Chapter 6

Aria

I accepted the CEO’s offer.

It was just as he said—a once in a lifetime opportunity for someone like me, who had no college degree—and I knew as much. So when he had offered me an internship while still dogsitting full-time, I couldn’t refuse.

“I still can’t believe it, Bella,” I said, mouth full of cereal. “It doesn’t even feel real.”

My friend’s laugh crackled through the phone’s speaker. “Maybe I was onto something when I said that you’d become the CEO’s doting wife.”

I rolled my eyes. “Two-hundred thousand dollars a year, just to watch a dog. I don’t know… if I wind up murdered on the news, make sure you investigate this guy first.”

“Speaking of which, have you heard about what happened to those hikers out in the state park?”

“No. What happened?”

Bella took a deep breath. “Some hikers were out camping and one of them got seriously injured—lost a hand. He says it was a werewolf, but the park rangers say it was likely a bear attack.”

“Werewolves,” I scoffed. “The hiker lived?”

“Yeah, he lived. Probably the blood loss made him see things, you know? Either way, I’m not going camping for a while.”

I couldn’t help but smirk. “You’ve never camped a day in your life, Bella.”

My friend snorted at that. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was nearly eight, which meant I’d need to leave for my first day soon. We said our goodbyes, promising to go out again this weekend—sans alcohol—to talk about my first week, and with that I grabbed my coat and headed out.

…

The little white wolf bobblehead on my desk wiggled as I tapped it with my finger. I’d gotten it as a going-away present when I’d worked at the wolf sanctuary all those years ago, and considering the way that everyone in Lunar Labs seemed to be operating on some sort of ‘canine hierarchy’ theme, I thought it would be a funny decoration to bring.

The other staff, however, didn’t seem quite so amused.

They’d been staring at me ever since I’d walked in earlier, looking at me like I was some kind of freak.

But I tried not to let it get to me. Perhaps the employees here were close-knit, that was all.

“Aria?”

I looked up to see an older man with salt-and-pepper hair standing over my desk, a manila folder in hand. He looked all business; a crisp white button-down tucked into khakis, a pair of leather loafers, wire-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose.

“That’s me,” I said, holding out my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Rather than shaking my hand, he gave me the manila folder. “I’m Arthur, your supervisor. Your first official assignment is to write up a proposal for next month’s advertising campaign.”

“Oh.” A bit shocked, I took the folder. “When is it due?”

“This afternoon,” Arthur responded.

“That soon—” I began, but he was already gone.

I sighed as I flipped through the folder. A proposal should be easy enough; I just had to think of something first. Maybe I could get some tips from the other employees.

Standing from my desk, I began to make my way around the department. To my surprise, many of the cubicles were empty, or occupied by people who were playing games on their phones and chatting amongst themselves.

I guess that Arthur guy isn’t as strict as he looks, I thought as I wandered.

“Man, that was an excellent hunt last weekend,” I heard a voice say. I looked toward the source of the voice to see a man, tie loosened, standing by the water cooler with a woman. “You seemed especially enthusiastic, Melissa.”

Melissa, flipping a golden lock over her shoulder, blushed. “Well, I had a stressful week. I needed to let loose.”

“I’m sure you did.”

Figuring that these two would be my best bet to strike up a conversation, I strode up to them. They didn’t even glance at me as I approached, although they stopped talking.

“Hi,” I said, clutching my folder to my chest. “I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m—”

“Aria. We know.” Melissa turned to look at me, blue eyes scanning me up and down. “We heard about you.”

Resisting the urge to blanch, I said, “I heard you guys talking about a hunt. That’s pretty cool that you guys hunt together.”

The two of them stared at me like I had two heads. I was starting to feel uncomfortable, but I couldn’t just walk away, so I managed a smile and added, “I heard there was an animal attack in the state park this weekend. I hope you guys have bear spray!”

At that, the man threw his head back and laughed.

“Thanks for the warning, but we should be fine,” Melissa remarked flippantly.

My face heated a little. “Well, I guess you do have guns on you,” I said with a smile before quickly excusing myself and hurrying back to my desk. I felt their eyes on me the whole way, and could have sworn I’d heard snickering coming from them, but I didn’t dare look back.

Only once I plopped down in my chair, safely hidden in my tiny cubicle, did I let out a breath that sent a tuft of mousy brown hair floating up from my face.

Guess I should just keep to myself for a while, I thought.

“Do your people really use guns?”

The sound of a soft female voice startled me, and I looked up to see a cherub-faced girl with a dark pixie cut peering at me over the cubicle wall. Her hands were gripping the partition, revealing beautifully-manicured red nails.

“Oh, um…” I didn’t know what she meant by ‘your people’, but I assumed it wasn’t intentional. “Some people use guns, I guess. Do those two use bows or something, or…?” I nodded toward Melissa and the man, who were still whispering by the water cooler.

The girl shrugged. “Something like that,” she replied, then stuck her hand out. “I’m Lily, by the way.”

Finally, someone friendly.

“Aria.”

When Lily pulled her hand back, gripping the partition once more, she cocked her head to the side and wrinkled her nose.

“What perfume are you wearing?”

“Oh…” I picked up my shirt collar and gave it a sniff. It was a really faint floral scent—I’d only sprayed the tiniest bit on this morning. “Just some off-brand drugstore perfume. Here.” I dug into my purse and handed her the bottle.

Lily’s nose wrinkled even more, as if the scent of the very bottle itself was unbearable.

“Nevermind,” she said, sinking back behind her cubicle.

I frowned and shook my head, returning to work.

That office just got weirder and weirder that day. I felt like an outsider, like I was already hated even though it was only my first day. Lily was the only one who seemed interested in talking to me, but she was a little… intense.

So I decided to spend some time with Lucas. At least he seemed to like me.

Darren had told me that Lucas had a playroom on the top floor of the Lunar Labs building where the dog could run and play, and encouraged me to come upstairs during the day to check on him.

But when I opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

It felt as if I’d just stepped into a forest, rather than the top floor of an office building.

I’d expected some toys, maybe a little doggy jungle gym and a nice, big bed to sleep on.

But this… This was on another level.

The ‘playroom’, if one could even call it that, was basically an oasis.

Enormous, highly realistic projections of the forest covered each wall, with the ceiling a projection of the sky—complete with birds and clouds. The floor was made out of some sort of fake pine duff. A fucking waterfall, which ran into a full-sized swimming hole, poured out of a crevice between what I was pretty certain were real boulders piled against the wall.

Even fucking full-sized trees stuck up out of the floor, and I swore I could feel a cold breeze brush my cheek as I entered. I wrapped my arms around myself, shocked by the chill; Darren must have kept it extra cold in here since Lucas was a husky/wolf mix.

“All this… for a dog?”

Stunned, I slowly turned to take it all in. The elevator that had carried me here felt so out of place, a steel box sitting in the middle of a lush forest.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that the elevator was really some kind of portal carrying me into the middle of a national park.

Was this what billionaires spent their money on? I supposed I would, too, if I had that kind of money.

Suddenly, the sound of barking caught my attention. I turned to see Lucas bounding toward me, tongue lolling. Smiling, I crouched and held my arms out to him. “Here, boy!”

The dog slammed into me, knocking me to the forest floor. I laughed, breathless, as he began licking my face.

“Aren’t you supposed to be thinking about a proposal?”

I looked up to see a tall form standing over me. As it turned out, my previous suspicions about a breeze weren’t unfounded—a stray lock of raven hair wafted gently into his face, and he tucked it behind his ear.

“This place is incredible,” I said, standing and dusting myself off. Dirt—there was dirt on my clothes. “I can definitely think better in here.”

“Suit yourself.” Darren turned, taking in the vibrant landscape being projected on the walls. I wanted to touch it, if only to see if there was a hard wall behind it or if I really had been transported into the forest.

Darren, as if reading my mind, suddenly said, “Don’t touch the walls, by the way. The screens are state-of-the-art and very delicate.”

I chuckled as I watched Lucas take off, loping in tight circles around a couple of nearby ‘trees’. “And what if the dog jumps on them?”

The CEO looked at me as if I’d just insulted him. “He knows better.”

I opened my mouth, but then shut it again—no use in arguing with capricious billionaires, I supposed. “Well, it really is stunning.” A lot better than a cubicle, I thought, but didn’t say that out loud.

Darren didn’t respond—just watched as Lucas ran around. I began pacing the large room, kicking small stones and twigs with my feet. It really was like being out in nature—even smelled like it—and the atmosphere helped me think.

In fact, I even started to come up with a pretty damn good idea for my proposal.

But I was so deep in thought, staring up at the hyper-realistic sky, that I didn’t notice the pool of water ahead of me.

I didn’t notice it, in fact, until my feet were hitting air and I was plunging into a pool that was far deeper than should have been possible.

I thrashed, water rushing into my mouth as I tried to cry out, “I can’t swim!” But it came out gurgled, incoherent. I felt myself begin to sink, my clothes heavy. The water was cold—so cold, like it had been frozen up until recently.

Somewhere, I heard a shout and a dog barking, and then—

Strong, warm arms encircled me, and I found myself being pulled out of the water as if I weighed nothing at all.