Werewolf CEO 2, page 3
“You didn’t have a choice.” I shrugged. “I’m not going to blame you or punish you for something you had no say in. And the fact you guys are standing here right now and are willing to accept my help proves to me that you’re nothing like him.”
“Thank you,” the blonde Beta whispered as she picked up one of the boxes. “For everything.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I said. “If you need more, call into the business. Mia can take your call, and we can arrange for more drugs to be sent out to you.”
“There is one more thing,” Mia said and sent me a pointed look.
The Beta. We had to ask about the Beta.
“You guys remember the asshole who ran off back in the subway station?” I asked. “Tall, skinny, not afraid of an Alpha like me.”
“Y-Yes,” the blonde stuttered. “What about him?”
“Do you know where he might have run off to? Or, at the very least, who he is?”
The young Beta shared a look with the others, and they all shook their heads. Clearly, they were the same as my pack. They’d never gotten to know whoever that asshole was on a first-name basis.
“No.” She shook her head. “He joined Drake willingly, that’s all we know.”
“Alright,” I said. “That’s all we wanted to know. Thank you.”
I stepped back as a few more Betas tentatively stepped forward and grabbed a box before scrambling out of the warehouse and past the guards. One by one, the boxes were taken, and I figured they’d sort out who got what after they got out of there.
It was a big thing for them to come all this way and put their lives on the line. After all, they had no idea if I was gonna be true to my word. Soon enough, the blonde Beta was the only one left, and she clutched the box to her chest with a teary-eyed smile.
Then she nodded her head at me in thanks before she took off after the rest of her friends, and I let out a deep sigh of contentment.
“That went a lot better than I thought it would,” my girlfriend said as she came to stand beside me.
We watched as the guards followed the remnants of Drake’s pack out and made sure they left the premises before returning to their posts. I felt a little reassured that we had so many on guard, and if anything had gone wrong, we would have had backup.
“They’re just people,” I said in a quiet voice. “People whose lives were ruined by Drake.”
“Sometimes I forget others don’t have a choice,” Mia added with a grave nod. “They’re just thrust into this world and can’t do anything about it. Not under an Alpha’s rule, at least.”
“Not anymore,” I said as I watched the blonde girl whizz past the fence and down the street. “They’re free.”
We went back upstairs to the office and finished off the day after that, and I felt pretty pleased with how well we’d handled the Betas who hadn’t turned their backs on us and gone to the ‘bad side.’ Once I got back into my work, I hardly realized how fast time was going by. I was really getting into my role as CEO, and it became easier and easier every day.
When the clock struck seven, I decided we should probably head out. We’d left it pretty late, but that was mostly because of the amount of paperwork that had built up over the last few days. It was only when I looked outside and saw the sun starting to set past the skyline that I figured it was time to call it a day.
I carefully filed the papers I’d spread out on my desk and tucked them away in my drawer so I could finish them off at some other point this week. Then I headed out of my office and to Mia’s desk in the hallway.
The blonde had her chin resting against her palm, and her lips were pouted as she tried to keep her eyes open. It was incredibly endearing, and I stood still for a moment so I could just watch her.
She blinked slowly and then turned her head to me as she realized I was standing there. A tired smile crept up on her face, and she brushed her hair back away from her face as she sat up.
“Hey, babe,” she greeted me. “Closing time? Already?”
“It’s seven o’clock, Mia,” I chuckled. “It’s definitely home time.”
“Shit, I guess I… lost track of time,” the Omega said as she fought back a yawn.
“Did you catch up on those emails?” I asked as I waited for her to shut down her computer and put away her files.
“Yeah, and then some,” she snorted. “Can we get takeout when we get home? I’m starving.”
Home. She called my place home. I felt my heart thump in my chest, and a sense of euphoria washed over me. Mia hadn’t even realized she’d said it, but it didn’t matter.
I grinned, and I tried to slow my heart rate down a little as I reached for her hand and started to lead her toward the elevator.
“We can get whatever you want, babe,” I said as I pushed the button to take us to the parking lot.
“Chinese food?” she suggested with a little excited bounce.
“Sure thing,” I chuckled.
“Yes,” the blonde whispered to herself and did a little fist pump.
God, she was so adorable.
Maybe for dessert, you can eat me, she said down the bond, and I felt my cheeks burn.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to that,” I said as I smirked down at her.
The blonde winked with a sly grin and squeezed my hand a little tighter. Then the elevator dinged open, and we stepped out into the parking lot.
It had gotten pretty cold, and Mia shivered a little as the breeze sweeping in from the entrance hit her. I immediately took off my suit jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She hadn’t picked up one of my mom’s blazers when she got dressed this morning, and I wasn’t gonna let my mate freeze.
“Thanks,” she said bashfully as she slid her arms into the sleeves.
The suit engulfed her, and she looked like a kid who’d played dress-up in her dad’s closet. It was pretty hilarious, but I didn’t want to make her feel self-conscious, even if the jacket almost reached past her thighs.
We beelined for my car, and we slid into the sleek vehicle, ready for some takeout and a warm bed. I started the car and pulled out into the quickly darkening street, and New York was lit up like a Christmas tree as night fell.
It was called the city that never sleeps for a reason.
The streets weren’t as busy as they were this morning, and we’d missed the worst part of rush hour, which I was pretty thankful for, but as we pulled out onto the main road, I couldn’t help but feel like something wasn’t right.
It was like that feeling you get when you know someone is watching you from afar. Like a dull ache at the back of my head. Whatever it was, I didn’t like it, and I tightened my grip on the steering wheel a little harder as I kept my eyes on the road.
“You okay?” Mia asked when she noticed me tense up a little. “You seem… on edge.”
“I’m okay,” I said unconvincingly as my eyes darted to each car in front of us.
“You’re not that eager for Chinese food, are you?” my mate weakly joked, but I knew she could tell something was up, too.
Her hands quickly fastened her seatbelt around her, and she braced herself against her seat.
Something was really fucking off.
I looked in my rearview mirror and spotted a black car tailing us. Whoever it was, was driving close. Way too close, even by New York standards. So, I made a left and got off the main road to see if they’d take the bait.
“We’re being followed,” I said as the black car turned immediately after me and started heading down the same random road I’d gone down.
“Shit,” Mia said, and she whipped her head around to look out of the back window. “Do you think it’s the Beta?”
“I don’t know, but this isn’t a great time to find out,” I said as I put my foot on the gas a little harder.
My car jolted as it jumped from twenty to sixty miles per hour in seconds. Lo and behold, whoever was tailing us quickly caught up as they pressed on the gas, too.
“Goddamnit,” I hissed as it started to catch up. “How the hell am I supposed to lose these assholes in Manhattan?”
“Just stay focused on the road,” Mia stressed. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”
Mia fully shifted her body so she could look behind us, and I could hear her ragged breaths as the car behind me suddenly accelerated and drove into the back of my Aston Martin.
“Son of a bitch!” I yelled as my car jumped forward. “Not my fucking car, asshole!”
I floored it, and we sped down the semi-desolate side street. I had to put some distance between them and me, otherwise, he was gonna ruin my very expensive car that I’d only just bought.
I couldn’t tell if this was some sort of a show of power or a genuine threat to our lives, but I didn’t want to stick around and find out.
The black car followed close behind, so I did a sharp right turn and took us down another road that was leading back to the main strip.
“He’s gaining on us,” Mia warned me as she clutched at her seatbelt.
We were thrown forward as whoever it was rammed into the back of my car again.
“Jesus, this guy is insane!” my mate cried out. “Josh, we’ve gotta lose him.”
“Working on it,” I growled as I saw the busy streets ahead of us.
The black car managed to pull up beside us after driving onto the pavement and knocking over a few trash cans. The windows were blacked out, and I couldn’t make out a single figure inside. Predictable.
The car neared until he was about a foot away from my car, and I managed to swerve just as he went to ram me.
“You wanna play that game, huh?” I snarled and jerked the wheel to the left until it slammed into his side.
He’d already done enough damage to my car to warrant a trip to the mechanic, so why not give him a taste of his own medicine?
The impact made the driver lose control of the wheel for a second, and that gave me an opening.
There weren’t many options for me, and considering this guy was probably out to kill us or at least do some serious damage, I figured getting a ticket for shit driving was gonna be the least of my worries.
“Mia, hold on,” I said before I put my foot down again and sped straight into the traffic of the street up ahead.
Horns blared, and angry cab drivers stuck their heads out of their windows to yell at me as I swerved into the columns of cars, but I couldn’t care less. The black car was right behind us and did the exact same thing, but instead of purposefully avoiding hitting anyone, he drove straight into the back of a cab and clipped the trunk off it.
He quickly regained control of the car, and I watched out of the rearview mirror as he started gaining on me again. I gritted my teeth in annoyance and pressed down on the gas again.
I started to swerve in and out of the traffic in the hopes he’d get stuck behind some stubborn driver, or at the very least, get slowed down enough for me to speed the hell out of there.
But he didn’t care. Where I dodged and swerved, he just ran straight through. If we weren’t careful, this could turn into a goddamn massacre. The sound of even more horns and shouts filled the air, but the only thing I could do was keep driving and hope for the best.
“God, he’s gonna end up killing people!” Mia cried out. “Where are the fucking cops?”
“We can’t wait for them to get involved,” I said as I slammed on the brakes and drifted the car to the right.
The wheels of my car protested against the road with a screech, and I could smell the burning rubber, but I had to get away.
The black car flew past us and mimicked my maneuver, but by the time he had spun around, I was already flying down another stretch of road.
“I’m gonna try and lose him in the tunnel,” I said as I kept my foot on the gas.
I had a bit of a head start thanks to my sudden turn, and I wanted to keep it that way. I did another left and then a sharp right, and there was enough traffic that we could get lost in it.
I cut in front of a few cars ahead of me and slowed the car down a little. Maybe if I played it cool, he’d think we’d gone a different way thanks to the junction we’d just crossed.
I looked in my rearview mirror, and Mia turned her head to look out the back window.
The bastard was nowhere in sight.
I let out a sigh of relief as we dipped under the tunnel, and I let my head fall back against the headrest as the fluorescent orange light beamed down into our car from the roof.
“That was close,” I said breathlessly. “That guy was a maniac!”
“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Mia chuckled weakly and repositioned herself so she was facing the dashboard again. “That had to be the Beta, right?”
“We still don’t know if it was him who left that message on the delivery truck,” I said. “But if I had to put money on anyone, it’d be him.”
I could start to see the skyscrapers again as we neared the end of the tunnel. The sickly orange light started to die down as the streetlights came into view again, and I slowed down a little bit more so I wouldn’t end up getting a speeding ticket after all that.
“Can you text Victor about what’s just gone down? I don’t want him to--”
I couldn’t finish my sentence. Because, suddenly, the same black car from before flew over the barriers of the bridge above us and started to free-fall right in front of us.
I slammed on the brakes with my super-fast reflexes, and it was like everything started to move in slow motion. I felt the impact of my seatbelt stopping me from smashing into the steering wheel, and my head hit back against the headrest. And then I saw the car start to nose dive at a snail’s pace right where we would have been if I hadn’t stopped the car.
The front of the car crumpled in on itself like a squashed can of soda, and then time started to move at its usual pace. Mia screamed in shock as the car started to roll over and over again through the air, and I put my hand over her protectively as we watched it wipe out three more cars in front of it.
If I hadn’t had my reflexes… we would have been dead.
The cars behind me honked their horns and were completely unaware of the brutal crash that had just happened in front of us. I pulled my phone out with one shaky hand and dialed nine-one-one. Then I passed the phone to Mia as I carefully started to drive around the debris and turned-over black car that was starting to smoke.
The stench filled my nose and made me wince, and I could smell the gasoline starting to pool out at the bottom of it.
Whoever was in there had to have died in that crash. They had to. The impact alone could have killed an Alpha, let alone the rolls that did even more damage.
Unless the driver jumped out before the car went over the bridge.
I was still in a state of shock at our near-death experience, and I could barely hear Mia on the phone with the operator. I heard her give the whereabouts of the crash and tell them to send ambulances, but that was it.
The three cars our tail had crashed into were thankfully upright, and apart from their cars being totaled, it looked like no one was seriously injured. The drivers got out of their cars with their hands on their heads as they took in the damage, and a few other bystanders started to walk to the black car that had been following us.
I would have stayed and helped, but we needed to get out of here. If whoever was chasing us was still alive, then all of these innocent people would be put in even more danger.
I didn’t speed as I carried on up the road, and it wasn’t long before three ambulances and a fire engine came whizzing past us to get to the scene of the crash. They’d help. And that gave me comfort.
“Are you… Are you okay?” I asked Mia after I caught my breath again.
I took my eyes away from the road so I could look her over, and the blonde didn’t have any physical injuries on her, but her usually tanned skin had turned ashen, and her green eyes were wide in shock.
“I’m… I’m okay.” She nodded shakily. “Josh, we could have died.”
“I know,” I sighed. “Thank god for these powers, right?”
“Yeah,” Mia laughed breathlessly. “You saved our asses.”
“Only just,” I said. “Keep an eye out. I don’t want anyone following us back to the penthouse.”
“You got it,” she said and kept her eyes trained on the side mirror.
I rushed home as fast as I could without bringing attention to ourselves, and I breathed a little sigh of relief as we pulled into my parking lot without a single hint of anyone still tailing us.
“I messaged Victor and let him know what happened,” Mia said as we climbed out of the car.
I immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her close to me as we entered the building and made our way to the elevator.
“What did he say?” I asked as I pulled out the key, and I put it into the slot that would allow us to go up to the top floor.
“He’s mostly just glad we got out of that alive,” she said. “But he’s asked if we want an escort whenever we go anywhere.”
“Tell him not to worry,” I said. “That would be too much hassle. And if any of those Betas try to pull something like that again, there will be hell to pay.”
“I love it when you get riled up like that,” the blonde said as she looped her arm through mine. “And the way you were driving…”
“You mean when I almost killed an entire street of civilians just trying to get home from work?” I grinned wolfishly. “Never knew you were such a sadist, Mia.”
“You’d be surprised.” The Omega smirked, and I felt my cheeks turn red as my insides turned to mush. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I still want takeout.”
“Wha-- are you serious?” I asked in disbelief. “You’re gonna drop a bomb like that, and then say you want takeout?”
“What? I’m hungry!” the blonde said with a playful giggle. “And we just survived a car chase.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said as my shoulders deflated.
I hadn’t realized how exhausted going through that shit show had made me until the elevator doors dinged open, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and put on a movie.
