Page 4 of Alpha Bear Accountant

I glanced at the clock and nodded, even though no one could see me over the phone. It was just past noon, so if all went well, maybe we’d be back on track before dinner. "That would be perfect. Thank you."

"Excellent. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

I almost asked if they had any plumbers looking for work, but that was jumping the gun. Until I knew what the money situation was, I couldn’t hire more people. "No, that's all. Thank you."

After I hung up, I started the arduous process of organizing the mess on my desk, heart racing. If someone was going to come and help get the books in line, the least I could do was make sure all the paperwork was in neat piles of like objects. After a quick glance at the top layer, I groaned out loud. “Okay, I guess the first pile will be bills.”

As I dug out bills, receipts, pay stubs, and business cards, I thought about the fact that a real animal shifter was coming to my office to look at our private financial records. Oak Grove was turning out to be a lot more interesting that I remembered.

For the next hour, I frantically tried to tame the chaos on my desk and in the filing cabinets. I’d barely made a dent in the mess but staying busy helped me keep my mind off the shifter I’d be working with. Would he be alpha or omega? Probably an omega like me. They couldn’t just send alphas out to work with strangers who could be unmated omegas.

Unless he was a mated alpha.

That thought made me feel both relieved and disappointed. If an omega showed up, maybe I could make a friend, but if an alpha showed up, he’d probably be mated and completely uninterestedin me. Did shifters even mate humans? Why did I know so little about them if they were here in Oak Grove?

Probably because I’d been so busy working hard to get out of here to pay attention. And look where that got me?

But what if he wasn’t? What he was unmated and hot? I chuckled as I reminded myself that he was an accountant. He would probably be exactly like me—skinny, nerdy, and pale. The exact opposite of the kind of guy I was usually attracted to.

So why did the thought of meeting him make my pulse quicken and my palms sweat?

4

TODD

I packed up my things, ready for the day to be done. My mind was already at home, mentally setting up the regrouting project for the bathroom I’d been putting off all week. It was going to be extra fun having to bring in water from other areas of the house now that it was partially fixed, but might as well keep moving forward on the bits I could do.

Being Friday, I had no more excuses and was going to get that part of the bathroom finished. Besides, manual labor usually helped clear my head after a long day of sitting behind my desk.

Just as I reached for the door handle in my office, my phone buzzed in my bag. When I dug it out, I saw a notification from Shifter for Hire. “Sweet.” A small thrill ran through me at the prospect of making some extra cash. Besides, digging out old grout and filling it in with new wasn’t as sexy as it sounded.

The message that flashed across my screen was exactly what I needed.Urgent accounting gig. You available this evening or tomorrow?

Yeah. I can be available in twenty minutes. Where?

I used to try and play it cool, to pretend like I was doing them as much a favor as they were for me. I’d read somewhere that was the best way to build a clientele. And if I could afford to let someone snag it out from under me, maybe I’d still do that. But I couldn’t.

The image of me sweating all over the bathroom floor dissipated from my mind as I sent the response. Running numbers and solving financial puzzles was actually a passion for me. No one expected the captain of the football team to become an accountant, but it was the only thing that truly settled my mind. Numbers always made sense to me. The rest of life? Not so much.

Five minutes later, I had an address to an old warehouse plugged into my GPS, and I was bopping to an old country song.

I never knew what to expect with a new gig like this. They didn’t lay it all out like some of them did. Maybe it would be an easy project that I could finish in an hour or two. Or maybe it would turn into an ongoing consulting job that could pay for the closet system I wanted to put into one of the spare rooms to make it a proper home office.

The drive to the client's location was short because everything in this small town was within a ten-mile radius.

I pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript warehouse with a faded sign over the door. A twinge of nerves ran through me. I was always a bit anxious when I met a new client. Not because I worried for my safety—no one would mess with a bear—but because I took great pride in being able to fix any financial issue.

One day, I would get bested. It was a statistical inevitability. I’d walk into a client’s office, minding my own business, and thencome across a problem I couldn’t solve. The building I’d just arrived at had me wondering if that day had finally come.

After parking in the almost empty lot, I headed for the door. No one answered when I knocked, so I opened the steel door and let myself in. If it was a home, I wouldn’t have, but businesses were a different ball game.

My senses were heightened as I looked around the large storage space with vans, shelving racks, and more pipe than I’d ever seen in my life. Chemicals filled the air and my nostrils. And the noise… The fluorescent lights were driving my bear batty.

Chill, bud. We’re here to work.

There appeared to be an office on the upper floor, looking down on the space, so I stepped farther inside and called out. “Hello. Anyone here?”

A moment later, a man’s face appeared in the window and then he opened the office door. “Hey, sorry. Are you the accountant?”

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