Knight West went back to his office on the top floor and shut the door behind him, ignoring his secretary as she tried to talk to him about something. He walked over to the large window behind his desk and stared out at the view of the city. With his hands on his hips, pushing back his suit jacket, he took several deep breaths and tried to rein in his wolf.
Knight was someone who prided himself on his control. The West pack had drummed into him that being in complete control of his baser instincts was what made him strong. As a boy, he had struggled more than the others, finding it hard not to lose his temper or act on his instincts.So it annoyed him that some random woman could walk into the room and rattle his wolf so badly. It didn’t make any sense to him. Well, he would admit the girl was kind of cute with her glasses and dimples, but she wasn’t in the same league as the other women Knight had dated.It just at the moment that woman walked into the room, Knight’s nostrils were assaulted with her scent. It was a weird combination of sex and freshly baked donuts. It had made Knight want to fuck her and lick her.He ran his hand over his face, breathing deeply until his body calmed down. He remembered hating how out-of-control he used to be and the stupid breathing exercises his grandfather had made him do. They had the image of being modern-day werewolves. They did brunch and wore fancy suits, but deep down, they were wild things that could never really be tamed.He could hear all the noises outside on his floor. His secretary was talking to someone on the phone and a guy from the mailroom was riffling through letters. Underneath the hum, he could hear the familiar click-clack of his cousin’s designer heels as she got closer to his office.He sighed and turned, resigning himself to what was about to happen. Without even knocking, Leslie let herself into his office and gave him a highly amused look.“Hey cousin,” she practically sang. “You doing okay?”He glared at her and pulled off his jacket before draping over the back of his chair. “Shut up. We’re not talking about it.”“Taking about what?” she asked with mock innocence. “Oh, you mean the fact that you had to stop yourself from flying across the board table and devouring the new girl?” She cackled at him. She's way too gleeful at his misfortune. Sometimes he hated his family.“Well, I’m glad I could amuse you,” he said as he sat behind his desk. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”Leslie rolled her eyes and perched on the edge of his desk. “Come on, Knight. You know I’m just messing with you. What’s going on? You okay? Do you know that woman?”“No,” Knight insisted. “I mean, I know that she’s a friend of Sarah, but other than that...”Sarah had become a member of their pack a year ago after getting engaged to Leslie’s brother, Jared. She had mentioned that her friend was joining the magazine over a West pack brunch last Sunday.“Maybe you’re sick,” she suggested before whacking the back of her hand onto his forehead.He batted her hand away quickly.“Look, can we just drop it, please?”“Sure,” she said, her face suddenly the picture of sympathy. “Until the next pack event, where we will all mock you relentlessly.”He grimaced at her and opened up his laptop. “You’re all heart, Leslie.”She slid off his desk and saw herself out of his office, cackling all the way.............To: murphy.s@fangandclaw.comFrom: andrew.s@fangandclaw.comOMG it’s my first day here and the boss already hates me. When I walked into the staff meeting, he full-on glared at me the entire time. He looked so grumpy, I think he wants to eat me...But girl...that's beside the point why didn’t you warn me how hot Knight West is in person???!I hope you’re having fun in NY. Wish you could have been here for my first day.I’m hiding behind my computer now, hoping no one realizes I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing.xxxxSue Andrew hit send on the email and leaned back in her chair. It was her first day at work, and she really could have used the support of her friend. She was glad though, that she had now a regularly paying job, but she did feel like she had been thrown into the deep end.After the staff meeting, Bored Asian Chick had dropped her off at her desk and left her there to fend for herself.She let out a long breath and swiveled side-to-side on her chair. There were fifteen desks in the room, all filled with people who seemed to be working. She considered doing some online window-shopping. She did need some new handlebars for her bike, after all. The rubber had corroded over time and they were nearly falling off.An email alert pinged on her computer and she smiled. It was either a really detailed description of what she was supposed to do, courtesy of the woman who had abandoned her there, or it was her friend Sarah emailing her back.To: andrew.s@fangandclaw.comFrom: murphy.s@fangandclaw.comSue, you know that they monitor all internal emails right?***“Shit.”If someone in HR brought the email to Knight West’s attention, her life at Prowl magazine would be over.“I’m so getting fired,” she said to herself.She saw movement from the desk closest to her and she turned to look at the guy there. He was in his mid twenties, and had a tattoo on his wrist, disappearing up the sleeve.“Why are you getting fired?” the guy asked him. “You just got here. What could you have possibly done?”“Sent an email to my friend about how hot the boss is, using my work email,” Sue confessed. He saw the guy cringe and shake his head.“Yeah, you’re screwed.”.............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
There was an all-staff office memo waiting for Sue the next day when she logged into her computer.“Crap.”Sue read the email, cringing and hoping that no one knew it was because of her. It seemed that the HR lady was even keener than Sue had originally thought. The office relations seminar was happening that afternoon.The guy at the desk opposite her, who she had spoken to briefly yesterday, looked over at her.“You get the email?”Sue shrugged, trying to play it cool. “Yeah. Sucks, right?”“You have no idea, newbie.”“Sue Andrew,” Sue told her.“Jake Miller. We had one of these last year, too. It was awful,” Jake told her. “Not only do we have to sit there and listen while she tells us what is and isn’t appropriate conduct for the workplace, but we also have to act out these insane scenarios she dreams up.”“What, like the ‘no means no’ workshops we had to do in high school? Which, by the way, were totally redundant for me.”Jake smirked. “Oh yeah, I remember doing those. I had to
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
On Sue’s third day at her new work, she made sure to leave her apartment early, seeing as she was biking to work. It felt good to be getting some fresh air so early in the morning, and in her mind, it totally canceled out the cake she had eaten the day before, even though her ride to work was less than half an hour.It was a beautiful morning to be out on her bike and she actually started to feel better about everything. She was sure that she had just exaggerated Knight West’s annoyance to her in her head and that she hadn’t screwed up too badly by sending Sarah that email and then proceeding to humiliate him and his perfect eyebrows in front of all of his employees. She was sure that deep, deep, deep down, Knight had a sense of humor. Sarah claimed to like the guy, but that could have been just because she wanted to fit in with Jared’s family and was secretly lying to herself. That, or the man’s high cheekbones, chiseled jaw and olive skin had mesmerized her so much t
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 actually annoyed Knight that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Sue all day long. The accident hadn’t been his fault. It wasn’t that he felt guilty about it, exactly, but he still felt off for some reason. Sue had been injured. Knight had smelt the blood, however minor, from her skinned knee. He hadn’t been around humans a great deal, but he knew they were more fragile than wolves.As the day wore on, he found himself wanting to check up on Sue more and more. It was really starting to bother him that some reckless, annoying human, who smelled incredible, was in his thoughts so much.By the time five o’clock came around, Knight had resigned himself to what he was about to do. It felt inevitable that his feet would take him to the bullpen.Some of the people in the office noticed him and instantly straightened up, trying to look like they were doing more work than they actually were. It was a common thing. Sue was at a des
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
It’s a bad idea, Evan told himself as he parked his car outside of Sue’s apartment. It’s a monumentally stupid idea.There was obviously a mutual attraction between the two of them. Throughout dinner, the scent of Sue’s arousal had gotten stronger and stronger, resting in Knight’s nose and making him heady.“So, thanks for the ride,” Sue said, looking a little unsure, “and for dinner.”Knight didn’t respond to her in words. The good thing about dating a fellow wolf was the fact that they always knew when the other wanted them. If Sue could just smell Knight’s own desire then they could skip straight to the good part.When Sue made no move to exit the car, Knight rolled his eyes and grabbed the back of her head before pulling her in and taking her mouth in a searing kiss. Sue let out a surprised, muffled moan before she responded to the kiss. Sue’s hand gripped onto Knight’s tie, pulling on it a little as though t