Page 46 of Rejected By My Stepbrother Alpha
“Of course.” I waved him in, buttoned my navy suit, and sat behind my tempered glass desk.
My vice president walked in, sank down in one of the black chairs in front of my desk, and brushed a piece of his wavy dark hair away from his eyes.
“I need to talk to you about the project for the Alpha king,” he said, getting straight to the point.
My head tilted slightly to the side. Not even an hour ago, Cooper and I attended a meeting with our project team and three of our engineers to expand upon the tech we wanted to develop for the Alpha King. I thought the meeting had gone well, and I was curious what he wanted to discuss.
Cooper leaned back slightly in his chair. “I wanted to talk about scheduling another meeting with Blackwood Inc. We need them on this project.” Cooper hadn’t been in our pack when I rejected Ivy. He had no idea of our history. “I was talking to Brian and Gina and they said that if our prototype is picked by the Alpha king we might not have enough resources or space in our warehouses to develop our product.” Brian and Gina were our top engineers. “I was looking at old projects that your father worked on with Mason Blackwood, and our companies have worked well together in the past.”
Cooper paused and looked up to the right, something he always did when he was thinking.
“I have a good feeling about working with them,” he continued. “The Alpha king wanted us to, and I think it will help land us the biggest account our company has ever seen.”
“You’re absolutely right,” I said as a new sense of purpose fueledme. “I’m pretty sure they're working out of the hotel they're staying at. I’ll go and speak with Ivinia and Damian right now and see if they will reconsider.” I had to actively remember to call Ivy by the name she had chosen to go by. I stood from my desk and strode over to my cabinet, grabbing my black briefcase. “We have that progress meeting with Anya tomorrow and if we pull a late night, we could plan a way to merge our two ideas together. I’ll go there and try to persuade them.”
My stomach swooped at the anticipation of seeing Ivy so soon. Not only did I want to work with Ivy’s company because it would help us get the Alpha king account, but it would mean we could spend more time together and give us a chance to untangle our complicated feelings for each other.
“Great.” He seemed stunned for a moment that I’d agreed so fast, but recovered quickly. “I'll go with you.”
I paused. I tried to keep my work and personal life separate. This was ironic since I was about to go convince Ivy to team up on a work project with me. But I didn't want to drag Cooper into our complicated history.
“You should stay here and continue to work with the team to perfect our project proposal for tomorrow. Just in case I can't convince Damian and Ivy to work with us,” I said.
He got to his feet. “Wait, who’s Ivy? Do you mean Ivinia?”
Damn it.
“Yes, my bad,” I said as we walked out of my office.
“Good luck. Don’t call her by the wrong name in the meeting,” he joked and put a friendly hand on my shoulder. “That won’t help our case in convincing them to work with us.”
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It gave me the motivation to do what I needed to do.”
Cooper nodded and wished me good luck again.
When I pressed the button to call the elevator, my heart lifted at the thought of seeing Ivy soon.
My wolf purred in approval as I stepped ontothe elevator.
The unrelenting tugging in my chest was how I knew that Ivy was at the hotel. Somehow, our connection hadn’t been broken despite everything.
I walked quickly down the busy sidewalk, nodding hello to a few familiar faces that I passed by, but I didn’t want to stop to talk like I usually would. There was a wild need pulsing through my body to get to Ivy. I had to see her. I needed to make sure that she was all right for myself.
But as I turned the corner, the first person I spotted wasn’t Ivy.
It was Damian.
He was crossing the street, holding the hand of a boy I’d never seen before. They were both grasping ice cream cones and laughing. Did Damian have a son? I didn’t know anything about his personal life. I’d never met him before the meeting a few days ago.
My heart lurched as a burst of red caught my attention. Ivy had stepped out of the hotel doors to greet Damian and the boy. Her auburn hair was dancing in the wind, and she looked stunning in a crisp white blouse and black pants.
Instinct told me not to approach her just yet. I had the perfect vantage point to watch her, but she couldn’t see me since I was half obscured by a large shrub.
I watched as Ivy greeted Damian and the boy with a smile. She hugged the boy close as Damian handed her a white styrofoam cup that had been tucked underneath his arm. Ivy’s face broke into a smile, and she said something to Damian that made him laugh.
I staggered a few steps back in shock. My back hit another shrub, but I barely registered it. It felt like I was falling down a deep, dark hole.
Were Ivy and Damian…together? Did they have a child? I couldn’t see the boy very well, but he looked to be around five or six. Had Ivy moved to the ColdCrest Pack, fallen in love with Damian, and then married him and had a kid?
