Chapter 25

Rachel's POV

Ever since she stepped her filthy feet into our company, I've always wanted to break Allison Carter. Yet she always brushed off whatever I did with that big, idiotic smile she always wears. It was like nothing could shake her or hurt her.

Until today.

I can't keep a smirk of satisfaction off my face as I watch her tremble. She looks like her whole world is crumbling around her.

I would make her whole world crumble around her if I could. But for now, I'll have to be contented with snatching the one thing she wants so desperately from her.

It's an even more satisfying feeling than I expected.

"My office gets dirtier the longer you stand there," I say, returning to my book. "Get lost. I'm done with you."

"No."

That one word, delivered with enough poison to kill me where I sit, makes my head snap up and my jaw drop in shock.

"What?" I demand, certain that I've heard her wrong.

"I said no," she replies in a cold voice. "We are not done here, Rachel Fisher."

The words hit me like a slap, and I am unable to stop myself from flinching.

Allison Carter is glaring at me, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Her face is filled with fury, and that alone is enough to render me speechless. Allison Carter is furious with me. Pathetic, tame Allison Carter is furious with me?

I didn't think she even knows the word, I think dumbly.

But I am Rachel Fisher, a high-class werewolf and a daughter of the powerful Fisher family. If she thinks I'm going to let one Omega's rage scare me, she is sorely mistaken. I rise from my seat, drawing myself up to my full height. I fix a harsh gaze on Allison Carter, but she does not so much as flinch.

"Could you repeat what you said?" I say, keeping my voice dangerously low. "I don't think I heard you very well."

Instead of cowering, she takes a step forward. At this point, I think it's her wolf acting, tapping into her anger.

Of course, an Omega would fail to maintain control over her wolf when it counts. Pathetic.

If unauthorized fighting wasn't forbidden within the pack, I would have gladly ripped this sorry excuse of a werewolf to shreds. 

"I am a high-class werewolf and your superior, Allison Carter," I say. "You have no right to challenge my decision—"

"Would you shut the fuck up already?!" she snaps.

My mouth clamps shut before I can stop it.

What the hell is going on? Who is this woman in front of me?

"Every time you open your mouth, you never have anything reasonable to say," she continues. "You think that just because you have opinions, everybody else wants to hear and abide by them. You don't realize that there are more important things than your stupid prejudice, and so you never bother to think before you speak. You say I am not worthy to represent the company. On what grounds?"

"Are you kidding me right now?" I say with an incredulous laugh. "On grounds of your incompetence, of course. You can't follow simple instructions, and you ignore the rules like you own this place—"

"Pull up my records and let's see if that's actually true," Allison Carter cuts in.

I'm stunned into silence. Since when does Allison Carter, of all people, interrupt me?

Since the day she made those ridiculous demands in return for debugging the company's central system, my mind annoyingly supplies.

"I've had enough of your behavior," Allison Carter continues. "Next you're going to accuse me of murdering someone, just because I'm an Omega. I have had enough, Rachel Fisher."

I'm still staring speechlessly. 

Stop gaping like a fish, I scold myself. Are you really going to let this lowly Omega insult you like this?

I take a deep breath, then glare at Allison Carter with all the ice I can fit into one look.

"Nice speech," I say. "But now you're guilty of yet another offence. Insulting your superior."

With that, I turn around and pick up my phone, then start to dial Xander's number.

If this Omega bitch knew that I have been authorized by the Alpha himself to decide which candidates from our company will be taking part in the Tech Wizard competition, she wouldn't have run her mouth just now. Well, she just made things easier for me.

Xander picks on the first ring, and I can't help the thrill that goes through me at that.

I know that he isn't a fan of phone calls. He ignores a lot of them on a daily basis.

I've known him since we were children, because my family is very close to the Alphas' family. And I have spent several years hoping for him to one day realize that I have feelings for him, and to return those feelings. Instead I've had to watch his heart get broken multiple times by the women he has dated over the years. It's painful how he keeps choosing the wrong women all the time, forgetting that I'm right here. It's like he doesn't want to see me as anything more than his assistant and his childhood friend. 

"Rachel?" he says, and I realize that I'm yet to speak.

"Xander," I say, fixing an icy look on Allison Carter, "I've decided that Allison Carter can't represent our company in the Tech Wizard competition."

"Why is that?" he asks.

"She has proven incapable of obeying the company rules," I say. "We don't need someone like that to represent us."

"She only has one black spot on her record, though," he says calmly.

"Yes," I respond. "For being late to work. But there's another. It just hasn't been recorded yet. You must not have learnt of it, but just this week, Miss Carter left the company premises during working hours. Without obtaining permission."

"And that's where you're wrong," Xander says. "Miss Carter obtained permission to leave, actually."

"What?" I ask, shocked. "From who?"

I could never have seen his answer coming.

"From me."