The Alpha’s Tempting Mate

Management?” He can’t mean King.

“Yeah, Luis thought you were great. So the HR department will call you with the real offer, but I have permission to discuss salary with you. We’re offering one hundred thirty-five thousand dollars plus moving expenses. Full health and dental insurance, profit sharing, and stock options add another third to the salary package.”

Er… wow. I smile at Meme, nodding. It’s fifty K more than I make at the moment, and I never expected them to foot the bill for moving. Probably too good to be true. But I can’t turn it down. “Thank you, that sounds great.”

“So you’ll accept the offer?” He sounds enthusiastic.

I should play hard to get, but fuck it. “Yeah. Absolutely. I’m thrilled.”

“Great. HR will send you a written offer tomorrow. How soon can you start?”

“I don’t know… a month?”

“I was hoping two weeks,” Stu says.

“Really? That’s pretty fast.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“We are paying for relocation, so that will simplify the move for you.”

“Is two weeks a requirement?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll be there,” I say.

“Great. We’ll finalize the paperwork tomorrow. Welcome to the team.”

I hang up and beam at Grandmere. “I got the job!”

Meme throws her arms around me and kisses my temple. “That’s wonderful! Congratulations.”

I accept the hug, wondering what King thinks of my hire. At least he didn’t veto it. That shouldn’t excite me as much as it does.

Jackson

I sense the moment Kylie enters the building. Even if I hadn’t already known it was her first day at SeCure, I wouldn’t have missed her presence. My wolf senses prickle. A growl rises in my throat. Swallowing it back down, I move from my desk and pace to the wall-to-wall windows, gazing out at the Catalina foothills. My collar is suddenly too tight. I want to shed my clothes, take my wolf form. I want to run. To howl. To hunt.

When Tucson courted SeCure to move our headquarters to the city, I played hardball, pressing for tax advantages and new roads to the proposed location. But, in truth, it was a no-brainer. Tucson is perfect for a shifter-nestled between three mountain ranges, with a population of only a million, it gives me quick access to wilderness while retaining all the advantages for business. Attracting high-caliber employees wasn’t hard-most professionals were delighted to relocate to the desert, even with the hot summers.

I built the headquarters at the base of the mountains. My own mansion also nestles into the front range of the Catalinas so I can run and hunt at any time.

I pace in front of the windows, skin tingling. I’m actually considering shifting in broad daylight. My wolf wants out. He wants to hunt, to kill. Or fuck.

Mine.

Yeah, my wolf wants to fuck that hot little human on the sixth floor. If I were smart, I’d stay way the hell away from her. But I wasn’t thinking with my brain when I recommended hiring her in the first place.

I can’t get Kylie out of my head. Over the past two weeks, her scent comes to me at night. I see her in my dreams. The memory of her long legs and bat tits gets me hard every time.

How can a human be so attractive?

A tap on my door. “Mr. King? Your nine a. m. is here.”

With a sigh, I sit at my desk. “Send him in.” More business shit to deal with. Kylie will have to wait.

~.~

Jackson

I force myself to wait until eleven a. m. By then, my entire body twitches from the effort of resisting instinct. Shooting to my feet, I stride out of my office, past my secretary’s desk.

She looks, surprised. “Your eleven a. m. is waiting, sir.” She’d already told me once, and I’d asked for a minute.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll be back in five.” Or ten. Or however long it takes me to throw my little Batgirl up against the wall and fuck her senseless.

I shove my wolf back down. This is a bad idea. She’s human. Beautiful. Fragile. Breakable. At best, I’d bruise her. At worst… I’d break her.

But I have to see her.

I take the elevator to the sixth floor-the memory of touching her making my cock even harder. Thank fate we were stuck together. Thank fate I didn’t realize how her scent called to me until after we were out of the enclosed space. Only years of control kept my wolf from taking over and claiming her right there. Control and being so fucking confused.

I’ve never felt this way before. I shouldn’t feel this way. Especially not about a human.

I prowl down the hall, ignoring the way all the employees’ conversations die when they see me. Most days, I welcome their nervousness. It satisfies the predator part of me. Today, I have different prey.

I don’t need to ask where my little hacker is stationed. Her scent leaves a trail. Vanilla and spice, and a flavor I don’t recognize.

My hunt ends at a tiny windowless office. Kylie sits studying her computer screen with a coffee mug at her lips.

Although I don’t make any noise-shifters tread far more quietly than humans-she snaps her head in my direction before I step through the doorway, blinking as if she doesn’t quite believe I’m real.

“Mr. King.” She swivels in her chair but doesn’t stand. My wolf likes that she’s lost her fear of me. She crosses her long bare legs, and I thank the fates she’s wearing another short skirt. “Or should I call you J. T.?”

So she’s still annoyed at my little deception. Her voice holds a note of scorn no other employee would use, and damn, but it makes my cock twitch.

The sight of her thrills me, but I allow myself only a small grin. “You may.”

Her gaze flicks to the doorway behind me, and only because I’m part wolf do I recognize a slight trapped animal vibe under the confidence. Like it makes her itchy to have the only exit blocked. Must be part of her claustrophobia. I step into the office and away from the door to give her an unfettered exit, and she relaxes.

I lean against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. My wolf wants me to puff out my muscles, and run out to hunt and bring her back a rabbit for lunch. Down, boy.

Her scent hits me hard, bringing on the prickle of the shift. I will it back, hoping my eyes haven’t changed color.

She arches a brow. “Is that what you go by?”

“No.”

She sets her coffee mug down and stands. The skirt hugs her tight body, her heels making the muscles of her calves stand out in stark relief. A faded Spiderman T-shirt stretches across her chest. This girl has a superhero fetish.

Too bad I’m the villain. I want to yank the T-shirt up and drag my tongue up that flat belly to the perky tits.

“Listen, I want to apologize again for what I said. I didn’t mean any of it. I was just… jealous.” She sounds sincere.

I didn’t expect another apology. The set of her shoulders says she’s on the defensive, but the softness in her face and voice tells me she’s actually trying to make nice. Which is… refreshing. My employees, business colleagues, hell, everyone in my life either sucks up to me, or talks shit about me behind my back. Or both. Only other shifters are real, but the Arizona packs don’t love me. Which is my own fault.

“Jealous of what?”

She shrugs. “Your brains, I guess.”

Another surprise. Most people are jealous of my success, my money, my power. They seem to think I haven’t earned them. I got lucky. “If you got inside my head, you wouldn’t find much worth keeping,” I say. Just a lifetime’s worth of guilt. Any therapist would point out my obsessive career drive as compensatory. And if the psychotherapist knew what I’d done to deserve my self-loathing, they’d lock me up. But my mistake can’t be undone. My mom can’t be brought back from the dead, and my stepfather’s death still came too late.

Kylie studies me.

What does she see? A giant, awkward geek? A creepy guy? Or does she see the wolf in my eyes, the predator that wants to put her on her hands and knees and fuck her senseless?

“You like my code.” My voice is hoarse, guttural, this close to the change.

“I do.” She gives a slow, sensuous smile, as if talking code is foreplay. Her teeth are perfect and white, lips plump and glossed. “Your eyes are lighter than I remembered.”

Fuck.

I blink rapidly, forcing back the change. “They change.” Not a lie. “I’ve been working on a new language.” Jesus, this really was geek-talk. Next thing I’ll be telling her a “once, at band camp…” story.

Her eyes light up, and she moves forward, invading my space. She’s toned and leggy, but her tits and ass would make the perfect handful.

“I’d like you to test it for me.”

Oh fates-what in the hell am I doing? I never let anyone see my work, especially not a brand-new employee whom I know nothing about.

She leans closer. “I’d love to.”

Are her nipples hard?

“It would have to be after hours, on the side. I know Stu has other work for you.”

“Sure, great.” She isn’t daunted by overtime, apparently. Definitely a legit geek.

“My office, six p. m.” Sounds like a date. It must have sounded that way to her, too, because the scent of female arousal reaches my nose.

I ball my fists, pressing my blunt fingernails into my palms to keep from snatching her body up against my own. I imagine her naked, sprawled out on my desk with her legs open wide.

No. No, no, no. It can’t happen. Some wolves are able to have sex with humans, no problem, but they wouldn’t have the urge to mate with one. A human wouldn’t-shouldn’t-inspire the urge to permanently mark her with my scent. But it seems this one does. And that makes fucking her an impossibility. Because I can’t mark her without serious injury or death.

Her berry lips part, as if waiting for a kiss.

I step forward.

“Am I forgiven?” Her whiskey voice goes straight to my cock.

I pin her with a cool glance. “We’ll see.”

The scent of her nectar grows stronger. She likes my authority.

I leave before I shove her skirt up, rip off her panties, and bury my tongue in her.

Not going to happen. Can’t. Happen.

I walk away, body tense. My wolf wants to be unleashed.

Maybe I need to get outside. I use my cell to call my secretary. “Vanessa, cancel my appointment. I’m going out.”