Page 11 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
Cassie turned to him, her warm eyes half-wild. “Felix?”
Ah. So she wasn’t willing to call it off herself. Perhaps she was worried she wouldn’t get another job if she turned him down outright. It was a very generous salary he was offering. Hard to say no to. And she didn’t seem willing to tell the truth of it, either.
Again, he considered quietly taking Molly to one side, explaining that he wanted someone else. He opened his mouth to speak.
And his damned wolf silenced him.
Cassie was vulnerable. She needed money. Shelter. This job. He couldn’t ruin that for her. There was no good reason he could give Molly for turning her down, and doing so would almost definitely spoil her chances for another good job.
He could look after her, and she, in turn, could look after his boys. It could be completely professional. He was an adult; he knew how to draw boundaries and keep them. At any rate, he highly doubted Cassie would actually want anything to do with him after he so thoroughly rejected her the other morning.
It could work. It would work.
“I think you sound like the ideal candidate,” he said to Cassie. “Energetic, adventurous,professional.”
If looks could kill, he would be stone dead. He didn’t care.
“See,” Molly said, giving Cassie a sympathetic look. “Felix here is one of the most reputable and honorable shifters I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. The Iron Walkers are one of the biggest, most influential packs in the world. It’s anexcellentjob, my dear, and I’d encourage you to accept.”
Felix didn’t miss the ice that crept into her voice. The threat went unspoken.
If you insult the alpha of the pack full of our best customers, so help me…
“Of course, it’s your choice,” Felix said with a generous smile to Cassie. “If you don’t want to come to Silvermist, I’ll understand. I’ll even recommend a few packs that are nearby to the south that may have need of your talents.”
He thought he did rather a good job of wrestling down the insistent gnawing possessiveness at the mere thought of her choosing a different alpha over him.
Cassie looked between Molly and Felix, her face the very picture of pained desperation.
“Well, dearie?” Molly said. “What will it be?”
Chapter 5 - Cassie
She shouldn’t have accepted the job. Damn it, she should have said no.
She was hyperaware of every inch of her body as she sat ramrod straight in the passenger seat of the car, trying not to so much as breathe too loudly. His essence waseverywhere. His scent, pine and whiskey, caught in the back of her throat, making her slightly dizzy. Was it because he was a shifter, something to do with his scent making her all nervous? Or was it just him?
He hadn’t taken his eyes off the road, his jaw tight as they drove in silence. He was so big, his presence so overwhelming. The space between them felt charged, thrumming with energy, as if one wrong move would shock them both.
Was this how it was going to be? Would she constantly be aware of him, of his every edge, his every minute movement? Surely she’d go crazy after a week!
No. It was just because they were in the car together. The tension hadn’t broken yet. What was it he had said, something about keeping it strictly professional? She could do that. She could be professional. Soon their night together would be nothing but a distant memory, a funny story she would tell her friends.
Oh, him? He’s my boss. Funny story, actually, we met a few nights before I started working for him and hooked up, can you believe it? I know, right, ridiculous! You’d never guess!
He reached over to adjust the air con, and she nearly jumped out of her skin, clapping her hands over her mouth to prevent a squeal escaping her lips. He snatched his hand back as if it had been burned, finally turning to look at her, his brow etched with concern.
“Sorry,” she blurted, fiddling with her sleeves, “I was miles away.”
He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment, instead flicking on the radio to some local channel. The sounds of some crooning, love-sick woman filled the car, but he didn’t flip the station over. Any noise was apparently better than no noise.
Cassie couldn’t disagree. Although objectively terrible, the woman’s warbling at least allowed her brain to focus on something other than the hulking man next to her. Not man, she reminded herself. Male. Alpha.
There was one good thing to be said about this arrangement. That feeling of safety she had felt waking up next to him, that hadn’t gone away. For the first time in years, her nervous system actually felt close to settling. She couldn’t remember the last time her stomach hadn’t been tied up in anxious knots, her eyes constantly flicking to the corners of her vision, always on the lookout for some malicious shadow finally arriving to catch her.
It was like that primal piece of her, the part constantly hiding from predators, was finally calm. She now had top cover from one of the biggest, meanest predators on the planet. Shifters weren’t to be messed with, especially wolves. Particularly alpha wolves. As long as he was around, she was safe. At last, she was safe.
Perhaps now she would finally stop waking up in the night in a cold sweat, fear choking her, a thousand nightmares swimming behind her eyelids of all the horrible things the debt collectors would do if they ever caught her. It wasn’t just her imagination, either. They had gone to great lengths to get the message to her several times over the years. They could, andwould, hurt her in ways she didn’t know it was possible to hurt someone.
