Wolf in the Glass Tower

The Shadow -

Clara POV

For the next forty-eight hours, I existed in a state of hyper-vigilant paranoia, waiting for the axe to fall.

After our explosive meeting, I had fully expected to find my keycard deactivated and a cardboard box of my meager belongings waiting at the security desk. But my card flashed green every morning, Emanuel still gave me his terrifying, silent stare, and my terminal on the top floor remained fully operational.

I had done exactly what Roman Sterling demanded. I backed out of the Branch 04-North files and buried myself in the agonizingly mundane world of standard corporate logistics. I audited their downtown real estate holdings, their fleet maintenance schedules, and their tax depreciations.

But if I thought sticking to the rules would make me invisible, I was dead wrong.

The atmosphere on the executive floor had shifted. The previously phantom CEO was suddenly everywhere. When I walked to the copy machine, I could feel the heavy, burning weight of his gaze from his glass-walled office. When I stayed late to finish a spreadsheet, he stayed late, the dim light from his suite casting long shadows down the mahogany hall.

It was maddening. It felt less like I was being managed and more like I was being guarded.

By Thursday afternoon, the tension in my shoulders was a permanent ache. Needing a break from the glare of my dual monitors, I grabbed my empty mug and headed for the executive breakroom.

The breakroom was as sterile and luxurious as the rest of the building—white marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, and an espresso machine that looked like it required a pilot’s license to operate. I was just pouring a steaming cup of black coffee when the click of expensive heels echoed against the marble.

I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Jessy’s sharp, floral perfume hit the air a second before she spoke.

“Still here, Ms. Hayes?” Jessy asked, her tone laced with a dangerous kind of sweetness. She walked over to the filtered water dispenser, her eyes dragging over my simple grey slacks and white blouse with obvious distaste. “I saw the server logs. You haven’t touched the northern accounts since Tuesday. Did Mr. Sterling finally put you in your place?”

I held my warm mug with both hands, keeping my expression entirely neutral. “Mr. Sterling and I clarified the parameters of my contract. I’m focusing on the downtown holdings.”

Jessy gave a short, dismissive laugh. “Of course you are. You outside consultants always think you can come in and fix things you don’t understand. Roman has built an empire. He doesn’t need a glorified accountant poking around his private affairs.”

I took a slow sip of my coffee, letting the bitter heat ground me. “If he didn’t need me, Jessy, he wouldn’t be paying my retainer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

I moved to step past her, but she shifted gracefully, blocking the exit. Up close, the hostility radiating off her was palpable.

“Don’t get comfortable,” she whispered, her blue eyes narrowing into icy slits. “Roman might tolerate you for the sake of the board, but you don’t belong in this building. The second you make a mistake, I’ll be the one to personally hand you your termination papers.”

“Is there a problem in here?”

The voice was a low, terrifying rumble that seemed to vibrate through the marble countertops.

Jessy and I both snapped our heads toward the doorway. Roman was standing there. He had discarded his suit jacket, the sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt rolled up to the elbows, exposing thick forearms corded with muscle. His dark brown eyes were fixed entirely on Jessy, and the look in them was lethal.

Jessy’s entire demeanor shifted instantly. Her aggressive posture melted into something soft, almost submissive. “No problem at all, Roman. Ms. Hayes and I were just chatting about her progress.”

“Ms. Hayes is here to work, Jessy. Not to be harassed by my executive assistant,” Roman said, stepping fully into the room. The sheer heat radiating off him made the air feel instantly ten degrees warmer. “If you have free time to intimidate the contractors, I can find more filing for you on the lower levels.”

Jessy blinked, genuinely shocked. A flush of deep, angry red crept up her neck. “Roman, I was just—”

“My office. Now,” he commanded, his voice slicing through the air with absolute, unquestionable authority.

Jessy’s jaw snapped shut. She shot me one final, venomous glare before sweeping past Roman and disappearing down the hall.

I stood frozen by the espresso machine, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I had expected him to side with his assistant. I had expected him to use the opportunity to remind me how disposable I was.

Instead, Roman turned his gaze to me. The harsh, commanding edge vanished from his eyes, replaced by a deep, searching intensity that made my stomach flutter wildly. He took a slow step toward me, stopping just short of my personal space.

“Did she threaten you?” he asked quietly. He was standing so close I could feel the heat radiating off his chest, the rich cedarwood of his cologne momentarily scrambling my thoughts.

“No,” I lied, my voice slightly breathless. I cleared my throat, forcing myself to look him in the eye. “Nothing I can’t handle. I’m used to corporate territorialism, Mr. Sterling.”

Roman’s jaw flexed. He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes dropping to my lips before snapping back up to mine. “You don’t need to handle it. You answer to me, Clara. Only to me. If she bothers you again, you tell me.”

I swallowed hard, completely thrown off balance. First he was threatening to fire me, and now he was protecting me from his own staff? “I appreciate that, sir.”

“Roman,” he corrected softly, his voice dropping to a gravelly murmur. “Call me Roman.”

Before I could process the sudden intimacy of the request, he stepped back, the invisible tether between us snapping taut. He turned and walked out of the breakroom, leaving me alone with my cooling coffee and a mind spinning with questions I couldn’t even begin to answer.

Roman POV

Mine, Shadow snarled, pacing relentlessly in the cage of my mind as I walked back to my office. The blonde b***h threatened our mate. Let me out. Let me rip her throat out.

Stand down, I ordered my wolf, slamming the mahogany doors of my office shut behind me. You can’t kill my assistant in the middle of a human corporate building.

Jessy was standing by my desk, her arms crossed, looking equal parts furious and wounded. Alex was sitting in one of the leather chairs, pinching the bridge of his nose like he was staving off a migraine.

“What was that, Roman?” Jessy demanded the second the doors closed. “You just humiliated me in front of an outside temp! I have been by your side for three years. I fight on your borders, and you dress me down for warning off a liability?”

“She is not a liability, she is an employee,” I growled, letting a fraction of my Alpha aura bleed into the room. Jessy immediately dropped her eyes, exposing her neck on instinct, though her fists remained clenched. “And you will treat her with the respect befitting a guest in my territory. If I catch you cornering her again, I will strip you of your executive access and send you back to the mountain perimeter. Permanently.”

Jessy gasped, her head snapping up. To threaten to banish a high-ranking pack member to the cold perimeter was a massive insult. “Roman... you can’t be serious. Over her?”

“Leave us, Jessy,” Alex interjected quietly, standing up. “Now.”

Jessy looked between the two of us, her chest heaving. Whatever she saw in my eyes was enough to make her back down. She gave a stiff, jerky nod and practically fled the room.

Once we were alone, Alex walked over and poured himself a cup of black coffee, though his hands were shaking slightly. Ever since I had dropped the bomb about Clara two days ago, my Beta had been on edge.

“You’re losing control, Roman,” Alex said, his voice low. “You can’t keep reacting like that. Jessy isn’t stupid. She knows you’ve never reprimanded a pack member over a human before. If you keep treating Clara like she’s made of glass, the rest of the pack is going to figure it out.”

“I am the Alpha,” I said, pacing the length of the glass wall. “I don’t need to explain my actions to the pack.”

“You do when those actions put us all at risk!” Alex argued, finally raising his voice. “The rogues are hitting the eastern borders every night. They are testing our defenses, and someone powerful is coordinating them. If whoever is behind this finds out the Alpha of the Sterling pack has a vulnerable, human mate, they won’t just hit the borders. They will tear this city apart to get to her.”

I stopped pacing. The very thought of the feral rogues—or whoever was commanding them—getting anywhere near Clara made my vision swim with red. Shadow let out a deafening roar, my claws aching to push through the skin of my fingertips.

“They won’t find out,” I rasped, my voice sounding more beast than man. “Because she isn’t staying.”

Alex paused, his coffee cup midway to his mouth. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t claim her, Alex,” I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. To reject a mate was a pain worse than death for a wolf, but the alternative was a death sentence for her. “She’s a fragile human who flinches when a door slams too loudly. She’s drowning in the debts her father left her, just to stumble into our warzone. I won’t drag her into this bloodbath.”

“So what’s your plan?” Alex asked softly.

“I let her finish her standard audit,” I said, staring out at the grey Seattle skyline, though all I could see was Clara’s defiant, beautiful face. “I pay out her exorbitant completion bonus so she can wipe out her father’s debts. And then I send her far away from Seattle, where our enemies can never find her.”

“And until then?”

“Until then,” I said, turning back to my Beta, my eyes flashing gold, “Emanuel shadows her every move outside this building. And inside this building, no one—especially not Jessy—touches a single hair on her head.”