The unbreakable bond

Chapter 8 - First day

Episode 8 - First day

Alena - pov

It is 6 am when my alarm goes off. I didn’t sleep that well because of my nerves, but I feel refreshed enough. I head towards the bathroom, wash up, brush my teeth and apply some mascara. Right now I wish I had the talent for applying make-up, but this will do. I eat some yoghurt and put on my clothes. It is 6.40 am as I head out toward the Wild Wolf Inc. building. The morning air wakes me up as I am walking towards the office. After 10 minutes, I arrive at the main entrance and despite what I thought, the lobby is already full of people. I head in and face the same brunette as on the day of my interview.

“ Good morning, how can I help you?” the brunette says. Her eyes narrow for a second as she seems to recognise me. Weird, I don’t think I made a bad impression.

“Goodmorning, I am here for James Brooke” I look at her name tag while answering. Looks like the beautiful brunette is called Amanda.

“You can sit over there, I’ll call him” she answered coldly. I did as she said and sat on the same couch as last time. In less than 5 minutes, James walks out of the elevator.

“Goodmorning Miss Jones. I am glad to see that you’re on time. Let’s start with a quick tour around the building, shall we?” James said in a gentlemanly manner. Looking at James, he is very handsome as well. His sandy blonde hair styled in a professional way, his piercing blue eyes and strong jaw combined with his expensive suit, feels like he could make a lot of women fall head over heels for him. I don’t know what the people who work here eat, but it feels like they are a completely different species. Amanda, James, my boss… everyone I’ve seen walking around this building is exceptionally beautiful.

“Let’s start on the first floor. Here you can find the lobby and mainly storage room. On the second floor, you can find the main break room where food is provided. On the 3th, 4th and 5th floors you can find the laboratories. Your internship supervisor will show you around the labs herself. On the 6th floor, you can find the marketing team. The 7th, 8th and 9th floors are all part of the finance department. The 10th and 11th floor are reserved for the tech development department. HR is on the 12th floor. Between the 13th and 18th floor, you can find IT, security, conference rooms, offices and more storage. The 19th floor is reserved for board members. And last, you got the 20th floor, which is where we and the CEO work”, he finishes touring me and I know that if I didn’t take notes, I would already have been lost. I look around, very impressed. How in the world did one man accomplish this in less than 10 years?

“Any questions, miss Jones?” James looks at me, amused by the impressed look on my face.

“Yes, you mentioned that we work on the 20th floor, but there is only one front desk. Do I work in one of the offices downstairs?” I ask, trying to get a professional posture after my awe-struck face from a few seconds ago.

“This week you will sit at the same desk as I do. You will take notes and memorise every preference of the CEO. When you need to work on your own, you will work at the conference table inside the CEO’s office” he says casually. “The CEO likes to see his people work in front of him at the beginning, to judge their performance. A new desk is already ordered and will be delivered, but there is no estimated delivery time. So as long as needed, you’ll stay at his conference table” he finishes.

“What if the CEO has a meeting?” I ask bluntly.

“You will only need a laptop and some folders which can be cleaned out in less than a minute. Besides, the CEO will need you at meetings to take notes” he answers smoothly. I am not going to lie, I don’t like the idea of sitting at the conference table in front of the prying eyes of my boss. I’ve also never heard of this kind of practice. Wouldn’t you think that a company this big can order a desk and get it delivered in less than 24 hours?

“Alright, I’m ready” I say.

“You can start with getting some coffee. The CEO will arrive in approximately 10 minutes. He likes it black with no sugar. Here is the company credit card. Go to the coffee shop across the building and wait at the entrance of our building for the CEO. You will give him his coffee and accompany him upstairs. These are the bullet points you discuss while coming upstairs”, he orders. I turn around and go to the coffee shop as instructed.

I only have 5 minutes left as I walk into the coffee shop. I feel like I will be too late already and I sigh. There are a lot of people waiting for their coffee. I get in line. 3 minutes past already. I will be too late unless they brew coffee at the speed of light. It is finally my turn and a cheery young lady called Stacy takes my order.

“Goodmorning, what can I get ya?” she asks.

“Black coffee, no sugar please” I say.

“Weird, I wouldn’t have guessed you were a coffee person. I am usually never wrong” she smiles.

“It’s not for me” I smile “I need to get coffee for my boss from across the street”.

“You work for Conall Wild?” she asks with raised eyebrows.

“Yes, my first day and it seems as if I have already failed my first task’ I sigh defeated.

“How much time do you have left” she asks with a playful smile. I look at my watch.

“1 and a half minute”, I say.

“You are lucky! Conall is a regular here, we always pre-make his order at 7.25 am. Normally it’s James who picks it up. If I had known you were here for his order, I would have helped you earlier” she winks and gets the coffee. I can’t believe it! Are the gods on my side today?

“OMG, thank you so much! I still have a chance!” I pay and run out of the shop as fast as possible. I am inside and standing next to the entrance door when my boss walks in 20 seconds after I did. A little out of breath, I greet him.

“Goodmorning sir, here is your coffee” I said as friendly as possible. Conall gives me a sweet smile and takes the coffee. Our fingers touch briefly and just like on the day of the interview, sparks run down my arm and disappear through my body. The feeling is sudden but not unpleasant. I get goosebumps and retreat my arm as fast as possible.

“Just call me Conall” he says. His voice is deep. I could listen to it all day long. What is going on with me? I regain my self-control.

“If that is what you wish” I say professionally. We start walking toward the elevator and I start reading the bullet points out loud.

“Today you have 5 meetings. The first one starts in half an hour. The documents you need are on your desk. The other meetings are at the following times. 9 am, 10.30 am, then you have a lunch meeting at noon. The last meeting is at 3 pm. Several departments have left proposals that need your signature. Every proposal has been summarised. This can be found on the first paper of the folder” I read his schedule out loud and I am impressed by how busy it is. We enter the elevator, but are alone as all the other employees did not dare to enter. I understand them though, he has a heavy aura around him. I can feel him staring at me and I feel uncomfortable. I am suddenly very aware of myself and try to adjust my clothes. Why is the elevator so slow? Why does it feel so suffocating in here? I just stare at the elevator doors in front of me and continue the task James gave me.

“Your father also called. Mr Brooke will fill you in on that. Your mother also requested a dinner this week, so you should call her back” I finish the list of bullet points and dare to look at him. I instantly regret it. His eyes capture mine and I am unable to look away. I can see so many emotions in them, but I recognise none. I don’t know how, but all of a sudden we are very close to each other. I can feel his body warmth radiating from his skin. He reaches out and pulls a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The sparks are back and I can feel my heart pound in my chest. His hand slides down my ear via my neck to my shoulder. The feeling makes me shiver slightly and I can see a small smile forming on his lips. When did I start looking at his lips?

The elevator arrives at the 20th level and the doors open, making whatever spell was cast on me disappear. I blink a few times and blush at the realisation of what just happened. I look away from his mesmerizing eyes and we both exit. James is already waiting at the entrance of Conall’s office and smirks. s**t, he didn’t see that, right? I walk over to James and stand next to him. He gestures me to sit at his desk while he follows Conall into his office.

Conall - pov

Waking up after yet another explicit dream about my mate makes me feel tired. Until I remember which day we are – Monday. We will finally see her, smell her and have her near us again. I smile, get out of bed and head to the bathroom. After half an hour, I am ready to leave. I take my car keys and head out. Traffic was a hell – as usual – and I arrive at my company. I go to my private parking spot and get out of the car. I head to my building and see my mate running out of the coffeeshop across from my building. She seems very hurried and I smile as I see her frantically looking around her before crossing the street. I stop and wait a little, so she has time to go inside before I do. Looking at her stressed state, she must be scared to be too late. I give her 10 seconds before continuing my way towards the building.

I step inside and take a deep breath, trying to single out her smell, which is easy since she is close and my senses are already tuned to find her presence. I smile as I see her slightly out of breath with a pink flush on her cheeks. It makes me think of other exercises she would tire her out. I smirk at my thought and step forward, alerting her about my presence. She greets me formally and gives me my coffee. When our fingers touch, the sparks are back. I can feel them all over my body and I smile.

“Just call me Conall” I say, but instead of repeating my name, she starts reading my schedule and I can’t help but feel disappointed. I want to hear my name roll from her lips. We walk towards the elevator while I sip my coffee and listen to what she says. But listening is difficult when all I can do is stare at her lips and try to guess how they would taste.

We are alone in the elevator and I feel grateful for my alpha aura which kept other employees from getting on. She stares at the door in between bullet points and I feel annoyed by it. After finishing, she turns her head to look at my face, probably because I haven’t said a word since she started. Once we lock eyes, we are unable to look away and I step closer to her. Taking a deep breath, I stare into her eyes. I hear her heart rapidly pounding in her chest. A strand of hair got loose from her bun and I pull it behind her ear, trailing my finger from her ear to her neck. I enjoy the sparks for as long as possible. I want to step closer, but the elevator bings, indicating we arrived at our floor and the doors open. Goddamit, why is this elevator so fast? I’ll let James order a slower one, I think, as I huff a little annoyed. She rushes out of the elevator and I walk up to James, who is smirking and knows exactly what I am thinking about right now.

“Stop smirking” I say through mindlink, which only causes him to smirk more. I step inside my office and James joins me a few seconds later.

“Let me guess, you want a slower elevator now?” James says with a smug look. I swear if he wasn’t my best friend and beta, I would knock that look from his face. I sigh annoyed.

“You don’t know how hard it is to contain myself, I am already reaching my limits, you want to keep poking at the matter?” I say and he laughs.

“Then I”ll distract you with business. Your father called and asked you to send all the building plans for approval. He also wants a detailed report of the staff you are planning to hire. He asked for a few more items, but I already took care of those. I just need your approval” he says. I sigh again, knowing the only reason my father is demanding all these documents is my brother. My brother was always very good at manipulating our father. That is the only reason the younger son is going to be king instead of the firstborn.

“Send them everything they need. Let’s not tell them that the construction has already started” I state, reminding myself to also check up on the construction developments.

“Alright. Here are the documents for the upcoming meetings. If you need anything else, just let me know”, James exits and I look over the documents. Everything seems in order and I easily catch up in the meetings.

At 9 am sharply I enter the conference room and I see every department head of the marketing team standing up. I motion for them to sit down and take the chair at the top of the table. The marketing pitch starts and I see Alena taking notes. She has been taking notes since she arrived as I see she already wrote several pages full. She is still getting guided by James, but I can’t wait to make her sit in my office. Even though it feels like I was only distracted for a second, I hear James clear his throat. It’s a good thing he keeps me focused on work. The pitch lasted another 20 minutes, which leaves us with 20 minutes to discuss and give feedback and I have a lot of feedback. They need to make an advertisement for a new vitamin supplement. Since there is a lot of competition in this market, I need a better advertising campaign than this. I see everybody's face sunken, but I don’t care. You only get better, by pushing yourself to the limit. I call the end of the meeting and head to the next one.

This one is with the business department. I already saw the charts and they look good, although some bad investments were made and I’ll have to find out what happened. I let them do their talk and after 45 minutes, they finally finish.

“How will you explain the losses in March”, I say with an emotionless expression. The man in front of me starts to sweat.

“We followed the models and made some investments. Unfortunately, it ended in some losses”, the man says and the sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Which models?” I ask, still no emotion.

“The IOLS models, sir” he says with a weak voice and now I know where it went wrong.

“Who told you to use those?” I say and raise my eyebrow. He gulps.

“Reidner corporation was using those, so we thought it could have been useful for us as well. It was a mistake”, the man says and I can see him slightly trembling on his legs. Good, he should be scared. He played with MY money.

“I have two questions for you, Mr Smith” I say and I add a small break before I continue. He gulps and nods his head.

“One, why did you not use the models of OUR company” I say, emphasising "our".

“I-I just thought, since Reidner was doing so good, we could try it as well” he says and his armpits had become pools by now.

“I don't think we should use the models of the second-best company when we are the best. How did you get their models, Mr Smith” I ask my second question with annoyance clear on my face and in my voice.

“I-I have a friend in that company and-” he says, but I interrupt him.

“And what did YOU have to do to receive their business and predicting models?” I say and I am barely able to contain my anger.

“I-I g-gave t-t-t” he stammers and I lose my self control.

“Speak clearly” I half shout.

“I gave him one of our models” he says, fully trembling now. I feel my blood pressure rising. Does that imbecile know what he did? He gave away corporate secrets. Firing him isn’t enough, I’ll ruin him for giving away MY work. Not only did he give it away, but he also exchanged it for a fake prediction model of Reidners. He is too stupid to understand that his so-called friend set him up. James must have noticed the change in atmosfeer as he mindlinks me.

“Alpha, please calm down” James' voice echoes in my mind.

“CALM DOWN?! He gave away one of our models to our number one rivalling company.” I shout in his head.

“Alpha, you are scaring your mate”, James says carefully, and I get back to my senses looking in Alena’s direction. Once I make eye contact, she looks down at her notes, not daring to look up. I take a few deep breaths and think again. I need to get my mate out of here, she is already wary of me and I still need to make a good impression on her. I sigh.

“The meeting has ended, everybody leaves except for Mr. Smith” I say calmly. Everybody stands up and leaves the room immediately. James accompanies Alena out and comes back after a while. I let him do the talking.

“As you know, Mr Smith, you committed a breach of contract. As described in the contract, this results in immediate dismissal. Obviously, you won’t receive your payment. Normally, you would have to pay compensation, but we will let that slide if you promise your cooperation. We would like to know how much got leaked. Is that clear?” James says calmly, and I am very grateful. Mr Smith is unable to talk and just nods his head. I let James continue the interrogation as I head back to my office. Right now, I need to be near my mate, to calm down my wolf.