TYSON POV
I look up from my cell phone as I step out of the elevator on to my floor of The Tower. From the corner of my eye, I see the back foot of someone stepping into the service elevator and disappearing from view. Probably the mail clerk going about their day. Excellent. That means the mail has been delivered to my desk already. I have time to review the finalized contracts for the smaller security company I am buying out. I’ve asked Rachel to arrive early for the last week so we can get this nailed down and over with.
As I walk through the open concept office space to my doors, I stop in my tracks as I deeply inhale the scent I’ve come to love this last week during my early mornings, honeysuckle and roses. Zeus, my wolf, has been much more active and agitated this week than normal. When I get a whiff, he starts going crazy and running in my head.
“Dude, what’s up with you lately?” I ask in annoyance.
“That scent. It gets stronger and more desirable for me each time we smell it. I think it might be our mate. But I won’t know for sure until I see her,” he responds.
“I wish. We’ve looked everywhere for her. Don’t you remember me checking all employees a few years back? I also meet all new female employees in person to be sure too.” I stop walking again as something dawns on me, “Oh shit! What if our mate is male? I haven’t checked any of them, anywhere, at all!”
“Calm your tits, Ty. We aren’t gay. If we were interested at all, I would have had you checking them too.” Zeus reassures me, but with an eyeroll.
“I know I’m not interested, but that doesn’t mean the Goddess wouldn’t give me a male mate. I’d never reject my mate, I just… dunno, never thought about checking the males out. Was that short sighted of me?”
“No, like I said, you aren’t gay. I’m not gay. Being gay is fine, look at Thomas. We accept him and his mate, Adam. So does most everyone else, but we haven’t looked because that’s not for us. Now focus. Follow that scent because SHE is the one for us, I’m almost positive.”
I do as Zeus demands and follow the scent. It leads to my open office door; I’m almost pleased until I see Rachel going through the mail on my desk. I’m angry now.
“Rachel! I have told you repeatedly to not go through the mail on my desk.” I growl out at her. Once I enter my office the honeysuckle and roses smell is gone, drowned out by Rachel’s overwhelming scent of chemicals from her nasty perfume, makeup, and hair products. I can’t even smell Rachel’s natural scent over all the fake she has on. It’s frustrating as all hell because that is all I can smell now.
“Sorry, Tyson. I was just checking that the mail freak did her job correctly.” Rachel responds with a tilt of her head in a show of submission, but I caught that gleam in her eye. I made the mistake of fucking her, once, years ago, and it has given her an overly inflated sense of self-worth when it comes to me. She thinks I will choose her as my mate and Luna. She is quite wrong.
“Rachel, I will not remind you again after today, you WILL refer to me as Mr. Evans when in the office and Alpha when among the pack. If you even think of disrespecting me again by not using the proper title, you will be removed as my assistant. Am I clear?” Rachel just nods in response. “Now, go to your desk and do your work. Tomorrow, you will not wear that perfume and you will use less makeup and hair products. Your entire body smells of chemicals and now, so does my office.” Rachel’s face turns scarlet as she quickly shuffles out of my office, closing the door behind her.
“Fire her, I don’t like her,” Zeus grumbles in my head.
“You’ve never liked her, Zeus.”
“I’ve never trusted her. She’s trouble. Besides, she sucks at her job,” he says simply in reply as he goes to sulk in the back of my mind. I just roll my eyes and get to work for the day.
ROSE I am beyond angry at what Rachel just did to me. Instead of heading to the CFO and COO offices on the other floors, I return to the basement to see Rolando to give him my official complaint for HR. As I exit the elevator, I can hear Rolando and Monica talking. As I get closer, I realize it is about me. Crap. “Rolando, I wasn’t trying to snoop. It was on the locker room floor. I picked it up just to see what it was. Honest. How will she afford this? Maddie needs the school, but Rose is killing herself already to pay the tuition. What do we do?” “You’ll do nothing,” I answer her question as I enter the room and take the tuition notice from her. Both sets of eyes snap over to me and widen in surprise at getting caught. “I’ll figure something out, I always do. It isn’t for you to worry about.” “But…” “No buts, Monica. I have someone helping me look into scholarships and other assistance. Everything will work itself out, you’
ROSE “Hi, welcome to Patty’s Diner. I’m Rose, and I’ll be your server today. Can I get you all something to drink?” I ask with a small smile as I look up at my table. “I don’t want a drink, but I’ll take your number, gorgeous.” A male voice on the right says with a snicker and his friends chuckle along with him. “Sorry, I don’t date customers. Drinks, gentlemen?” “Oh, I don’t want a date, just a quick fuck will suffice. Getting a break soon?” He replies lewdly at me, and I sigh in frustration. At least he didn’t say it loudly and catch Maddie’s attention. I don’t need her to overhear overt sexual comments directed at me. “Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave if you keep saying things that are inappropriate.” I say as I look the customer in the eye. I know my face is set grimly and coldly. The guy who has propositioned me couldn’t be older than 18 with dirty blond hair and light brown eyes. He’s a big guy but with n
TYSON I never like getting to the office so early. I am so not a morning person, but today is the completion of the purchase of Hard as Nails Security. They are a smaller security firm in our area that are in direct competition with my company, Evans Security. They’ve made several wrong investment decisions over the last few years and got themselves underwater. When I found out, I jumped at the chance to buy them out. I did some research and also found out that their CEO, who is one of the next closest wolf pack’s Alphas, has a gambling problem and owed a lot of dangerous people lots of money. I knew that was my way in. First, I began underbidding them for jobs. I was okay with losing money on a few jobs with the possibility of them not bringing in the revenue they needed to bring themselves back out of debt. When they started laying off their security teams, I swooped in and hired those guys onto my own teams and offered them transfers into my pack for them a
ROSE My mind is a complete mess today. I need to figure out what to do about the tuition issue and I need to figure out how to afford food this week. While I have gone several days without eating in the past, I was already scrounging this week due to finally paying off the medical bill I incurred last year with my homeless thief incident. I wish I had just let that shit go to collections instead of painstakingly nickel and diming myself to pay that urgent care facility. Not a joke, one week I could only pay 15 cents, but I made some kind of payment, every single fucking week for over a year. The employee who was in charge of bill outs and collections, was always so kind and understanding of my plight. She refused her boss’s insistence to send it to collections because I was making a regular, steady effort to pay. But I could really use that last $20 I gave her on Saturday. Maybe I can save some of the rejected meals at the diner for the week. I can make an in
TYSON I know, in the back of my mind, that I shouldn’t be fucking Rachel again. I know this. So why am I doing it? Why can’t I stop? “Stop, Ty. She’s tricked you. Don’t you dare mark her,” I can hear Zeus in my head. But he sounds weird, like he’s whispering to me from behind a concrete divider. It’s taking me longer than it should to climax, but I can feel myself getting there. I’m almost ready to cum, almost ready to mark Rachel as mine and finally have a Luna at my side. I have my eyes closed, trying to enjoy this, when I hear a loud piercing scream. I open my eyes and see a stunningly beautiful dark headed woman writhing on her knees on the floor, clawing at her chest. “MATE!” Zeus screams at me, the concrete wall comes crumbling down in my head and I can hear Zeus clearly. Suddenly, I smell the real honeysuckle and roses scent. It is strong and heady and completely engulfing me. I realize my mate, my true fated mate, has walked i
THOMAS I watch Tyson take off in my SUV with his mate, my Luna, injured and strapped into the passenger seat. Worry clearly written all over his face. I don’t have time to contemplate the ‘what ifs’ of her medical status. My Alpha needs me to do my job. I enter the property at the back stairwell. Before I ascend the steps, I investigate the door. It has definitely been tampered with; the lock is broken and the sensor disabled. Is that how the bomb got into the building circumventing our security systems? Why doesn’t this door have a better lock and alarm? *Niall,* I link to our Gamma and head warrior as I head for Tyson’s office, *We’ve had an attempt on the Alpha and Luna’s lives at The Tower this morning. I need you and one of your best teams, preferably one who has a background in explosives, on the 62nd floor of The Tower, ASAP.* *Yes Beta. Right away. But just to clarify, you said Luna, correct?* Niall asks. *Yes, I
TYSON I keep one ear on my mate while I am driving. Her heartbeat is slow but steady, her breathing is even. I think she is okay, at least temporarily; I keep telling myself this to keep the panic at bay because I can smell fresh blood. She is still bleeding from her headwound or one of the lacerations. Zeus is pacing frantically in my head, worry driving his animal instincts, urging me to mark her. I am fighting him for control and trying to calm him down by focusing on her being stable, despite the scent of blood. I drive up to the human run hospital and see Amanda and a few other hospital staff out front with a gurney, waiting for me. It was only a 10-minute drive, but it is nice to see some of our pack members ready to help their injured Luna. We’ve all eagerly anticipated her arrival, none more so than me. I pull to a stop and Amanda has the passenger door open immediately. “Has she regained consciousness at all, Mr. Evans?” Ugh, she called me Mr. Evans, that means some of thes
TYSON Once I’m in the waiting room, I see Adam walking in with a bag slung over his shoulder and a wide smile on his face. He is dressed in white skinny jeans with a rainbow zip-up sweatshirt and bright pink high tops. This man just screams PRIDE in the way he dresses when he’s off the clock. It makes me proud to have him as my Beta’s partner. He has never been afraid to be who he is, and that confidence has bled over into my lower ranking pack members. He has a positive personality that humans and shifters are drawn to. Rose will need his confidence and positivity to learn how to lead as our Luna. Adam walks up, bouncing in step. But his nostrils flare, and his smile fades as soon as he gets close enough to smell me. “Well, I smell why Thomas asked me to bring you clothes. You stink.” “A bomb went off in my office, Adam. Of course I stink.” “That isn’t why you stink, sir.” He glares at me as he hands me the bag. “Come with me.” I follow him down a hallway off the ER lobby. Then do