Page 120 of Ruled By The Alpha

Mastering the Alpha

by

Anna Fury

Chapter 1

Evangeline

I look up from the computer screen where I’m ordering groceries for the week. Alistair will expect his coffee soon. Hopping off the barstool, I pace around my employer’s enormous kitchen island and prepare the coffee just how he likes it–dark roast, precisely one teaspoon of unflavored creamer and six grams of brown sugar. I’m pretty good at eyeballing it at this point.

As I tip the sugar in, I eye it suspiciously. It looks a little much to me. Dumping the coffee, I grab a kitchen scale and start fresh. Coffee, creamer, and exactly six grams on the scale. Happy that it’s precise, I place the coffee cup on a serving tray with a napkin folded into thirds and head through the house for his office.

His door is closed, a habit he’s picked up recently. He always used to leave it open, but lately he seems more sensitive to noise, although I’m the only other person here.

I don’t knock. He always hears me coming since he transitioned into an alpha. But when I open the door, the sight of him hits me like a ton of bricks. He’s curled over his keyboard, glowering ferociously at the information on his screen–he’ll be in a bad mood later if the scowl on his face is anything to go by.

That usually means an early night for me as he won’t require anything else, so he can go pound away his frustrations in the basement gym.

“Your coffee, Alistair,” I croon as I pad across the room and set it down next to him, right in the same place I always do. He doesn’t glance until I turn to go.

“Evangeline?”

“Yes, sir?” I turn and do my best to put a neutral smile on my face, but when he looks at me, really looks at me, my entire body lights up. Dark chocolate hair falls in gentle waves over his ears; it’s time for a haircut. Piercing green eyes look through me as my body responds, embarrassingly, to his intense gaze.

“Never mind,” he murmurs as he frowns again, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. Enormous arms that barely fit inside his shirt these days.

“You need a haircut.” I hedge, gesturing to the wild wave that flops over his forehead.

He looks back at his computer screen. “Do you have time before you leave for the day?”

“Of course, Mr. Bancroft,” I agree gently. “I’ll be in the kitchen at five.”

He doesn’t respond, but I feel his eyes on my body like a physical caress as I leave his office. It was never really like this, not before the virus.

The Awaken virus.

I was here in the house when he came back from a meeting. I’ll never forget the way his eyes went wild, the way he turned to me with pure blazing fury on his face. How he barked at me to get out of his room. I remember the horrific sounds of him raging and destroying everything in his office for a full two days as I sat outside the door, begging him to allow me in.

After forty-eight hours, he opened the door, and he was no longer the six foot, lean tech guru I’d been hired to assist. He was seven feet of stacked, thick muscle. It was quickly clear that everything about Alistair became more. His senses, his preferences, his… wants.

Somehow, none of that scared me away, even though alphas on the news committed so very many atrocities. It didn’t even occur to me to leave Alistair, because his personality remained the same. Working for him is the best job I’ve ever had. I like him as an alpha. I’ve never admitted it to his face, but being an alpha suits him.

Chapter 2

Alistair

Growling, I stalk across my office and grip the door, ready to close it. I can hear my employee puttering around the kitchen, delicate fingers pecking away once again at the keyboard of her new laptop.

Evangeline.

Even from here, I can scent her, the way she blooms stronger and brighter whenever she comes into my office.

No, it’s better to think of her as my employee. I’ve thought of her that way for over a year now, despite the way my body reacts to her presence. It’s true I found her stunning from the beginning. In fact, I almost didn’t hire her because of that. But then, I didn’t want anyone else to have access to her constantly. So I hired her and required an exclusivity agreement and living on the property.

Evangeline is mine, for all legal intents and purposes. From a purely assisting and housekeeping perspective.

Snarling, I shut the door loud enough for her to hear my not-so-subtle reminder that she forgot. She swears low under her breath, which tugs the corners of my mouth up into a half-smile.

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