Page 4 of Billionaire Wolf Needs a Nanny

He scanned me up and down, pausing at the giant coffee stain on my shirt. "Did you dump your breakfast all over yourself?"

Tugging at my tie, I practically shredded my suit jacket and shirt with my claws as I ripped them off. "A hazard of on-site recon," I replied. I strode to the other side of the room where I kept several fresh sets of suits in my office closet.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have to give a speech at the RIDTech conference right now?" I asked. Reeve was a pioneer of online retail and his expertise was what allowed Wulfthorn Baked Goods to dominate the home bread delivery market.

Once I was out of the soiled clothes, and no longer smelling like a walking coffee cart, my heartbeat slowed. Like the hazy fog outside, my temper faded away under the bright light of day.

Reeve gave a long sigh that I heard even from across the room. "Petra quit."

I stuck my head out of the closet. "Again?" Petra was Reeve's assistant, also known as his walking brain and calendar.

Reeve nodded. "For real this time and without a word. Her resignation letter was on her desk this morning. I was jet-lagged from flying back from London and dealing with Dad's estate. The conference totally slipped from my mind."

I tugged the knot of my tie into place. "How many times have I told you not to be such a jerk to her? It was bound to bite you in the ass eventually."

Reeve scoffed. He jerked his head in the direction of my office door, where Anna was sitting on the other side. "Dude, you're one to talk. Pot meet kettle."

I joined Reeve at the window. Together, we looked down at the bustling street fifty stories below us. Up here, among the clouds, the people below looked like little ants crawling around my feet. We may as well have been gods watching the world from the heavens. It was lonely at the top, but this was what I had pursued my entire life.

"Fisher's ready to make a move," Reeve said.

Fisher was the founder of the Bean Brewing and Sipping coffee shops. For over two months, I had been trying to work out a deal to buy his company. He was going to retire soon. After devoting his entire life to expanding the reach of his company, it was well deserved. From one tiny coffee shop in Huntington Harbor, he expanded his company until every city in every state in the country had a Bean Brewing coffee shop. Too bad he didn't have an heir to take over the company after he stepped down. Still, the old goat refused to sell to me. Not that I was going to give him a choice. That company was going to be mine eventually.

My goal this morning was to analyze the staff and operating procedures at the coffee shop. I wanted to spot any inefficiencies that could be improved upon and examine the way the employees interacted with their customers. My entire empire was built upon a neurotic attention to detail and a willingness to take down anyone who dared to stand in my way.

Owning a nationwide chain of coffee shops where I could also sell products from my own company was the next step in expanding my empire. I wanted to see Wulfthorn's pastries and breads in every coffee shop and every store in this country and the world. Bean Brewing and Sipping was a vital step in that plan.

"Is it Unibrod?" I asked.

Reeve put his hands in his pants pockets and gave a nonchalant shrug. "Most likely. My sources found out that Fisher's meeting someone in Paradise Peaks after the new year. Now we know why he's been dicking you along."

I wasn't the only one who had my eye on Fisher's coffee business. Unibrod, the world's biggest conglomerate of fast food brands, wanted to gobble up Bean Brewing and add it to their portfolio. The very thought insulted me to my core. Like my own bakeries, Fisher ran his business with passion and the utmost attention to the quality of his products. I was going to fight to my last tooth to get this company and keep it from becoming another stale chain that sold overpriced burned coffee.

"I need to beat them to Fisher. Make him an offer he can't refuse. No matter what, I'm going to close this deal," my words were almost a growl as they came out.

Victory was so close. There was no way I was going to let this opportunity slip out of my grasp. Whether Fisher knew it or not, I had my sights locked on him. The wolf inside of me was not going to let up the hunt until I captured my prey.

Reeve sat down in my leather chair and picked up the tiny rake next to the Zen sand garden on my desk. He raked a circle around the bonsai tree in the center. "Better get on it. Fisher's going to spend the entire month of December in Paradise Peaks. It'll be the perfect time to ambush him. Unibrod already has their lackeys swarming all over." He stacked a pebble on top of another. "No more time for runs to the coffee shop."

I sighed at the reminder of what happened this morning. What was supposed to be a quick data-gathering visit turned into a nightmare because of some clumsy woman who looked like she just got off the bus from bumfuck somewhere.

Not that it was a bad thing. She had an intriguing openness about her that was missing in the jaded cosmopolitan women who stalked the streets of Huntington Harbor in their stiletto heels.

The time we had together was brief, but the moment I touched her, it felt right. Perfectly right in a way I never experienced before. Her soft body molded to mine when she bumped into me, and she wasn't a chore to look at. Not at all. Behind her heavy dark-rimmed glasses, she had thick long lashes and sharp brown eyes. Though the rain turned her hair into a frizzy puff, her soft brown locks fell past her shoulders in a wavy waterfall that I ached to sink my fingers into. Even through all the layers she wore, it was clear she had the right amount of curves in all the right places.

Despite her awkwardness and the power difference between us, she had a silent confidence about her. Not many people dared hold their heads up high and glare at me the way she did, especially after she spilled her drink all over me.

Then there was her scent. It was difficult to describe. Sweet and musky, with a lingering trace of honeysuckle and fresh fall apples. I took a deep breath through my nose as if I could conjure up her aroma through memory. She smelled like home in some unseen paradise I had never been to.

Something about this woman stirred a part of me that I did not wish to confront. It was something primal and overwhelming. Unable to face her any longer without losing control, I did what an alpha wolf never did. I ran out of the coffee shop with my tail between my legs.

A high-pitched childish giggle pierced the silence of my office before the door burst open. "Uncle Blake! Up!"

Emilia, my niece, dashed toward me with the frenetic speed and agility that only wolf pups possessed. She wore purple leggings under a black tutu covered with glitter that twinkled in the light, and a pink t-shirt decorated with a rabbit jumping over a rainbow. In one of her hands, she clutched a ragged stuffed bunny that flailed its limbs as she flung it around. Poor Mr. Snuffle's head lolled back, and its beady black eyes gleamed up at me as if it wanted to exit this plane of existence.

I held out my arms and hefted her up as she crashed into me in a whirlwind of gangly legs and grabby hands. Wrapping her little arms around my neck, she watched with gleaming mischievous eyes as my assistant scrambled clumsily after her.

"Mr. Wulfthorn," Anna gasped. She was winded and out of breath from chasing after the child. Messy strands of blonde hair streaked with silver escaped from her normally neat French twist. "I'm terribly sorry. She got away from me. It won't happen again."

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