Bear's Temptation

by Fay Walsh

  “Okay, let me handle the pieces, sir. I want to be the one to choose the topic,” she demanded. This was the least she could do to ensure that she wouldn’t be betraying Darren.

  “That’s fine. Just give me pieces I’ll be proud of, and I won’t bother you,” he snapped.

  She sighed, realizing that this could mean curtains for her relationship with Darren, although she didn’t want it to be this way. They had such a good relationship and losing it was the last thing she wanted.

  Nevertheless, she began to work on her first piece. She made sure to keep it on the subject of the paranormal, but she refused to mention names, or to get specific in any way. Darren wouldn’t be mentioned in this or in any other of her articles, no way in hell. If he asked about it, she would just tell him that it was a piece that she was putting together for another client.

  It was the best lie that she could come up with, but she didn’t have any confidence that she would be convincing enough. Her conscience tortured her but she wanted to make sure that she didn’t hurt him.

  Then again, did Darren even read her pieces? She always thought that he was the type to be anti-news, but maybe he liked reading it every so often.

  If he happened upon one of her pieces, she would explain the situation and she would insist that she wouldn’t be mentioning any names.

  After the first piece was submitted, she got a check. Lisa thought at first it would be nothing, but it was a check that was more than what she made weekly. Her jaw dropped and when she spoke with her boss about it, he simply smiled.

  “People pay good money for paranormal pieces, my dear. I hope that you’re okay with writing that type of content because we are moving in that direction,” he explained.

  “But it’s not even fall, or Halloween for that matter,” she replied.

  “Doesn’t matter. I want to use this type of content, and I want to make sure that we gear our programs towards this,” he explained.

  She shuddered, thinking about the fact that he wanted her to do all of this. It made her want nothing more than to just scream. But, she kept her composure and she wondered what she should do next.

  Lisa didn’t get any call from Darren, and the next piece would be about possible paranormal activity in the town. She didn’t know if she wanted to write about this particular topic, but with the payment she was getting from it, she almost felt that she was being forced to.

  With this kind of money, she could take care of herself and work on her dreams of possibly having her own company eventually. But, there was always that sense of guilt with her. She constantly worried about how Darren would respond, and sure enough, after a few days, she got a call from Darren.

  She paused, looking at the caller ID, wondering if she should just ignore him, but that would made her feel even worse. She knew deep down that she couldn’t just pretend that everything okay and ignore it. So, she took a breath and picked up the phone. As she expected, Darren’s cold voice pierced her heart.

  “Nice pieces you wrote there,” he snapped at her.

  “Darren I can explain-”

  “No, you don’t have to explain. I know what you see me as. Nothing more than a sideshow to make you money,” he said.

  “Well if you just listened to me and let me tell you why I’m writing this, then we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she stated.

  “Bullshit. You’d figure out a way to make this a mess for me, Lisa. You always do,” he said.

  “And you’re just as cold as ever. You thinks you can control what I do. Well, you’re wrong,” Lisa snapped.

  “I trusted you Lisa!” he said.

  “I trusted you too Darren. Do you honestly think that I’m going to talk about… that?” she asked.

  Lisa didn’t know if Thomas was on the other side of the wall, so she was making sure that she didn’t say anything.

  “Well, I’ll have you know Lisa, I’m pretty fucking hurt by this. I feel like if I spend time with you, you’re going to try to put your spin on my words like I’m some kind of a fucking joke,” he spat.

  “I don’t think that, Darren. You should know that by now,” she stated.

  “Well, your words and actions are clearly different. I read the article. It was bordering on an exposé, so I will say that you’re very bad at hiding this,” he stated.

  “But my boss needed me to do this, or I would be fired!”

  “I was actually thinking about having you on my team as a marketing director, and a content writer for my company. But you betrayed my trust,” he simply put.

  She nearly dropped the phone at those words. She almost got a job with him? She thought he didn’t believe in her abilities that much!

  “Wait, are you serious?”

  “Yes. But you ruined that Lisa. You fucking did. You took stuff that I told you in confidence and made you promise to keep quiet. Instead, you wrote a piece on them. What the fuck? I thought I could trust you!”

  “You can trust me! I kept it vague for a reason!”

  “Yeah, but you’re a fool, if you don’t realize there’s an obvious paper trail,” he spat back.

  Lisa felt hurt. She was shocked at his words and this feeling spread through her body like fire. He called her a fool like… like it was nothing!

  “Fuck you, Darren. I need some space, and if you think that I’m just another girl, then you’ve got another thing coming,” she said.

  “Don’t ever write another piece on me, or I’ll make sure to sue you. And while you’re at it, don’t ever speak to me,” he said to her.

  “Fine. I was making sure that I didn’t anyway,” she said.

  She slammed the phone down, anger coursing through her body. How dare he accuse her of trying to expose him! She felt the anger grow within her body, and she needed to do something to get her mind off of it.

  Her boss thankfully had her assigned to other pieces at the moment, so she was safe for the time being. With her every breath she felt calmer, and as her anger diminished she was filled with grief. She couldn’t lose him.

  At first, she thought that it would be a temporary thing, where she would talk to him after a little bit. However, every time she called Darren, it would go straight to voicemail. He was either leaving his phone off, or he blocked her calls. Every night she would cry over the telephone.

  She wanted to do something about it. But she had only one question stuck at the back of her mind. She wondered if she should just tell her boss that this was enough and quit, or if she should just continue to work with him.

  It was all too much, and in truth, she was just dragging herself to the office. She felt weakened by all of this like she made the biggest mistake of her life. She wondered if it was even right to go after a guy again.

  This was the first relationship that she had in a long time, and she had messed it up so fast that she felt as if her entire body had shut down.

  Lisa worked throughout the week, her actions almost robotic in a sense. Darren made no effort to talk to her for over a week, and she wondered if he would ever change his mind. If they saw one another in town, would they be able to at least say hello? Or would it be the silent treatment, as punishment for what she had done? She had a lot of feelings that she couldn’t express. If only she could explain it to him.

  Lisa came into the office with a sigh and Thomas noticed it immediately. He looked up at her with a big smile on his face.

  “Is anything the matter?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I feel like... I don’t know how to describe it, exhausted both physically and mentally from life,” she sighed.

  “I understand that. If you need to talk, I’m here for you,” he said.

  “Thank you, sir,” Lisa stated, not trusting him a bit.

  “It seems like something is eating away at you. If this continues it will show in your work. If you need to talk about it, you can always with me,” he said.

  She looked at Thomas, wondering if she could speak her mind without saying who the person was. She rehea
rsed what she wanted to say, to make sure that she wouldn’t reveal anything suspicious, and after a bit, she started to speak.

  “It’s boy issues. There was this guy I was seeing and we had a big fight. Eventually, we broke up but I’m just feeling a bit sad about all of this. I’m trying to process it all and I’m worried that I’ve done him wrong,” she said.

  Thomas nodded, and she felt a strange reassurance that he understood what was going on.

  “It happens. Trust me on this, Lisa. You’re a bright, beautiful woman, and sometimes you get so passionate about your work that sometimes people may not understand. Was it because of work reasons?” he asked her.

  Lisa wondered if she should tell him, but she didn’t want to leave a trail that led to Darren. She let a sigh out and looked at her boss with a little smile.

  “You could say that. We didn’t see eye-to-eye when it came to reporters, and it turned into a big fight, one that made me feel a little bit bad about,” she told him.

  “Well, if he won’t understand that this what you do, then he’s not worth your time. Don’t worry so much about it. You have a stable job here with me as long as you’re writing good content. I’m sorry I was a bit pushy with those articles, I just needed them done quickly,” he said to her.

  She nodded. “It’s okay I guess,” she told him.

  “Well, if you’re willing to write more, then I’ll gladly give you some,” he proposed.

  She nodded, realizing that her boss would constantly give her more work.

  “Thank you. I appreciate it,” she told him.

  “Good. You’re a valued employee my dear, and you definitely are worth every penny,” he said.

  She listened to those words, trying to believe him, but in truth, she didn’t know how legit that was. It sounded like lip service, something that was rehearsed. It made her worry that Thomas seemed to so eager to act so friendly towards her.

  “Thanks. I’ll be spending more time here working on the pieces if that’s okay with you,” she added.

  “That’s wonderful! I’d love that,” he excaimed to her, a smile quickly appearing on his face.

  She knew that her boss was happy about this, but she wondered if she really was. Was it right to just let things go, to spend time with him and work on her goals, rather than worry about her relationship with Darren?

  Maybe she was onto something, and maybe this was it.

  Chapter 14

  Darren clenched his fingers as he hang up once again, anger spreading through his body. He couldn’t help but feel betrayed by Lisa.

  He knew that Lisa was stubborn as all hell and that she woudn’t admit that she had been wrong. He just wished though that she had at least listened to him when he had warned her! It was frustrating to know that she had betrayed him, but then again, was he really all that surprised?

  Darren was stubborn himself and he didn’t want to talk to her after all that she had done. He felt that no conversation between them would fix this situation.

  He decided to settle on work, spending more time than necessary at the office. Work was what kept his mind off of what happened with Lisa. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t hurt by the way that she treated him, but he wasn’t going to let this get in the way of everything. His secretary though noticed this, and as she was leaving one day, she entered his office to talk to him.

  “Are you okay, sir? I noticed you’ve been spending a lot more time here, and you seem… upset,” she stated.

  He stopped, shuddering at the words that she uttered. He took a deep breath before he reassured her.

  “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he said to her.

  “I am worried, sir. You’ve been quiet, and you seem as though the whole world it hurting you. I want to help you,” she admitted.

  “Don’t worry about me,” he snapped.

  “You know, I’m pretty sure that the reason why things went sour with her is because of that cold air. Maybe you should learn to understand it,” she told him hesitantly.

  Darren paused with anger throbbing through his body. However, he didn’t want to get mad at Beth. She couldn’t understand what was at stake here and he was better off just keeping it to himself.

  “Sorry. I’m trying, Beth. I’m just… at a bit of a loss for words right now,” he tried to make amends.

  “Well, if you need to talk to anyone, I’m here for you,” she told him.

  “Thanks,” he said to her with a small nod. She smiled back at him and then he headed out.

  “Well, I’m about to head out. If you need anything more, don’t hesitate to ask,” she said with a cheerful smile.

  He smiled back at her and she scurried off. When Darren looked at her getting away, he felt a small feeling of dread run through his body. He hated that he was getting this sense of dread out of everything.

  He needed to speak with Travis again. When he got home, he looked at the Alpha dead in the eye and Travis nodded in agreement.

  “You’ll all have to excuse me. I need to talk to Darren over here,” he stated.

  Darren nodded, motioning for Travis to come to his office. Once there, Travis closed the door and looked at the second-in-command with a warm smile.

  “You’re in a good mood,” Travis started with a sardonic tone.

  “I guess. I have a lot going on,” Darren admitted.

  “Let me guess, things still aren’t so good with her?”

  “In a way, yeah. She wrote a piece and it’s a dead ringer for us. She had made a promise and broke it. Sometimes, I feel that I’m stubborn for not talking to her, but then again, she was the one who betrayed my trust,” he exclaimed all in one breath.

  “I get that. Well, I think we need to just watch her, see what she does. We will act only if she starts doing anything unsavory. We can always resort to other measures if need be. The option if you trusting her is out of the question? Maybe you need to give her a bit more credit. Is this impossible?” Travis replied.

  Darren sighed. “I tried to, but I didn’t expect her to write some piece on me that was basically screaming ‘there are shifters in this goddamn town’ and post it all over the Internet.”

  “Maybe you’re overreacting. I don’t think she would do that out of malice. Maybe she didn’t have a choice. Yes, it was bad that she wrote about the existence of shifters, but she didn’t reveal any identities,” Travis pointed out.

  “You tell me this Travis, but I don’t believe it. At least not yet. The fact that she did it like this, without even discussing it with me first, bothers me. What next? A piece on me explaining what color my fur is?”

  “You care about her though. I can tell. You’re angry, and upset, which I totally acknowledge, but you need to realize that those feelings won’t go away with the nurturing of that anger. Maybe talking it out with her is the solution you need. I get it, talking things out with people fucking sucks. I hate it, but it’s also the best way to figure out how to solve a problem. If you don’t do that, you’re going to get hurt even more,” Travis explained.

  Darren nodded, looking at Travis and smiled numbly. Travis had once again managed to cool him down.

  “Thank you. There’s definitely a reason why you’re the Alpha.”

  “Well that, and that you totally aren’t mentally in shape to be the Alpha. Darren, you need to realize that you’re a grown shifter and you can face the unknown. And I’m sure that, with the right teaching, even she will understand,” Travis pointed out.

  Darren listened to this, and while he hated to admit Travis was right, he was damn right.

  “Yeah. I should give myself a bit more credit too,’ he explained.

  “You should. There is a reason why you’re one of the top shifters in my group, the second in command and the one I trust with the most important tasks. You helped me through my mess, so I’ll help you with yours.”

  “Which is appreciated. Thanks, Travis.”

  “No problem. Sometimes giving the other person a little bit o
f faith will help,” Travis pointed out.

  Darren nodded. While he hated to admit that Travis was right, he considered that maybe this was what he should do. Travis was definitely a good friend and someone reliable to help him through. After a bit, Darren left the office. He was hesitating to call Lisa and apologize, as Travis had suggested. He wasn’t ready yet.

  At the moment, he would silently protect her and make sure that everything was okay.

  The next day, Darren made his way to Lisa’s office, since it was on his way home. He kept having a bad intuition about her, as if something was about to happen. Indeed, when he got there he felt a strange presence, something that gave off evil vibes.