Page 4 of Alpha Bear Accountant (Shifters For Hire #2)

4

TODD

I packed up my things, ready for the day to be done. My mind was already at home, mentally setting up the regrouting project for the bathroom I’d been putting off all week. It was going to be extra fun having to bring in water from other areas of the house now that it was partially fixed, but might as well keep moving forward on the bits I could do.

Being Friday, I had no more excuses and was going to get that part of the bathroom finished. Besides, manual labor usually helped clear my head after a long day of sitting behind my desk.

Just as I reached for the door handle in my office, my phone buzzed in my bag. When I dug it out, I saw a notification from Shifter for Hire. “Sweet.” A small thrill ran through me at the prospect of making some extra cash. Besides, digging out old grout and filling it in with new wasn’t as sexy as it sounded.

The message that flashed across my screen was exactly what I needed. Urgent accounting gig. You available this evening or tomorrow?

Yeah. I can be available in twenty minutes. Where?

I used to try and play it cool, to pretend like I was doing them as much a favor as they were for me. I’d read somewhere that was the best way to build a clientele. And if I could afford to let someone snag it out from under me, maybe I’d still do that. But I couldn’t.

The image of me sweating all over the bathroom floor dissipated from my mind as I sent the response. Running numbers and solving financial puzzles was actually a passion for me. No one expected the captain of the football team to become an accountant, but it was the only thing that truly settled my mind. Numbers always made sense to me. The rest of life? Not so much.

Five minutes later, I had an address to an old warehouse plugged into my GPS, and I was bopping to an old country song.

I never knew what to expect with a new gig like this. They didn’t lay it all out like some of them did. Maybe it would be an easy project that I could finish in an hour or two. Or maybe it would turn into an ongoing consulting job that could pay for the closet system I wanted to put into one of the spare rooms to make it a proper home office.

The drive to the client's location was short because everything in this small town was within a ten-mile radius.

I pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript warehouse with a faded sign over the door. A twinge of nerves ran through me. I was always a bit anxious when I met a new client. Not because I worried for my safety—no one would mess with a bear—but because I took great pride in being able to fix any financial issue.

One day, I would get bested. It was a statistical inevitability. I’d walk into a client’s office, minding my own business, and then come across a problem I couldn’t solve. The building I’d just arrived at had me wondering if that day had finally come.

After parking in the almost empty lot, I headed for the door. No one answered when I knocked, so I opened the steel door and let myself in. If it was a home, I wouldn’t have, but businesses were a different ball game.

My senses were heightened as I looked around the large storage space with vans, shelving racks, and more pipe than I’d ever seen in my life. Chemicals filled the air and my nostrils. And the noise… The fluorescent lights were driving my bear batty.

Chill, bud. We’re here to work.

There appeared to be an office on the upper floor, looking down on the space, so I stepped farther inside and called out. “Hello. Anyone here?”

A moment later, a man’s face appeared in the window and then he opened the office door. “Hey, sorry. Are you the accountant?”

“Yeah. I’m looking for Niam.”

“That’s me.” He waved me in. “Come on up.”

I climbed the metal stairs to my new project, ready to dig in.

Niam waited in the doorway, giving me a good look at him. He was obviously omega, and by the way his eyes widened when he looked me up and down, I wondered if he was afraid to be alone with me. He wouldn’t be the first of my clients to be caught off guard by my large size. For some reason, people expected people good at numbers to be scrawny nerds with glasses. It was weird.

“I won’t be offended if you’d rather not work closely with an unmated alpha.” I stopped a few steps from the landing and raised my hands to express that I wasn’t a threat. I figured it was best to put it all out there from the get-go. “If you’d prefer that I work alone, you can just point me in the right direction, and I’ll be fine from there. I’m happy to call you with any questions or concerns.”

Niam’s head tilted and his shoulders relaxed. “No, it’s fine. I’m just generally stressed out. Please don’t take it personally.”

With a nod, I continued up the stairs and followed the man into the spacious office. Well, it was spacious in square footage but cluttered with boxes and filing cabinets and papers and ledgers. “Wow.”

“Sorry for the mess.” He sighed heavily and dropped into the chair behind the avocado-green desk. “I just took over last week, and I’ve been trying to figure all this out myself, but…” Tears filled his eyes, and he threw his head back to keep them from falling. “Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize. I see this all the time. That’s why I’m here.” I took another look around and then sat in the chair on the other side of his desk after setting the box that was on it on the floor beside me. I’d seen my share of disasters, but this outshone them all. “In fact, I kinda love this stuff.” That part was true.

His eyes snapped to mine, and he raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

I chuckled at the surprised look on his face. “Yeah, of course. There’s something cathartic about walking into a…challenge like this and getting it all sorted into a system that you can easily maintain. It’s like a huge puzzle.”

Niam was exactly my type, with light hair and light eyes and a small build. My bear rumbled his approval too.

“How about you tell me what you know so far and what you need to know next, and I’ll jump in from there.”

A chuckle that could have just as easily been mistaken for a sob fell from Niam’s lips. “I don’t know. Nothing’s online, and if it’s on the computer, I don’t know where. There are spreadsheets, but they are printed out, and again, not sure where they came from. Everything I have is here…but I can’t tell you where. The more I organize, the bigger mess I seem to make.” He waved to the entire room. “I think just start anywhere and tell me how I can help.”

I reached for a piece of paper on the edge of the desk and took a look. It was a propane bill that was two months past due. “Do you know if this has been paid?”

He shook his head. “No idea. I have a stack of bank statements you can look through, but we’ll probably need to set up online banking so we can get payments automated. My dad said he’s been coming in on Fridays to write paychecks for his guys based on whatever number they tell him they’re owed. We need to fix everything.”

I was almost afraid to ask the next question but needed to have a better picture of what I was walking into. “And is there money in the bank to cover all the payables? Have receivables been coming in?”

“I don’t know what any of that means.” He dropped his head into his hands and let the tears finally flow. “And I’m afraid to ask how much you’re gonna charge. I can sell some stock to cover whatever we need to cover to get back on track, but…”

This time, I went to him. I placed my hand on the man’s shoulder and gave him a soft squeeze. “Don’t worry about my bill for now.” I glanced at a box of faucet fixtures in the corner and had an idea. “In fact, I’m remodeling my old house and need a bunch of plumbing work done. Maybe we can work out some kind of barter.”

His breath hitched as he looked up at me with wide eyes. “Really? You’d do that?” His palms flattened together as he pulled them to his chest. “That would be amazing. I’ll do the work myself. Anything you want. I just need to keep the business solvent so my dad isn’t forced to sell it.”

My bear was unsettled as if he wanted me to shift, but I did my best to ignore the nagging. I focused on the stressed-out omega who needed me…the omega whose scent decided it was a good time to talk to my cock. Oops.

Taking several steps back to put some space between us, I looked away and grabbed a stack of files to hold in my lap when I sat down.

Since when did I get hard-ons from touching a person? Since right now, apparently.