Chapter 18 Before #2 – Connor
Receiving a call from Thea in the middle of the day during the work week is unusual. I answer it quickly and immediately know something is wrong. Her voice is shaky as she says, “Connor, there was another delivery.”
Ever since we got back from a trip around the coast on our boat a month ago she’s been getting flower deliveries to her at work at least three times a week.
The notes are getting creepier each time.
Trying to hold in a growl of frustration, I tell her, “Don’t touch them. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
When I arrive at her work my mood is no better than before. Worse, actually. “Where is your boss?” I say with more annoyance towards Thea than I mean, especially when she hunches in on herself. I know she’s scared, and so am I. Her job needs better security.
“Connor, it’s fine, we’ll just throw them away like before,” she says in a hushed tone. Some of her coworkers are looking at us from their cubicles. I want so badly to ask what they find so damn interesting, but I will try not to embarrass her, even though she is way too good for this place.
A man is walking towards us in a nice suit, he’s tall but still comes up short to my height. “Is there a problem?” he asks, initially directed at me, but I don’t miss the sneer on his face when he looks at Thea.
Before I can call him on it she jumps in.
“No problem sir, just a wrong delivery again.” I don’t like her calling him sir especially when he clearly got off on it.
I also don’t like how meek she sounds. My omega is not meek.
When we get home, hopefully I can talk her into finding a new job.
She’s so sure they’ll promote her soon then she’ll look into applying for other jobs but it’s been years.
I know she doesn’t want her “paying her dues” to go to waste but she’s in marketing there shouldn’t be any dues she needs to pay.
“Actually, there is a problem. Thea has repeatedly been getting flowers delivered to her despite letting your staff up front and security know not to deliver anything to her,” I say in a more even tone than I would’ve thought possible given my current mood.
“That doesn’t sound like much of a problem. She has an admirer, nothing wrong with that, especially for an omega,” he sneers.
I feel Thea tighten her grip on my arm. Is this the bullshit they spout at her?
“Well considering she does not want anything from this so-called admirer and it’s beginning to create an unsafe work environment for her, I’d say it is a problem,” I say with more of a growl to get my point across to this worthless alpha.
His eyes widen at my “unsafe work environment” comment.
I bet they’ve had quite a few complaints over the years.
Before he can respond I continue, “I would make sure your office security and staff handling the mail are made aware before we get the police involved.” Thea goes to say something but I shake my head slightly.
I know she will try to downplay to keep the peace but I will not mess around with her safety.
His body stiffens at the mention of the police. “I—well we will have to look into these concerns before taking any steps.”
“Thea, do you have that timeline saved on your computer?” I ask. She nods her head yes and pulls it up. I bend down and after a minute I have the email drafted, including her direct supervisor whose name I already know. I just need one other person. “What is your name?” I ask him.
“Arthur Caldwell, I am the CEO of this company.” He sounds offended that I didn’t know who he was. No wonder Thea was trying to downplay this. I don’t care, this isn’t okay.
“Well Mr. Caldwell, I just emailed you along with Malloy, and HR a full accounting of the timeline of these deliveries and nature of the cards addressed to my omega. If steps are not taken to keep these unwanted and harassing deliveries from her, our next step is getting the police involved which may lead them to start asking questions here about your office.” I can’t help but smile smugly, knowing I backed him into a corner.
He glares at me as I continue, “Also, I included my email on that chain as well to be sure I’m looped in on any developments.
I’ll be sure to follow up as needed if we don’t hear back. ”
He continues to glare at me before moving his gaze to Thea, which makes me want to block his sight of her.
“Thea, is it? I believe you should take the rest of today off. We don’t want you to feel unsafe at work.
” He shoots a glare at me before continuing, “When you return, we will have notified all relevant parties.” The asshole didn’t even know her name.
She nods and goes to shut her computer down before he barks, “Don’t! ”
She immediately stops and lets out a small whimper that only the three of us would’ve heard.
“You have no right to bark at an omega under your employ,” I grit out, feeling my body vibrating with rage.
It’s a huge employment violation. Most companies have annual trainings on it.
I doubt it’s the first time he’s done that to an omega working here.
He tries to laugh it off. “I only meant for her to not shut down her computer. I will have our head of IT look it over.”
“It’s against company policy to leave our computers on when we leave work for the day,” Thea chimes in softly. Without a word, I lean down and turn it off before this asshole can try and justify leaving it on. I don’t know what he really wanted to do but I doubt it would’ve helped Thea in any way.
He brushes nonexistent lint off his sleeve. “No matter. Mark Henderson, our head of IT is very good. I’m sure he can take a look at whatever we need to confirm your concerns are valid.”
“You do that.” I eye him as Thea gathers her things behind me.
We leave shortly after that. I drive around, not wanting to go home right away.
We end up at a park near my parents’ house.
I don’t like the silence that’s between us.
She’s probably mad at what I said to her boss, but I don’t regret it.
Walking around the car after we get out, I hold my hand out, and thankfully she takes it.
It’s a nice sunny day. Even though it’s still hot, summer is slowly coming to an end.
The heat won’t go away anytime soon even if it is mid-September.
I lead us over to a bench. relieved that the park is quiet overall with a few people scattered here and there.
As we sit Thea rests her head against my shoulder.
I hate when there’s silence between us, mainly when I know she’s upset.
“I’m sorry I embarrassed you at work. Hearing you scared like that over the phone broke me. I just wanted to fix it,” I rush out. She doesn’t say anything right away, but she laces our hands together and gives a light squeeze.
“I’m not mad, I know why you did it and you’re right. They should’ve blocked the deliveries I asked the last three times it’s happened. I just—I just hate knowing they’ll be talking about me now at work and I don’t know how they’ll punish me for today,” she says, resigned.
“I know we’ve talked about it a lot over the last couple years but if you’re worried that your job is going to punish you for something out of your control and not your fault, then maybe it’s not the best place to work,” I say gently, not wanting to start an argument on this topic.
She sighs. “You’re right.” I’m so shocked that I literally jerk away from her to look at her face to see if she’s serious. Which of course, she bursts out laughing as soon as I look at her.
“I’m sorry, but the look on your face.” She starts laughing again before continuing, “Is it that surprising for me to say you’re right?”
“About your work? Yes, you’ve argued staying there the last two years since they got worse about time off,” I mumble.
“I think they were always that bad. It’s just my first few years there I was never in the meetings or around the higher staff to hear what they’d say when people, especially the omegas, were out.
It just seemed like a waste of the last six years to go somewhere else before being promoted.
I feel like I’d have to start all over. But you’re right.
They obviously don’t care about mine or anyone else’s safety and maybe changing jobs will stop whoever is sending the flowers.
” Thea settles back against me, my arm now draped across her.
“Don’t make a fear-based decision. If you truly think it’s the right call to move on then do it. I meant what I said about getting the police involved. This isn’t okay,” I say as she turns further into me her scent now having a slight tinge of fear to it.
She pulls out her phone and begins typing something for a couple minutes, before putting it away again. “It’s done.”
“What is?”
“I just emailed everyone you included on that email plus the head of IT since Caldwell was getting him involved in this, that due to them allowing someone to continue to harass me via these deliveries among the other instances of omega discrimination at the company, I was quitting without notice.”
Shock runs through me but I also feel so much fucking pride at my omega standing up for herself.
Before I even say anything, she continues, “I had to do it before I talked myself out of it. Plus adding in the discrimination should get them to cooperate a little. It’s a rumor that an omega sued the company almost ten years ago for the same thing, and of course I didn’t hear about that until this past year. ”
“I’m proud of you. You’re sticking up for yourself, my strong, beautiful, brilliant omega.” I lean down and kiss her, then wrap my arms around her. “It’s time for a new adventure I think.”