Roman's povThe sun hits me right on the face before I get up. I look in the mirror to see I have a furious red line across my nose.A mini sunburn, great.“I would have woken you up sooner.”My eyes snap to Fen sitting on a chair in one corner of the room. He grins when our eyes meet and drops the book on the table before getting up.He walks past me and out of the room without saying anything and I debate if I’m to go after him or just leave him to do what he wants while I try to figure out what’s happening to me.I decide the second one is better and I do that. I search around for some sunscreen and when I find none, I put some lotion on it instead. It doesn’t hurt as much. It’s just a red line on my skin.Scarlett would feel worried if she sees it, or not.Flashes of my reaction from last night come back to me and I grimace when I see myself storming off.She must hate me right now.I wouldn’t blame her. I acted like a cold prick and there’s no justification for that.I sneer at
Scarlett's pov He was avoiding me.The knowledge of that hits me with a dull thud in my chest.Whatever was bothering him last night is still bothering him and for some reason, I have something to do with it.I tuck away those feelings and keep a blank look on my face.That’s okay.If he wants to avoid me then he should. Maybe he feels I'm devious now or dangerous since I formulated a plan to manipulate Alphas into leaning toward him for support.Was that bad though?We have an aim to achieve and the Alpha conference isn’t so far away that we can afford to slack. I want to be free of Hunter, and the Ironclaw pack will do something no pack has ever done if they can help me achieve that.They would become a beacon of justice and uprightness. The other packs would feel comfortable affiliating themselves with his pack.This could change the influence of the Ironclaw pack forever……….. and maybe that scares him.“Good morning Scarlett.”I refuse to meet his gaze and hold open the door he w
I scramble out of the car and pick up the laptop I deposited on the other chair, Roman gives me a critical look and I hold his look.His eyes do a quick scan of my outfit and he nods.I feel the imaginary self-esteem blow do a quick halt and I search for his eyes but he’s turned away already. He’s walking to the entrance of the company and I follow.I catch a glimpse of myself in the glass panels of the highrise and I assure myself I look good.A simple yet exquisite-looking white top with pearl buttons graces my upper body and for my lower half, I have a skirt that ends in frills and ruffles at the knees.My footwear has a transparent diamond-style heel and it gives me some more height.They don’t hurt now, but I wouldn't mind if they did.Whatever looks this nice, deserves to hurt you, even if it’s a teeny bit.The office stills the moment Roman enters.I feel it like a pause in the atmosphere, one guy has a doughnut halfway to his mouth and his teeth already poised for a bite. He’
Roman leads me up the rest of the building with that cold look still on his face. I can’t get a read on him and it’s annoying .‘“Good morning CEO Roman.” “Good morning CEO Roman.”Friendly greetings come from every corner of the office but Roman answers none. He walks ahead, his feet taking long yet leisurely strides.He doesn’t know how hard it is for a woman to keep up with him when he walks like that,“Hey.”I turn to look and it’s the doughnut guy from earlier. His… eyes are really pretty.“So that was a killer address you gave.”He’s walking backwards, his steps easily matching mine and making something that should be hard look disconcertingly easy. He frowns.“You don’t talk to workers who aren’t the CEO?”His voice is this silky deep thing that rolls off his tongue and it’s nice to hear so i cock an eyebrow.“Didn’t I address the whole office a few minutes ago?”His grin widens and he nods.“You did, so I know for a fact that the ice lady thing was an act. There are layers
I set up my office first.It doesn’t take much work since the only thing I need to do is place my laptop on the table and look for a power socket to plug it in. I stand around clueless after that.Do I go to Roman and ask what happens now?I give myself an eye roll. Of course not. That would make me seem dumb and helpless, and I'm done living that life so I whip my new phone out.It was in the car, almost like someone had put it there for me. I should probably ask him if he’s the one who got it for me, but since he’s not being really verbal, I'll do it some other time.I scan for an internet connection and a wifi network comes up. Ironclaw.It’s an open network so I connect to it and spend the better part of the next hour setting the phone up and downloading most of the information I have stored in the cloud.I am careful, so careful it’s almost ridiculous. Hunter is an ever-present threat, like a dog with a bone. I am that bone and he only wants me back so he can go on chewing me up
Roman's povI wait for her to come but she doesn’t. For some reason, she doesn’t make an appearance, so I sit and attend to some of my work.The project Scarlett helped me gather investors for is a power production project. In some countries, solar energy is the order of the day but some still rely on crude oil and power generators.Ironclaw tech can help with that, we can introduce new, better, more easily renewable sources of energy, but the amount of money to go into such a project isn’t little.Raising it is harder, and as much as I would like to carry out this project as a charity, it doesn’t fit into the scale I see it.A charity on that scale could run Ironclaw into the ground, and we aren’t so magnanimous on funds right now that I can afford to carry on with that nevertheless.My lip curls in a snarl as I think of that. I hate it when my pack lacks anything. We should be powerful enough to…“Good morning Alpha Roman.”My eyes snap to the door and there she is.Scarlett waltz
Scarlett's pov“I can’t eat this.”The words replay in my head and I feel like breaking something.He doesn’t eat doughnuts? He’s lying.Fen told me he eats them and I acted on that. I was told to make sure he eats, and I don't know how that is the job of a personal assistant but Fen said his former assistant used to do it all the time. This is my first day, and I want to make an impression.I did that for him and he gave me such a reply. Have I gone into the wrong line of work?I wake up my computer from sleep mode and see I have a new email. The unopened envelope stands at one corner of the screen and I look at it before clicking.I don’t have to be hesitant every time something new happens to me. Roman and his Beta are the only two people who have this email so far.Sure enough, the email is from Roman’s beta and as it opens, I frown at the content of what I read. There’s a website address and a password.I click on the link and it takes me to a page, asking for my email and pass
“What are we going to do about it?” The frown that etches itself onto Roman’s face has me feeling a wave of stubbornness rising up in me. If he says we shouldn’t do anything, I will stand up right now, walk out of this office and slam the door behind me. “They’re in that fix because of us Roman.”“They’re in that fix because of Hunter, not us. He’s a coward and a sly fox but he’s no fool.”The coldness in Roman’s words makes me calm down and I nod.He’s right.Hunter must have done this because he saw the other man talking to Roman yesterday. Anyone could see that the older Alpha had been charmed from miles away. Hunter must have suspected something was up.But another Alpha’s mate and only child?That is going too far. It is a deliberate power play on his part, and there’s every possibility Alpha Gomez knows it’s Hunter’s doing and this message isn’t just a call for help.No. If he tried anything too dangerous he knows Roman could easily go to the pack and shut him down. It would