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“…so looking ahead, our key focus should be on maintaining equipment and employee retention, as well as streamlining our project workflows. But I anticipate another strong year, and you can expect my official report by the end of the week. Any questions?”

I yawned, ready to get this wrapped up, when one of the directors cleared his throat. “Great presentation, Isaac, but, uh… are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?”

The directors were silent. I had absolutely no idea what Eric was talking about, and looked around the table to realize everyone was staring at me. “Wait, what?”

“Sorry Cam,” Eric started. “But James left his half of the company to his daughter. Anomega.” I bit back my growl at his inflection on Marlowe’s designation. “I understand she’s bonded to you now, so what’s happening with that half? She’s just giving it to you, right?”

“Smart move,” Isaac chimed in. “Get her bonded and take back control of James’s shares.”

The pencil in my hand snapped in half. “Do you really think I bonded her just for her inheritance?”

Mark elbowed me in the arm and winked. “Well, notonlythat.”

The round of laughter echoed in the room, but all I felt was rage. Were these guys always like this, and I had just never noticed? I mean, I wasn’t exactly a paragon of gentlemanliness, but…

This is an alpha-run business! There is no way some beta female can walk in and…

I cringed as I recalled the first words Marlowe’d ever heard coming out of my mouth. I had thought the same thing as these assholes, that running this company was no job for a female. I was just like Eric, Mark and the rest of them right now.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t change.

I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention back. “Marlowe’s pretty smart. I think if she wanted a position here, we could…”

“You mean a position besides bent over your desk?” someone chimed in, miming slapping an ass in front of him.

When laughter erupted again, I finally lost it, standing up and pounding my fists on the table. “Enough!” I barked.

Everyone submitted for a moment, and then Isaac spokeagain. “Cam, you’re knotting that sweet omega pussy now, no need to be so uptight about it.”

The next thing I remembered was the rest of the directors pulling me off the CFO, his face beaten to a bloody pulp.

“Cam! Calm down! You’re going to kill him!”

I snarled, trying to get myself free from the four males holding me back. “That’s the fucking point!”

Itapped my leg furiously, inspecting the cuts, bruises, and splotches of blood on my knuckles while waiting for Jordan, our HR director, to finish typing. “Okay, and you say Isaac then made a crude comment about your… pack mate?” she asked.

Moon, it felt like being in the principal’s office in high school all over again. “About Marlowe Linden, yes. James’s daughter. Owner of half this company. My bonded pack mate and omega. Would you like me to continue?”

She took off her glasses and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You know, sometimes I think I should quit and get a job at a nice, normal, human company, where I’m not writing incident reports about alphas beating each other up once a week.”

“Jordan,” I sighed. “How would you feel if someone told Wade he was lucky to be ‘getting your pussy?’ Are you saying you would blame him if he freaked out? You wouldn’t want him defending your honor?”

Jordan flattened her lips, giving me a pointed look. “I’m glad you’ve finally discovered that females don’t like being objectified, but it’s hard to take you seriously when I’ve sat across from countless betas crying their eyes out in here because you’ve dumped them. Or yelled at them. Or dumped them,thenyelled at them. You helped create this environment, you know.”

I looked at the clock. Marlowe was on her way to Chicago now.

Elias had until Friday to bring her back for the holiday party.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and went to my happy place—my house, pre-vamp attack. In my basement, watching TV on my couch with my head on Marlowe’s lap, her fingernails running through my short hair.

Pure bliss.

“Yes, I have a lot of crow to eat,” I said. “I get that. And yeah,it probably feels pretty disingenuous for me to finally give a crap about how females are treated here now that I’m bonded to one. But Marlowe grew up human, and she worked in women’s advocacy. I’ve learned a lot about my mistakes, and how alphas should try to tone down the instinct to fight first and ask questions later.”

Jordan looked at me like I was the stupidest person she’d ever met, and I crossed my arms in a huff. “And yes, obviously it makes me a hypocrite to be saying that when I just sent the CFO to the hospital. If she were here, she’d be on your side.”

Her fingernails drummed across the desk slowly. “Well as reassuring as that is, thankfully for you it looks like Isaac’s willing to sweep this all under the rug with the right incentive.”