Page 31 of Instant Bond

“This guy won’t let go of me!”

“You have to do what I say or I won’t get my money!” He growled out, rising from his seat. His words brought on even more confusion. I thought he was trying to givememoney? Was he just on something, so he wasn’t making any sense?

The last thing I saw as he shoved me down face-first into the table was Sam, a muscular alpha who worked behind the bar a lot during my shifts and was always friendly to me, barreling out from behind the bar to try and separate us.

KARTER

CLACKING AWAY ONmy keyboard, I gave a slow nod at the sales figures report on my screen. We were doing particularly well this quarter. It was at least in part up to my team to make sure we stayed that way. I’d already held a meeting today, brainstorming for new ad campaign ideas. It had been surprisingly productive.

My phone, sitting on the desk, lit up with a screen that indicated an incoming call. I snatched it up, thinking it might be Cameron. Maybe he’d gotten finished with work a bit early. As it stood, I still had about 15 minutes before I needed to head his way. But the contact name and photo was for my mother. My alpha mother, Farrah, who was also technically my boss.

“Hello?”

“Karter Andrew Morrison, you have some explaining to do.”

My fingers twitched on the sides of the phone. The urge to hang up was very strong. But I only rolled my eyes up to the ceiling before responding.

“Hello, mother. It’s wonderful to hear from you.”

“You just can’t be nice, can you?” She accused me. I wasn’t sure how to answer. I’d recently discovered Icouldbe nice, but only for soft-voiced omegas who were under 5’5 with big hazel eyes and silly t-shirts. And I only knew one person who fit that description.

“What did I do this time?”

“I just got off the phone with Marlena, who let me know that Lucas isveryupset about what you did.” Marlena was Lucas’ mother, who happened to be very good friends with my mother.

“That’s a crying shame. I feel terrible.”

“This really isn’t funny, Karter. She told me he was completely humiliated, and was very nearly kicked out of the hotel. Please tell me there was some sort of misunderstanding.”

“There was no misunderstanding, unless you count the fact that the man is practically stalking me as a misunderstanding. Then, yes.”

“Oh, will you stop being so ridiculous? I just don’t understand why the two of you can’t get along.”

“I just told you why, as I’ve told you numerous times in the past.”

Lucas was not only a supremely irritating presence in my life, but a point of contention between us as well. I’d been clear with her about his harassment, but she’d blown me off, not taking my issues seriously. If Lucas had been born an alpha, and I’d been born an omega, I knew that it would be a different story.

“You understand he’s contracted through the company as an employee, right? You absolutely cannot let your petty squabbles get in the way of professionalism with an employee.”

“Tell him that. Every time I turn around he’s in my office or trying to get into my hotel room.”

“Well, Karter, I don’t know what you expect when you give someone mixed signals. You say you don’t want anything to do with him, but we both know that wasn’t the case when you brought him up to your apartment.”

The fact that he had actually told my mother that I’d drunkenly brought him up to my apartment only magnified my feelings of hatred for him.

“That was nearly a yearago,” I reminded her, between my clenched teeth. “And as I told you then, absolutely nothing happened between us then or ever.”

“But I saw that photo in the news of the two of you together the other day. You can’t expect someone to understand your intentions when you don’t make them clear, can you?”

My eyes widened, and I felt my hands begin to shake with anger. I wanted to smash my phone on the desk. The blessed fucking photo. Had he planned it that way? Just another way to invalidate me, so he could play the victim?

“I have to go.” Obviously I couldn’t rely on her to believe me about anything. But if she didn’t believe me, then what course of action did I have against him? “I have an appointment.”

“Karter, th-”

I hung up the call before she could get her sentence out. She was already calling me back as I was saving my work and shutting down my computer. I ignored it, and another call tried to come through by the time I was walking out of my office door. Breathing in through my nose and slowly out of my mouth, I shoved my phone in the pocket of my suit jacket. I had more important things to take care of.

The drive to Cameron’s restaurant didn’t do much to calm me down, but I knew seeing him would help. Part of me wanted to tell him what I was upset about, but another part worried that it would make me seem weak in his eyes. He was already depending on me as a source of strength. Would an omega want an alpha that couldn’t handle something so trivial on their own?

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