The Lost Werewolf King's Mate

"I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, Elizabeth. I love you and I can't just be friends with you anymore." Mathew's green eyes were looking deeply into my own dark brown eyes. Knowing that my best friend is also in love with me is something I've secretly desired ever since I first laid my eyes on him. I may have only met him three months ago, but Mathew and I have been inseparable ever since. I love him. I want him. "Mathew, I'm so glad to hear you say that", I said as I leaned into his arms."I couldn't stand only being your friend." Mathew drew my face closer to his. I could feel his hot breath hitting my lips. Then he gently tugged my lower lip. ... he was going to kiss me. He was finally going to kiss me... *** "You’ll have to redo this draft, you incompetent i***t!"Jerry, my boss, was shouting at one of my colleagues again. His screams snapped me rightout of my very inappropriate day dream. "Jerry, I...I-". The poor man was struggling to string a sentence together and it looked like it was making Jerry even angrier. Jerry raised one of his stumpy hands and prepared to smack the man in the face. I ran to the two of them and stood between the two men before Jerry could land a blow. "It was me, Jerry!" I shouted while standing between the two of them. "I wrote that draft so it's my fault; not his." I was staring at him defiantly, but my confidence was already fading. He knew I was lying and that I was merely trying to protect a member of our team, like I usually do. Jerry's lips curled into a sly smile and before I knew it - SMACK! He slapped me across the face! I held my burning cheeck and looked down at the dirt grey-brown carpet to hide the humiliating tears forming in my eyes. The slap burned my cheeck, but really it was the humiliation that forced more tears to pool in my eyes. This was just another Tuesday. "Fix it or you're not going home tonight!" He sneered at me before turning on his stumpy legs and walking back to his office. As soon as he was gone, everyone gathered around me to inspect my cheeck. "That's definitely gonna leave a mark!" I heard one colleague say. "Can someone get us some ice?" Another colleague yelled. I took a deep breath and then plastered the best fake smile I could muster. "You guys are so dramatic." I tried to sound as convincing as possible. "I'm fine! Jerry hits like a toddler so I honestly didn't even feel it." I was lying. Despite being a news editor, Jerry has the roughest hands in the world. His palms are huge. His hands are calloused and filled with cuts and scars like he does manual labour. A slap from him is the equivalent of sand paper scraping against sunburnt skin. My colleagues were all looking at me with concerned faces. They know how painful Jerry's slaps are. I've tried to prevent his tirades where I could, but I haven't always been successful. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Elizabeth. I really thought that draft was okay." The man I just took a slap for handed me an ice pack. "Don't worry about it." I took the ice pack and walked back to my desk. "How about you send me that draft and I'll help you with it?" "Really?" He gave a hopeful smile and ran back to his computer. I pulled out my chair and sat back in my desk. I still can't believe that this is what my life has turned into. A few months ago, I was working as one of the up-and-coming young lawyers in New York and now I work for a crappy newspaper with the world's most abusive boss. My life feels like it has come to an end and I'm only 23 years old. I slumped into my chair and tried to focus on amending the draft story that was just sent to me. At first glance, it didn't look like it was the best of stories. I would have to rewrite the whole thing. A few minutes into writing, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and there it was -Mathew. My heart started beating quicker and I felt blood rushing to my face. I only met this man 3 months ago, but I can't stand the idea of not being close to him. “Hey Mathew." I tried not to sound like a girl who is hopelessly in love, but I think the tone of my voice gave me away. "Hey, you”. His deep voice came through from the other line. He sounded upset. “Are you okay?" I tried to hide my concern, careful not to cross the line between friends and girl who is hopelessly devoted to you. “Yea, of course I am." "No, you're not." I retorted. "Come on, out with it!" He sighed, hesitated for a moment and then finally told me the truth. "It's Meg...Look, I don't want to talk about her right now." Judging by the tone of his voice, he was still angry about whatever had happened with his fiancé. I decided to leave it for now and interrogate him the next time I saw him. "Well, just know I'm here for you when you're ready to talk." I delivered a calm one liner. "Thanks." His mood seemed to have piped up after my response. "I know I can always count on you. I honestly don't know how I'll ever be able to show you just how much you mean to me." I gulped. Hearing Mathew say things like this always makes me think perhaps he feels the same way. It stirs emotions in me that I shouldn't be feeling - inappropriate emotions that only a homewrecker would have, and that's not who I am. After a brief momentary silence, he finally told me the reason for his call. "I wanted to remind you about tonight. I wish I didn’t have to ask this of you, but-” “Mathew”, I interrupted him hastily. "You can ask me anything. I haven’t forgotten about tonight. I’ll be there before the full moon appears. I'll be there by 6pm. I promise.” I heard him release a sigh of relief on the phone. “Thank you, Elizabeth. You're the best friend a guy could ask for, you know that?" "Well that's what best friends are for", I said with an awkward chuckle. "I should let you get back to work. I'll see you tonight then?" He asked. "Okay, I'll see you tonight." I only met this man 3 months ago. When we met, I was working at one of the top law firms in the country and he was working as an engineer at a leading engineering firm in New York. The moment we locked eyes, we became best friends. We couldn't explain it, we just understood each other and wanted to spend almost all of our time together. I realised I was inlove with him the second my eyes locked with his ... but he has a fiancé; a blonde bombshell of a fiancé who hates my guts. Just thinking about how different his fiancé, Megan, and I are is enough to annoy me. She's a glamorous IT girl who's always in magazines, and I'm the kind of girl who always has her nose buried in research. Mathew wants Megan and I to get along, and I've tried to get along with her but she just hates me. ...and I think I hate her too... Of course, because of all this, I tried ending my friendship with Mathew, but the man practically stalked me until I agreed to be friends again. After that, I stopped trying to stay away from him. My head popped up from my computer screen when I heard the office elevator door ding open. As if my day couldn't get worse, Megan stepped out of the door. She was wearing a short black leather skirt with a pink crop top and pink heels. Her long blonde hair was hanging around her shoulders and her blue eyes were staring daggers at me. On others, her outfit would look tacky, but on her, it looks pretty good. She walked up to me and slammed her pink handbag on my desk. "I don't want him anymore!" She spat in my face. I rolled my eyes and groaned. She dumped Mathew- again!. This how she acted after the first two times she dumped him. That would mean it's her third freaking time dumping him and it's always over a silly reason. This is another reason why I've tried ending my friendship with Mathew. I always find myself in the middle of their fights and feel compeled to help the two of them make amends. It's exhausting. "What is it now, Megan?" I rubbed my temples as my annoyance grew by the second. "Don't act stupid! I'm obviously talking about Mathew!" She screamed, not caring that all my colleagues were staring. "He's angry just because I slept with my ex-boyfriend ONCE when he and I started dating." My jaw hit our office's grimy carpet. This girl ... Trying to get them back together after a whole cheating scandal will be impossible. Nevertheless, I will take on this impossible task. I have to. If I don't get them back together, it means I'm a homewrecker! "Mathew should be grateful I haven't left him!" Her shrill voice rang through the office. "He lost his job, his apartment, aaaaaal his money and every single car he owned! His life is a crap fest, but I still stuck by him. The fact that I slept with an ex years ago shouldn't matter!" Right. I shook away my initial shock. She could have left Mathew with all the terrible things that keep happening to him, but she hasn't. That means somewhere deep down in her icy cold heart, there's some semblance of human decency and empathy. I'll get them back together. It will be hard, but I've done it before. Everytime she has a problem with Mathew, she has an outburst like this. It's always loud. Always directed at me and always humiliates me in one way or the other. "I think you should be more supportive towards Mathew precisely because so many things in his life seem to going wrong right now." I contorted my lips into a thin smile. "You need to calm down and try talking to him again without yelling." I advised her like the therapist I've learned to become. I watched her pick up my coffee cup from the table ... What is she doing? I thought to myself. Not once did it occur to me that she would p throw what was, luckily for me, cold black coffee at me. Shock gasps, murmurs and even a nervous scream erupted through the tiny damp office. "Mam, you need to leave!" A colleague scolded her sternly. I looked up from the brown wet stains on my white shirt and found Audrey all but growling as she confronted Megan. The rest of the office, in an act of defiance, stood around my desk, glaring at the blonde girl in the hot pink outfit. Megan tensed up, her fingers clutched the hem of her mini skirt and yet she still had enough courage to look at me one more time. "When Mathew comes crying to you, I want you tell him that he shouldn't care about a mistake I made a long time ago. He's lucky I'm still with him." She turned on her heels and cat-walked out of the office. I was mortified. "Thanks, guys!" I muttered nervously and desperately grabbed the last napkin next to my pen on my desk. "I'm sorry about that." "It's okay." Audrey winked at me. "We'll always have your back, Elizabeth." I ran to the bathroom with the elegance of a baby gazelle. I thought I could still save my white shirt, but I quickly realised that was not the case. Moreover, I was stuck with a coffee stained white shirt for the remainder of the day. When I exited the bathroom, I found no remnants of that humiliating scene. The coffee that had stained my table was gone. My stationery was even given a clean wipe down and the office was bustling as if nothing had occurred. I have a pretty considerate team. I may have a few things to complain about, but this team is not one of those things. I tried to ignore it, but my mind kept replaying Megan's words. She's right. Mathew's life has been one unfortunate event after the other. And so has mine! We've both lost our jobs, essentially got blacklisted in our industries and my entire family disowned me out of the blue. It's ironic how we both used to live what can be described as luxurious lives to others and now there are days when we go to bed hungry. Working for Jerry might be terrible, but it's the only thing keeping me afloat. “Okay Jerry. I think you’ll be happy with this draft”, I entered his office with my stained shirt. “I better be!” He snarled. "If not, I'll get that hot blonde to teach you a lesson!" I kept my face neutral while he snickered at his comment. "Do you think you’ll be done looking at it by 5pm?" I asked him."I have to get home soon." “Sweetheart," he started chuckling, "if you told me your mom was dying and you needed to leave by 5pm, I’d still tell you no. You’ll stay here until morning if I want you to. It’s called work, Elizabeth! You need to work!" Fucking Jerry. Office hours are from 8 to 5. Despite that, I stay late almost every night because I want every edition to be the best one we put out there. He knows that I only leave the office at 5pm once a month, and yet he's still acting like this. This is too much. The slap.Megan screaming at me. Megan throwing coffee in my face... It's all too much. I was boiling with rage - quite literally boiling. I could feel what felt like actual flames trying to erupt of me. Hot sweat dripped from my face, my body and before long my armpits felt like they were holding tiny rivers. Breathe. Just breathe. "Why the hell are you sweating so much?" Jerry gave me a disgusted look. "Are you really that scared of me?" I kept quiet. I need to breathe. This room is getting so hot ... everything is getting so hot ... Mathew. I can think about Mathew to calm down. I can think about his deep baritone voice. I can focus on his dark green eyes and his dark brown wavy hair. I can think about how freaking tall the man is and how broad his shoulder are. And his six pack and muscles that encase every part of his body. I can think about him holding me ... As expected, I called down. I really am a terrible person. Thinking about Mathew holding me is what calms me down. If mom were still talking to me, she would be so disappointed. "It was getting hot in here."Qords filled my mouth and I responded to my boss. He narrowed his eyes, looked me up and down and then ran his tongue across his teeth. "I don't like you, Elizabeth." He wrinkled his face. "There's something about you that makes me want to make you suffer." He stood up and his stumpy legs slowly made their way to me. I took a step back and then another and another, but the man kept walking closing in on me until my back hit the wall.