Chapter One
The Astors were filthy rich. The type of rich that could buy my entire apartment building without a twitch of an eyelash, which was intimidating all in itself. I flexed my arms to readjust the stack of folders Judy handed me. There were so many folders that I struggled to balance them while following on her heels acrossoneof the lobbies of the ostentatious Astor building.
The file at the top tilted a little too much, and I twitched with little jerky movements to the left to balance it out. I let out a relieved breath.
I couldn’t mess this up, especially if it was going to be an important meeting. It had been nonstop since day one. The female Beta had been sending me all over the place—to collect food, coffee, dry cleaning, flowers, you name it. Today, my dutiesconsisted of me following her around, looking rumpled while cradling tons of neatly organized folders that almost reached my shoulder. Using a stylus, she tapped across the screen of her electronic pad. With her distracted, I peeked through the semi open door into the packed conference room. At the end of the table sat Samuel Astor, hands folded on the surface in front of him as he lightly tapped a pen against the rectangular table.
Day six of working as an intern, and I was only just seeing the elusive, wealthy Alpha.
Thatlarge family full of Alphas had their hands in many pots—they were famous to the point that word of them even reached my small town on the West Coast, and it wasn’t because their product was everywhere. The family itself had been a point of topic on those gossip apps. People held an unnatural fascination over the wealthy, the socialites, and the conglomerates—and they were all three. I could see why. Mr. Astor cut an imposing stature even sitting down. The corners of his mouth curled up as he discussed something with a person out of my line of sight. He set his elbows on the table and the navy suit jacket stretched across his wide shoulders. A charming, engaging smile . . .
“Nina,” Judy said sharply. I forced myself to face forward and the documents tipped to the left. I scrambled to straighten them.
I exhaled and stood tall, glancing at Judy from the corner of my eye, but her attention had returned to the screen.
When thepaidintern position presented itself, I couldn’t say yes faster, it was the only interest the hiring agency received from my resumes they’d sent out, and paying my rent at my new place was a necessity unless I wanted to be homeless—since I couldn’t return to my grandparents’ home in New Mexico. I’d been a burden there long enough. They were an older married Beta couple and what they needed now was peace and tranquility of their own space. Not their granddaughter living off them.
There was a third option, one I was avoiding like the plague: Find an Alpha to take care of me.
Omegas needed Alphas.
And they didn’t have to be a Scent Match. Omegas needed an Alpha to satiate our semi-annual heat, and my countdown had already begun since I presented a month ago.
There were ways around it, where I didn’t need to use an app to find an Alpha, but to buy toys or suppressants I needed money.
If only my Scent Match would show up to solve all that for me.
“Do not fuck up again,” Judy repeated for the millionth time, ripping me back to the present. Everyone in our department had been on edge and stressed for days with the arrival of the people inside the conference room. Astor Industries wanted to expand their production abroad to Singapore, but the land they wanted to purchase was proving difficult to acquire. After printing and organizing the folders, I’d discovered this meeting was to discuss these issues and their plans for afterwards.
Though I was essentially the assistant to the assistant in this position, the workload hadn’t been too bad. Judy looked up from the electronic pad’s screen, straightened her shoulders, and tipped her chin toward the conference room door. I took a deep breath and mimicked her posture. She pulled the door open for me and I waited for her to grab her portion of the thick folders like she’d coached me.
My broken heel wobbled on the carpet, and I distributed my weight to my toes. There’d been no option but to wear them unless I wanted to go around in the tennis shoes I’d walked to work in, but that screamed unprofessional—as I’d been told on my first day. I couldn’t even go get a replacement pair; one, because I didn’t have the funds yet, and two, there’d been notime because as soon as I arrived at Astor Industries, it was go, go, go.
Any other day or time the heel could have broken, but instead, it chose to snap mere minutes into my shift. I stifled the wince from my already burning calves taking the brunt of my weight. Before this job, I didn’t wear skirts, heels, or anything remotely close to business attire. I was perfectly content in my baggy clothing—now I regretted it, because the learning curve hurt.
A wave of Alpha scent permeated the room to the point that it felt like I was stepping into a cloud of the pheromones. My Omega instinct perked up, and I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the immediate urge to rub against the closest Alpha in the room.
The weight of the files lessened as Judy took her half of the folders and, mimicking her motions, I started down the left of the long, rectangular table.Did I look as nervous as I felt?I sucked in a breath and placed the first folder in front of a stout, older male, right between hisAstorwater and the neatly lined up pen on the other side. He didn’t acknowledge me other than sliding it closer to him. Judy was right; we were invisible to them.Just get the work done and that was it.
Okay, that wasn’t too bad. I fixed a smile on my lips and placed the next folder down, and then the next six, but with each one I set on the polished surface, I closed in on the golden-haired Samuel Astor at the end of the table where he scribbled on an electronic pad. His sharp jawline looked like it could cut me and dominance came off him in waves. He was next in my line up and I couldn’t take my attention off the dimple in his left cheek. It lightly dipped when he wasn’t smiling,so imagine when he did?
I was close enough for his Alpha scent to caress my nose and I breathed in—and the man sitting beside him scooted back sosuddenly, he hit my hip. I teetered to the left, trying to catch myself with swinging arms.
I would have managed it, except my heel was broken, so it sent me staggering until it completely snapped, and my butt dropped on a simultaneously warm and hard surface. Documents rained down like feathers.
I looked up directly into Samuel Astor’s face. I couldn’t tear my gaze off his lips. My ears rang, compromising my hearing. I’d heard of out-of-body experiences, but I’d never felt it . . . spots danced in front of my eyes.
“Breathe.” His palm came down on my back, forcing air out of my lungs in a ragged burst. I sucked down oxygen, still not able to tear my gaze off his face.
“I’m sorry, sir,” I croaked, still discombobulated.
My palm rested on his hard chest; I could feel the muscles through his crisp button down. Something grew hard under my butt and my eyes widened, my fingers curling into his shirt. Something foreign bloomed in my stomach, and I had the strongest urge to move on him. The smallest gasp left my lips.
His hazel gaze sharpened, and he stood, dumping me to the floor.
I landed on my hip with a wince. My skirt rolled up, exposing my thighs. I could only gawk up at him as he stared down at me. Heat burned my cheeks and spread down my chest. This was so embarrassing. I curled my legs under me as I struggled to pull down my skirt and carefully stood so I didn’t flash everyone. After a few moments of struggling, Mr. Astor finally grabbed me under the arms and easily lifted me.
Reality snapped back into place like a rubber band snapping across my wrist and I took a step backwards.
