Filed to story: Watch Me Win Alpha (Olivia & Ethan)
“Good morning,” Alexander said to me and then walked into his office.
My mouth hang open as I stared after him. Why was he treating me like I was no more than a painting on the wall?
Gai came up beside me with a bright yellow coffee cup in her hands.
“Alexander told me that he had been bitten by a crazy cat last night,” she said conversationally.
This made me blush even more. Before I could even think of a response, Alexander’s sharp voice interrupted us.
“Olivia! My office, now!”
*Olivia*
“Maybe he’s going to ask you to come with him to the hospital to get a rabies shot,” Gai said.
This caught me completely off guard. “Wait, why would he need a…” Then, I remembered his cover story that he had told her for the mark that I’d left on his neck. “Oh, right. Because of the crazy cat.” My jaw clenched. I hoped that Alexander hadn’t been the one to call me crazy or he was going to get an ear full from me.
I went over to my desk and set my coffee down. After fixing the collar of my white dress, I walked into Alexander’s office. He was standing with his back to me, facing his floor-to-celiling window, watching the crowd of cars and people below. He had taken off his black suit jacket, and I could see his muscles through his white dress shirt.
When he heard my footsteps, he turned around. His thumbs were racing over the screen of his cell phone, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. As soon as I saw the Band-Aid on his neck, I flushed with embarrassment. The memory of biting his neck made me take a few steps away from him.
Then, I remembered myself. I straightened my shoulders and let out a long breath. I was here to do a job. My alone time in bed this morning was supposed to help clear my thoughts.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Green?” I asked, in a calm voice.
He didn’t immediately answer. He placed his phone on his desk, then stared at me as if he were trying to learn my deepest secrets. I shifted from foot to foot.
“I need you to come with me to the hospital later,” he said with an unreadable expression.
My lips twitched. “Do you need to get a rabies shot?” I asked innocently. Before he could answer, I continued. “Maybe you shouldn’t mess with a kitten that has had enough of your crap if you don’t want to get bitten.”
He stared at me for a moment, his eyes narrowing just slightly. I held my breath, afraid that I had gone too far. Then, he ambled over to his desk and sat down.
He folded his hands and looked up at me. “I never said that I was bitten by a cat. Mike saw my neck when I came back to the apartment last night, and that was what he assumed happened since I was gone for so long. He must have told Gai.”
Of course, I knew that he wouldn’t actually go to the hospital to get a rabies shot that he didn’t need. I knew that he had only called me into his office to stop Gai gossiping about him. I shuddered, thinking about how angry Alexander had gotten when he had discovered that I’d been gossiping with Gai about him and Naomi. One of his biggest pet peeves was being gossiped about.
“Do you actually have to go to the hospital?” I asked him curiously.
“I do.”
My blood turned to ice. Immediately, my mind jumped to the worst- case scenario. Was he sick? Did he have some incurable disease he has been hiding from me? My heart slammed against my ribcage as I began to spiral out of control. Despite his unique talent for pissing me off, I couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t in it.
He must have seen my pale face and sensed my anxiety. “I’m visiting a patient,” he assured me.
My shoulders slumped. “Oh, okay.” I paused as he turned to his computer and began typing. “Well, if that’s all…” I backed out of the office, my back drenched with cold sweat.
As soon as I shut Alexander’s door. I ran into Gai
“Is he foaming at the mouth from his rabies?” she asked with wide eves.
A strangled laugh escaped my mouth. “No. He’s fine.”
She pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Are you sure? Because I came into the office early this morning, and he was already in the waiting room. He was standing in front of the mirror there and examining his neck. Then, Mike texted me about the feral cat that attacked him.”
“I am taking him to the hospital later, but he’s fine,” I assured her.
“If you say so…”
The morning was busy with meetings and calls. It felt like I’d only been at work for ten minutes when Alexander came up to my desk and said that it was time to go to the hospital.
He had me drive his car while he continued to work on his phone, answering emails. Halfway there, we got stuck in a traffic jam. We were at a standstill, and eventually, I had to put the car in park. There was a man who took advantage of the sea of cars and began selling flowers on the sidewalk.
“I’ll be right back,” Alexander said, and before I could protest, he hopped out of the car.
He came back five minutes later with a beautiful bouquet of white chrysanthemums wrapped in black paper. My stomach stiffened as I stared at the flowers. Usually, white chrysanthemums were reserved for funerals. The black paper didn’t help with the eerie feeling that had come over me either.
My mouth became as dry as sandpaper when the traffic eventually started moving, and we drove the rest of the way to the busy hospital. When we were almost there, I mustered the courage to ask Alexander who he was visiting.
“A highly respected older gentleman,” he answered, not meeting my eyes but looking down at the funeral flowers.
A feeling of dread settled low in my stomach. Could this man be dying? Was that why he had bought those kinds of flowers? A lump the size of a golfball developed in my throat.
We parked, then entered the busy hospital. Arriving at a place that did its best to prevent funerals with chrysanthemums didn’t make us very popular. As we walked past doctors, nurses, and patients, they gave us a wide berth, not wanting to even get near the man with the death flowers. It was almost like these flowers were cursed, and the hospital staff and patients wanted nothing to do with them.
A nervous-looking nurse who kept glancing at the chrysanthemums led us to the VIP floor. As soon as we entered the large room, I realized that the “old man” that Alexander wanted to visit was Ben Wilde. He looked like he had seen better days. There was a white bandage wrapped around his head, a giant cast on his right leg, and purple and green bruises all over his face. The worst of the bruises were his swollen eyes that had turned purple.
I couldn’t help the inappropriate laugh that came out of my mouth. But I didn’t feel too bad after what Ben had done. He deserved being stuck in a hospital bed, broken and bruised.
When he noticed us, Ben’s eyes narrowed. Then, his gaze fell to the funeral flowers in Alexander’s hands. “What the hell did you bring those for?” he demanded.
Instead of leaving like I desperately wanted, Alexander led me further into the room.
*Olivia*
Alexander walked over to Ben’s bedside and carefully set down the flowers. “How are you feeling?”
I stayed as far away from Ben as possible, inching over to the corner of the room. Crossing my arms, I squinted at Alexander, wondering why the hell we were here and what kind of game he was playing. In the back of my mind, I wondered if Alexander had paid someone to beat up Ben. Honestly, I hoped he did after what the other man had done to him.
Ben seemed to have the same thought as me. He narrowed his eyes at
Alexander. “I’m not sure why you’re here, but I know it’s for nefarious purposes,” he said and eyed the chrysanthems warily. “Nobody brings those kinds of flowers to someone that they wish well upon.” He let out a long, slow breath. “I just want you to know that there is no bad blood between us, and I’d like to clear the air.”
Alexander tilted his head in mock confusion. At this point, I could tell that Alexander was playing Ben, and I bit my lip so I wouldn’t smile. My boss approached Ben’s bedside like a lion hunting his prey.
Vindication swirled through me when I saw Ben’s eyes widen with fear.
Good.
He should be scared. He had done a lot of bad things that he needed to beg for forgiveness for.
“I just wanted to tell you how thankful I am for the gift that you gave me last time that we were together,” Alexander said, referring to the fact that Ben had drugged him. “So, I brought you these flowers, and they represent how much I hope for your speedy recovery.”
Translation: Alexander was hoping that Ben would end up in a coffin. Couldn’t say that I blamed him. The vindictive part of me hoping that Ben would end up six feet under, too.
Ben’s face paled, and he looked around for help. But there weren’t any hospital staff in the room. They had all cleared out because of
Alexander’s flowers. In the back of my mind, I wondered if that had been his intention.
“Please, can you just leave,” Ben begged in a small voice. “I just want to heal.”
“Oh, we’re going,” Alexander said and began to back away. “I just wanted to stop in and see how you’re doing.”
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?