Rise

by Heather MacKinnon

   Abraham shook Matt’s hand, but I could see his shoulders were tight with tension.

   What was that about? Did he know Matt already?

   My new co-worker clapped his hands and looked around my office. “You’ve got a… colorful office here.”

   I smiled and turned to Abraham. “He designed it for me.”

   Matt’s smile widened. “Maybe not the direction I would have gone in, but if you’re happy.”

   “She is,” Abraham cut in.

   I whipped my head in his direction. What was his problem?

   “Anyway, my office is right next to yours. Feel free to stop by anytime.”

   Abraham stiffened beside me, but I ignored him.

   “Thanks, Matt. It was great meeting you.”

   He smiled and waved as he backed out of my office. “Maybe we can get lunch together later.”

   Abraham growled this time, and I turned wide eyes his way.

  “She’s busy for lunch.” With that, he slammed my office door, effectively ending any conversation with poor Matt.

   I poked him in the shoulder and propped my hands on my hips. “What the hell was that?”

   His jaw was ticking with how hard he was clenching it. “I don’t like him.”

   “You just met him.”

   “So did you and you’re already defending him.”

   “I’m not defending him. I’m trying to figure out what crawled up your ass and how we can get it out.”

   “I’m not in the mood for jokes, El.”

   “Well, neither am I. I just met my first new coworker, and you were rude to him. How do you think that looks for me?”

   He shrugged. “Don’t care. I don’t like him.”

   I threw my head back and groaned. “What is there not to like? He said like two words.”

   Abraham took a step closer until he was hovering over me. “He said a lot more with his eyes than he said with his mouth.” He reached out and grabbed my waist, squeezing almost painfully. “He couldn’t stop staring at you and I don’t like other men staring at my mate.”

   I rolled my eyes as my stomach flipped deep inside me. Despite how unreasonable he was being, there was something so sexy about a possessive man. Or at least a possessive Abraham. Yeah, that was probably it.

   I put my hands on his biceps and tried not to notice how strong and warm he was. “He was just being friendly, Abraham. There’s nothing to worry about.”

   “He wanted to have lunch with you.”

   I slid my hands up to circle the back of his neck. “That’s what co-workers do, baby. They have lunch together.”

   He growled softly and pulled me closer. “You’re only allowed to have lunch with me.”

   My breath caught in my chest and I fought to speak calmly. “He wasn’t talking about the kind of lunches you and I have.”

   He grumbled again and dipped his head to my neck. “That’s not what it looked like.”

   I sighed and shook my head, running my fingers through Abraham’s dark hair. “There’s no one else I want to have lunch with.”

   He grunted. “Good.”

   I rolled my eyes again but couldn’t help the grin on my face. Abraham was acting a little jealous, and although I’d never feed it, it was nice for him to have a little taste of what I went through with Peyton when she was still around.

  She’d always been flirting with Abraham and hanging off him any chance she got. It drove me nuts and Abraham hadn’t even been able to see it at first. He’d finally caught on to her double-layered motives and did his best to keep her at a distance, but she was still a member of his pack. Or at least she used to be.

  I hoped working with Matt wouldn’t be a problem for Abraham. There was no competition for him, and it wasn’t even like Matt had made an advance. It seemed to me like he was making a big deal out of nothing, but I’d have to make sure not to stoke the fires of that particular flame. I’d hate to see what an angry, jealous Abraham was capable of.

  Chapter 25

   “I don’t want to go.”

   I laughed and kissed his lips again. “But you have a site you need to be at this morning.”

   He pouted, and it was so adorable, I had to kiss him again.

   His big hands were wrapped around my waist and he pulled me closer to his hard body. “I’m used to you bein’ home with me. I’m gonna have to miss you all day now.”

   My heart clenched in my chest. “I’m gonna miss you too.”

   I really hadn’t spent more than a few hours away from Abraham since I’d moved into the lodge, and thinking about a whole eight of them without him seemed daunting.

   “But you’ll be back for lunch, right?” I asked, my hands sliding up and down his thick arms.

   He sighed and dropped his head to mine. “I’m going to try my hardest, but this site is far away, and I might not be able to get here in time.”

   Now it was my turn to pout. “So, we won’t get to christen my new office today?”

   His heartbeat picked up its pace, and I tried to hide my smile. “If we don’t, I’ll make sure we christen it twice tomorrow.”

   My belly flipped at his promise and eight hours seemed longer than ever. Finally, I sighed and gave him one last kiss before stepping back. “If you don’t go soon, you’ll never go.”

   He shrugged. “Okay. I’ll just hang out with you all day.”

   I shook my head, but a smile was tugging at my lips. “No, sir. We both have work to do and if you were in here all day, none of it would get done.” I cupped his scruffy face in my hands and looked into his eyes. “You can text and call me whenever you want, and I’ll see you when you pick me up later.”

   He sighed and turned to press a kiss to each of my palms. “Okay, baby. I’ll let you get to work.”

   He sounded so sad and my heart twisted in my chest. “I love you,” I reminded him.

   His blue eyes lightened as he smiled at me. He was so beautiful in that instant, it was hard to look directly at him. “I love you too, baby. I hope you have the best first day ever.”

   I kissed him again. I just couldn’t help myself. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.”

   I wrapped my hand around his and dragged him from my office. The hallway was empty as we walked down it and I wondered where everyone else was. When we got to the front door, I reached up and gave him another kiss. This one so sweet and lingering it took all my willpower to end it.

   When I pulled back, there were probably stars in my eyes, but when I looked up at Abraham, his expression was still and tense. I wondered what was wrong until a voice spoke up.

   “We’re getting ready to start, Ellie, if you’re done here.”

   I turned to find Matt watching us closely from the other side of the waiting room. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but I tried to shake it off.

   I turned back to Abraham who was glaring at Matt. I cleared my throat, and he looked back down at me.

   “I’ll see you soon, okay? Love you.”

   His eyes softened the slightest bit. “Love you too, El.” With that, he leaned down and captured my lips with his. He quickly deepened the kiss, and soon my heart was thundering in my chest and my hands were shaking where they held his shoulders. Everything flew from my mind as I lost myself in Abraham.

   When he finally pulled away, I swayed toward him before I caught myself and straightened back up.

   With a satisfied smile on his face, he shot one more look over my shoulder before pinning me with his gorgeous smile. “Have a good day, baby.”

   He was almost through the door when my senses returned to me.

   “You have a good day, too!” I said, my voice still breathy from that kiss.

   He shot me a wink and closed the door behind him. I took a deep breath to steady my racing heart and pasted on the best smile I could before I turned back toward Matt.

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nbsp;  “Sorry about that. I’m ready now.”

   Matt smiled, but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. He jerked his head toward the hall behind him. “Come on. They’re in the conference room.”

   We walked silently down the hall while I tried to get my racing libido under control. I knew none of the humans would be able to tell, but unfortunately, not much escaped a werewolf and Callie would totally pick up on it.

   “So, how long have you two been together?”

   I shot him a curious look out of the corner of my eye. We’d met less than an hour ago and his first question for me was about my relationship? I would think things like my prior job experience would be more pertinent, but I guess he didn’t.

   And honestly, that was a question I’d been dreading answering.

   Sure, while I was on pack lands, the length of our relationship didn’t raise any eyebrows, but we were in the real world now. Things were completely different, and my skin itched as I tried to think up a suitable answer.

   Finally, I just decided to tell him the truth. So what if he judged me? I barely knew him, and his opinion shouldn’t have mattered. That was what I told myself, at least.

   “Um, only a few months, actually.”

   I could see Matt turn to me with an incredulous look out of the corner of my eye.

   “You’ve been engaged a few months?”

   I cleared my throat and shook my head. “No, we’ve only been together a few months.”

   He was quiet for a while and I regretted telling him the truth. What would a white lie have really cost me in that instance? I should have just told him it’d been years instead and avoided this all together. But I really didn’t like lying, and keeping up with a fake story seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

   Finally, he spoke up. “Wow, you two moved fast, huh?”

   I shot him a strained smile. “When you know, you know, I guess.”

   Matt hummed in the back of his throat. “So, you two met and got engaged in just a few months. Wow, I wish I met someone that I knew I wanted to be with for the rest of my life so quickly.”

   My smile felt more forced than ever as I shrugged. “His family is known for moving fast.” That was the closest I could get to explaining werewolf relationships.

   “What about you? You’re okay with moving this quickly?”

   A million questions flew through my brain in that instant.

   Why was he so curious?

   Why did it matter to him?

   Why did he care?

   I cleared my throat. “Well, we’re not getting married right away or anything. We’ll probably wait at least a year for that.” Why I was explaining myself to someone I just met, I didn’t know, but I felt like I had to.

   “That’s good, I suppose.”

   Finally, I’d had enough of being on the other end of his microscope.

   “But they’re our lives and we’ll live them how we want. We might get married next year, or we might get married next month. It doesn’t really matter to me because I love him, and I know I want to be with him.”

   “Even though it’s only been a couple months, huh? Man, he’s a lucky guy.”

   I opened my mouth to respond, but we’d made it to the conference room, and I didn’t need anyone else knowing what we’d been talking about. I wouldn’t forget this conversation, though, and swore I wouldn’t let Matt make me doubt my decision again. I’d just met him, and I didn’t owe him anything, least of all an explanation about my relationship with Abraham.

   “Ellie, Matt, come on in and we’ll get started,” Callie called from the other end of the room.

   I took a seat as far away from Matt as I could at the table in the middle of the room. The only other people present were Callie and another woman I assumed was Katie. She had light blonde hair that was almost white and big blue eyes. She looked almost like an angel, but the look on her face made me think she was anything but.

   When we were all seated, Callie clapped her hands together and looked around the room at all of us. “First, I’d like to welcome you all to The Asheville Initiative. I’m so glad to have you here today in our new office. I hope you’re satisfied with your spaces, and if there’re any issues, feel free to come to me with them. In the meantime, I wanted to dive right in now that we have a proper place to work. Since we’ve got a couple new faces, let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. We can start with you, Matt.”

   The dark-haired man sat up straighter and shot Callie a wide smile. “I’m Matt Miller, and I’m an environmental scientist. I’ve worked for a number of large companies but wanted a change and decided to seek out a private organization. I found this place, and the rest is history.”

   He looked around the room, his smile wide, almost as if he was expecting a round of applause. I just barely held back an eye roll as I turned to the woman on his left and waited for her to speak.

   “I’m Katie Phalen, and I’m an environmental scientist as well, but I do most of my work outside of the lab. I met Callie a couple years ago and we’ve been working hard to do our part to change what we can ever since. I’m excited that we got some new office space and I’m looking forward to working with you all.”

   Everyone in the room turned to me and I guessed it was my turn to speak. I cleared my throat and pasted on a smile. “I’m Ellie Montgomery, and I’m a lawyer. I’ve only worked in criminal law until recently, but I’ve been studying environmental policies and hope to make myself as useful as possible. There might be a slight learning curve, but I’m here to work with you all and make the greatest contribution I can.”

   Callie’s smile was wide as she watched me from across the room and I couldn’t help returning her grin.

   “As you all know, I’m Callie McCoy, and I’ve assembled you all as my team. I’m looking forward to helping to make a lot of great changes in our state and preserving our environment while making sure it’s safe for the current inhabitants and future generations. I know we’re all pretty new here, but I think we’ll work just fine together.”

   She flipped open the folder in front of her and passed around some sheets of paper to everyone. “This is a list of everything we’ll be working on in the coming weeks. As you all know, we just submitted our case to a judge regarding the Blue Ridge Parkway conservation efforts. While that’s pending, I thought we could get started on the plastic bag issue in this city. We’re putting together a proposal for Asheville to ban single-use bags from all stores in the city by this time next year. After that, I thought we could all focus our attention on the No Bees, No Food movement.”

   There were soft groans from both Katie and Matt.

   Callie’s lips thinned. “I know we are all tired from that uphill battle, but we can’t stop now. I’m working on a program that will offer free bee-friendly flower seeds to locals. I know it’s only a small step, but hopefully that paired with some education can make a difference and inspire other cities to do the same.”

   She looked around the room at our nodding heads and her smile turned satisfactory. “Does anyone have any questions?”

   Oh, I had about a million, but I wasn’t about to bring them up in front of everybody. They didn’t all need to know how unprepared I was for this job. I took a deep breath and shook my head. I could do this. It would take some time to get my feet under me, but I knew I could do it.

   Hell, if I could survive the shift and a serial killing psychopath, a career change should have been easy.

   Callie clapped again. “If no one has anything to add, let’s all get to work.”

   There was another round of head nods as chairs screeched across the hardwood floor and everyone go to their feet.

   “Hey, Ellie. Do you have a minute?” Callie called.

   I made my way to the front of the room, noticing that Katie was already leaving, but Matt had hung back for whatever reason.

   
“I thought I could give you a quick tour and then we can talk about what we need you to work on first.”

   “I can give her the tour,” Matt spoke up from behind me.

   Callie’s brows furrowed slightly, but she shrugged. “Okay, that works. Matt can show you around and when you’re done, come find me and I’ll get you caught up.”

   I nodded and gave her a smile. “Sounds good, Callie. I’m happy to be here and excited to get started.”

   Her smile widened. “It’s going to be great, you’ll see.”

   I wished I had the kind of confidence in myself that she seemed to have in me, but I figured that would come with time. Every chance I got to do something good would be another thing I could feel proud of. Every time I helped them make a small difference in the courtroom would be another reason to work even harder next time.

   I still had some doubts, but I was determined to be the best lawyer she’d ever worked with.

   I turned to find Matt standing a little closer than I’d expected and gave him a smile too, although it was a bit less genuine than the one I’d given Callie.

   “You ready?” he asked.

   I shrugged. “Lead the way.”

   He placed his hand on the small of my back and led me out into the hall. “I’m sure you’ve already seen the waiting room, so we can skip that.” He continued to talk, pointing out where his and Katie and Callie’s offices were, as well as the break room and the bathrooms.

   It was all pretty standard, although much smaller than my last office. When we got to the end of the hallway, he pushed open a glass door and led me into a fully stocked lab. My wide eyes tried to take in all the different machinery and equipment while Matt droned on behind me.

   “This is where I’ll spend most of my time, so if you’re looking for me, this is probably a safe bet.”

   I shot him a small smile while he continued to explain what each instrument did. I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to explain it all since I wouldn’t be spending any time in there, but I let him talk anyway. It seemed he enjoyed the sound of his own voice, and who was I to get in the way of that?