Page 38 of His White Moonlight (Dominant CEO Shifter Romance #1)

“Are you above the company dress code?” she asked.

“I’m not above anything, Milena. I’m rebelling to get fired. Make sure to complain to management for me, okay?”

“Too good to work for your money? You just want it handed to you?”

I shook my head and ignored her. If her level of stupidity were fixable, it would have already been corrected by someone else. She wasn’t my problem to solve.

“She really is a charity princess,” one of them muttered.

The elevator from the garage arrived then, and Bennett exited, looking pretty annoyed. Either Milena didn’t know how to read a mood, or she chose to ignore it as she rushed over to his side and attempted to grab his arm. He dodged and strode toward me.

I studied the closed elevator doors in front of me, willing them to open.

“Bennett, my six-month review is overdue,” I heard her say. “Do you have time for a one-on-one meeting today?”

“No.”

“Actually, he does,” I said, without looking at them. “His calendar is wide open, starting at noon.”

“I can do a lunch meeting,” she said as the doors opened.

The rest of her group got on, but she didn’t.

“I can’t,” he said. “Wrenly’s eating in my office.”

“No, she’s not,” I said. “Wrenly fulfilled her end of the deal and is now free to enjoy her lunch hour however she pleases.”

The second elevator opened, and I got on with the remaining people in front of us. Unfortunately, so did Bennett and Milena.

“Great,” Milena said. “I’ll order something, and we can have lunch while we review my performance.”

Bennett stepped closer to me, and his fingers brushed mine. I quickly reached up to push back my hair. His frustrated sigh was audible to everyone in the elevator, including Milena.

In the reflection of the elevator’s wall, I saw her expression crumble a little until her gaze caught mine.

It wasn’t like I had any pity for her just then—the bruises on my neck had finally faded, but the memory of her chokehold hadn’t.

And that non-pity solidified as her expression twisted with anger.

Bennett turned to look at her, and his warning growl filled the elevator. The other passengers moved nervously, and I elbowed him.

Once they got off the elevator, Milena tried to engage Bennett in conversation by asking what foods he liked to eat and which restaurants were his favorites. His answers were terse, but she kept trying. And when the doors finally opened to our floor, he was right on my heels as I bailed.

“I’ll see you at noon,” Milena called after him.

He waited until we reached my desk to say, “My office. Now.”

“No, thank you.”

I moved around my desk to sit down, but he caught my arm.

“Wrenly…”

The low warning in his voice made my knees weak, but I’d never been one to cower in fear. I was too feral for that.

So I met his angry gaze with one of my own.

“I don’t need this job badly enough to put up with your shit, and I don’t get paid enough to act like your shield. Let go of my arm.” When he didn’t, I stepped closer. “Ask yourself if you’ll survive Mom’s anger if I walk out of here and vow never to see the Wulf family again.”

His jaw muscles jumped and twitched as he stared at me.

“Um, is this a bad time?” Miranda drawled.

I didn’t look away from Bennett but waited for him to decide.

He released my arm and walked into his office, slamming the door hard enough that I heard something crack.

“So that was interesting,” Miranda said. “Boy troubles?”

I glanced at her, trying to gauge what she meant by that. She held up her hands a second before the blinds snapped open. I flipped the bird in the general direction of the windows without looking.

“I heard you’re no longer on a lunch timeout. Thought maybe you and I can grab a bite.”

Stay here and endure Bennett, or risk my safety with Miranda. The choice was easy to make.

“Just to be clear, they haven’t forgotten about me yet,” I said, referring to the threat she’d made after she’d introduced my face to the bathroom door. “They track where I am at all times. If the tracking suddenly stops, they go to the last known location.”

Her mouth dropped open a little. “Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“Now we definitely need to have lunch. Meet me at the elevators a few minutes before noon.”

* * *

Milena arrived at my desk ten minutes before lunch, and I couldn’t have been happier.

“Is he in?” she asked.

I gestured to the blinds, which had remained open all morning despite the closed door. Through them, I knew she could see Bennett sitting at his desk.

In the last few hours, he hadn’t moved much. The calls he’d taken had been brief, and he’d scowled at me the entire time. Not that I’d paid much attention to it. I’d finished another spreadsheet and sent it to him, Mom, and Dad about thirty minutes ago before starting on the next one.

“You know that’s not what I meant, right?” Milena said. “What kind of mood is he in?”

Clasping my hands under my chin, I looked up at her.

“Use your eyes. Does he look happy to you?” Some of the joy bled out of her expression. “Careful, he’s watching. He’s been glaring at me all morning, and I’m about to leave for lunch. Who do you think he’s going to transfer his anger to?”

I locked my laptop and stood.

“Enjoy your meeting. I hope, for your sake, your performance meets his expectations.”

I made it two steps toward the exit when his office door opened behind me.

“Where are you going, Wrenly?”

“To get something to eat.”

“Order in.”

I flipped him off over my shoulder as I kept walking.

“You should fire her,” Milena said. “Anyone would be a better assistant than her.”

“She’s reviewed a dozen subsidiaries and found more than a million dollars in unnecessary expenses in the nine days she’s been here. I doubt you could do the same in two months.”

Internally cringing on Milena’s behalf because her review wasn’t going to go as she hoped, I left them to their co-misery and waited for Miranda by the elevators.

“You’re early,” she said.

“So was Milena. I bailed while I could.”

We rode the elevators down without talking until we reached the street out front.

“Why are we having lunch together?” I asked. “If it’s revenge for trying to hit you, you might want to wait until the end of summer.”

She chuckled. “It’s not revenge. After I cooled off, I realized your response had been in defense. Automatic, not confrontational. And I’ve also been paying attention.”

“To what?”

“To you. To Bennett.”

I glanced at her.

“I have a nose, too. We all do, but I think the rest of the office is still in denial…like you seem to be.”

My stomach sank to my toes even as I asked, “Denial about what?”

“You know that most of us would kill for him to look at us as a potential mate, right?”

“Is this where you lead me to a dark alley?”

“No, this is where I offer my help.”

“Why?” I didn’t quite manage to keep the shock I felt out of that question.

“That’s simple. Either I help you reject him, which gives me another chance at him. Or I help you accept him, which puts me in close with one of the city’s ruling Alpha families.”

Bluntly stating how each option benefited her actually helped me believe she was being honest, which I appreciated.

“So a win-win for you, no matter which option I choose,” I said.

“Exactly.”

“What if I don’t want your help?”

“Oh, I know you don’t, and I understand why. We had a bad start. But I’d like to start again.”

I stopped walking and faced her. “Every single person in my life that I’ve trusted has betrayed me.”

She slowly inhaled, and I watched her expression change to confusion. “But the Wulfs…”

“ Every person.”

She frowned slightly and indicated we should keep walking. “So you really want to reject him then?”

“I do.”

“Your scent’s…not even a little conflicted.”

I sighed. “Maybe Bennett would be the ideal mate for another shifter, but I’m human. I don’t want to be smothered. Or locked away under some misconceived attempt to protect me. I’ve already let them know I’ve enrolled at Coalwell and will start this fall. They weren’t happy.”

“Do they know you plan to reject him?”

“Yes, which is why Bennett hasn’t done anything. He’s being cautious and hoping I’ll change my mind.”

We went into the sandwich place I’d visited before and got in line to order.

“Well, if you’re sure you want to reject him, it should be pretty easy. Just strip in front of him and get down on all fours. You’ll be mated and claimed before you can say ‘ow.’”

The imagery was a bit too vivid for me and made my pulse trip.

“I’d prefer to keep that as the last contingency plan.”

“Really? Why? It’d be the quickest and most effective way.”

I glanced at Miranda, weighing how much to tell her. The pure truth—that a small part of me feared I wouldn’t reject him like I wanted to—was out. I didn’t know her and didn’t trust that it wouldn’t make its way back to Bennett. So I settled for a piece of the truth.

“I was sent to an all-girls boarding school when I was twelve. Before that, I hung out with Aiden and Karter, whom I completely view as my brothers. I saw Bennett briefly in the months between when he graduated and I left. Beyond that, I’ve had very little contact with men.”

Miranda’s stare went from disbelief to amusement. “So you’re a virgin?”

“Worse. I’ve never even held hands—at least romantically.”

“By the moon…”

“Yeah. So you can probably see why the prospect of going to that extreme would be my last resort, right?”

“Wow. Okay.”

She remained thoughtfully quiet for several minutes. When our order was called, I grabbed it, and we headed out to the sidewalk again.

“Still want to help me?” I asked.

“I’m not sure I know how now.”

“By answering any question I have as honestly and as accurately as you’re able.”

“All right. What questions do you have?”

“Is there any way to switch his interest to another woman?”

She snorted. “Do you think we wouldn’t have already done that if there was a way?”

“Is there any way to make him disinterested in me?”

Her gaze swept over my clothes and hair. “I feel like you’ve already given that one your best effort.”

Other people might have found her rude, but I could see the humor in her eyes, and it matched my own.

“Don’t forget you bought me clothes just like this.”

“I shopped to match your fashion sense, not mine.”

I made a dismissive sound. “So we can’t switch his interest or turn it off. I’m down to two options, then, excluding the failsafe.”

“Don’t leave me in suspense,” she said as we neared the park.

“Until I know I can trust you, I’m going to have to. I don’t want to ruin my chances.”

“Okay. I guess just let me know when you need something then.”

“Any chance you’d be willing to risk an ongoing lunch date with me this week?”

“Sure.”

She sat on a park bench and started opening her sandwich. I did the same.

“What do you want me to tell him when he asks me what we’re talking about?”

That she was smart enough to realize that he’d do that and asked what answer to give ahead of time gave me some hope. But I knew not to trust it.

“Tell him I've asked about all the different ways to kill a shifter without them seeing it coming.”

She slowly smiled as she bit into her sandwich.