Page 18 of It All Started with a Bite

“Let me get this straight,” I said carefully. “Not only am I stuck as a werewolf, but I’m also supposed to be some kind of supernatural socialite and pack leader?”

“While maintaining your cover in the human world, yes,” Victoria said. She hesitated. “Speaking of which, what is it exactly you do?”

“I’m an accountant at Pennington & Graves.” I looked at my watch and frowned. “Which reminds me, I have an important meeting in an hour, so how about we wrap this up for now?”

7

The Final Audit (Or How to Lose a Job in One Bite)

An hour later,I was standing in Richard Pennington Jr.’s office, staring blindly at my boss while trying to shut my nose down against the overwhelming stench of his cologne. The scent was clearly trying to mask something. Probably fear mixed with a hefty dose of smug satisfaction.

“I’m what?”

“You’re fired,” Pennington said flatly. “The auditors wrote a damning report about our accounts. You didn’t even turn up for the meeting.” He fixed me with an accusing look.

I glanced beseechingly at the ceiling and bit back a scream.

Between the craziness that had been the last eight hours and this fresh hell, I wasn’t sure which one I was most pissed about. There was no way I could explain to my boss the extenuating circumstances that had led to my absence.

Sorry, a werewolf bit me last night and I spent the morning growing furwasn’t exactly going to cut it.

“No one informed me the meeting time had changed,” I said in a hard voice.

“Really?” Pennington leaned back in his chair and sneered. “My secretary tells me otherwise.”

I looked to my right and spotted his secretary through the glass wall overlooking the open work area that occupied most of the floor space inside Pennington & Graves.

Tina Compton studied me with a faint smirk where she sat in her cubicle. Mark Little, my ex, was leaning over her pretending to show her something. I could tell they were both listening in on the conversation through the open door. I narrowed my eyes.

Tina was the one Mark had gotten couple massages with.

Pennington spoke again. “I’d love to hear why our most reliable accountant decided to skip a meeting with Audit or Die.”

I shifted my frown at my boss. “Who?”

“The auditing firm operating out of that renovated Victorian building next to the park, in the business district.”

I’d never heard of them before.

Pennington picked up a file from the stack on his desk and shoved it toward me, a muscle jumping in his jawline. “They were very thorough. Claimed our software was unreliable and our methods bordered on illegal.”

I took the damning report and leafed through it, my hands shaking slightly with suppressed rage.

The injustice of it rankled.

I refrained from pointing out to my boss the number of times I had expressed my concerns about the new accounting suite that had been forced on us three years ago.

There was no point. I had been judged and found guilty in my absence.

I clenched my jaw.

It was obvious what was going on. I was being made to take the fall for the firm’s failure at passing the auditors’ inspection. And it seemed my ex and his new girlfriend had conspired with my boss to get me fired.

A knock on the door made us both look up. Mark stood in the doorway, Tina hovering behind him. They were both wearing expressions of fake sympathy that made my newly turned inner wolf want to pin them down and rip their throats out.

“Are you okay, Abby?” Mark said awkwardly.

A threatening sound rumbled through my chest before I could stop it.

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