been caught.

  But now that I’d had time to rationalize things, I was starting to calm down. It was probably just chance that he was here, not part of a search for me. Contrary to what was always in my nightmares, Lawson’s reach couldn’t extend this far.

  The day proceeded like any other after that. For a few hours at least. I took Mr. Clarke’s calls, I typed reports and printed documents he needed.

  And then Mr. Clarke came to my desk and said, “Hey, Zoe, Marco just called me, says he wants to see you in his office.”

  I fought to swallow the lump in my throat. I should have expected this. “A-all, alright.” I slowly got up on shaky legs and headed for the door.

  “My advice: hold onto your panties with that guy,” he said to my back. “Just sayin’.”

  I didn’t exactly know the full layout of the floor yet, but finding the head trader’s office wasn’t difficult; I just had to track his scent. Walking through the door, that was the difficult part. But I took a breath, bit my lip and knocked.

  “Come in, please.”

  I turned the knob and in I strode. Mr. Lupis was seated on his leather sofa in the middle of the long, luxurious office, clearly waiting for me. I shut the door behind me, and stood before him with as much composure I could muster. “You wanted to see me, Mr. Lupis?”

  He cocked his head. “You don’t have to be so formal with me, Zoe. Come on, sit down.”

  I hesitated, and took a seat as far from him as the sofa would allow.

  “Why are you being so timid?” he asked. “I never expected to find another one of us in this whole city, let alone my own office. We’re two of a kind here; shouldn’t we act like it?”

  I paused, not sure what to say, before I finally let my professional etiquette slip and said, “What do you want with me?”

  He looked a little caught off-guard by that question. “Letting me buy you a drink tonight would be a start,” he said. “You’re the first of our kind I’ve met in years; I’d like to know more about you.”

  I fell silent. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but somehow I hadn’t expected him to say som
ething that, in all honesty, sounded completely reasonable. Maybe Lawson had jaded me more than I thought. “Alright, I can do that.”

  “Wonderful. Then I’ll meet you after work.”

  *

  Zoe spent several minutes absently stirring her martini without looking up. Even now that we’d left the office and gotten to the bar she still seemed like she didn’t know what to do.

  “So,” I said, leaning forward on the table, “what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this anyway? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem like much of a secretary.”

  She shyly lifted her eyes to me. “You mean, why am I not with my pack?”

  “Sure. That’s definitely a good question.”

  She paused, seeming like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to answer.

  I decided to give my answer first. “I was banished from mine.”

  “Banished? What for?”

  “To put it simply, I wanted more. I wanted a real education, a career. I wanted money. I wanted what I have now. But my alpha insisted that we didn’t belong in that kind of world, living and working with humans. He wanted us to stay hidden out in the boonies, living in wood hovels, driving old Volkswagens, scrounging for petty cash. When I got defiant with him about it, he told me that I could leave if I wanted, but if I did I wouldn’t be welcome back.”

  “So now you’re a millionaire,” she said, “and all alone.”

  “That about says it.”

  “Do you ever regret that choice?”

  I shrugged. “Sometimes. When I think about the things I had to sacrifice to get where I am. The hunts, the howls, the running… I used to live for that.”

  And before my eyes, she actually smiled, looking nostalgic. “I know what you mean.”

  “Alright then, now you’ve admitted to missing your pack too. So are you ready to answer my question yet?”

  Her smile disappeared, as she looked me in the eyes. She looked down at her drink again, stirred it some more, and finally took a sip. Then she looked back up at me, and she paused.

  “I’m running,” she said at last. “I had to escape my pack. My alpha wanted to own me.”

  “Really?”

  “He was going to force me to marry him. And to him, that meant I would be his slave. …Slash puppy factory. So I ran. I’ve gone from city to city, living where I can, taking job after job. I never stay in one place for too long. I’m always worried he’ll find me.”

  “You really think your alpha has that much power?”

  She seemed almost surprised by that question. “Probably not,” she admitted. “But it always seemed like he did. I always felt so helpless with him. My whole life, he was there, controlling me.”

  “He’s not here now,” I said. “It’s just me.”

  She gave me an intense, vulnerable look.

  I scooted my chair, sliding around the circumference of the table to move closer to her. “I get why you’re so guarded now,” I said. “But there’s nothing you have to guard against here. And there’s no reason you should hide. As much as you try to pretend otherwise, you’re a beautiful woman. And I’m betting you’re even more beautiful four-legged.”

  “Huh,” she half-chuckled, looking thoughtful. “I don’t think I’ve been four-legged in over a year.”

  “You’re kidding!”

  “I’ve always been so afraid of being found that I just never dared.”

  I laid my hand on top of hers. “Tonight, we’re going to change that.”

  “What?”

  “Come on!” I arose from my seat, pulling her with me. We hurried outside to my car, where I guided the confused-looking girl into the passenger seat before I hopped behind the wheel and sped off.

  I drove us through the heavy nighttime traffic, making my way out of the city toward the woods on the outskirts. I parked somewhere off-road, near the tree line. She got out much more slowly than I did, remaining consistent in her uncertainty. “What are we doing here?”

  Walking toward the trees, I began removing my coat and my tie, and dropped them on the ground. “We are going to go for a little run. The way we were born to.” I started unbuttoning my shirt.

  “You’re serious?”

  “You just said you haven’t done this in over a year. Aren’t you itching to let your fur out after so long?”

  The look on her face was answer enough.

  Actually, as I discarded my shirt and dropped it on the ground, another look crossed her face. And it seemed to be directed at my pectorals. “Are you checking me out?”

  She shrugged bashfully. “Guess I’ve lived among humans too long.”

  And with that, she began shedding her own clothes, starting with her coat, and then began unbuttoning her blouse. I smiled, and resumed stripping myself.

  By the time I slid my shorts down and stood fully naked in front of her, she had slipped off her skirt and gotten down to her underwear. I took a moment to drink in the expanse of her coffee-colored skin. When she unfastened her bra and exposed her B-cups capped by dark nipples to my view, I found myself experiencing an all too human reaction—much as I did seconds later when she bent to slide her panties down her legs, and I took in the smooth curve of her ass.

  Then she noticed how I was looking at her. “Are you checking me out?”

  “Guess we’ve both lived among humans too long.”

  She smiled with silent laughter, stepping up beside me. And then we took off running for the trees.

  We dashed back and forth, weaving along the dark night paths, past trees, over rocks, through bushes. And in mid-stride, I leapt off of a rock outcropping with my human feet, but it was my front paws that touched the ground in the next moment, pulling me loping forward. And even though the woods were dark, every sense I had could feel Zoe running beside me; from the sound of her paws pulling at the ground with each stride, ripping up the dirt; to the sound of her rapid, panting breath as she ran; to the smell of her fur, and the warmth of her pounding blood.

  For so long… so long… I had been forced to do this alone. And now a she-wolf was running beside me again. After so long. My lupine heart was pounding like I hadn’t felt in years. I was alive again.

  Suddenly Zoe took off running in a specific direction. I turned to follow her, a second before I discovered what was driving her: the scent of a live raccoon. I picked up my pace to match hers, as together we closed in on our newly discovered prey. The docile animal barely had time to see us coming before we were upon it. In a flash, I had my jaws on its throat, crunching its neck, while Zoe got her teeth into the flesh of its back, tearing at its meat.

  The civilized dinner dates I’d put up with for years with vapid women, who knew nothing about me other than my position and money, could never compare to feasting on a fresh kill with a spirited she-wolf. And now that we’d finally stopped running, I had the chance to look up and really see the beautiful four-legged creature sharing meat with me. She may have kept her human look plain, but her lupine form was a marvel of nature. The way the moonlight slicing through the trees glistened on her dark fur; the way her yellow eyes shone in the night; everything about her was magnificent.

  I moved toward her, touching my nose to the fur of her neck, beginning to rub against her. I sniffed at her, savoring her scent. And then I realized she was doing the same with me. I could sense the rush still coursing through her. We grunted and whined affectionately as our muzzles rubbed together.

  She shifted back to her two-legged body first, which I did immediately after. We rose to our feet and stared at each other, as I watched her pant from the excitement. “I forgot how good that feels,” she breathed.

  I suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to me, bringing her into a fierce, heated kiss. She offered no resistance, opening her mouth to my tongue. Our mouths still tasted of fresh-killed meat, just like I remembered after the hunts with Lucile and the other she-wolves from my pack. Her hands gripped tight onto my back, and she pressed her nubile nake
d body into my own.

  I could smell her arousal. Even standing there, lip-locked with her, I could smell the wetness forming between her legs. I felt her nipples hardening against my chest, and I slid a hand between our bodies and brought it up to cup a breast, making her moan into my mouth.

  I bent lower to kiss her smooth, mocha-colored neck, to which she responded by rolling her head to the side and moaning softly as I continued to massage her breast. I ducked my head lower still, pulling at the breast I was massaging to bring the dark nipple out for my mouth. She gasped sharply when I sucked her erect nipple into my mouth, clutching onto the back of my head.

  I began lowering us down as I continued suckling at her tit. I laid her down flat on her back on the ground. No blanket or clothes separated her from the dirt or grass or tree roots beneath her. Just like this, out in nature, in the dirt, was where all my best sex experiences had happened. Human women would never understand; they always wanted to do it inside, on my soft sheets. But Zoe was of my own kind, and this was where we belonged.

  When I had her on her back, I kissed my way down her body, until I came to the junction of her thighs. I breathed in her musky smell; this was another thing no human woman could compare with. None of them ever smelled as intoxicating as this. When I brought my mouth down to taste her nectar, her body came alive like never before. Her legs kicked back and forth, churning up dirt, and her torso undulated beneath me. Her fingers clawed at the ground as she screamed with delight.

  I continued pleasuring her slit with my tongue, until her hands took hold of my head and lifted me up. Staring at me with smoldering eyes, she softly breathed, “I want you now.”

  I grinned, and crawled up her body, the tip of my erection sliding along her inner leg.

  *