Filed to story: The Billionaire Alpha’s Contract Lover by Caesar Erickson
After leaving the hospital with my medicine refill, I went to the police station to have them close out the case and cease any investigating they might be doing.
Typically, they might push back, worried that someone’s abuser was forcing them to get the police to stop. But, again with the human benefits. I was low priority; they would be glad to rid themselves of the potential workload.
Plus, I’d willingly accepted the invitation last night. That… changed things.
I didn’t have any idea who he was other than “not Griffon”
and “not Roman”, and given how secretive and locked down he was, I doubted anyone would be able to even trace anything to him.
The next morning, my leave from work was over.
It was hard to believe that the time had gone by so fast, and so much had happened.
I still needed to go into the Midwest Packs Corporation offices to wrap things up, but I was struggling to get out of bed. I was so exhausted, and all I wanted to do was lie there and sleep more.
After breakfast and taking my medicine, I felt a little better, but my face still looked pale.
I slathered on heavy makeup to cover my sickly condition, grabbed my purse, and left for work.
As soon as I entered the office, Brielle and Margaret came over and asked, “Taya, did you quit?”
“Yup, I have.”
Brielle’s face showed her confusion. “But why? What happened for you to resign so quickly?”
Margaret also looked puzzled. “What are you going to do after this? No one else pays as well as MPC.”
I forced a smile. “The salary and benefits are great here, but I have other plans.”
Margaret narrowed her eyes. “Did the Knight pack poach you to work directly for their contracts team?”.
“Oh my god!” Brielle’s big eyes got even bigger. “That’s the one place that pays more than here. That’s HUGE to be able to work for them. They never hire non-shifters.”
Brielle’s cute look amused me. “No, I was talking about my personal plans unrelated to work.”
Margaret’s jealousy turned into information gathering-most likely so she was full of gossip to spread to everyone. “So, are you not planning to work anymore?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not going to be working anymore.”
Margaret was fishing for more, but I wasn’t giving her what she wanted. And she wasn’t a fan of that. When she didn’t get the response from people that she wanted, she had a tendency to turn catty.
“It seems like someone’s managed to marry above their station, apparently,” she sneered. “Or…do you have a wealthy benefactor maybe?”
And that was exactly what I would have expected to come from Margaret.
But now, I didn’t have to try to appease her, and it was about time I stood up for myself.
“My plans and who they do or don’t involve aren’t any of your business.”
I couldn’t stand Margaret. Her constant gossip was a source of problems for me. Especially since some of that gossip included telling people around the office that I had older men supporting me. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly endear me to any of my colleagues.
I had worked at MPC for so many years, and I couldn’t count how many wealthy sponsors I’d been rumored to have thanks to Margaret talking behind my back and making things up.
In the past, I’d restrained from saying anything to her. I needed the job, and if someone piss ed Margaret off, they didn’t last for very long after that.
My patience for her bu llshit was gone.
Margaret was stunned for a moment. She didn’t expect Taya, who had always been well-behaved and weak, to dare to refute her. A human daring to talk back to her? How dare she.
She was so angry that she wanted to slap her, but Brielle stopped her.
“Margaret, Taya is leaving. Just let her wrap up her work to hand over to you.”
“She can ask someone else to do it. I don’t have any obligation to take on her job!”
Margaret glared fiercely at Taya, twisted her slender waist, and sat at her office desk.
The sound of moving the chair was loud, and it wasn’t near enough to vent her anger. She picked up a file and slammed it hard on the desk.
The banging sound startled Brielle. She covered her m outh and whispered to me. “Lila told you to hand over your work to Margaret, and she agreed to take over because you have some key clients. But now…”
“I’m going to find Lila and see what she wants to do. Honestly, it’s not really my problem since I’ve quit,” I said indifferently.
I picked up the access card for the top floor and walked towards the elevator.
Lila was the person in charge of Elder Thorin’s office and was the personal asistant to the CEO. She usually worked on the top floor and would only come down occasionally when she had something to do.
I swiped the card and watched as the floor numbers ticked by, the elevator on its way. With a “ding,” the doors opened.
Two people stood side by side.
When I saw them, I couldn’t move.
“Are you going to look for Elder Thorin?”
Tara, dressed in a professional suit that looked immaculate on her, saw that I was waiting for the elevator but did not step in. Her question pulled me out of my daze, and I came to my senses.
I hurriedly came up with a reason not to step foot on that elevator. “I’m sorry, I forgot something.”
Spinning on my heel, I turned around and left, not daring to look at the two of them.
Watching her run away, Tara couldn’t help but turn to look at Griffon, who was standing beside her. “That was strange. How come she seemed so scared of us that she wouldn’t get on the elevator?”
Griffon didn’t reply. His indifferent eyes showed no emotion, as if he was uninterested in anything around him.
Tara reached out her delicate hand, took his arm, and said softly, “Griffon, thank you for taking me to the emergency room the other night. I haven’t had wolfsbane in so long, I didn’t know it would affect me that way.”
During a visit to the Knight pack with her father, they talked about the engagement, and she drank a few glases of wine in excitement. Her wolf’s reaction to it had been intense, and she’d never felt so sic k.
She’d been trying to find an opportunity to thank him, but every time she went to the Knight pack offices to look for him, his asistant would say that he wasn’t there. If it weren’t for her father’s business today and inviting him over, she probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to thank him.
Griffon lowered his gaze to look at the hand wrapped around his arm, glowering. “I didn’t give you permission to touch me.”
Tara quickly let go of his arm and lowered her head in disappointment. “Will it always be this way? Me needing permission to show you affection?”
Griffon raised an eyebrow, and the look on his face was pure snarling wolf. “Always.”
Tara choked on her words.
On Tara’s first day at Midwest Packs Corporation, Griffon held her hand, and when she accidentally sat on his lap in the office, he didn’t say anything.
The night the wolfsbane had made her sick, he carried her into the emergency room.
But since then, he’d been distant, like a block of ice. She knew he was avoiding her, punishing her for her past sins.
“Griffon, I’m sorry. I know I hurt you five years ago when I refused your proposal. I didn’t think I was good enough for you, ready to be the Luna you deserve. I went abroad to study, to learn how to be the she-wolf you need. Please don’t be angry with me anymore, okay? Let me love you.”
Griffon’s face softened a little. Just for a second.
Then he turned to look at Tara and said flippantly, “I’ve changed. I prefer physical contact to be on my terms.”
Tara deflated a bit but refused to admit defeat. Griffon had always been difficult, ever since he was a child. He’d eventually finish punishing her. Since she had chosen him, she would give him more time to get used to the fact that she wouldn’t let him down again.
When I returned to my desk, my face was more than a little pale.
Of all the moments for Griffon and Tara to be that elevator, it just HAD to be that moment. If I’d known there was a chance I’d see them, I’d have taken the stairs.
Though, given my heart, I’d likely have died on those stairs.
But that would be better than facing Griffon.
I had promised him he would never see me again, but it hadn’t taken long to break that promise.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?