Now, she was no stranger to good-looking men. After all, she was part of Pi Beta Kappa, one of the most popular sororities on campus, and thus had her pick of all the cute college boys, from the football jocks to frat bros. However, these guys seemed like a whole new level. Everyone was over six feet tall, built like lumberjacks, and strutted around with a confident and magnetic air about them. Even the one or two female rangers she spied were also fit and gorgeous. In some of her biology classes, they’d briefly touched on shifter physiology and how they were faster and stronger than humans, and they also healed quickly and hardly got sick. But, none of her books or professors talked about how outrageously attractive shifters were.
And then there was Damon. For some reason, most of her thoughts kept coming back to him. Although everyone around here was attractive, there was just something about him that she found unforgettable. Maybe it was those soulful brooding green eyes of his.
Brooding? She scoffed at herself. But still, she couldn’t help but think of his broad shoulders and that tight T-shirt and wondered if his chest was smooth underneath or hairy …
Oh, stop.
Thinking those thoughts would not end well. Despite all the guys who chased after her throughout college, she always ended up with the ones who treated her like trash and broke her heart. Why couldn’t she be attracted to the nice guys, like Gabriel? Even now, her stomach fluttered at the thought of being near Damon.
“Hey, baby, whatcha looking for? Or should I ask, who?”
She stiffened and whirled around. A man stood behind her, a cocky grin on his face and his golden eyes sparkling. Like everyone around here, he, too, was amazingly gorgeous. And from his smirk, he knew it. “I’m—”
“Get lost, Anders. She’s not interested.”
She exhaled in relief when she saw who it was. “Hey, Gabriel,” she greeted, glad to see him here.
“Hey, Anna Victoria,” he greeted back. “So, I take it you got the job?”
“How do you know?” They hadn’t seen each other or spoken since yesterday, and J.D. didn’t mention anything about working here.
“I, er, kinda guessed,” he said sheepishly. “When J.D. mentioned that friend who needed an assistant.”
“How do you know this angel from heaven?” The other man wiggled his brows at her.
“Oh, brother.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have anything more original than that?”
His smile widened. “So, what you’re saying is, I should try harder?”
Gabriel whacked him on the shoulder. “Lay off. She’s the chief’s new assistant.”
“Temporarily,” she added. “I’m on probation for the next two weeks.”
“Isn’t that nice? Anna Victoria, was it?” Anders’s golden gaze flickered over her. “Well, the name’s Anders Stevens. If you need me to show you the ropes, just holler. I can do other things with ropes too—ow!”
That earned him another smack on the head. “You’re a walking sexual harassment suit, you know that?”
Anders tsked. “You’re certainly prettier than the last ones. I hope you last longer than them.” Anders flashed her another flirtatious grin before laughing and walking away.
Gabriel steered her away. “Sorry about that,” he said. “He’s mostly harmless. And not everyone around here is as unprofessional as him.”
“Wait, what does he mean ‘the last ones’?”
“Er …” He looked sheepishly at the floor. “Damon’s gone through quite a number of assistants in the last six months.”
“A number? How many?”
“About eight.”
“Eight?” she exclaimed. “Does he gobble them up?”
“Not literally,” he said. “But … he’s got a special way of working. But don’t worry, his bark is worse than his bite. Most of the time I mean.”
She worried her lip. However, she was determined to make this work. “I’m tougher than I look.”
“I hope so,” he chuckled. “Since you’re going to be dealing with Damon all day.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No, just to prepare you.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what J.D. was thinking.”
“I don’t either but … I just need this job.” The more she thought about it, she realized what an idiot she’d been, just driving off without a plan. If she hadn’t driven into Blackstone or met J.D., who knows where she’d have ended up? Right now, Blackstone was her only option.
“It’s all right,” he soothed, placing a hand on her arm. “I’m sure you’ll do great.”
Someone clearing their throat made her start. Standing in the doorway of the office was the man himself. And for some reason, he looked pissed.
Gabriel stepped back and put his hand down. “Morning, Chief,” he greeted.
Damon let out a grumble, then turned to her. “There’s your desk. You know your way around a computer, I assume. The inbox on the desktop is yours, clear it out. I’ll send you instructions there.” He disappeared into his office without another word.
Her hands balled into fists at her side. Not even a welcome or good morning. How rude.
“Don’t worry about him,” Gabriel said reassuringly. “He’s just … well, that’s just the way he is.”
“And what’s that? A b-hole?” Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a great idea to call the boss names on her first day, especially if said boss had super senses. “Oh God, do you think he heard me say that?”
He chuckled. “Nah, a bear’s hearing isn’t as good as a feline’s.”
Huh. So, Damon was a bear shifter. It kind of made sense, seeing as he was so grumpy all the damned time.
Gabriel patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. “Listen, my shift’s about to start soon. But I can swing by for lunch. We can eat in the cafeteria, since you brought your own.” He glanced down at the brown paper bag in her hand.
“That would be nice. Thanks.”
“You’ll do great,” he said with a wave as he walked away. “I’ll see you soon.”
When Gabriel was out of sight, she turned back to her desk. It was bare and clean, except for the phone, computer screen, and keyboard. Planting herself on the chair, she booted up the machine and waited for the screen to light up. Once it did, she opened the flashing mail icon on the desktop.
The message notification sound pinged, one right after the other and soon, the inbox was bursting with new emails. Seeing as Damon said it was hers, she clicked on the oldest unopened email from a few weeks back. It was some kind of advertisement from a clothing company, so she quickly junked that.
It took her about an hour to remove all the spam mail and unsubscribe the inbox from various email newsletters. The previous user of this inbox obviously loved online shopping. Who the heck uses company email for personal use? Even with her non-existent work experience, she knew better than that.
Now to tackle all the official-looking emails. First, she went through the oldest ones. Mostly it looked like requests and questions from employees and the general public. She categorized them for now since she really didn’t know how to answer them. Maybe she could ask Damon.
Apprehension filled her as she glanced at the door to his office. But what else was she supposed to do? He didn’t exactly leave her any instructions. She stood up from her desk and circled around to head into his office.
“Uh, Damon?” she asked, peeking her head through the doorway.
His head whipped toward her. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
The gruffness in his voice made her pull her head back. After a deep breath, she knocked on the door and poked her head through again. “Damon?”
Now he was scowling at her. “That’s not what I—never mind. What do you want?”
Did the man go through his day trying to find new ways of being unpleasant? Walking inside, she stopped in front of his desk. “I just wanted to know what you want me to do with the unread emails that aren’t junk or spam. I was cleaning out the general inbo
x and I have about twenty or thirty emails that need attention.”
His frown deepened. “Who told you to do that?”
“You did,” she huffed. “You said clear it out.”
“And I also told you that I would be sending you instructions on what needs to be done,” he said, irritated. “I’ve sent you six emails. What have you been doing the hour and a half?”
Her lips pursed together. “I was working the older emails since some of them have been sitting there for weeks.”
“Are you the boss, or am I?”
God, what was up with this man? “You are. I’ll get right on it,” she said curtly, then turned around and marched outside.
You need this job, she said to herself after taking a long, cleansing breath. It was this or going back to her father and Edward. Just thinking about that made Damon’s rudeness tolerable. Almost.
She sat back down and opened the newest six emails, all from Damon. Each one had a curt line or two, telling her what to do with the attached files. No “please” or “thank you” or even a “kind regards.” No, it was just “print this leave it in my inbox” or “proofread and forward to HR.”
Cracking her knuckles, she went right to work. Truly, it wasn’t difficult, but she could see why his last eight assistants quit. Not everyone needed their hand held or back patted all the time, but he could at least make the effort to be polite, like a normal human being.
But he wasn’t a normal human being. Damon was a bear shifter. The thought of him turning into a large furry beast made her shiver.
Finally, it was lunch time, and there were only two more emails from Damon she hadn’t yet opened and worked on. But that could wait. Surely, a one-hour noon break was allowed.
“Hey, Anna Victoria!”
Swiveling her seat around, she saw Gabriel approaching her. He wasn’t alone though, as a tall, blond man walked beside him. As expected, he, too, was fit and good-looking. “This is Daniel Rogers,” he introduced. “Don’t worry, he’s the nicest guy around here.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Daniel’s blue eyes twinkled. “And please, Gabriel’s exaggerating about being the nicest around here.”
“Yeah, well she met Anders first thing this morning,” Gabriel said, rolling his eyes.
She offered her hand, which Daniel shook. “Pleased to meet you, too, Daniel.” His grip was strong, but friendly.
“Ready for lunch?” Gabriel asked.
She glanced quickly at the door to Damon’s office, then shrugged. “Yeah.” Standing up, she grabbed her water bottle and brown paper bag that contained her tuna sandwich. “Let’s go.”
The two guys led her to the “cafeteria” in the back of the building, which was unlike any lunchroom she’d ever seen. For one thing, it was more like an outdoor picnic area surrounded by tall pine trees and an amazing view of the snowcapped mountains in the distance.
“Wow,” she exclaimed as she sat down on one of the benches. “Some cafeteria.”
“Working here certainly has its perks,” Daniel said.
Gabriel sidled up next to her. “Yeah, you get used to it.”
“Five years working here, and you still can’t appreciate nature.” Daniel shook his head.
“I like nature well enough, but I’m not going to roll around in it and pretend it’s the best thing ever,” he shrugged. “Anyway, why don’t you go and grab some food, and I’ll keep Anna Victoria company?”
As Daniel nodded in agreement and walked toward the counter, Gabriel turned to her. “So, how was your morning?”
She blew out a breath, sending a stray lock of hair in her eyes flying. “I wish I could say it was good, but you did warn me.” She relayed what happened with Damon. “It’s like he hates me.”
“No way,” he protested. “I mean … he’s like that with most people.”
“So, he just hates everyone, not me in particular?”
“Er …” He tugged at the collar of his uniform. “I guess. But if you knew him better, you’d understand.”
“You’re his friend, right? So why does he act like … like …”
“An asshole?”
She chuckled. “Yeah.”
“He’s—”
“I’m back.” Daniel slid onto the bench seat in front of her. “Your turn, Russel.”
“You know, you guys could have gone together,” she pointed out. The lion shifter merely waved a hand as he walked away.
“So, Anna Victoria,” Daniel began. “Gabriel tells me you were the one in the dress at The Den the other night.”
She groaned. “You were there, too?”
He nodded. “Afraid so. But we don’t have to talk about that, if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks,” she said. “So, do you like working as a ranger?”
“Yeah, I enjoy it.…”
Anna Victoria listened to Daniel talk, glad to not have to tell him more about herself or her situation. Gabriel joined them soon after and added to the conversation.
As lunch went on, she found herself having a good time, even forgetting about that morning’s debacle. She enjoyed the company of the two men, though she did find it strange that they warded off anyone who tried to approach them, except for the two female rangers who had introduced themselves to Anna Victoria.
“You’re too skinny,” Gabriel said as he dropped his plate of fries in front of her. “Eat.”
“Skinny?” she said. “I’ll have you know, I run a six-minute mile, and I’ve been doing the New Mexico Breast Cancer Marathon every year for the last three years.” While she wasn’t an elite athlete, she did enjoy exercising and staying fit. Aside from running, she did yoga, aerobics, Pilates, and barre. “Besides, I can’t eat trash like that and not have it go straight to my hips.”
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Gabriel teased.
“If I was, you’d know it,” she snorted. “I—”
“What’s going on here?”
Gooseflesh rose on her arms. Turning around, she found a pair of clear green eyes boring into her. There was no mistaking the stern expression on Damon’s face.
“Hey, Chief,” Daniel greeted. “Just having lunch. Have you eaten?”
“I said, what’s going on here?” he repeated, his eyes never leaving hers.
“I’m just having lunch,” she said. “Is there a problem with that?”
“You’re five minutes late.” He cocked his head toward the large clock on the wall.
“Oh. Right.” Her cheeks heated. “I’m sorry about that. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t.”
“Damon. Dude.” Gabriel got up and stood toe-to-toe with him. “It was five minutes. We got a little carried away. It’s no big deal.”
“Aren’t you late for your shift too?” he asked, stretching out to full height, which was two inches taller than Gabriel.
“It’s fine, Gabriel.” She quickly gathered her trash and her purse. “I’ll head back to my desk now.” The tension in the air was too much, and she couldn’t wait to get away from there, so she slung her purse over her shoulder, stomped over to the trash can, and tossed her rubbish into it.
Hands balled at her sides, she took deep breaths to relieve the tightness in her chest. Why the heck was Damon such a jerk? Sure, she was late, but he could have been nicer about reminding her. Did he stalk all the way to the cafeteria to drag her back to her desk?
“Anna Victoria, wait up!” Gabriel shouted as she walked back into the building.
Though she was tempted to keep walking, it wouldn’t have worked because he caught up to her, blocking her way. “Sorry about that,” he said.
She sniffed. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“Damon—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. That’s just the way he is with everyone. I shouldn’t take it so personally. But he … he just makes it so difficult.” Her fists tightened even more. “Maybe I should just quit. He didn’t want me here in the first place.”
&nb
sp; “Quit? Are you crazy?” Gabriel gripped her shoulders. “Listen to me, Anna Victoria, you can’t let him get to you. The more you shrink back, the worse it will be. Just stand up to him if it’s too much; he’ll back down. Besides, do you really want to leave Blackstone?”
She sighed. “No.” I can’t give up now. J.D. and Gabriel had put in a lot of effort to help her and make her welcome. “I’ll just … try harder I suppose.”
“That’s the spirit.” He clapped her on the shoulder. “You’ll do great. I know it.”
When she looked behind him, she saw Damon walking up to them. The look on his face was, not friendly, but less severe. Maybe it was even remorseful.
“Anna Victoria, I—” His mouth clamped shut when his gaze landed on Gabriel’s hand resting on her shoulder. His expression turned dark again, then he turned on his heel and headed in the opposite direction.
I don’t understand him. And maybe she never would. But she didn’t need to. All she had to do was survive the next two weeks.
Chapter Five
Damon wasn’t sure how he managed to survive five days being around Anna Victoria. It had been pure torture, seeing her every day, sitting at the desk outside his office. His damned bear wouldn’t let up either. The Demon wanted him to go after her, claim her and take her, to keep all the other males from sniffing around her. After the third day, he started coming in earlier and leaving when he knew she was long gone, just to evade her presence.
Of course, he couldn’t completely avoid her. She came in several times to his office to ask questions and give him paperwork to sign. When she did come in, he did his best to be cold and distant. He regretted reprimanding her for being five minutes late during her lunch hour that first day, but it was all he could do to stop The Demon from ripping off Gabriel and Daniel’s heads for daring to be near her. After calming himself down, he did go back to apologize, but seeing Gabriel with her just made him burn with jealousy. Even now, things were not quite right between him and his best friend, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell him why he was acting like an asshole.
So, for now, he decided to just keep things cold and professional. Even if all he wanted to do when she came into his office was bend her over his desk and bury himself in her.
Blackstone Ranger Chief Page 6
