Page 1 of No Harm No Howl

ONE

GIA

“Hey, happy Friday!” Gia Dodson said to her coworker as she sat at her desk, ready to end the week on a positive note.

“Hey, Gia,” Melissa replied, but not with the normal chipper tone Gia had expected.

“What’s everyone buzzing about this morning?” Her wolf side had smelled the fear in the air. “Everyone looks panicked … as if they’re walking on eggshells.” Gia glanced around the office and took in all the low whispers the humans thought she couldn’t hear.

“That’s two dozen people so far. What are we going to do?” one person said.

“Who’s next?” another person asked.

A lump formed in the pit of her stomach. Rumors of impending layoffs had been flying around the office all month. Thankfully, nothing had ever come of them …or had it.

“A bunch of people have just been laid off,” Melissa whispered. “I’ve been afraid to turn on my computer since I walked in the door. I guess if you’re on the chopping block, you get a notification of your termination when you go to log in.” Her voice was as shaky as her hands.

“Shit. Really? Who came up with that bullshit?”

“I know. It’s the worst way possible. Why can’t they just do it face to face like they used to?” Melissa asked.

“Because they’re assholes. That’s why.” Gia took a deep breath. This was not what she had expected to be dealing with today. It was supposed to be a good day … the beginning of an awesome weekend. She’d worked for this company for just over a decade and had thought her position was secure.

She glanced at Melissa, and her heart sank. Melissa was a single mom with three kids, all under the age of ten. If anyone needed this job, it was her. Melissa had no outside help. No family in the area. Her baby daddy was MIA, and he had been since the birth of their last baby.

“Let’s do this together,” Gia said.

Tears formed in Melissa’s eyes. “Okay.”

At the same time, they clicked their computers on and waited for the login screens to appear.

“Ready?” Gia asked as soon as the login prompts appeared on the monitors.

“Not really, but what choice do we have?”

“I really hate this,” Gia growled. Her emotions were suddenly swinging from fear to anger.

“Me too.”

The sound of the women’s fingers flying across the keyboard filled the sudden silence. Each stared at their screens, waiting to see if they still had a job or if they were going to be packing up their desks and going home.

A large pink box popped up on Gia’s monitor, notifying her that she had been terminated. “Bastards!” she growled. The only good news was that she would receive severance pay for the next three months, according to the pink pop-up.

Holding her breath, she glanced at Melissa’s screen. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Melissa had been spared the ax.

“Oh no, Gia!” Melissa cried. “I can’t do this job without you.” She stood and gave her a hug.

“You can and you will,” Gia said to her friend. “You have three kids to feed. You need this job.”

“But what are you going to do?” Melissa asked.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll bounce back. I always do. Now, let me get packed up and out of here before they send security to throw my big ass out of here.”

“This isn’t fair. It shouldn’t be like this,” Melissa said.

“No, it shouldn’t, but then life isn’t fair. I don’t want you to worry about me. I promise I’ll be fine.”

Melissa wiped a steady stream of tears from her face as Gia quickly packed up her desk.

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