Chapter 20

Aria

“I still can’t believe it, Aria. Working for the man you impulsively kissed at the club…” Bella’s voice crackled through the FaceTime call as she put on her makeup. “It’s unreal!”

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. I hadn’t told my friend everything, of course—how could I? She’d think that I had gone absolutely insane.

So in her eyes, I was just working for Darren and nothing else. I had told her at least that much over our weekly brunch date.

“I guess you have me to thank,” she mused, glancing at me through the screen.

I rolled my eyes. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

Bella grinned. “Has he mentioned the kiss at all? Shown any interest in, you know… Doing it again?”

My cheeks heated. “Mentioned it? Yes,” I replied quietly, recalling the night our lips had touched all too well. It took a lot of effort not to reach up and brush my fingers against the little crescent-shaped mark on my collarbone, which was safely concealed behind the soft fabric of my turtleneck.

“And?” Bella pressed.

“I’m just his employee, Bella,” I said firmly as I tugged on my shoes. “What happened that night was just a coincidence and nothing more. We’re not… I’m not…”

“Fine, fine,” Bella cut me off with a wave of her hand. “Small world, though.”

Oh, Bella, I wanted to say. This world is really so much bigger, so much more complicated and crazy, than you’ll ever know.

But of course I couldn’t say that. So instead I managed a smile and said, “I’ve gotta go to work. Talk later?”

“Mhm. Talk later, Mrs. CEO.”

I rolled my eyes again and ended the call.

…

My preparations for the Puppy Playground were almost complete—I just needed to dot a few i’s and cross a few t’s at work today.

And I partially had the incentive program to thank.

Ever since Darren and I had unveiled the program a week ago, motivation in the office had been at an all-time high. We had even installed a large board in the breakroom where everyone could tally their points, and it had started some friendly competition amongst Melissa and Brandon in particular.

“Ha! One more point for me,” Melissa goaded as she added another tally to her spot on the whiteboard. “I can’t wait to be lounging poolside on vacation while you schmucks are stuck in the office.”

Brandon stuck out his tongue at Melissa’s turned back. “You’ve still got a long way to go before you save up enough points for a whole week off, Mel,” he retorted.

Melissa turned and grinned at him impishly. “Well, I’m off to more of a start than you are, at least. Let’s see… You’ve only got 5 points so far? Pathetic.”

“Hey, hey…” Brandon leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the break table. “What’s the phrase? Slow and steady wins the race? Besides, I’m saving up for the Xbox.” He glanced at Lily. “At least I’m not immediately using them on nail salon vouchers.”

Lily giggled and admired her new nails—acrylics with a little pink and white cat design on them. “You guys can keep your time off and video games. Getting my nails done is like a mini vacation for me.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I sipped my coffee and watched the exchange. Finally, things were starting to go smoothly around here for me.

“What on Earth are you all doing?”

Well. Almost smoothly.

The sound of Arthur’s voice caused us all to turn to see the middle-aged supervisor standing in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest. Melissa opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Arthur’s eyes snapped to me.

“I should have known your little program would be a distraction.”

“More of a distraction than everyone sitting around and playing mobile games all day?” I quipped.

I immediately regretted that. To Arthur, I was nothing more than a belligerent human—lower than dirt in his eyes. And the fact that my own program had been changing things around here, challenging the rigid structure that older men like him revered so highly, pissed him off more and more by the day.

He hated me.

Blissfully, the comm system came on before Arthur could say anything else.

“Aria White, please report to the Alph—I mean, the boss’s office.”

Grateful for the escape, I turned on my heel and left, figuring that Darren wanted me to take Lucas out for playtime.

But when I entered his office, I instead found myself facing an interrogation.

“Aria. Did you do this?”

Darren pointed to a faded bruise on Sarah’s neck.

…

Darren

Sarah had told me once how horribly she had been bullied as a child.

By her own sister, no less.

Finding out that Aria was Sarah’s sister… Well, it was a bit shocking, to say the least. Aria seemed so gentle, so caring.

I thought that surely she had changed since she was a kid. Kids could be nasty little creatures, especially human ones—seeing as how human parents had no real influence over their kids, unlike werewolves, who could command their children with one word.

But when Sarah had burst into my office and said, “I can’t take it anymore. I have to confess,” I knew that I had to listen.

She had pulled her hair aside to reveal a rather nasty, if not somewhat faded, bruise on her neck. She’d told me that Aria had given it to her last week, right here in the office—that she was too afraid to say anything, so she had tried to hide it.

I was furious. To think that Aria would do this to Sarah, at work no less…

“Aria. Did you do this?” It was nearly impossible to hide the furious tremor in my voice as I pointed at the bruise.

Aria’s eyes widened as she stared at the bruise. “I… Of course not,” she scoffed. “Wait, is that what she told you?”

“She did do it,” Sarah whimpered, sniffling. “She came into the meeting room last week and hit me for no reason.”

“Sarah, quit lying,” Aria ground out. “I didn’t—”

“Aria.” I pressed my hands into my desk and sighed. “I can’t believe you would do something like this.” She was a bold girl, that much was true—the way she had kissed me was a good example—but to be so… vicious?

“Then don’t,” she retorted quickly. “Sarah is just making it up to make me look bad. I’m shocked that you would even side with her, knowing that I’m your—”

She suddenly froze, cutting herself off before she could say the word that almost slipped out: mate.

Finally, she finished, “Faithful employee.” She shook her head. “You can check the security footage yourself if you want. Sarah was the one who attacked me last week. She called me into the meeting room under the guise of making amends for our childhood, then grabbed my hair.”

She paused, taking a deep breath before turning to Sarah. “Sarah, I’m sorry if I hurt you in the end. But it was self defense. You were close to ripping a fistful of hair out of my own head just because you thought I was the reason Darren broke up with you.”

I felt my eyebrows shoot up at that. Aria seemed sincere, but so did Sarah.

“That’s not true,” Sarah sniffled. “Yes, I called you into the meeting room, but you attacked me after I tried to talk things out! Please, Darren, you have to believe me!” She turned to me and grabbed my arm, pleading.

I didn’t know who to believe anymore: my mate or the girl who had saved my life as a pup.

Aria, however, seemed to make that decision for me.

“Fine,” she said, slipping her phone out of her pocket. “If you won’t believe me, then I have proof. I didn’t think I would have to use this, but I guess I have no choice now.”

Sarah stiffened, her hands tightening around my forearm. Aria calmly tapped on the screen a few times before holding out a recording to me.

“I knew you were going to do something like this, Sarah. So I made sure to record the conversation before I went in that room with you.”