Filed to story: The Alpha and His Nanny Luna (Tiffany & Asher) Book PDF Free
I scrunched my eyebrows together. “What do you mean?”
“Ella may be stubborn, but I’m not completely detached from the hiring process,” Asher replied. “I wanted to give you a chance.”
“But… You treated me like a beggar. Like I was a…” I lowered my voice so Ella couldn’t hear. “…a prostitute. And now you give me a job opportunity? What’s the catch here?”
“You wouldn’t take the money I gave you on the street,” he replied coldly, standing. “After that, you wouldn’t take the money I tried to give you after our one night stand, because apparently your pride is more important than paying your rent. I may seem like an arrogant asshole to you, but I do not owe anyone and I know a desperate person when I see one — so I did the next best thing since you don’t seem to like handouts, and I gave you a job.”
I took a few steps toward him, clenching my fists. “I passed that interview fair and square,” I said. “Why are you making it out like I’m a… a charity case?”
Asher scoffed and folded his arms across his chest. “Oh, please. Your application was tossed into the reject pile the first day you sent it. I decided to give you a second chance, when there were dozens of other people with better experience and a better education.”
A lump started to rise in my throat as Asher spoke. Was this all I was? A charity case? A pathetic example of someone who was just supposed to be grateful that the all-knowing and powerful Asher Sterling gave me a chance to work for him after sleeping with me in a hotel room?
“You know,” I growled, taking another step closer, “for a man who complained that his one night stand was just after him for money, it’s awfully convenient that you would suddenly want me to live with you.”
“You signed the contract,” he replied, fixing his steely gaze on me. “You know the stipulations of the clauses. And I highly doubt you have the courage to break them.”
Suddenly, the door creaked open. Asher and I both looked up to see Ella standing in the doorway, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“You promised you wouldn’t try to steal my daddy away,” she snarled. Even from where I stood, I could see her little fangs poking out and her claws extended. “You’re a liar!”
“Ella–“
Before I could stop her, the little girl turned on her heel and ran away, sobbing. I whipped back around to glare at Asher, whose gaze had shifted from cold to concerned in a matter of moments. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” I said, walking toward the door. “You knew exactly what you were doing when you hired me.”
I stormed out of Asher’s office and found Ella’s room, but the door was locked when I tried to open it.
“Ella, please talk to me,” I said through the door.
There was a brief silence, followed by an angry “Go away!”
Sighing, I turned around to see Selina standing at the end of the hallway, her thin arms folded disappointedly across her chest.
No doubt she had heard the entire interaction and was looking down on me, too. I couldn’t stay in a place where everyone was suspicious of me, like I was some sort of grifter just trying to weasel money out of a wealthy CEO. I would rather be homeless.
I stormed past Selina and went to my room, where my purse with my few belongings sat on the dresser. Hopefully, my landlord hadn’t locked me out of my apartment yet. Without a word, I stormed out of the apartment building and back out onto the dark street, collecting my bearings for a moment before finding the nearest subway and heading home.
Just as I feared, my apartment was locked up tightly when I returned, with an eviction notice on the door. I hit the door with my fist and cursed out loud before heading back out onto the street; it looked like I was going to be putting another charge on my credit card, this time for a motel… And dinner, because I was starving.
As I walked down the street, digging through my purse to see if I had enough cash to buy a couple slices of pizza, I suddenly stopped short and felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise as the overwhelming feeling of being watched came over me. I slowly turned my head to see two large men walking toward me on the dark sidewalk.
“Evening, miss,” one of them said, his voice gravelly as though he smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. His eyes were a glowing orange color, which was utterly terrifying in the dark, and I realized as he came closer that there was a long scar running diagonally across his entire face. The other man was equally as frightening, with a long leather jacket and an almost hungry look on his face.
“U-Um, I don’t have any money,” I said, starting to walk away briskly. My heart started to pound as they continued to follow me, and I began to swivel my head this way and that, looking for anyone who might be able to help.
“We’re not here for money,” the man in the leather jacket said. “We’re here for you.”
At that moment, every fiber of my being screamed for me to run.
Tiffany
“Hey! Stop!” the scar-faced man shouted.
I ran as fast as I could, willing my legs to pump harder, to push me further away from the imminent danger that I sensed. I could hear the sound of footsteps pounding on the sidewalk behind me; I was just a human, and these men were werewolves. I should’ve known I wouldn’t stand a chance trying to outrun them.
I screamed for help, but no one came — no one ever came when a woman screamed for help in the city, and I cursed them for that in that moment.
The sound of the men running behind me came closer. I felt as though my body didn’t belong to me, like I was watching from a third person perspective as I ran for my life.
The two men gained on me. They were so close now that I knew that one misstep on my part would allow them to catch me. I felt a hand brush my shoulder and I shrieked, pushing myself faster as I glanced over my shoulder to look…
Whack!
I ran into something hard and gritty: a corner of a brick building. As I stumbled backwards, my head reeling from the impact, all I could feel were hands grabbing me. My vision faded, and the last thing I saw was the scar-faced man…
I came to in the back of a car. My head was throbbing and I felt as though I would vomit, which kept me from being able to scream or fight. Where were these strange men taking me?
“She’s awake,” the gravelly voice that belonged to the scar-faced man said.
I groaned. I tried to speak, to tell them to let me go, but all that came out was garbled nonsense. They stopped the car and got out, opening the back door and lifting my limp body out of the seat.
As they half-carried me toward whatever fate that lay before me, my head lolled back on one of their shoulders. Above me towered the massive apartment building where I had just been earlier that day.
Asher Sterling’s penthouse.
I felt myself go even weaker. The man in the leather jacket said something incoherent and picked me up fully, carrying me in through the brightly-lit lobby. I heard the sound of the scar-faced man saying something to the concierge, followed by the ding of the elevator.
I blacked out again.
When I woke up again, I was laying on something soft. The room was dim, lit only by the glow of a standing lamp.
