by Tami Payton
I sigh and sit back down in my seat. “Ok, you may speak. What is your concern?” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry Alpha, but everything that your mate, Cammie is doing is getting to be too much. My mate hasn’t been home in two weeks and my home has been unattended. The females are occupied with these new ventures and aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing. The new thoughts and ideas that Cammie is putting into their heads is to much!” I laugh. “So, your complaint is that your mate isn’t cleaning your house and cooking your food? I don’t see how that is my problem. Do you not help out around your house?” He looks at me like I have two heads. “Help out? You mean cook and clean? That’s the woman’s job!” I narrow my eyes at him and swallow the words I want to really say. “Jason, do you respect me?” He nods. “Yes, of course Alpha.” I nod. “Well, do you know what I did last night?” He shakes his head. I smile. “Last night, Cammie came home from her training and was sore. I drew her a hot bath and told her to relax, I took her a glass of wine and left her alone. While she was relaxing, I cooked dinner and cleaned up so she didn’t have to. Then I served her dinner in bed and afterwards I gave her a massage. Do you think less of your Alpha for doing this?” He’s staring at me with his draw open. “You cooked and cleaned and then served and took care of her? I mean I was taught that our mated were to take care of us?” I shake my head. “I know and that’s how it was a long time ago and the women were fine with that. Time has changed and now both men and women share the responsibilities. I plan on changing things with our pack, it may take some time and some may not be happy at first but it will change.” He nods. “I love my mate and I want to make her happy.” I nod at him and can tell that’s true. “Well, Jason, then you have to do things to make her happy and that includes helping her and sharing the load at home.” He nods. “Thank you Alpha.”
I watch him leave and relax back in my seat. I meant every word I told him; I intend to make a lot of changes. It may take some time and it may upset a lot of people but it needs to be done. I expect to have some people challenge me and I will stand my place and accept the challenges like an Alpha does. I look at the clock and take notice that it’s almost time for the meeting with the contact from Zander’s pack. I wonder who he’s gonna send? I’m not sure if he allowed Jenny to take her spot back in the pack, I mean she was facing treason. I swallow at the thought of Cammie and Jenny working together and then again it makes me laugh. Cammie will tear her apart, I shake my head. If it is Jenny, she will walk in here expecting to work with me just like she always has. She’s got a rude wake up call waiting for her. Cammie is waiting and prepared, and my mate doesn’t take any prisoners. That thought makes me smile.
JENNY
I adjust my skirt and top as I walk into the office hallway and smile. Yeah, I look perfect, I’m wearing a short ass black mini and a tight low-cut top. Mason won’t be able to keep his eyes off of me, I pat my purse which holds the vile of brew that won’t allow him to keep his hands off of me. We always have a drink in our meetings and I usually pour them so this will be perfect. I can quickly slip it in and then he won’t be able to resist me and when someone walks in and sees us. I smile as I think of Cammie finding out. That’s just the beginning, get Cammie all upset and hurt at the thought of me and Mason together. Again. Then go after Cammie, but make it look like she came after me. I shrug, if she comes after me, I can claim self-defense and have a reason to kill the Bitch. My smile gets bigger at the thought. “Oh, excuse me. I’m sorry but the meeting is in room 101 now. Please head that way.” I turn towards Shelly, Mason’s assistant confused. Maybe he changed offices, I nod and head next door and walk in and my heart drops. Standing behind the desk is Mason’s fucking mate, Cammie and she looks all professional and ready to talk. “Oh, you’re here already. Thank you so much for knocking Jenny. Please have a seat and we can get started.” She smiles, fucking smiles as she waves a hand at me, then towards the chairs. I bite back a growl and smile as I take a seat. “I’m sorry Cammie, I am expecting Mason.” She cuts me off before I can say anything else. “No, Jenny. From now on anything that concerns you and the Gentry pack will go through me. I’m in charge of it, so therefore all of your meeting will be with me.” She smiles and knows that she has me where she wants me. I bite down on the inside of my mouth and put a smile on my face as I nod. “Ok, I was just unaware and wasn’t informed. I’m glad that you’ve settled in so well with the pack. It’s great to see a woman working in such a high place in the pack.” She just smiles and nods. I wonder how Jacob is taking this.
We continue with the meeting and go over everything that needs to be done. She brings up the last delivery, the one that was messed up and I don’t have record of. “Jacob said that it was a mistake on your companies end and I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” I shake my head, that Bastard. He rigged the paperwork and is now trying to stick the blame on me? “Um, no. The paperwork is right here. As you can see everything is in order and the delivery was set for the right amount. We received additional paperwork for a change of order the very next day.” I hand her the papers because if she contacts Zander and he looks into it I’m fucked. She nods and then makes copies of it. “Ok, thank you Jenny. I look forward to seeing how this works out.” I can see the sarcasm in her smile and hear it in her voice and it makes me want to punch her. I nod. “Me as well. Well, you have a good day, Cammie.” I head out and shake my head. Fuck! This fucks up my plans but I will be damned if Jacob is gonna throw me under the bus, then again this may be perfect. If Cammie and Mason find out he’s been messing with the books and think he’s the one trying to go after him. I think long and hard, I can just sit back and watch Jacob take the fall for taking out Mason. I laugh and shake my head. This may work with very little input from me.
CAMMIE
I smile as I watch Jenny leave the room, when she arrived, she thought she was meeting with Mason. As soon as I saw her enter and I looked at her I wanted to rip her to shreds. Who the fuck did she think she was? I mean, coming here dressed like a fucking whore, I laugh to myself. I sit back and go over everything we talked about and look over the paperwork, I’ve made copies of everything I want to make sure that I have doubles just in case. I find it odd that there is now different accounts of how the inventory was screwed up. Jacob blamed it on Jenny’s end and now Jenny claimed it was Jacob’s fault, and she showed me two different order forms. I’m going over past orders when my door opens and Cameron walks in and interrupts me. “Ok, sis it’s time to explain what’s going through that complicated head of yours. You’re up to something, I can tell.” He pins me with a stare that makes me laugh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” I look at him with an innocent look and bat my eyelashes. He laughs and shakes his head. “You’ve been having Jacob over for dinner and been keeping a closer eye on him. I’ve seen the way you’ve been watching him and it’s like you don’t trust him. There’s something there. I don’t blame you; I’ve always gotten a weird vibe from him but he’s Mason’s Beta so I can’t really say anything.” He shrugs with a frown on his face. I look at him and think about it, if Cam feels the same way I know I have reason to feel the same way.
I sigh as I lean back even more in my chair, shaking my head. “I don’t know Cam, there’s just something that’s not right. I think him and Jenny are up to something. I mean I’ve been going over all the inventory and paperwork from the past couple of months and nothing is adding up. I’ve gotten it all straightened out and after meeting with Jenny just now it makes me even more worried. Jacob gives me creepy vibes and I always follow my gut but then again look at what happened with Gage.” I cock my eyebrow at him, I wasn’t the best judge of character with him. I mean, he tricked me for years. Cameron shakes his head. “Cammie you can’t blame yourself for what happened with Gage, you didn’t know and had no idea who he was. You didn’t know what he was. You had no idea of the shifter world, so you didn’t know what he was capable of.” Sighing I know deep down he’s right
but still. “Ok, back to Jacob. What do you think he’s really up to?” I shake my head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I think he’s been skimming money from the pack, not a lot at a time, just a little here and there. I just can’t place where it’s going. I’m gonna dig a little deeper and see what I can find. He’s been meeting with some of the pack members, the ones that aren’t happy with me changing things up, claiming them to be guys nights. I really hope that’s all it is.” I bite my lip and ponder what he’s got up his sleeve. Cam shakes his head. “I know that he was surprised when Mason took over as Alpha at such as a young age. He expected to step in until Mason was older, but Mason refused to have anyone run the pack besides blood. Jacob won’t challenge Mason, that I’m sure of, there’s no way he could win. Jacob is to weak to beat him. The only thing Jacob has on Mason is brains, he’s sneaky but that’s the scary part. He could undermine Mason and that’s a bad thing.” I shake my head and as I think about it, I worry. “Hey, Cam? You don’t think that Jacob could have had anything to do with me being taken, do you? I mean, it would be the perfect way to get to Mason.” The thought scares me more then anything. Cameron looks at me and I can see the look of anger and fear in his eyes. “I don’t want to say no but I can’t say yes. I mean, you’re right it would have been the perfect way to get to Mason, knowing you are his mate it would have devastated him and he would have been devastated to no end. It would have weakened him and his Alpha status, He would have been vulnerable and could have been taken down easy if anything had happened to you. But we found out that it was Gage that was behind it, him and Micah, so it couldn’t have been Jacob.” I nod and hope he’s right. “I know, you’re right. I just worry now with us being Fated Mates it makes things even worse. We haven’t told many people that part, we don’t want to be targeted.” I look at Cameron and it seems to hit him how dire the situation is now. He runs his hands through his hair. “Fuck. I just remembered that. Cammie, this could be even worse than I thought. We need to figure out what Jacob’s end game is, and soon.”
After Cam leaves, I start digging into past orders even more and realize that I’m right, the prices start to change and it confuses me. I walk out and seek out Shelly. “Hi, Miss Cammie. What can I do for you?” She smiles at me. “Hi Shelly. I was going over all the records for past inventories and I noticed that everything was just transferred to electronics just in the past few years. I’m gonna search around for better prices just to make sure we’re getting the best deals. Is there somewhere I can find the records for the records before the electronic ones?” She smiles brightly at me. “Of course! We have all the paperwork in the file room. I kept them in order and made sure they were filed away nice and neat. Come on, I will show you where they are.” I smile at her and follow her down the hall. I walk into a small room and notice all the files are indeed filed away neat and in order. “Thank you so much, Shelly. This is great and will help so much.” She nods and leaves me alone to get to work. I grab the last five years of paperwork and head back to my office. I get so caught up in going over everything I don’t realize the time and soon realize it’s lunch. Mason comes in and is standing next to my desk laughing at me. “Well, I guess what ever you’re doing is so intriguing that it’s causing you to not notice me. I don’t know if I should be hurt or not?” I look up startled and then laugh. “Shit babe. I’m sorry. I got so caught up in all of this that I guess I didn’t even realize the time. What’s up?” He shakes his head. “We’re supposed to have lunch or did you forget?” He looks at all the paperwork spread across my desk and raises his eyebrows. “What are you working on anyway?” I shake my head, not wanting to tell him. Not yet anyways. “Oh, I’m just going over the cost of the shipments for the materials the pack has used in the past. I mean, it’s always good to see if there’s been increases or decreases over the years. Never know if there’s a better deal out there. Anyway, that the pack can save money is a good way.” He nods. “That’s not a bad idea, I mean we’ve been with Zander for so long I don’t even know how much we get charged anymore.” I smile at him, it’s sad that he doesn’t have a clue about any of this. “So, how about that lunch? Johnson had to cancel my training this afternoon due to another commitment so I have the afternoon free.” I smile at him and he grins back. “Oh, I get you for the whole afternoon, huh? I can definitely go with that. I have a few things in mind then.”
I can’t think of anything better than to spend the afternoon with Mason, we haven’t had much time to ourselves, we’ve both been so busy. We have a quiet lunch and then spend the rest of the day just laying in bed, enjoying each other’s bodies. The way he makes me feel is amazing and the bond that we share is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. If Jacob is up to something, I need to figure out what it is before it’s to late. I won’t let any harm come to him, he’s my everything.
JACOB
I look around at the guys that are gathered at the bar and I have to admit, it’s not a bad amount of people. All of these guys are unhappy with our Alpha’s new mate. They want her gone or our Alpha to step down, we’ve been getting together and talking about how to start setting things into motion. “So, when are we gonna get the Bitch out of here? I can’t take this shit anymore.” I laugh at Bruce; he’s been the biggest supporter of all of this. I knew he would have been after that first night when him and Cammie went head to head. “Relax, things have been going pretty good. Cammie has been stirring up problems just like I thought she would. She’s already screwed up everything in the warehouses with the employees and soon we will have problems with Zander’s pack with the shipments.” I grin at the thought of how the meeting went with Jenny this morning. I haven’t heard from her yet but from hearing that Jenny met with Cammie instead of Mason it makes me laugh. I bet it threw Jenny through a loop and it should have pushed her to up her plan even more. “She sure as shit has been. Things have been so screwed up. I mean, she came in and re-organized everything that some of my guys don’t know what to do. Then again some of them are falling at her fucking feet. It’s fucking disgusting.” John, one of the warehouse guys shakes his head. “She’s stubborn and determined to do whatever she can to be the best at whatever she does. She’s strong, so whatever you guys plan you need to make sure you know what you’re doing. Oh, and Bruce? I really don’t suggest that whole challenge thing you keep talking about. Everything she’s been showing me while she’s been training, she will definitely come out on top. They weren’t kidding about her being an Alpha Female. Bitch is tough.” Johnson shakes his head and I take in the bruise forming on his jaw. I grit my teeth and realize that taking her out may be a bigger challenge than I thought.
“Look I know that it’s gonna be a challenge to get everything back to where it’s supposed to be but we will get our pack back. We can’t allow her to come in here and start changing generations of traditions. Mason is just to in love to see it. I’ve got some things planned and hopefully they will work out. So, let’s just keep up what we’ve been doing and just sit tight a little bit longer. She doesn’t have any idea what’s going on as of yet, so we’re good.” The guys nod and we continue to talk about nothing important and just enjoy the rest of the night.
The next morning I make a few phone calls, it’s time that I get back in touch with past ghost. “Hey, I need to find out where you guys are as of now. Things have calmed down enough and you’ve been in hiding long enough. You still have a job to complete.” I keep my voice firm, these guys feed on fear and I need them to think I’m not playing around. He laughs. “Oh, little wolf. You think he’s just gonna jump because you called and said it’s time to jump? That’s not the way it works, you jump when we say. I will say it’s been awhile but that doesn’t mean anything. Let me see if he’s available and wants to speak with you.” He goes quiet before I can say anything and I grit my teeth. I know this is taking a risk but I haven’t received the results for the job I paid for. “Well, hello little wolf. I was wondering when I would hear from you. What can I do for you?” I
can hear the humor and sarcasm in his voice. “Well, how about you finish your job I paid you for?” He laughs. “You interfered with that job. I did what you paid for, I snatched her but you and your wolves grabbed her back. Did you want to re-negotiate?” I growl. “No, you were supposed to get rid of her and I want that done! I want it done soon. We had a deal.” He sighs. “Ok, but it will cost you.” Frustrated I sigh. “Fine. Just do your job, Micah.”
MASON
I’ve been noticing that Cammie has been throwing herself into her training and into the work that she’s been doing for the pack. I don’t know if she’s just trying to fit into the pack or if she’s that dedicated but I’m starting to worry about her. She goes in early in the morning to the office, does her training in the afternoon and then back to the office afterwards till late in the evening. We haven’t spent that much time together and then I noticed that Cameron has even been hanging around the office with her. Something is going on; I just don’t know what. I decided to wake up early and make her coffee and breakfast so I can catch her before she leaves. She walks in and looks surprised when she sees me. “Hey babe, what are you doing up?” She walks over and kisses me as I hand her the cup of coffee, I smile as she moans, taking a long sip. “I just wanted to actually see you. I haven’t seen much of you lately and thought we could actually have breakfast together before you went into the office.” She frowns. “I’m sorry Mason, I didn’t realize I was that so caught up in everything. I just want to make sure that everything is caught up and in order before I let it slack and cut back to just a couple days a week.” She gives me a small smile. I nod at her and smile. “I understand. I’ve notice that Cameron has been around the office a lot with you as well.” Her smile dims a little and I study her. She nods. “Well, he does handle a lot from his pack and he’s been showing me a lot. He’s been helpful. Plus, you know how he like to hoover.” She rolls her eyes and laughs but it doesn’t sound like her usual laugh. I sigh and realize that I’m gonna have to let it go for now. I pull her to me and nuzzle her neck. “Ok, just promise me something?” I look at her and she smiles. “Anything.” I kiss her. “Just promise me that you will be home for dinner every night and that we will be able to fall asleep in each other’s arms and wake up in each other’s arms every morning. I miss you.” She kisses me long and hard. “Ok, I promise. I miss you as well.”
