December 16th
Branch tapped the keys on his laptop. He was supposed to be writing an e-mail to members of the finance department. Further to his original concern, he had noticed quite a few strange irregularities in the quarterly report. That was what he was supposed to be doing. Actually, he wasn’t doing anything. He was too distracted.
He was thinking about Mira. He hadn’t meant for her to find out the truth about his herd, though he knew it was a possibility he would have to tell her, but she had taken it rather well. Better than most humans. The shock had quickly given way to curiosity and dare he imagine it, but didn’t she even seem a little delighted by the truth that shifters existed?
She apparently read romances about shifters. That stirred his inner beast. Maybe he should download a few to see what they were like. Though she said that most were about wolf shifters. Bah – thugs of the shifter world.
He glanced at the clock. Still, more than four hours until he collected her for the dreaded tree trimming party. It was a party that he usually avoided at all cost, but his mom cornered Mira and invited her and rather than scoff that it sounded more boring than watching paint dry, Mira had gushed about how she would love to go. He didn’t think she was even just humoring his mom – she actually seemed excited. His mom had pulled him aside last night and gave him an extra long hug. Clearly, she was thrilled he was mating Mira. Except… he wasn’t. Not really. It was all just a business transaction. He needed to remember that. Needed to stop looking at the clock. Needed to stop counting down the minutes until he saw her again - the long, interminable minutes.
“Hey, Alpha.”
Harlan breezed into the office and froze as Branch let out a snarling grunt.
“Can’t you knock?” Branch hissed. “I’m busy.”
“You’re always busy.”
“I have a lot of work to get done before the party tonight.”
Branch made an effort to concentrate on the empty, waiting to be written e-mail in front of him.
Harlan looked confused. “What party?”
“Mom’s tree trimming party,” he said impatiently.
What did he think he meant?
Harlan waved his hand dismissively. “You miss that every year. You haven’t attended that since you were fourteen and Mom stopped being able to bribe you to attend. Mom always hopes you’ll change your mind, but you never do.”
Branch cleared his throat. “Mira agreed to go.”
He couldn’t let her go on her own. One of his herd may ask her difficult questions she can’t answer, or try to hug her or something. He was supposed to be mating her – he had to be on hand to make it look like they were in love, or to break the arms of anyone who tried to hug her.
Harlan gave him a strange look.
“So this is about Mira, huh?”
“We are going to be mated,” he said evenly.
“Yeah, and you were mated to Janelle, and she never got you to come to the tree trimming party.”
His look hardened at the mention of his late mate. “Janelle never wanted to attend Mom’s Christmas parties either.”
“No, no she did not,” agreed Harlan thoughtfully.
“What does that mean?” snarled Branch, his aggressive bull pushing to the surface.
Harlan winced slightly at the dominant tone but merely gave him a level look. “Nothing. If you don’t want to go tonight, I could take Mira…”
Branch snorted. “Not happening.”
His brother shot him an amused smile. “What about Ariel then? I’m sure our harmless little sister would be happy to look after her.”
“I already cleared my schedule,” grumbled Branch, and even to him that sounded lame.
He could easily miss the party, and a part of him knew Mira would be fine – Ariel and his mom would look out for her - but no, he had decided to go, and he would go.
“So you and Mira…”
Branch inhaled a long, rumbling breath. He glowered at his brother with a ‘choose your words wisely’ expression.
Before his brother could say anything potentially suicidal, his assistant came into the office. The young male was a bundle of nerves to begin with – which while irritating was a big improvement on his last assistant – and on seeing Branch’s glare, he let out a small ‘eep.’
“What is it?” demanded Branch.
“Ah, the cell phone you wanted – you did say you wanted it immediately.”
“Of course. Give it to me.”
His assistant did and scurried away as quickly as possible.
“New phone?” asked his brother.
“It’s for Mira.”
What? It was no big deal. Hers was so dilapidated how could he not buy her a new one? He would need to contact her for the duration of their arrangement, and not being able to do so because the duct tape fell off would be unacceptable. Plus, she would need it for emergencies – particularly in her neighborhood.
Vaguely, he thought Mira might not want to take the phone – he had tried to suggest that their arrangement involve some monetary compensation for her, but she wasn’t interested. In truth, that actually made him feel a little better about it all. As for the phone, he would insist she take it. He would insist it be part of the arrangement. Now, if only he could include getting her and her sister the hell out of that awful apartment building…
He became aware of Harlan’s amused expression.
“Just get out,” Branch ordered waspishly.
Harlan smirked. “No problem, I’ll see you both tonight.”
He grunted. His brother was behaving like an idiot – as usual.
Branch brought his attention back to the laptop screen and blanched at the one word he had typed over and over again – Mira.