CHAPTER TWO

"Miss Perry."

Leah narrowly escaped falling off her barstool at the sound of her name echoed in that familiar voice.

It was funny, she thought just then, how her entire night could change just by hearing someone's voice.

After 6 months of working at Bridgeway Enterprise, Leah had finally let her coworkers convince her to go to the local hangout, a place called ‘The Bar’.

This was the second time in her life that she'd let someone convince her to come to this place when she hadn't wanted to go.

The first time, she'd been only seventeen, and Franky, her best friend at the time, had bugged her for weeks nonstop about going.

Leah had tried to point out what a bad idea it was.

One, they were underage, and while Leah's curves had been the bane of her existence since she'd turned sixteen, so she maybe could get away with getting in, Franky didn't have a chance in hell.

Two, it was out of town. Granted, it was on the edge of Bridgeway, a well-known shifter town, and so only about two hours drive from their home, but still out of town.

And three, Leah had stressed this was the most important, Bridgeway was a Shifter town. She'd been 2 years old when the world had found out that Shifters were real. Ever since then, all she ever heard about was how dangerous they were. Of course, as she grew up, she learned that not just because something was reported on the news, meant it was true.

Nevertheless, a bar owned and frequented by all types of Shifters was no place for human teenagers.

Franky hadn't wanted to hear any reason, and, as was the case with most things, she had eventually talked Leah into it.

It had been an uneventful night because they hadn't made it past the door. It turned out that a supernatural sense of smell could reveal a lot about a girl.

Tonight, she'd made it past the door. And after being ditched by her coworkers, not ten minutes after the fact, she'd found it wasn't so bad. Since she'd moved to town, she had spent Friday evenings after work driving the two hours back to her hometown to visit her brother's 'grave'. But since she'd been home two weeks ago, her newly acquired family had suggested she not visit so often anymore, so she'd had more time to achieve her goal.

So, she'd spent last weekend alone in her apartment, and as much as she'd thought of herself to be an introvert, she'd hated being alone in her apartment. It hadn't bothered her when she'd just moved to town and hadn't started working yet. She'd enjoyed not having anything to do for the first time in years, but now, it seemed she'd much preferred to be in a bar surrounded by strangers than closeted in her apartment.

She hadn't even minded when Abigail, who'd invited her out in the first place, had disappeared with some guy not ten minutes after they had gotten there.

She hadn't minded when a stranger— whose name she now knew was Nathan— had started flirting with her.

She'd actually enjoyed it for a while, though it was getting a bit boring and she'd found herself halfway through the entire process comparing the poor man to her boss and his brothers. Which was quite unfair. She had become so annoyed with herself for that, she'd decided to call it a night.

She just hadn't known how exactly to do that. Nathan wouldn't stop talking.

And worse yet, he was kinda likable. He'd been sweet and kind and funny and hadn't made any inappropriate comments about her body. She hadn't even been uncomfortable when he'd brushed an errant curl behind her ear. He sort of reminded her of her little brother in some ways, so she'd felt guilty for getting bored and wanting to leave.

She'd been thinking of a nice way of doing that when she'd heard her name.

When he'd said her name.

To say she was shocked would have been an understatement and before she'd turned to face him, she'd almost convinced herself her imagination had conjured him up to rescue her from this situation.

But, no. There he was.

"Mr.Bridgeway?"

Her giant, gorgeous, Alpha werewolf boss.

Who somehow managed to look completely at home wearing a suit— sans jacket and tie— in the middle of a crowded bar filled with sweaty, drunk twenty-something-year-olds.

His moss-green eyes fairly glowed in the dim lighting, and his dark brown hair was brushed back from his face. His beautifully impassive face that did way too much for her lady parts.

What on earth was he doing here?

She opened her mouth to ask him just that— in a much nicer way of course, but he spoke before she could.

"Follow me," he stated, then turned and walked away.

That was it. No explanations. No questions. One succinct order before he left. Of course, Leah was quite used to succinct orders after working for the man for months, but that was work.

This was her personal time.

Her body didn't seem to care much because she found herself on her feet before she'd even acknowledged it. She found enough brain cells to mumble a halfhearted apology to Nathan before she grabbed her purse and started in the direction Noah had disappeared.

She couldn't see him anymore and stopped just before she entered the crowded dance floor to see if she could spot him.

It was only then she realized how completely different she felt. Not a moment ago, she'd been bored out of her mind, and now…

Now she was anything but.

Her heart was galloping at a ridiculous rate and her palms were getting damp. She didn't even want to admit the horrid cliche in her own head but the fluttering in her stomach felt suspiciously like butterflies.

And she was—she had to be demented—aroused.

The man had appeared out of nowhere, said her name, and an additional two words before stalking off, yet her nipples were hard and there was a faint pulsing between her legs.

Her search for him was cut short when he appeared in front of her. He was very good at that. Not being there one second and appearing the next. It must be a werewolf thing because his brothers were decidedly talented in that area as well. That thought led her to wonder if the other two Bridgeway brothers were present as well.

"Mr. Bridgeway, what—?"

The question froze on her lips when he wrapped his hand around her wrist and started through the crowd.

Leah wasn't quite certain what was happening, and her mind was too preoccupied at the moment to figure it out.

Noah was touching her. Granted, it was an innocuous handhold, but still… his skin was touching her skin, and every part of her body acknowledged it.

She'd been working as his assistant for six months now, and as physically close to him as she'd been, he'd never touched her.

Not any accidental brushing of fingers when documents exchanged hands, no bumping of shoulders when entering or exiting the elevator, not even courtesy assistance when her inherent clumsiness reared its ugly head.

In fact, sometimes, she’d thought he’d gone out of his to not touch her.

But tonight, he was touching her. His hand, large and warm, was wrapped securely around her wrist, and he was pulling her along behind him, heedless that his long-legged strides were impossible to keep up with.

She should probably summon up some outrage at the way he was dragging her about as if she were a pet, or toy or something.

And she would... as soon as she stopped being turned on.

Christ! She must be out of her mind. How on earth could she find this 6ft 5" overbearing, ice-cold barbarian with definite asshole tendencies attractive?

She wasn't concerned that she had a type. She didn't.

As was evidenced by the fact that she was also attracted to both his brothers and none of them were alike.

Unless your type is just Bridgeway men.

Hush!

It was the most ridiculous thing in the world, that not only was she crushing hard on her indifferent boss— she refused to give credence to the voice in her head that insisted it was more than a crush— but also on both his brothers.

What was even more ridiculous?

That all three were Shifters of the highest level.

Noah Bridgeway was not only the CEO of the largest weapons manufacturing enterprise in the country, he was also the Alpha of one of the oldest packs in the hemisphere. Both his younger brothers were his Betas.

Having any hope that any of them would pay her any more than courtesy attention was simply asking for disappointment.

She didn't count the instances when Colin Bridgeway stopped by his brother's office and flirted with her on his way out. He flirted with everyone.

Literally.

He flirted with Mr. Bridgeway's senior admin, Mrs. Umble, and Leah was sure the woman was over a hundred years old.

So, of course, he wasn't serious. And she didn't want him to be serious. Being close to the Alpha and his brothers was just a means to an end.

That was the truth.

It had to be.

No sooner had they stepped unto the curb than a familiar, dark grey Rolls Royce pulled up before them.

As was customary, Bevon, his driver hurried out of the vehicle in an attempt to open Mr. Bridgeway's door, but the impatient owner ignored his attempt and opened it himself. He all but shoved Leah into the back in his hurry and slid in after her.

Before long, they were on their way to…

"Where are we going?" Leah finally managed to get over her shock enough to ask.

Leah watched as he flicked her a glance, his expression almost suggesting he was surprised to find her there beside him.

Which was fucking laughable all things considered.

Leah had to take a deep breath— or three— to reign in her temper.

Before working for Noah Bridgeway, Leah hadn't even known she had a temper, to begin with. But it seemed all it took to piss her off was a domineering werewolf.

"To the office."

He said it in such a way that suggested it was obvious. It was close to midnight on a Friday, so her boss dragging her off to the office was far out of the realm of normal.

However, further out of the realm of normal was her boss dragging her off to anywhere else other than the office.

Clearly, there was some sort of dire emergency that required all hands on deck. Leah couldn't think of any other reason for this impromptu trip, and as that had to be the case, she managed to pull back all the questions that threatened to spill from her lips. She might not be as close to Noah Bridgeway as she'd like, but if she'd learned anything about him in the past six months, it was that her boss was not an impulsive man, he never did things without thinking it through thoroughly, and so Leah didn't think this was an exception. She trusted him, and so she would follow him if that was what he wanted.

~

Noah hadn't thought this through. He had seen another man touching her— something he'd never witnessed before since he'd known her— and had simply reacted.

If, however, he was being honest with himself, he had to admit it wasn't the first time he'd made an impulsive decision when it came to this human. It was an impulsive decision that had landed her in the position of his PA, though she wasn't nearly qualified enough...and she was well...human.

He didn't have anything against the species per se— there were hundreds of them under his and brothers’ employ in fact— he just didn't like them so close to him.

They were simply too fragile; physically, and emotionally and he knew how much of a demanding asshole he was.

Leah though... he'd taken one look into those dark brown eyes that had stared at him with blatant fascination and he'd gotten hard.

Embarrassingly so.

In the middle of a fucking interview, with the head of HR sitting not five feet away from him.

So what had he done?

Continued with the entire process of course. He'd sat there with a hard-on through twenty-four other hopeful candidates when he'd known full well he'd already made his decision.

Stephens, the HR manager had pulled seven shortlisted candidates out of the forty they'd seen that day. And of course, Leah Perry hadn't made the list. Her resume had been laughably underwhelming compared to almost all the other candidates.

Had that mattered when he'd pulled her file and stated "that one," to the understandably confused man?

Not a bit.

He'd been thinking with his dick then— a first for him— and apparently, he was still doing that six months later.

He was even now, still confused as to his and his brothers' reaction to his PA. Had it been purely physical, he would have been more capable of ignoring it.

But, both the man and the wolf were all the way in at that point. And he knew that was also true for his brothers.

When he'd first acknowledged the abnormality of the situation, he'd started doing research.

None of the recordings of Matings mentioned anything about human mates, extensive as the Pack's library was.

Nothing in background checks on Leah led to anything which hinted towards her being anything but human.

He was in fact, thinking about making contact with some of the older packs overseas, but he wasn't going to do that just yet. Not until he and his brothers— and Leah— decided what they wanted from each other.

And they each wanted something. He knew Leah was attracted to each of them sexually, and his brothers… well they were pretty obvious. And as much as much effort as he put into pretending otherwise, he couldn't fool either Colin or Christophe about how he felt.

He wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen tonight, but decisions had to be made. He couldn't continue in this way for much longer.

His wolf was demanding he pin his little human to the floor and mark her in every way possible. No other male would come within a mile of her when he was done. The man demanded he remained civilized.

It was the 21st century. He was her boss. There were things he needed to pay attention to. Like verbal consent, sexual harassment in the workplace, and pack fucking laws that he'd helped in implementing. He would not give in to his base urges.

The war in himself was bound to kill him.

If this permanent fucking hard-on didn't do him in first.