The Trouble With Two Alpha's

by Brenda Westfall

  “Go inside and see if it looks like there has been a struggle. Do you smell the other wolves around her door? Find her! I’m on my way.”

  They searched inside the house and it was worse than they expected. Most of her clothes were gone. No signs of any other wolves, but Gabi had fled.

  Ten minutes later, Jack and the rest of the pack pulled into her driveway. They parked and got out. Watson and Wanda met their Alpha in front of her house.

  “Sir, she… she is gone. No wolves took her, she packed her clothes and appears to have taken off. Most of her clothes are gone. The house was locked, but we gained entry and searched. No signs of where she was going.”

  He started howling and growling. Jack was beyond furious. Scared too. She shouldn’t be alone. Where was she going? What was she thinking?

  Elliot got out his phone and called her cell, but she wouldn’t answer it. It went straight to voice. She couldn’t have gotten too far, could she have?

  “Sir, you want us to split up and drive the roads to see if we can find her?”

  “Yes, now. Move it. She isn’t safe all alone. I want her back. This time she will listen to me. If I have to tie her up, she will be my mate.”

  Gabi wasn’t sure where the men were that was supposed to have been outside her house. As far as she could tell no one was following her.

  “I don’t want to do this. I don’t. But I can’t take the pressure anymore. Jack this is all your fault.”

  The tears rolled down her face. She was leaving everything behind. Her house. All nice and newly remodeled. Her new furniture. Her house. Her things. All new and perfect. Now she was walking away. She didn’t know what she was doing.

  The fight with Jack had been the final straw. For weeks now, he had hounded her about mating with him. About how he was a werewolf Alpha. How he was destined to find her, his other half.

  She didn’t believe in werewolves. How could so many people believe they were werewolves if there wasn’t some truth to it? She was just being ridiculous he had said. No, he was.

  Werewolves are only in movies and books she had argued. Why did he have to be so damn good looking and crazy as hell? Why did he have some kind of pull on her? Whenever he was around, she had to fight to keep her sense about her.

  What was wrong with her? She finally meets a man who she just might be able to fall for and he turns out to be insane? The thoughts just kept running through her mind.

  Jack and the pack had split up into four trucks and searched for hours. No signs of her. No way to tell which way she had gone once she got out on the highway.

  Maybe she had stopped somewhere for gas. Jack called the pack drivers and told them to stop at every gas station they came to and ask if anyone had seen a woman fitting her description.

  They searched for her throughout the night. When first light came Jack called them all to a meeting place. He got out a map and sat staring at it, as if that would tell him where she had gone.

  “I keep trying to call her, but she isn’t answering her phone. I have left several messages, but I doubt she will listen to them. What more can we do to help find her, sir?” Elliot asks.

  “I wish I knew. I too have called her cell, but she won’t answer. I figure the minute she sees it is me, she screams and tosses the phone aside.”

  “Do you think she is safe?”

  “No, I don’t. We know another wolf pack has been watching her and stalking her at home. She can’t possibly be safe. Why if they find her out by herself, no telling what they will do to her. I should have marked her. I should have mated with her. I was trying to let her fall for me the way she should. I know my wolf is right, she is our mate. I can feel it. She does too, but she fights the feelings she has when we are together.”

  Jack paced back and forth. What else could they do? How would they find her now? She hadn’t been in town. Jack had gone through it three times with a fine-tooth comb. If she had stopped in town, he would have found her.

  Talking to himself. “Gabi why did you run from me? Baby, can’t you see what it is doing to us? I know you feel it. The farther we get from one another the more it hurts. At least for me. I don’t know, maybe since you’re not wearing my mark, it doesn’t affect you the way it does me. I know for sure you’re my mate.”

  I hated leaving, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I finally had my little house just the way I wanted it. The barn was done. All the fencing was done. The place was picture perfect.

  The flower beds had been made. I had planted all kinds of flowers in them. Some of which were already blooming. It reminded me of something out of a garden magazine.

  But I couldn’t take any more of Jack’s insisting we were mates. I didn’t believe anything the man told me. After all, who in their right mind would believe in werewolves?

  What kind of sane person would ever believe in werewolves? No one, that’s who. No one with good sense would ever believe him. Just when I had started to have feelings for him, he goes all crazy on me. Couldn’t his family see, he needed help? Hell, they needed help just as much as he did.

  I know that he watched me most of the time or had someone watching me. He had apparently told them to stay out of sight, but I knew. We had fought about it and I thought he had agreed to leave me alone. Yet, I could feel eyes on me when I was working out in the yard. When I went to town, I always felt like I was being watched. It was kind of creepy. I had to pack in the middle of the night to get away without him following me. Even then, I wasn’t totally sure he wasn’t having me followed. We had fought over him, insisting I needed protection. I thought he had given up the idea. But I was pretty sure after a few days that he never would.

  I was leaving the first home I ever owned. The first house I have really called home. I wouldn’t sell it. No, someday maybe I would be able to go back.

  I cried as I drove out of town headed to who knows where. I had no idea where I was going to go. I just knew I had to put some distance between Jack and me.

  I drove for a couple of hours before I finally called it quits. When I arrived at another town there were no plans. Just find a place to sleep while I thought about my situation.

  I found a little hotel and rented a room for a couple of nights. Feeling sorry for myself, I crawled into the smelly bed and tried to go to sleep.

  I was so upset, so angry, so tired, so frustrated, that I couldn’t go to sleep. No matter how hard I tried to turn off my brain, it wouldn’t shut up. I kept going over and over Jack and my argument. Over how I just walked away from pretty much everything I loved. My house, my new life as a homeowner. Jack.

  I stayed in the hotel room for a couple of days just feeling sorry for myself. After I had calmed down and stopped crying, I started looking to the future.

  I went out and found a newspaper. I would look for a job. Maybe if I found a job, I wouldn’t have so much time to think about everything.

  I put out a few applications. Hoping it wouldn’t take too long to find a job of some kind.

  A couple of days later I got a call for an interview at a casino. I wasn’t sure what I could offer a casino, but what the heck, I would go see what kind of position they had open.

  Chapter 11

  Normally Miles didn’t pay that close of attention to the monitors, he had other people in another room who did that. He had it set up in his office in case he needed to monitor something or someone.

  So when he saw the most gorgeous woman walk into the casino, he had to stop everything he was doing. He had been on the phone while he was looking up at the monitors. She had caught his eye right away. He told the man he was talking to he would have to call him back and hung up before the man could say a word.

  She was tall, maybe five, six or seven. She had long wavy golden-brown hair that lay halfway down her back. The way she walked in the front door with her head held high like she had all the confidence in the world. It all called to him.

  He watched her walk in the front door. He watched as she asks where sh
e was supposed to go. He watched as she got on the elevators. There was something special about her.

  He called down to make sure she was hired. He wasn’t sure who she was or why she had caught his attention, but he wanted to keep an eye on her.

  “I don’t care if we don’t need anyone right now, I want you to hire the woman who is about to walk into your office. She is dressed in a black pants suit. Find something for her even if it is just vacuuming floors. Just do it!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He knew his employee manager was jealous of the young woman just because he wanted her working for his casino. Hell, she hadn’t even laid eyes on the woman yet and she was already jealous. It was in her voice. He could hear the jealously.

  He watched the young woman in question step off the elevator. He followed her every move on the monitor in front of him. The entire place was on TV screens plaster across the wall in front of him. Then he had a monitor on his desk that he could tune into whatever he wanted to watch closely.

  He watched as she sat in front of Julia. She sat tall and proud. She smiled and seemed pleasant enough. No matter how Julia seemed to treat her. He would reprimand her about it later.

  He turned on the intercom, so he could listen in to the interview the moment she had walked into the office.

  “Miss Cross, do you have any experience working in a casino?”

  “No, I don’t. But I am a fast learner. I pick things up very quickly. What kind of position do you have open?”

  “Well to start with we need someone to do some cleaning. You would be in charge of keeping the bathrooms on the first floor spotless. You would also vacuum the floors on the first floor. Then whatever else you were told to do. Do you think you would be interested?”

  Gabi thought the woman seemed a bit bitchy. Gabi got the feeling she didn’t like her, and Gabi didn’t know why. She just kept a smile plastered on her face and was as polite as ever. Which, if you knew Gabi, it was pretty hard for her to do.

  “I will take the job.”

  “Alright. We will fill out the paperwork and get you started. Do you mind working all hours? We prefer our employees to be available whenever we need them.”

  “I can work any time you need. I don’t mind working day or night. I like working. It keeps my mind busy.”

  The woman behind the desk looked up at me, but didn’t ask what I was talking about. I guess if I had a problem, she didn’t want to know about it. Not that I had meant to give that away.

  “You will start first thing tomorrow.”

  Her phone rang, and she answered it. Then Gabi noticed that she had more than one phone on her desk. Odd, she thought.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You will put her to work in the afternoons. Say starting around two and let her work till ten.”

  She looked disgusted at whoever she was talking to on the phone. She wasn’t happy about something I could tell. Once she hung up, she gave me my schedule.

  It didn’t take near as long to find a job as I thought it would. The casino had hired me on the spot. I was told I would have to wear black pants and a white shirt with a black tie.

  My first day wasn’t too bad. I met with my floor supervisor. His name was Brett. He was waiting for me the minute I stepped onto the floor.

  “You must be my new employee. Miss Cross is it? I am your floor manager while you’re working on the first floor. If you have any questions or need anything, you come to me. My name is Brett. Now shall I show you around.”

  He led me to a back door. It led into a long hallway. He showed me to a room full of lockers. He gave me a number and a lock. He told me that I could keep my things in my locker. He said I would have an hour lunch break. Then he showed me where the break room was for those who chose to eat at the casino. He said some left for lunch.

  He also told me there was a restaurant on the second floor. If I should like to eat there, I would get an employee discount. I got half off. Not bad I thought. He said the food was excellent.

  Once he showed me the employee rooms, he took me to a room full of cleaning supplies. He told me I would have my own key. Each housekeeper had a key. The door was kept locked to the supply room. Each key had its own code, so they knew who had been in the room and when. He warned me they kept an eye on their employees.

  He told me that every now and then someone tried to steal from the casino. He said should I chose to I would find myself in jail that his boss would prosecute anyone caught stealing even a roll of toilet paper.

  “Do I come off as a thief? I will have you know I have never taken anything that wasn’t mine or that I hadn’t paid for.”

  “No, you don’t come off as a thief. It is my job however to warn you in case you should get any ideas. I didn’t mean to imply that you were here to steal things. I just have a job to do. Now let’s get you started. Here is your name tag. You must keep it on all the time you’re in the Casino.”

  I took my badge and pinned it to my shirt. Then he gave me an apron of sorts to put on. It had a lot of pockets, he said in case I needed to carry supplies with me. He gave me a cart on wheels to clean the bathrooms with. He told me I was also responsible for the trash cans behind the windows where the public got their chips or cashed in. He said I also had to vacuum the floors. All of the first floor was vacuumed at least every two hours. He said with as many people as there were coming and going the floors got dirty fast.

  Once he thought I had everything I needed he let me loose. I started with the bathrooms. I found out there were six of them for the public on the first floor and one for the employees. It took me almost two hours to clean them. Then I had to hurry and vacuum.

  It seemed by the time I got the floors vacuumed it was time to do the bathrooms once again. I went back and forth my entire shift between cleaning bathrooms and doing the floors. I didn’t really have much time for anything else. At the end of my shift I took out the trash.

  I loved keeping an eye on my new employee. Miss Cross was beautiful and full of life. I watched how she interacted with the ladies in the restrooms.

  Everyone seemed to talk to her. She was always pleasant to them. I even saw her get a few tips. I watched as she went to her supervisor and ask if she was allowed tips. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. No other employee would have asked. They would simply have pocketed the money as if nothing had happened.

  She was fascinating to me. I just couldn’t focus on my work. Day in and night after night I found myself watching her. I couldn’t wait to come up with an excuse to meet her myself.

  A week after I had started, I was called upstairs to Mrs. Bixby’s office. I thought for sure I had done something wrong.

  Mrs. Bixby hadn’t wanted to see Miss Cross again much less be nice to her. But after the interview she had been called before her boss the Alpha of the pack. Miles Redwood was a wolf no one messed with if they valued their lives.

  “Mrs. Bixby if you ever treat her the way you did in the interview again, I will have your head. Do I make myself clear? Miss Cross is to be treated with respect. I don’t appreciate the way you behaved with her. I don’t know what your problem is, but it must not happen again.”

  “Alpha sir, I meant no harm.”

  He knew she was lying.

  “Tell me Mrs. Bixby why did you treat her the way you did? Afraid she was too human to work for me?”

  “No, sir. It’s just you seemed to forget you’re an Alpha werewolf and she is just a human.”

  Mrs. Bixby thought for sure he was going to slap her. She could see it in his eyes that he wanted to. She watched as his lips pulled back and he showed his teeth. She heard him snarl at her. Then he growled at her. It sounded like he was going to rip her apart. She was surprised when he let her go with a warning.

  “Miss. Cross have a seat. I must tell you I have been keeping an eye on you and your work. Seems to me you have been doing a wonderful job. My boss has noticed too. He has decided you should be trained to deal cards. He wants you to b
e a blackjack dealer.”

  I had watched her with people long enough to know she didn’t belong in bathrooms cleaning. I told them to make her a blackjack dealer. It would be a step up for her. Then I watched as she went to see Mrs. Bixby.

  The way Bixby spoke to me seemed to have venom behind each word. I didn’t know why she was faking a smile and giving me a better position. Something about this woman was off. She must be bipolar or something.

  “I have never played blackjack before. I don’t really know anything about the game.” I told her.

  “That is all right, we have someone who will teach you everything you need to know about the game. He will teach you how to deal the cards and everything.”

  I watched her staring at me. I couldn’t help but wonder why she hated me, but I swear the look on her face said she hated me with all her heart.

  I could see the way Mrs. Bixby stared at Gabi Cross. If I didn’t know better, I would think she was jealous of the human. Yes, that was exactly what was going on. Now I got it. Once, a very long time ago, before she had met her mate, Mrs. Bixby had tried to get my attention. Even back then I wasn’t interested in her.

  “Irwin would you come to my office.” Mrs. Bixby called him on the phone.

  We didn’t have to wait too long till someone knocked on her door, then came in before she could say anything. He was tall and good looking.

  Miles saw the way Miss Cross looked at Irwin, he didn’t like it one bit. How dare she. Then he noticed the way Irwin looked at Miss. Cross. That made him even madder. But why? He hadn’t even met Miss Cross himself. Only observed her.

  Irwin stood about six two or so. He had a nice tan. His smile was warm and inviting. His eyes were brown. His hair was long and pulled back into a low-lying ponytail.

  Irwin noticed the young woman immediately when he walked into the office. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She smelt good too, her scent carried to his nose.

  “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, it seems Mr. Redwood wants Miss Cross here to become a blackjack dealer. I need you to teach her all about the game and show her the ropes. She says she knows nothing about the game. She has never played.”