Chapter 15
After another restless night, I was back at work with Wyatt by my side. I’d tried to convince him to wait in my office while I met with Ben, but after the scene he’d witnessed yesterday, there was no chance of that.
“I don’t trust him,” Wyatt confessed, and I wondered if he’d talked to Abraham about the situation because my werewolf had said the exact same thing.
“Ben’s harmless.” Mostly I added in my head.
Wyatt shook his head as we walked toward the meeting rooms. “He smells of desperation and arrogance. Not a good combination.”
“You can smell that kind of thing?” I whispered. Was there a werewolf class I could take to learn to sniff out things like that?
Wyatt shrugged. “You will too one day.”
I dropped it just as we were nearing conference room C. When we walked inside, I found Ben already there, papers strewn out along the long table.
He looked up at me, his gaze heavy and icky feeling, even though it was brief. “You’re late.”
Instantly I was annoyed.
I set my bags down with a huff. “It’s eight now. How am I late?”
Ben shook his head and tsked under his breath. “Didn’t you read the Hildebrandt & Moore Law Firm handbook?”
I rolled my eyes for what I was sure wouldn’t be the last time today. “Yes, of course I read it. What’s your point?”
He held up a hand and used his fingers to tick off his points. “Thirty minutes is early, fifteen minutes is on time, and on time is late.”
My eyes rolled up to the ceiling once more. I hated that he was right. I used to live by every word in that handbook. These days, I was just happy I wasn’t actually late, and I hadn’t forgotten anything important like pants before I left the apartment.
“Whatever, Ben. I’m here now so let’s get started.”
He shook his head but dropped it, thankfully. “I’ve spent the time I was waiting for you going over what we have here and working up a list of duties. I have yours here.” He handed me a yellow piece of lined paper that had been ripped from his pad.
I ran my eyes down the list he’d made and felt my pulse begin to race. “Ben, I’m not doing this.”
He looked up with a frown. “What do you mean you’re not doing it?”
I waved the list at him. “This is all grunt work. I’m not doing it.”
He scoffed. “Then who the hell will?”
I placed a hand on my cocked hip. “We either split the unsavory parts of this case, or you can do them all yourself. Doesn’t matter which to me.”
Ben’s eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah? And what do you think gives you the right to decide that?”
I leveled him with my most intimidating glare. “Let’s get something straight now, so we won’t have any further problems down the line. I am the senior attorney here. You don’t tell me what to do. In fact, it’s very much the other way around.”
Ben rolled his dark eyes behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “And you think I’m going to just bend over for you?”
That visual wasn’t one I needed this early in the morning.
“I don’t care what you do but you aren’t in charge here. I am. You either fall in line, or you can ask Mr. Hildebrandt to reassign you.”
Ben rose from his chair, and I saw Wyatt sit up straighter out of the corner of my eye. He’d come in and taken an out-of-the-way seat when we arrived, but I knew he could be over here in seconds if needed.
“I don’t take orders from some bitch who screwed her way to the top,” he spat.
Two things happened simultaneously. My body began to quake uncontrollably, and Wyatt stepped in front of me, large and imposing.
“You wanna’ rephrase that?” Wyatt asked Ben, his voice dripping with the threat he didn’t need to speak.
Ben took a half step back, his furious eyes darting between me and Wyatt.
“Oh, so this isn’t your boyfriend, this is your guard dog,” Ben said.
I might have laughed at that if I wasn’t moments away from losing control and shifting. I ground my teeth and shook my head, willing the tremors to subside.
In, one.
Out, two.
In, three.
Out, four.
When I was finally calm enough to speak, I did so through my still-gritted teeth. “Ben, I don’t care what you think of me. I achieved this position because of my hard work alone. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with Hildebrandt. In the meantime, if we’re going to continue to work together, you better keep your fucking opinions to yourself.”
I’d never in my life cussed at a co-worker. I don’t think I’d ever even said the f-word to anyone before. But, that was the side of me Ben brought out. And it wasn’t pretty.
Ben took a step closer, his eyes narrowed on me, completely ignoring the fact that I was mostly hidden behind Wyatt’s massive body.
“You’re going to regret this,” he hissed before stomping toward the door and leaving.
A big breath gusted out of me and my shoulders slumped, but there were still mild tremors working their way through me.
Wyatt, who’d watched closely as Ben stormed off like a tantrum-throwing child, eyed me critically. “Can you keep it together?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing my body to relax. When I knew I had it under control, I nodded, and Wyatt returned the gesture. I turned to look at the conference table lined with pages from the case file and sighed.
Wyatt leaned over and started shuffling the papers together. “Let’s clean this up and get back to your office, okay?”
“Thanks, Wyatt.”
He shrugged one large shoulder but said nothing. I don’t think he understood what having his presence here has meant to me. It felt nice to have him on my side when facing off with someone like Ben. Maybe I should get him something for all his hard work. Do werewolves like fruit baskets? Scented candles? I vowed to figure something out.
It wasn’t until after lunch that I learned what Ben’s parting line really meant.
“Ms. Montgomery, I have Mr. Hildebrandt on line one,” my secretary informed me through my speaker phone.
A lead ball of dread fell through my body and landed with a thud in the pit of my stomach. “Thank you, Meredith,” I called before picking up the phone and pressing the button for line one with a shaky finger.
“Mr. Hildebrandt?”
“Montgomery,” he barked. Instantly, I knew I should have pretended like I was in the lady’s room.
“Yes, Mr. Hildebrandt. What can I do for you?”
“You can tell me what the hell is going on. I thought we discussed the Jones case yesterday and came to an agreement.”
I frowned. “We did, sir. I’ve been working on it all day.”
“Then why was Collins in my office this afternoon telling me you refused to work on it?”
Ben.
I didn’t even notice the tremors until the phone in my hand started clacking against my earrings.
I took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to respond to my boss. What I wanted to do was tell him that Ben was a big fat liar and that he’d been the one to walk away from the project. But where would that get me? Into a he-said-she-said battle that would make the both of us look bad, and I couldn’t afford any more black marks on my record.
“Mr. Hildebrandt, this must be a misunderstanding. I’ll talk to Ben and figure it out.”
“You better. If I hear one more word about this case from either of you, you’ll both be demoted.”
That lead ball in my stomach seemed to swell, shoving my other organs out of the way while it tried to suffocate me.
“I understand, Mr. Hildebrandt,” I ground out between gritted teeth. “This won’t happen again.”
“Good,” he grunted and ended the call.
I tried to place the phone down on the receiver, but my hands were shaking so bad, I couldn’t get it to sit right.
I couldn’t believe that little bastard Ben had gone to Hildebrandt behind my back. After he’d called me a bitch and stormed out, I’d figured he’d left to lick his wounds and would be back when he got over it. Apparently, I’d been very wrong.
Thick gray hair shot up out of my skin and coated both my arms in seconds.
“Elizabeth. You need to control yourself. Right now.”
I turned to Wyatt, his form almost out of focus with how bad I was trembling. Seeing him standing there, shoulders tensed like he was ready for a fight reminded me of the way he’d had to step between Ben and me earlier. How Ben thought he could assign all the busy work to me and then basically call me a whore when I called him out on it.
My hands shrunk into paws as my vision intensified like it did when I was in wolf form.
“Elizabeth, reign it in,” Wyatt ordered.
I wanted to listen to his words and do as he said, but my mind was full of Ben instead. How he’d always insult me, even while simultaneously pursuing me. How I was on even thinner ice with my boss now because of him. How he’d immediately tried to undermine me with this most recent case. How he’d called me a slut on more than one occasion.
All of a sudden, it was too much to bear, and a large crack ripped through the air. The seams on my clothes stretched past their capacity and ripped apart as my body transformed. Seconds later, I was standing on four legs with the tattered remains of my clothing lying around me.
Now that I’d shifted, I felt even more out of control. Like I wanted to prowl the hallways of this building until I found Ben and tore him apart.
I began pacing my office, like the caged animal that I was. Back and forth, back and forth. Wyatt tried talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him over the anger and rage pulsing through my system.
Finally, I let out a growl and trotted toward the door, ready to find that little cretin and make him regret every decision he’d made today. When I was within a few feet, Wyatt appeared out of nowhere, blocking my path to the door.
“Elizabeth, you’re not going anywhere.”
I growled and bared my teeth, but he just shook his head.
“My job is to protect you, and that means from yourself too.”
But I didn’t need protecting.
I needed revenge.
Wyatt nodded like he could hear my thoughts. “I know you’re pissed, and you have every right to be, but you can’t walk out of here like this. There’s no way to explain a giant wolf in the middle of an office building in downtown Raleigh. Try to think past your anger and see the situation for what it is,” he pleaded.
His words began to pierce the hazy cloud of fury in my head.
I stopped advancing on him and looked at my surroundings, remembering for the first time since I shifted where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. Guilt and shame immediately flushed out the remaining outrage in my system and I plopped heavily onto my butt.
Wyatt let out a sigh and straightened up. “Better?”
I let out a little mournful yip but nodded.
“Okay good. Now shift back.”
Um. What?
I shook my head quickly.
Wyatt frowned down at me. “What do you mean no?”
I shook my head again as a ringtone blared through the room, so much louder to me in this form than when I was human.
Wyatt shook his head again and reached a hand in his pocket to retrieve his cell phone. He glanced at the screen before answering.
“Hey, boss.”
Great. Now Abraham would hear about this too. Although, to be honest, I’m sure Wyatt gave him full reports every day. I almost felt bad for the guy because they couldn’t be that interesting. She slouched into work, took a bathroom break around ten, choked down half a sandwich for lunch, and then trudged through the rest of her day. I must have been wildly entertaining.
“She’s here,” he said and then paused, presumably to listen to what Abraham had to say on the other end. “Could be better. She just shifted in her office.” He paused again. “Mostly because of that little shit, Brian.” Another pause. “Yeah, Ben, that’s it.”
If I could blush as a wolf, I knew I’d be beet red. I couldn’t believe I’d let Ben get to me like that. Let my emotions control me now when for the past ten years, I’ve only allowed logic and reason have the reigns.
“She’s fine, but she won’t shift back,” Wyatt said into the phone.
Did he really think I would just shift in front of him?
Not. Likely.
Wyatt chuckled and shot me a look. “That’s her problem? Doesn’t she know werewolves don’t care about that stuff?”
I huffed out a breath and rolled my eyes. Just because they were basically raised in a nudist colony didn’t mean that a person who’d lived like a human for the first twenty-eight years of her life would be okay with being naked in front just anybody.
“What should I do?” Wyatt asked Abraham.
I heard Abraham’s gruff voice answering on the other line, but I tuned it out. I had no desire to hear his disappointment right now. I felt it enough for the two of us as it was.
“They’re torn to shreds,” he said, and I knew he was talking about my clothes even though it felt more like the state of my dignity. “I’ll ask her.” He turned to me, “I don’t suppose you have a spare set of clothes lying around do you?”
I shook my head, cursing myself as I did. Why hadn’t I thought to bring a change of clothes? Maybe because I’d foolishly believed I’d be able to keep it together while at work.
“She said no…. Yeah, I can run to her place, no problem… Okay, I’ll call you when I’m back,” he said and hung up, turning to me. “I’m going to run to your place and get you some clothes.” His cheeks turned pink. “I don’t have a problem going through your closet, especially because I have a pretty good idea about what you wear to work every day, but I’m not going through your underwear drawer, got it?”
A throaty laugh/bark hybrid huffed out of me and I nodded.
“Okay, I’ll lock the door on my way out. Just sit tight, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I hoped he could see the appreciation in my eyes. Now more than ever I needed to figure out a way to thank him for all he’s done. I knew it was his job to protect me, but it wasn’t his job to fetch me new clothes when I stupidly shifted in the middle of the day and ruined my old ones.
He nodded once and left. The locked clicked and his footsteps faded into the distance. Not knowing what to do with myself, I sighed and lowered myself to the ground, resting my big head on my paws.
What a mess I’d made. And for what? Ben Collins? He wasn’t worth it, and I needed to remember that next time he tried to mess with me. Because I was sure there’d be a next time.