Damaged Billionaire Daddy Bear: A Paranormal Romance (Exotic Pack Shifters Book 1)

by Leela Ash

  Without so much as a word, he carefully stepped back and turned away. Jessica fetched her kids from the car and stalked inside, sweeping them along as she went while struggling with their bags.

  Jessica didn’t look over her shoulder as she strode into the huge building and asked for directions from another doorman. She was still trying to take in the extravagance of the rescue. At the same time, she desperately tried to squelch the feelings of guilt that threatened to swamp her. She had been inexcusably rude, and for what? Because she thought he might be Patrick’s type? What if he wasn’t? What if she had imagined that glance at her chest? And even if she hadn’t, she had done her own fair share of ogling by noting the bulge in his pants, and he hadn’t made her feel like dirt beneath his shoes for doing that.

  Oh no. She was becoming the proverbial angry, bitter, scorned woman, wasn’t she?

  Yes, you are, her subconscious replied most unhelpfully.

  With great effort, Jessica continued to put one foot in front of another, without looking back, as she followed the doorman’s directions to her accommodations. As she did her best to refocus on the task at hand of getting the kids – and herself – situated and off to bed, she couldn’t help but notice the tall strangers departure he jogged off into the night.

  Later that night, she thought she heard a low growl coming from somewhere outside her window, almost like a panther or bear or something. But she was too exhausted to wake up to investigate. Rather than feel panic, she felt as if a blanket of warmth was slid gently over her, calming her and lulling her deeper into sleep.

  Besides, Kal and Arizona would never fall back to sleep if she made a fuss now and it turned out to be nothing, she thought, with a tired yawn as she flipped onto her side and went out like a light.

  Outside Jessica’s window, the shifter bear’s eyes glowed in the dark as he calmed her with his powers and lulled her to sleep. He had sensed a lot of riotous emotions in her when they spoke; she was one very hurt woman and was lugging around a lot of tension.

  As annoying as she was, Theodore decided, he was glad she had come. Maybe his abilities could help her let go of some of those negative emotions and heal faster, for the sake of her children.

  With a satisfied grunt, he turned around and shuffled off into the dark, still in his bear form, feeling the tug of unnamable emotions as his super-hearing picked up the sound of her steady breathing while she drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 4

  The beep of her phone woke her. Jessica popped open one bleary eye to read the new email from Exotic Rescue. She groaned when she saw that it was a Welcome message. Additionally, they hoped she had had a pleasant trip and stated that Mr. Cooper had requested that she be reminded to be on time for the orientation meeting at 9am, and the dress code was strictly business attire, so it would be best if she wore a suit.

  Of course, it was, she thought with a weary sigh as she climbed out of bed. This was indeed a bizarre animal sanctuary all right. Really? A suit? She didn’t have a lot of suits because well, in her line of work, she didn’t need them. She had only brought one because a co-worker had told her the sanctuary was pretty fancy as far as animal rescues went. That had turned out to be the understatement of the century. She had always been jeans and a t-shirt kind of girl with the occasional sundress thrown in. Suits felt stuffy and formal, and besides, they made her feel incredibly old.

  Well, she hadn’t been too far off the mark when she had made that comment to the stranger yesterday. Whoever ran Exotic Rescue seemed more interested in wearing fancy suits, no matter how impractical, than in getting any work done. I mean, weren’t they here for the animals?

  This Theodore Cooper person was obviously the sort who liked to impress, which would explain why he had built an animal sanctuary that would rival a lot of the resorts she had seen. To her eye, at least, it looked more like a vacation spot than a place designed to house and foster the healing of animals.

  It was certainly not what she had expected, but the truth was that despite a few strange rumors about the place, Exotic Rescue had a solid reputation where it counted, at least in her circles. They had stepped in and saved many animals that would have been destroyed otherwise. From the website, she knew they had the usual big cats and gators, but also even more exotic animals – even zebra and elephants brought in when some drug kingpin’s private zoo had been abandon when he had finally been taken down by his enemies.

  She was curious to meet the founder and owner. He must be quite a man, she thought. She had tried to find his picture on the rescue’s website but he must be something of a recluse because the site had yielded nary a single picture.

  She combed out Arizona’s hair and helped Kal put on his shoes, despite his protests that he could handle it himself.

  She rushed them out the door and toward the main building. The entire place screamed wealth, class and neatness She was still trying to wrap her head around how different this was from any sanctuary she had ever heard of.

  “Mom, this place rocks,” Kal announced when he spied a cascading fountain in the very middle of the building’s courtyard.

  “Stay close,” she ordered as she herded them toward the chirpy, pink-haired receptionist who was watching them carefully while chewing on a bubblegum.

  “Hello. Jessica Harris. I’m here on the exchange program,” Jessica said.

  The Receptionist smirked at her, letting her bright eyes scan Jessica all the way down to her heels. “You don’t look like it, honey. But go on in, conference room is that way. Daycare is three rooms down the hall,” she added with a kinder smile aimed at Kal and Arizona.

  Daycare, she thought? She had half expected her kids to be hovering around her while she worked. This place was getting fancier and fancier.

  Jessica nodded as she herded her kids first toward the daycare, pleased when they emitted twin sounds of delight before bursting from her side and sprinting into the room to join the rest of the kids playing on a massive indoor jungle gym.

  The daycare attendant took her details quickly and waved her goodbye as she strode toward the conference room.

  Jessica could feel the first stirrings of doubt as she walked down the hall. So far, the receptionist had been clad in a turtle neck sweater over jeans and the daycare attendant had been in a bright floral dress. Was she over-dressed? This place was confusing. Thank God she had brought something besides her boots and jeans.

  Remembering the email, she shrugged it off. Maybe the business dress code is strictly for this meeting.

  The moment she opened the conference room door, she realized she had been had. The meeting was just about to begin, with everyone shuffling toward their seats. Every single person was dressed informally, while she stood out like a sore thumb in her crisp suit and heels. Different eyes turned her way as she click-clacked her way across the room, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

  The door swung open just then and a familiar figure swept into the room— it was the stranger she had encountered last night, she realized, her heart skipping a beat. He was even more handsome in the light of day. He had this easy grace to his carriage; he was clad in a simple, ash-colored t-shirt and black jeans, and his hair had been carefully brushed backward. He was drop-dead gorgeous!

  As he passed her, he didn’t even spare a glance in her direction, but the warm musky smell of his perfume hit her nostrils and Jessica tried not to inhale too deeply in appreciation.

  He looked around at the gathered people in the room as he announced, in his deep rich baritone, “I am Theodore Cooper, and I would like to welcome everyone to Exotic Rescue. Please, let’s all grab a seat and get this show on the road,” he added with a smile warm enough to melt butter.

  Then, he calmly sank into the seat at the head of the table and everything made sense at once. She had taunted him about his clothes and he had made certain to have her dressed like some snob. How sneaky and underhanded and terrible of him, she thought wrathfully.

  She shifted in
discomfort. She couldn’t very well call him out; he was the boss. Besides, the entire meeting was filled with people who already thought poorly of her and who were all but fawning over him in admiration. If she became crass toward him in front of his adoring fans, she would damage her reputation beyond recall.

  Jessica grit her teeth at the quaint term. She really needed to cut down on all those Regency romance novels, she decided.

  “Well, what do you think?” his deep voice demanded just then, the question obviously aimed at her.

  One glance into his piercing green eyes and she knew he had put her on the spot on purpose, even though he stared at her without the least hint of recognition in his eyes. Obviously, he’d known she wasn’t listening, and now, he was making her look like an even bigger idiot.

  Well, she wasn’t going to fumble and pretend, she decided, putting her chin up as she stared him down. “You’ll have to pardon me, Mr. Cooper. I’m afraid I drifted for a bit there and didn’t hear whatever was said.”

  “You don’t seem prepared for this meeting,” he observed, passing a telling gaze over her out-of-place clothes.

  “I am certain the meeting will survive regardless,” Jessica murmured under her breath, just low enough to reach his ears alone.

  Reluctant respect warred with amusement in his eyes, but then, he blinked and his gaze became shuttered as he flicked that piercing gaze to his Personal Assistant, “Maria? Any thoughts?”

  Maria Henley beamed at him with almost maternal pride as she began to commend the merits of the exchange program and argue a case for its extension to some other locations across the USA. Maria was the name of the person who had sent her the email, Jessica recalled, and she was obviously his Personal Assistant. But when she glared at the woman, she was met with a look of clear-eyed innocence. No, Maria had merely been the messenger. She would wait to kill the entitled ass who thought it was funny to play a prank on her simply because she had made a jibe at suits at their meeting last night.

  The rest of the meeting passed in a blur.

  As soon as the meeting was over, Jessica erupted from her chair and made a beeline for Theodore, determined to flay him alive for daring to play such a prank on her. But before she could reach him, he was swarmed by a bevy of women and ushered out the door in the midst of them.

  With a sigh, Jessica contented herself with planting her butt in the reception area of his personal office. She was spitting mad at him for pulling such a childish prank on her, and on her first day too. She would have her say, if she had to tie him down and make him listen. And when she was done, she would shove his exchange program back up his ass and head on home. She didn’t have time for pranks or adults who loved them.

  Two office worker types strode past, murmuring in low voices, but some of what they were whispering about drifted to her ears, and Jessica stiffened.

  “…animal experiments because what else could explain those occasional pain-filled howls in the dead of night?” one of them asked rhetorically.

  “Keep it down,” the man with him hissed. “There would be hell to pay if he heard us talking like this.”

  Jessica’s blood froze in her veins, and she jerked her gaze toward them. They didn’t pay her any attention as they disappeared around the corner. She looked toward Theodore’s secretary. The woman was busy typing out something on her laptop and hadn’t spared the gentlemen any glance at all.

  What was going on? Was something illegal really going on in Exotic Rescue? Oh dear Lord, was Theodore the sort?

  Maybe she couldn’t leave the rescue just yet, after all, she thought. Maybe it would be best if she stayed on for the agreed time and tried to find out what was going on here.

  Finally, his door opened and four young women let themselves out, all wearing identical frowns.

  Jessica sprang to her feet, unable to contain herself as she stalked into his office and slammed the door behind her.

  “Did you lie on your website?” Jessica demanded the moment she cleared the entrance of Theodore’s office.

  He looked up from whatever he was studying, a cold, arrogant expression stamped on his features. A flicker of annoyance crossed his face and was immediately wiped off.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me,” she shot back, undaunted by that cool expression reserved for insects.

  “Who might you be?” he asked, leaning back in his seat.

  “Jessica Harris, as you well know. You asked me specifically to be here on consultation with a six-week contract. I specified that I do not work for companies that conduct experiments with their animals, and you assured me yours didn’t. Imagine my surprise when the first friendly face I meet coming into town turned to frost the moment I mentioned you.”

  Silence.

  “I convinced myself that Roy was an aberration, but now, I walk in here and discover half your staff do not like you and the other half are frightened to death of you.”

  His gaze reached out to hers across the space separating them and an undecipherable current arched in the air. He looked away, breaking the connection, as he said in a bored, dismissive tone, “No one is paid to like me. And neither are you. Anita will show you around so you can get to work.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m leaving. I refuse to be part of whatever you have going on here.”

  He flicked his intense green gaze her way with marked unconcern. “Look I am very very busy at the moment. If you haven’t noticed I am running a rather large animal rescue here. I don’t have time to address every one of your imagined grievances. If you really want to leave I won’t stop you. I would only say that it probably would not reflect well on you or your current employer should you cancel our agreement – especially based on nothing but hearsay and rumors.”

  Oh the gall, she thought. But fair enough.

  Well, she would say this for Theodore Cooper, he had the bored rich boy act down to a science. He couldn’t have sounded more dismissive if he tried. Left with no other option, she tossed out a last shot, which sounded more like an attempt to save face, “Fine. I’ll be here for six weeks, as agreed, Mr. Cooper. In that time, you had better not be harming any animals on my watch or I’ll have the authorities on your ass faster than you can blink.”

  Raw anger swept across his handsome face, and he rose to his feet, his voice arctic as he told her in freezing tones, “Oh, I don’t know about that, Harris. I can blink pretty fast. And for the record, of the two of us, you’re more likely to harm innocent animals than I am. You’ve got that seething, simmering-beneath-the-surface-anger going for you, after all. Now, get out there and start earning your keep. Contrary to your thoughts, this isn’t some fancy holiday resort. There’s work to be done.”

  As she started toward the door, his voice sliced out at her, “And Ms. Harris? I don’t like suits. Do not wear them again.”

  It was the last straw and the jab was unmistakable. Anger burned through her until her cheeks were red hot with it. Clamping her lips together, she swept from the room and right out the door.

  Now, she knew why the locals didn’t like him. Theodore Cooper was a bastard, through and through. He had the morals of an alley cat and was ornery enough that he could easily give old Scrooge a run for his money. She couldn’t wait for the six weeks to be over, so she would never have to look into his handsome, detestable face ever again!

  She disliked him, and that was putting it mildly.

  Chapter 5

  “Daddy!”

  Theodore sank to his knees, opening up his arms as the tiny pink bundle catapulted into his arms. He kissed both his daughter’s cheeks, wrenching happy giggles from her as she plastered wet, sloppy kisses on his own cheeks in return.

  “Well, look who it is. And what new mischief have you been up to today?” he breathed, his eyes lighting with pride and joy as he studied the center of his universe. At just ten years of age, Carla Cooper was his only child and the very light of his world. She had a heavy mass of dark auburn hair that hung down pa
st her waist. Her brown eyes were huge in her small face, and her slender frame hinted at her love for athletics.

  She shook her head, sending her hair flying in every direction, “I didn’t get into any mischief today, Daddy. Cross my heart and —”

  He pressed his forefinger against her small mouth, halting the rest of the words. He couldn’t bear to hear her ‘hope to die’, not even as a harmless statement.

  “Come on, Carla. What got you looking so happy today?” he coaxed, studying the bright gleam of her brown eyes.

  “I made a new friend,” she confided. “Two new friends, actually,” she corrected.

  He grinned. Yeah, that would do it. Carla was the outgoing sort, and she positively adored meeting new people or seeing new places. Her curiosity put Christopher Columbus to shame. Was it any wonder he took her on foreign trips whenever he could? As he looked around at the playroom, he observed that it was already rapidly emptying, with just about five other kids left in the room. He saw one little bully slap a pack of crayons out of little Kathleen Jensen’s hands and he hid a grimace. If Kat was anything like her father, Darryl, that little bully was about to get his wings clipped.

  He looked over at his daughter, hoping to hell she wasn’t about to tell him she’d become fast friends with the little bully in training. “Care to introduce me?” he asked easily, careful to sound nonchalant.

  Being the father of a little girl had him constantly on his toes. Even when he didn’t let on, he was very cautious about whom her friends were.