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Tilly
Afterthequicktube ride, I made my way to the office. Central London was a great place to work, and a place to get lost among the masses. Another bonus was the small coffee shop near the office where I strode to get another much needed coffee.
I didn’t know why I was nervous, because I loved my job. I worked in marketing for the Hanson Group, though owned by alphas—I didn’t have a problem with that. And although my immediate boss was a female alpha, she never scented me, and as there was a beta between my position as the marketing executive and her as the director, I didn’t fear her.
Noticing time had crept up on me, I grabbed my coffee cup and ran to the office, but people rushing to get to work held me back on the streets. I zigzagged through the crowds before I entered the building. I flicked my hand in the air, casting a quick wave at Peggy at the front desk, and glanced at my watch again. Panic bloomed, noticing it was getting closer to eight thirty.
I slammed my hand into the lift panel, and my feet bounced as I waited.
When the elevator reached my floor, the doors opened. I sighed, knowing I didn’t have the time to go to my desk and headed directly to the meeting room. I pushed the door and gasped. Almost everyone in the company sat listening to Jeremy Hanson, my boss, talking at the head of the room.
Jeremy was an alpha, but not an alpha-hole. I put him in his fifties but would never ask but if he was younger and without an omega, I could have given up my medication for him. He had a handsome face, with cornflower blue eyes, sun-kissed skin, and laughter lines around his long lashes. He was always old-school smart, with a pin-stripped suit and a conservative tie, but better than that, he was nice to everyone. And strangely, today I could smell his alpha smell and it was delicious—I hope he can’t smell my perfume.
He had qualities that had endeared me to him, and maybe I had a slight crush on the older alpha.
“Good morning, Tilly,” he said, the moment he noticed me sneaking into the room. “Take a seat.”
“Sorry,” I mouthed. I glanced to his right and saw a dark, handsome stranger sat beside him. He smiled and nodded. I smiled and glanced away as I pulled out the first seat in front of me, placing my coffee on the table.
“So I would like to thank you all for a good year and this month everyone will receive a bonus,” Jeremy said, and I realised I’d missed a lot of the conversation. But a bonus... yes.
“But now I have to get to the reason I called this meeting.” Jeremy picked up a glass and took a swig of water. He glanced around the table, smiled at me and a couple of others.
Oh no, he’s bracing a few of us for the sack.
My heart sank at the same moment my shoulders did. I picked up my coffee and sighed into the cup, inhaling until I took a drink.
Jeremy looked at Sandy, my boss. She swallowed as Jeremy gave her a nod. “I’m retiring,” he said.
My heart sank further upon hearing that, and millions of questions popped up in my brain. My boss Sandy looked at me, and I wondered if she was as concerned about this turn of events as I was.
I raised my hand tentatively. Jeremy gave me a nod. “When are the new owners taking over the company?”
“The reason for this early meeting is to introduce you to one of the new owners. This is Luca. We have been thrashing a deal out for a few months and we finally reached a mutual agreement. That agreement takes place as of five o’clock this evening.”
Five o’clock.
I glanced at the man again, at his gorgeous and tanned face, at his espresso coloured hair and at his brown eyes. Eyes that were looking back at me.
Stop looking.I swallowed and tried to keep my focus on the table.
The rushes of gasps turned into quick conversations. Jeremy cleared his throat at the same time I picked up my coffee and took a big gulp. Should I be concerned I’d get laid off or was it the middle managers who would be worried?
Jeremy raised his palm, and the chatting stopped. “Each team will present to the new owners next week, the order of which needs to be decided.” The air around the room seemed to disappear.
I looked at my boss, Sandy, who leaned to Luca. I glanced away when he caught my eye once more.
I waited for the mystery man to make a speech, but he didn’t. He rose from his chair and followed Jeremy out of the room. But it was when he passed by that my eyes closed for the briefest moment as I inhaled his sweet scent, as it sent a thunderbolt between my thighs. It wasn’t Jeremy I could smell.
I’d never had that reaction around alphas since grey eyes were looking at me. Normally, my suppressants worked their magic and dulled my senses. They also deadened my omega perfume to them.
I could only assume my suppressants were waning in their strength or that alpha scents could overpower them. I drummed my fingernails over the take out cup wrapped in my hand. Because if that was the case, how on earth was I going to work with him around me?
Sandy and I worked in cosy silence for a while. Though her alpha grunts were showing, and I noticed she was more nervous about this change of events than she admitted.
But Jeremy was the easiest of bosses. He wasn’t in the office every day. He and his omega were madly in love, and I knew he preferred to be with her if he could. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to be with the one he loved, but I didn’t want my life to change.
“I hope you don’t mind us presenting on Monday,” Sandy said. She had agreed for us to present in the afternoon, when the new owners were coming in after a morning of golf.
That didn’t seem too bad. I mean, if the bosses preferred a game on the green rather than being hands on in the office—I wouldn’t complain. Crossing my fingers that all eight teams presented well and gave the new owners a good reason to not come into the office—ever.
“I just don’t understand why I have to do it...” I whispered. Normally alphas ran companies, and that was a worry and the reason I preferred to keep my head low.
“We have to,” she said. “I’ll summarise the entire team, what we do, the successes we’ve had. And you can give a quick overview of the internal and external marketing strategies we use for the business. How we use social media, for instance.”
“Events, website analysis?” I asked.
“Yes, but keep it brief,” she said. She stopped, her nose rose in the air as she sniffed and stared at me a moment. “Are you nervous?”
Do I smell nervous?
“A little,” I said. It was a lie. I was more than nervous—I was panicking.
“You’ll be fine,” she said, rubbing my shoulder. My heart thudded as her thumb stroked over the pulse in my neck.
“Thanks.” I stood and walked away from her. I hated people being touchy. Especially alphas. They, or at least she, had this habit of touching and stroking. Sometimes she would hug me, and it was all about passing on her scent. It was weird at first, but after sometime, I let her do what her biology called for—scent mark me. Then I went to the bathroom and washed it off as quickly as possible.
But the more I got used to Sandy, I didn’t feel worried when she did that to me. Once, I didn’t take my suppressants on time and I could smell her real alpha scent. It was candy sweet, like boiled sugar, but she had an underlying musky smell. Luckily, her scent did nothing for me—Sandy did nothing for me.
But I wanted her to focus on her work. But how did I say that without annoying her? Especially as my nerves were fraying from the presentation she’d agreed to do on Monday afternoon. And as it was Friday afternoon, and we’d worked on this together all day, I was getting more and more edgy and desperately needed a night out on the tiles.
