Her Boss, Her Mate

Sue Andrew waited patiently outside the Human Resources office for the person who was supposed to come and show her to her desk upstairs. It was her first day working for Claw and Fang magazine and she felt a strange mixture of excited, nervous, and apprehensive.When she had dreamed of being a writer in her teens, she had pictured herself travelling the world, searching out hidden gems, and uncovering exciting secrets. She saw herself writing for a newspaper or at the least a travel magazine, but nowadays, even newspapers were filled with photos of celebrities caught cheating on their partners and tips on how to lose weight before the summer season starts.Coming to work for a werewolf lifestyle magazine felt a little bit like selling her soul, but she had to eat, and working freelance so that she could write whatever she wanted wasn’t exactly going to pay for her bills. Actually, she was very lucky that her best friend Sarah had an in with the higher-ups and had helped her get the

HR wasn’t a place Sue had been particularly looking forward to going again so soon. The elevator doors opened with a ding and she reluctantly stepped off. She kept trying to tell herself that they had probably only called her back down because there had been a mix-up with the paperwork she had signed that morning or something, and not because she was going to get fired.She rounded the corner to the Human Resources department and stopped in her tracks. Coming out of the office was Knight West, looking unfairly hot in his dark gray suit and pale blue shirt. He looked seriously pissed-off about something, probably Sue, as he ran his hand through his dark hair.Their eyes met and Knight visibly flinched. He looked pained to have to be breathing the same air as Sue, which was just plain rude. She frowned. What is his problem?And without another word, Knight walked past Sue, making sure to keep as much space between them as he could in the hallway. Sighing, Sue shook her head and knocked

Sue tried to spend the rest of the day burying herself in work. It seemed to her that everyone in the office knew who she was now. As she got on with her work, every so often she would hear the sound of laughter escape from Jake, and when he turned to look at her, Jake would simply shake his head, still laughing, and say, “eyebrows.” She didn’t know why it was still so funny to her new friend. It was nearing the end of the day when she got an email alert. She opened it reluctantly, hoping that she wasn’t once again being called down to Human Resources. She released a tense breath when she saw that it was from Sarah. To: andrew.s@fangandclaw.comFrom: murphy.s@fangandclaw.comCake and coffee? *****This right here was why she loved her. She quickly typed out a reply telling her that she would meet her outside in an hour. By the time she met her, it was raining a very fine, misty rain, the kind that she hated. As she walked through the lobby, she grumbled to herself. Luckily, there

After the disastrous start to the day, things started looking up for Sue. She started doing research on werewolf-only hotels, reading reviews of them online and seeing what humans had to say about them. There was the usual hate-filled crap from humans who had never even stayed there but wanted the world to know how much they hated werewolves.Once werewolves came out, so to speak, they were automatically banned from most hotels. It was hard for Sue to really understand it. She had grown up with werewolf neighbors down the street and werewolf kids in her school. Things had certainly changed. By law, humans and wolves were equal, but in truth, there were always people on both sides who hated the other, who thought that they were better. Hatred tended to spread like a disease, infecting people far too commonly.She was so engrossed in her research that she was startled when Sarah came up behind her and peered over her shoulder.“Whatcha doing?”She jumped high

It was so strange for Sue to see Knight West standing in a Howlers. Although it was well known that the West pack, and more specifically the West family, owned the chain of restaurants, Sue didn’t think they actually ate there. Knight seemed more like a guy who enjoyed a nicely pressed tablecloth and napkins that weren’t made from scratchy paper.The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy, but they stood by the podium anyway, waiting for someone to come and seat them. Sue didn’t really know what to make of it all. Knight West offering her a ride home was one thing, but to ask her out of the blue for dinner was something else entirely. She tried really hard not to read too much into it. They were either two people who suddenly realized they were in need of sustenance so they decided to eat together, on a strange date where at least one of them had no idea what was going on, or Knight wanted to get Sue alone somewhere so they could talk about the whole email