There was also the option of sacrificing the high standards—of being less stringent in regards to their sustainability and eco-friendliness policies.
He considered the choices in front of him. If he took on the cost of more advertising, it could correct the loss of revenue and that division of the company could improve—but it might not. The allure of a lower cost was a major drive of consumer interest, and Alex knew that as well as any executive.
There would need to be a way to bring the cost closer to the competitions—otherwise, he thought, I could advertise until everyone knew everything they possibly could about Oberon Industrial’s products to no avail. He hated the idea of cutting back on worker hours, of putting people in a position to earn less; if he cut back on staff right away, the cost to manufacture would come down and they could afford a lower sale cost.
If they cut back on production, there was the issue that while they could eliminate or cut hours for employees, they would be in a difficult position, labor-wise, when and if the products rallied—they’d need to hire again.
Finally, he thought, there was the other cost-cutting measure. If he lowered the standards, he could save a great deal of money. But the bear in him—the animal that loved the deep forest, that needed the pristine acres of trees and streams, rocky hills and valleys—disliked the expedient of following the competition into practices that would disrupt ecosystems and displace and harm animals.
Alexander started to form his opinion on the matter, taking the different projections into account. He composed an email to the executive who had sent him a report, to be acted on as quickly as possible.
“I want to make a compromise,” he wrote. “I understand that we’re going to need to cut costs. I also understand that we have to get sales up. I think if we devote an additional 25% over our current budget to advertising the products, focusing on value rather than cost, along with a few specific and targeted cuts, we’ll come through on the other side of this.”
He outlined what he wanted; he was willing to make specific compromises on the level of quality and sustainability on the manufacturing end, cutting back on oversight and sourcing of materials standards to lower cost. He also gave a maximum number of employees to either have their hours cut back or their jobs temporarily furloughed.
He outlined that if the decision came to lay off an employee, they would receive half-pay for the first three months of their layoff, as a gesture of goodwill; if their layoff lasted longer than that, they were of course welcome to seek other employment opportunities, and Oberon Industrial would fill the openings as needed.
The decision wasn’t one that Alex particularly liked, but it was one that he could live with, that made sense and at least wasn’t as devastating or foolhardy as any one of the paths alone would have potentially been. He sent off the recommendation email and plunged into his next report.
This one concerned Lasko as well—they were, according to a personnel manager—poaching talent from Oberon. Alexander shook his head; Oberon had been in competition with the Lasko Corporation for as long as he could remember, but they had never been so mercenary in their attempts to get an edge. At essence, Lasko and Oberon tackled two ends of the same markets.
In the last several months, however, Lasko had been encroaching on Oberon Industrial’s territory in as many ways as they could—increasing their manufacturing, targeting new clients, moving into areas of business they had never gone into before but which Oberon had been involved in for at least a decade. It seemed as though Lasko was actively trying specifically to hurt Oberon Industrial’s interests—not just an act of competition but almost one of corporate malice.
The poaching of employees was just another part of what seemed to be a larger mission to drive Oberon’s performance down. The personnel manager stated that it was particularly galling that Lasko was poaching candidates from high-level positions, people who knew the inner workings of different departments, who knew secrets.
There was a non-disclosure agreement that every employee was required to sign, but enforcing it—if they could find evidence that there were trade secrets disclosed—would require court battles, and would bring negative attention to the company.
Alex decided that he would have to not only make sure that his defecting employees weren’t giving Lasko information that could help the corporation push Oberon to the brink of bankruptcy; he would also have to take proactive measures to make sure that more of his staff didn’t leave the company in favor of greener pastures at Lasko.
He authorized the personnel manager to discover what kinds of new benefits would be enough to entice people to stay—or potentially to win them back to Oberon Industrial.
If he could get some of his best management talent back, it would be a major coup. Alex’s father had long been a proponent of the idea that employees who felt valued, who thought that they were treated like part of a corporate family instead of being just another worker, were much more likely not only to stay, but also to work better and harder.
Alex was mulling over the results of the last report that required his attention, considering the move of opening up into a new area of business in supply, when his phone buzzed, alerting him to an intra-office call from his assistant.
“Yes?” Alex was irritated at the interruption; the last report was just as important as the first two, though for different reasons. If Oberon Industrial could keep ahead of Lasko, it wouldn’t matter if the other company was trying to encroach on their territory. They could out-maneuver Lasko until the other company had to give up its attempts and settle for its secondary position in the pecking order of the industry.
“A Mr. Eric Neems is on line one for you, Mr. Oberon,” his assistant said. “He said that you would want to take the call, but I wanted to verify for myself.” Alex smiled. His assistant was instantly suspicious of anyone she hadn’t dealt with before—a good trait, and one that Alexander encouraged. But the name gave him a moment’s irritation. Eric Neems. Alexander frowned in distaste.
“I’ll take the call, thank you.” He picked up the phone and pressed the button for line one. “Eric,” he said, sitting back in his chair and turning away from his computer screen. “Seems strange for you to be calling me like this.” Alexander’s skin was crawling with the intensity of his dislike; he had thought—hoped—that he would never hear from Eric again in his life after the way their friendship had ended.
“Just wanted to check up on you,” Eric said, his voice a little too hearty, a little too friendly. “You know, catch up on the news. I heard about your father, that was a real shame.”
“He’s been gone for months, Eric; if you wanted to express your condolences, you’re a bit late for social standards.” Alex wished his former friend would get to the point already.
“I’ve been terribly busy—I hadn’t noticed.” Alexander rolled his eyes; if Eric was so busy, he wouldn’t have taken the time to call. Alexander could still remember the last words that Eric had spoken to him, on the dissolution of their joint venture. “You’re getting out of this scot-free, Alex, but you’re not always going to have daddy’s money and lawyers to help you out.”
Eric had given Alex the entire blame for their business venture together failing—had insisted that there was nothing wrong with the end of the company that Eric had responsibility for, but that it was Alex’s fault for the business development pushing ahead of what the client management side could actually produce.
“Get to the point, Eric. You’re obviously not interested in making a social call. You haven’t wanted to speak to me for two or three years now.” Alex glanced at his computer screen; for the moment the report, daunting as it was, was more interesting than talking to a man who blamed him for the fact that his own personnel hadn’t been able to live up to the projections they’d made.
“I wanted to tell you I did finally manage to get a new job a few months ago. Just before your father passed away. I would have told you sooner, but first it seemed like a bad
time and then, of course, time got away from me.”
“I’m glad to hear you’ve gotten a new job, Eric,” Alex said, rolling his eyes again. “Anything I can help you with?”
“My new job is as CEO of the Lasko Corporation,” Eric said smoothly. Alex paused. Lasko; the company that had been pushing to out-compete Oberon Industrial for months, the company that had been making inroads and developing business to come up against Oberon and undercut prices. The sudden shift in strategy made sense to him now.
“I’m surprised they didn’t come to me for a reference when they were considering you,” Alex said. He needed more time to think about the implications of what Eric had told him. Eric had known a great deal about Oberon Industrial’s MO. As Alex’s friend, an intern in the company when they had both been in college, as a member of the same community that Alex and all of his family belonged to, Eric had been close—too close, apparently.
When Oberon Industrial had bought out the business that Alex had formed with Eric, Alex had gotten the entire buy-out price to himself; Eric had gotten nothing out of the deal. At the time, it had only made sense for Alex to sell out to his father—the business was failing, it was unsustainable, the field was narrowing and the company wouldn’t be able to survive for more than a few more months.
“I didn’t need you as a reference; I had plenty of other people to attest to my skills.” Alex smiled to himself at the harshness of Eric’s voice; it at least was a pleasant change from the overblown confidence and airy sociability that his former friend had affected at the beginning of the call. “In any case, I was calling to ask what you think of the latest moves we’re making. Looks like Oberon’s been losing some steam.”
Alex took a deep breath as quietly as he could. “I had noticed that Lasko seemed to be doing its damnedest to stick its nose into areas it has no business trying to compete in,” Alex said, keeping his voice level. “And that you’re trying to get us to race to the bottom to keep our clients, price-wise. That’s never going to work, Eric.”
“Don’t change your prices if you don’t want to,” Eric said, regaining his smooth, sleek confidence once more. “We’re happy to take the industry.”
“You won’t, though,” Alex said, shrugging indolently in the privacy of his office. In reality he felt his rising anger—another bear encroaching on his territory. A primal instinct was building up inside of him, an instinct much less pleasant than the one that had driven him to seduce Daphne. “How about this, Eric: I know that animal rights is a subject dear to your heart. Why don’t you meet me at the next ARC luncheon? We can talk all about Lasko and Oberon there.”
The luncheon was in two weeks; that would be more than enough time to at least implement strategies to counter his former friend—the results would have to wait, but he would have his pieces in place by then.
“I’d love to meet with you; I noticed you’d become a spokesperson. Think it might represent a distraction from your struggles?”
“No,” Alex said, struggling to suppress the growl that was forming in his throat. “Just something to add to my life. I’ll tell you more about it at the luncheon.”
“I will be there.” Alexander barely managed to tell his former friend goodbye before hanging up the phone. He had work to do.
CHAPTER 4
Alexander sat at a table in the enormous hotel that ARC had taken on for its luncheon, looking around the room in an attempt to spot Eric. He had given Daphne the information to issue an invitation to Eric, without telling her precisely why he wanted Eric there. He wanted to get the confrontation out of the way before he had another opportunity to be alone with Daphne after the luncheon; the situation had taken up more of his thoughts than he wanted it to.
He had met with Daphne again a few times after their first tryst. Every time they met his bone-deep attraction to her became stronger and stronger. Alex hadn’t made their relationship—such as it was—public as yet; for all the outside world knew, Daphne was only his handler at the charity, the person who kept him at work as a spokesperson.
He closed his eyes; the image of Daphne, sprawled on his bed at home, satisfied and content, bare except for the blanket haphazardly draped over her legs, flashed through his mind, sending a jolt of heat through his body. Whenever he thought of her, he remembered her naked, the delicious smell of her skin, the taste of her lips, the heat of her body wrapped around him.
She had hesitated when he invited her to meet with him at his home. “I don’t know if we should be doing this,” she said over the phone when he had called her.
“You’re participating in a long tradition, Daphne,” Alex had told her playfully. “Besides, you can’t tell me honestly that you didn’t enjoy yourself.” He had smelled her pheromones; he had known she was aroused, had scented the difference in her body’s fragrance after she achieved orgasm. “I guarantee you won’t get in any trouble at all for sleeping with me.”
“You can’t promise that,” Daphne had protested.
“If they fire you I’ll withdraw my funding and my spokesman contract.” Daphne had paused on the other end of the line.
“You would?” she asked. Alex had chuckled.
“Absolutely. Without hesitation. You’re the only reason I’m a spokesperson for ARC anyway; and there are plenty of other animal rights organizations I could donate to.” Daphne had hesitated only a moment longer before agreeing to come to his home.
The moment she had arrived, Alexander had pulled her into his arms, kissing her hungrily, letting his hands roam over her lush curves as the scent of her body flowed into his nose. He had carried her into his bedroom straight away, neglecting the dinner he’d had prepared for her visit—reasoning that it would hold over fine, and he was more interested in her body than in the food.
He had stripped her clothes off quickly, casting them aside with no care or concern for where they landed on his floor. He could barely restrain the animal desire rushing through his veins from nothing more than the delicious, intoxicating scent of her body, the taste of her lips. He had nearly ripped her shirt getting it off her, felt the simmering, tingling magic of his other nature crackling along his bones.
He had been able to hold himself back, suppressing the transformation that tempted to charge through him unheeded; it startled him, but he was too full of desire to stop short of Daphne telling him no.
She had not even noticed it, or so it seemed—Daphne was moaning, writhing against him, her body heating up, the scent of her arousal washing over him and driving him nearly insane with the need to touch her, taste her, possess her. Alex had thrown her onto the bed as gently as he could, reveling for once in his supernatural strength.
He could still see the way she had looked up at him, her cheeks flushed, her breasts quivering slightly from the force of her panting breaths. Her dark hair had tumbled down to her shoulders, and her eyes were almost black, her lips slightly parted in a way that drew him in as surely as the mixture of warm spiciness and musk overrode any consideration other than having her.
Alexander had spread her legs wide, stripping off his own clothes as he slipped down along the length of her body, kissing the not-quite-flat line of her abdomen until he came to the crest of her hip. He reached up and cupped her pussy, rubbing her slick folds with the heel of his palm, feeling her growing wetness against his skin.
He trembled slightly, feeling his animal essence boiling inside of him, threatening to erupt at any moment. When he couldn’t contain himself any longer, he buried his face between her legs, nuzzling his chin and nose against her labia, flicking his tongue out to give himself the barest taste of her.
Daphne was sweet to his tongue, her fluids like warm, running honey, ever so slightly tangy as he spread her labia wider and began to suck and lick. He closed his eyes and devoured her, teasing her clit with the tip of his tongue and then moving down to the well of her pussy to lap up the steadily flowing fluids he found there.
He plunged two fingers into her quickly, delighting
in the sound of her surprised, pleased cry, the way it bent and twisted into a throaty moan as she pushed her hips down to meet his touch. In a matter of moments she was whimpering, writhing underneath him, her legs wrapped tightly around his shoulders, her back arching off of the bed as she came closer and closer to orgasm. The flood of her fluids gushing onto his tongue nearly made Alex hit his own climax; he barely held himself back, shuddering as he forced himself to breathe slowly and steadily.
Alexander came back to himself with a start, his brain registering the sight of Eric making his way towards the table in a survival instinct. Eric looked no different from how he had when they had seen each other as business partners for the last time; dressed in a three-piece suit, it would be hard for anyone to believe that the man was a werebear—but the signs were there to see.
Alex was unusual for his kind; long and slim, he contrasted with almost all bear shifters. Eric was more true-to-type, with heavy bones and dark, snarling hair on his head, his facial hair barely contained, already showing a 5 o’clock shadow halfway through the day.
“Good to see you, Alex,” Eric said, sitting down at the table. Alex felt a deep wave of dislike and animosity; his animal instincts twinged at the scent of Eric’s pheromones—something off about the other man’s scent. Alex realized that Eric was projecting a dominant tone, and one that made him immediately want to challenge the man, right then and there.
“Good to see you too, Eric,” Alex said, suppressing the territorial flash of anger that washed through his brain. “Being CEO of a company seems to agree with you.”
“You’re looking a little tired, maybe you’d be better off in a less onerous position.” Alex began to smile. Eric had never been—of the two of them—properly suited towards being in a dominant position; the cockiness he was displaying now was clearly an affectation, and one he wasn’t comfortable with.
“Just been busy, is all. You wanted to discuss our separate businesses.” Eric picked up a menu and looked at it briefly. There were three options—all three of them vegetarian, as befit the animal rights platform. Alex was far from excited by the selections; he had long ago come to the conclusion that he would not deny the omnivorous nature of either his human or his bear essence. But he could tolerate a vegetarian meal every once in a while.
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 18
