Chapter 2. Lex
I glanced at my clock and nearly cried.
Shit! I was late!
Grabbing my notebook and whichever pen my hand landed on first, I practically ran to the conference room. Usually, I set an alarm to go off ten minutes early—ten glorious minutes where I could pick the furthest seat away from the head of the table where Chad would be. It wouldn’t stop his eyes from undressing me every time he glanced in my direction, but he wouldn’t have the chance to physically touch me.
As I approached the conference room, I straightened my oversized blouse and sucked in a deep breath. The door creaked open, and I took a quick glance around.
Billy, my best friend, looked hopelessly up at me from one end of the room, mouthing “Sorry” as she flicked her eyes to the hulking form of Brett, Chad’s second-in-command and ultimate “bro.” Chad had obviously seen that Billy had been trying her best to reserve the seat for me, and so he’d sent his lumbering minion to take it.
Reluctantly, I let my eyes slide up the table and, just as I expected, the only available seat was right beside Chad.
“Alexis.” His voice skittered over my skin, making me shiver involuntarily. “So glad you could finally join us. It’s not like you to be late. Tut-tut. Come and take a seat beside teacher”—he tapped the empty space beside him—“so I can keep an eye on you.”
Every woman in the room—not that there were many, as most quickly left the company—let out an involuntary shiver.
Oh, how I wanted nothing more than to hex his dick off.
As I walked around the table, I flicked my eyes at Billy. Her lips were pulled into a silent snarl, her eyes slowly turning a glowing, ember red. I shot a look at her, and they quickly turned back to her normal ice-blue irises.
Having a wolf-shifter best friend had its benefits. I could guarantee that she would be the first to leap across the table and tear Chad’s throat out if he made one wrong move. But then we would have to deal with the absolute nightmare that would inevitably follow shifting in front of a room full of mortals. My coven had extreme punishments for performing magic in front of unsuspecting mortals, so I could only imagine that Billy would be in for just as bad a ride from her pack if she shifted.
I reluctantly took a seat, and Chad glared down at me, a poor attempt at a sexy smirk on his face.
Like, seriously ? This guy? I’d voluntarily had sex with this guy? Man, being part succubus was the worst.
The meeting lasted all of fifteen minutes. Chad talked at warp speed, only stopping to look at my cleavage. Even though my shirt was purposefully loose and buttoned up to my neck, his eyes narrowed as if he could see straight through the material.
With a final deep breath, Chad sighed and said, “Well, folks, thank you for your time. I hope you got all that.” He glanced around as everyone was still furiously taking notes. “Lexi, can I see you in my office?”
Brett grinned from the other side of the table.
“Oh, actually,” Billy called from Brett’s side, causing his smile to falter, “Lex and I have a meeting.” For good measure, and with the slightest tinge of venom in her voice, she added, “A meeting with HR.”
God, I loved Billy from the bottom of my heart.
“This will only take a minute,” Chad said, rubbing a hand over (though not actually touching) his sculpted blond hair.
I flicked Billy a look. I could hold my own against someone like Chad. Of course, I would have to be careful—cursing a mortal wasn’t something that should be done lightly, and I’d have to report it to the coven immediately should it come to that. Which it shouldn’t. So far, the last month had just been filled with Chad undressing me with his eyes, often making suggestive comments, and occasionally placing his hand on my back, shoulder, or thigh for a moment too long.
“Fine. A minute,” I barked, causing a few of the men to snap their heads up at me, matching looks of horror on their faces as if I should feel privileged that I’m allowed in the conference room at all and not shackled to a kitchenette making them coffee.
Urgh , I fucking hated working in a boys’ club.
So , I followed Chad down the clinical, gray corridor to his office. He opened the door for me but didn’t move far enough back. Reluctantly, I shimmied past him, careful not to touch him, and held my breath, though the sharp tang of his aftershave still found its way up my nostrils.
Chad gestured that I should take a seat. He didn’t bother going to his side of the desk, but instead sat in front of me. The desk creaked under his weight as he spread his legs, pointing his crotch directly at my line of sight. He placed his elbow on his thigh and his head on his hand and stared down at me as if I were just some silly little girl who hadn’t quite realized just how much of a catch he was... if you could call a wallet with a small dick and no personality a catch.
My eyes narrowed in on him.
“Alexis. Lex. Lexi, Lexi, Lexi,” he mused, each note causing a wave of nausea. “Listen. I know what you’re doing.”
“Eh?” What I was doing was trying my damndest to stay out of his way for the last month.
“Of course. I mean, I’m your boss and we...” His voice trailed off as he made a move to push my hair behind my ear. I quickly bobbed out of his reach, my stomach clenching in revulsion, and he recovered smoothly enough by bringing his hand back to hover over his sculpted hair.
“Look, Lexi. I know you’ve been playing hard to get for the past month. And I’m into it, I really am. But let’s stop playing games, hm ?”
I snorted. Was this guy for real? “I can assure you, Chad, I’m not playing games.”
Chad stared down at me, still with the condescending look, as if it would only be another minute before I realized what an amazing opportunity he was giving me.
I sat with my arms crossed. When he finally realized I was serious, his entire demeanor changed. Like a wounded animal, his face scrunched into a semi-feral grimace. Caressing the lapel of his jacket, he snapped, “Alexis. If you want to have any chance of making it within this company, I suggest you stay on my good side. In fact”—he started to unbuckle his belt—“there is a senior position coming up”—he unzipped his trousers—“that I think you would be perfect for.”
He dropped his boxers, and I tried not to gag as his semi-flaccid cock pointed at me.
I looked from the glistening tip to his soulless eyes, and back again.
His voice was humorless and savage as he said, “Well, it’s not going to suck itself.”
And then I did what any other witch would do in my position.
I hexed his dick off.
***
Okay, I didn’t hex the entire thing off, but it shriveled up to the size of a prune that had been left out in the California sun all day.
It took Chad a full minute to realize what had happened, and even then, he stared down at his crotch in utter disbelief.
I stood up, leaned in and whispered, “I quit.”
Chad’s screaming didn’ t start until I was halfway down the corridor. I couldn’t help but smile, then groaned.
I would need to return to my coven immediately, report the hex to the head of the coven, who also happened to be my grandmother—not that she would show me any favoritism despite the fact that I was pretty much her clone—and write a full and lengthy report on every encounter with Chad that had led up to the point where I had no option but to hex him. Not that the paperwork was even necessary for the trial. My grandmother would use a special crystal to project my memories to everyone in attendance. No, the paperwork was a deterrent and made most of the coven think twice before throwing a wayward curse lest they be forced to write a twenty-page essay on why they didn’t use their words instead.
Billy was waiting for me in the office we shared, pacing back and forth, her ears slightly pointed and silver-tufted. The moment my scent filled the room, she snapped her head toward me, sniffing the air.
“No blood. You didn’t kill him, then?” she asked, almost disappointed.
I punched the side of her arm. “Who’s to say I didn’t strangle him?”
“Not funny, Lex.” She turned to me and placed both hands on my shoulders. Her glowing red eyes flickered with worry as she looked me up and down. Her nostrils flared, assessing for damage.
“You did magic. I can smell it,” she said, voice gruff.
“Dude, chill out,” I replied, squirming free and flicking her on the nose. “You’re starting to wolf out on me.”
“Sorry. And— ouch ! Didn’t your mama teach you not to flick an angry wolf on the nose? Besides, I can’t help it,” Billy said, tucking her silver hair behind her still pointed ears. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed them back to rounded human ears.
Billy’s recent, uncontrollable wolfing-out around assholes like Chad wasn’t normal wolf behavior. I mean, it was normal for wolves (and any sane being) to be annoyed at people like Chad. But her wolf struggling to get out and tear him limb from limb, acting like he was a challenger, could only mean one thing.
Billy was becoming an alpha.
The problem for Billy was that while she was still technically part of a pack, she had moved far away under the pretense of college and just never moved back. She was, for all intents and purposes, a lone wolf. And you can’t really be an alpha if you don’t have a pack to follow you.
Billy wasn’t able to tell me much about her pack, and I guessed she’d been spelled to secrecy. Any time she said something about her pack that would give away their position or what they did, a buzzing noise filled my ears, and I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Very powerful magic indeed. Aside from her dad being a helicopter parent who had pushed her to achieve all her life (which had resulted, instead, in pushing her away to the point where she would only rejoin the pack for major holidays), I didn’t know anything about my best friend’s life before I met her.
She tossed her icy hair. “Tell me what happened,” she said.
And so, I did.
“What a prick!” she shouted. “I wanna tear his throat out.” Her growl was inhuman as she started toward the door. With what little sense I could muster, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
“That’s not a good idea, Billy. Besides, I’m already in enough trouble with the coven. If you kill him, that’ll be at least another ten pages of paperwork I’ll have to write.”
Billy seethed. “How many other women has he done this to?”
I sighed. I really didn’t want to think about it.
But that was the reality of the situation. If he’d done it to me, there’d most likely be others. “I’ll report it to the police after I’ve spoken to the coven,” I promised.
The door swung open, crashing into the wall with enough force to bust through the drywall. Brett’s heaving form loomed in the doorway. “What did you do to him?” Brett bellowed, his eyes boring into me.
“Do to who? Oh, Chad?” I asked sweetly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You did something,” he seethed. “Chad doesn’t cry over nothing.”
“I haven’t got the slightest clue of what you’re talking about,” I said, standing up and grabbing my purse. The good thing about working in such a toxic environment was that I was ready to leave at the drop of a hat.
Brett didn’t move an inch. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what you did to him, you bitch.”
I really didn’t want to have to hex another mortal, but Goddess help me, I would if this brute didn’t move.
Fortunately, it was Billy who came to my rescue.
“She doesn’t work here anymore, so she’ll go where she damn well pleases.” Billy’s voice was as sweet as a spring lamb—if that lamb had been skinned and fashioned into a coat by an icy-haired wolf.
Brett let out a gruff, challenging laugh. “Neither of you are leaving until I say so.”
In the blink of an eye, Billy’s Doc Martens had connected with Brett’s crotch, resulting in a sickening crunch that made me think she’d kicked him hard enough for his nuts to hit his spine. Brett crumpled to the floor, and Billy grabbed the collar of his jacket. “You should be more polite to ladies. Oh, and in case you haven’t guessed yet, I quit too.” With her inhuman strength, she slid his whimpering form across the room, and he landed in a heap. I had to stifle a giggle as a plant pot with a long-dead plant clattered off the cabinet and smashed on top of his head like something from a sketch show.
“Later, loser!” Billy called over her shoulder as the pair of us flipped him the bird.
The moment we stepped out the front door of the building, it was like a weight I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying lifted from my chest.