Shifter City, page 2
He liked tall, thin, athletic women with dark hair and light eyes. Larissa Clark was at least a foot shorter than his six-foot six-inch frame. She was blonde, like most Lionesses, and had eyes the color of a jar of honey caught in the sunshine. She was brainy and shy, and had a much fuller figure than most Shifter females possessed. Totally not his speed. She was not ugly. Not in any way. But she was not for him.
Simple as that.
Fucking nosy ass Bear, he thought with a snarl. It was just like Niels to say something that would fuck his head up for months. He’d only taken Larissa to the wedding because he was not currently dating anyone.
Yeah. Right.
Truth was, Silas hadn’t dated anyone since Lola. That fucking nightmare of a human being had fucked him up for life. He’d trusted the viper, and she’d played him. Almost got him and his buddies killed. He supposed being an Alpha did nothing when it came to learning how to judge women.
Why bother?
When he wanted sex, he did not have to work hard to get it. Silas was a good-looking man, plus he was rich as fuck. Sex came easily to a guy like him. Unfortunately, he was not in the mood just lately. Not since his buddy’s wedding.
Why in the hell he’d taken his assistant to the ceremony and reception he had no fucking idea. He just didn’t want to be alone, he supposed. Which was the polar opposite of Silas’ usual mood. Asking her to go had been a better option than calling one of the women he’d dated. They tended to get clingy, no matter the fact he never dated them for long or without being upfront about his position in the beginning.
Silas would not take a mate.
Not now.
Not ever.
He’d resigned himself to being alone a very long time ago. And yes, while some females took that as a challenge, he assured them he was not into playing games. Yes, he liked to fuck, but he liked his freedom more. Any woman who got involved with him was given the same speech at the start. If she was cool with, fine. If not, bye-bye.
And yet, he still took Larissa to the wedding. She’d worn a pretty little number that hugged her curves in a way that made his pants decidedly snug in certain areas. Her ensemble showed off her long legs, and for a tiny woman, he was surprised at the way they’d seemed never ending under the tight skirt. Made him wonder how they would look wrapped around his hips.
Grrr.
He shook his head. That was not something he was ever going to find out. Not ever. She was too valuable an asset at Safia Inc. for him to play fast and loose. Fucking Niels. That nosy ass Bear and his stupid assumptions had Silas second guessing himself, even now. Hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in two damn weeks.
Grrr. That’s it, he thought with a growl.
Next time he saw Niels, he was going to punch that fucker right in the jaw. How dare he put those damn fantasy-filled ideas in his head? He had to work with the woman, for fuck’s sake. Damn hard to do when he kept picturing her bent over his desk, pert ass in the air, begging him to fuck her harder. His cock throbbed in his pants, rising to half-mast, and Silas groaned aloud.
Shit.
He’d been walking bent over for the past two fucking weeks. Now that he finally allowed himself to see his curvy little employee as a woman, a really fucking hot woman, his dick had been in a constant state of semi-arousal.
And no, he did not hire Larissa Clark for her looks, no matter what the idiotic Bear had assumed. The fact was, the luscious Lioness was smart, really smart. She was also creative, loyal, and honest.
He could depend on her to do the job right, and to keep things professional. He’d noted the several times she’d turned down casual invitations from co-workers and clients. Never rude, always quick and to the point.
“Sorry, I don’t mix business and pleasure.”
That was her standard reply. Damn it. Where did that leave him? He wasn’t sure. And that bothered him on a whole other level. Silas had never had any doubts where women were concerned. He’d never been interested in a relationship. Sex, sure, he was a Shifter. They were very physical beings, and their carnal appetites matched their beasts.
Of course, as an Alpha, he was more controlled than most. Using his considerable strength, he was able to curb his appetites. Silas was choosy about whom he got naked with, but still, it had been a while.
Larissa believed in Safia Inc. and what it stood for. She was a Shifter, and saving the planet seemed to make more sense to those dual natured creatures that, though small in number, were mighty in heart.
Great.
Now he sounded like his mother. The Lioness Shifter had been sweet as honey to her only cub when he was young, and fiercer than a badger with a bad attitude when he’d been threatened by their Pride’s Alpha.
Silas was a natural Alpha. He’d been born more dominant than most other Shifters. A trait that caused his elders at the time to be very, very nervous of the cub he’d been. But Safia McKennon had seen the treacherous looks, and after his father had died, she’d whisked her son away for his own safety.
He shook his head and sighed, causing his dark brown locks to fall across his forehead. Silas missed his mother terribly but was so grateful for the time he’d had with her. A rare form of brain cancer, one that affected even Shifters, had been her end ten years ago. He still mourned the loss.
She’d been there for him through the hard times in his youth when she’d fled her Pride to protect her only son. And after, when his father’s lawyers tried to stop him from taking control and running the business he’d inherited from Ambrose McKennon. Those vultures had been siphoning funds, and it hadn’t taken him long to root out the betrayers and fire their asses. All with his mother’s help and support.
She’d asked one thing of him before her death. One thing he was not sure he would ever be able to give. Frowning, he closed his eyes, and pictured the image of his mother, so painfully thin and sallow, her body ravaged by the terrible disease.
In this memory, he was always sitting beside her in her hospital bed, waiting for the end to come. But still, Safia McKennon had smiled at her only son. She took his hand with surprising strength, gripping it tightly, then she’d opened her thin, cracked lips to speak, her voice wavering and unsteady.
“Promise me, son. Promise me one day you will open your heart to love.”
“I love you, Mom. Just rest now. Don’t worry about me.”
“No, Silas, you must promise me. I only had a short time with your father, but I loved him so much. Want that for you. Want you to be happy.”
“I am happ—”
“Promise me!”
“Okay, okay. I promise.”
He had never lied to his mother. Not once. Until the very end. Silas’ Lion whined mournfully. The silly beast wanted to believe his mate was out there, but how could he still hold out hope? Not after Lola Yen had soured him on women.
Chapter Three
Larissa’s apartment was small and cramped, all she could afford despite her pretty hefty salary working for the top greening firm in all of New York. Hell, in all the world. She grinned and juggled her Chinese takeout in one hand, while searching for the keys in her pocketbook with the other.
She’d just gotten the door open when the elevator dinged, and she scented unwanted guests. Quickly dropping her bags on the side table, she closed the door to her apartment and turned to face the men in her hallway. She was so not inviting them inside.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the little mystery Lioness,” the leader said in a voice that was way too high-pitched for any male Shifter to possess.
His oily hair was slicked back, and the loud orange shirt he wore was open to the middle of his hairy chest. He sucked air through his teeth and gave her a long once over that made her skin crawl.
So gross.
“What do you want, Scoot—” She paused when he frowned at her almost slip, then corrected herself. “I mean, Gaetano. Well? I am just coming home from a long workday—”
“Easy there, buttercup, no need to get yourself all worked up. I just wanted to make sure you were coming to the run tomorrow night. In fact, I told my father you might stay, indefinitely,” he said, smacking his lips together in a way she was sure he thought was sexy.
Larissa tried not to make gagging noises as he continued to leer. Her gaze moved to the two males who stood behind him, and she noted that they at least appeared to not actively support their Alpha’s son’s actions. Like her, she supposed, the two Lions had little choice in the matter.
Still, Larissa was not going down without a fight. Most men lost interest when she refused to be wowed by their attentions. Unfortunately, this particular Lion was a, for lack of a better word, prince among his pride. As such, he would be harder to refuse.
Not only were Lions notoriously conceited among feline Shifters, but curiosity was another of their failings. Larissa had thought she’d been so careful and smart when she searched out places to shift. Yes, she’d made herself known to the Prides in the area, granting permission to live and work in NYC without any affiliation was difficult, but not impossible.
She’d been invited on runs with each of them but turned them down on the grounds she would be returning to her home Pride for runs. That was a fib. She had no home Pride, but none of the busy city Lions seemed too intent on finding her out.
So, she’d remained under the radar. Her Lioness still needed an outlet. Larissa denied her she-Cat the wonders of the city’s enormous Central Park and other forested areas the other Shifters used, finding her solace among the ruins of the abandoned factories near the Hudson River.
She didn’t know she’d caught the eye of the prince of the Seneca Nation Pride at the last meeting she’d attended out of sheer courtesy. Had no inkling she’d been tracked and filmed while in her fur. The end result was now she was being blackmailed by this asshat.
It was simple. He wanted to mate her, a rare Spotted Lioness, to gain favor with his father. And he wanted her to come to him willingly.
As if.
Her she-Cat had managed to dodge his advances for the last few months, but he was getting impatient. She cringed when he ran a finger down her cheek to the base of her throat, and before he could dip further into her blouse, she slapped it away.
“You know, I think I will let my father know what a prize he has in his territory. Then you won’t have a choice,” he spat.
“Look, I’m just tired. Give me a minute to think,” she said, but he was already moving away.
“I’m gonna have you sooner or later, you and your she-Cat,” he growled, clicking the button to the elevator repeatedly.
The action sort of took away from the whole wise guy thug vibe he was going for. Even his bodyguards rolled their eyes. Finally, the elevator came, and the little Lion prince and his goons went away.
“Shit,” she groaned, turning around to reenter her apartment.
Stomach having turned sour from the encounter, Larissa eyed the contents of the cardboard box distastefully. She’d really been looking forward to enjoying the beef chow fun and shrimp toast she’d ordered from Mr. Foo’s Kitchen. The Panda Shifter made the best noodles in town.
Sad meow.
Nothing was as sad as cold chow fun. Even worse than that, if Gaetano really told his father what she was, Larissa would have to leave town. Dammit. She really hated that snot-nosed little shit.
Living and working in New York City had been a dream of hers since she was just a cub. She truly believed it was the one place in the world she could achieve true anonymity. Certain rare Shifters were seen as a boon, a trophy of sorts for Prides, Packs, Clans, and whatever other groups existed to collect.
She wished it wasn’t so, but facts were facts. Shifters were still half-human, and like full normals, they had faults. Collecting the rare and unique was one of them.
“I will not be anyone’s trophy,” she growled, yanking off her clothes before entering the tiny shower stall.
The idea of moving hurt her heart. How she would mourn the loss of the city and all it had to offer. She’d become a regular attendee of plays and musicals, loved Shakespeare in the Park, walking through museums and art galleries. Not to mention frequenting the many eateries that abounded in the city that never sleeps.
Larissa patted her skin dry with a fluffy pink towel, then padded to her bedroom to dress. After she was in bed, her eyes remained open. Moving sucked, finding a new place to work and live was difficult enough.
But how was she going to replace him?
Moaning aloud, she grabbed a pillow and covered her face with it before releasing an anguished yowl. Okay, so she wasn’t the first girl in the world to crush on her ridiculously sexy boss, but damn, she hated the idea of leaving him.
Silas McKennon was not just her boss. He was the object of her unrequited love and affection for the past three years. Ever since she started working for him as his Administrative Assistant.
Shitty title for a job that basically meant partner in every way but the one she wanted most. Her salary was good, but while most thought she was nothing more than a glorified secretary, her work involved much more than that.
Meeting with clients, brainstorming with Silas and the other account reps and environmental experts, coming up with real solutions for a better world, all those things made her work at Safia Inc. damn near irreplaceable. But her deepest, darkest, most sinful secret was the fact her green-eyed, dark-haired boss was her reason for waking up in the morning.
She loved him. And he didn’t know she existed outside the office. But Larissa was fine eating her heart out every day and dreaming about him every night.
But now what? If the Seneca Nation Pride Alpha learned what she really was, her time in New York City, at Safia Inc., and more importantly, with Silas, was over.
Sad meow.
Chapter Four
“The Neta of the Maverick pride is calling on line two,” Larissa said, popping her head into Silas’ office with the same sparkle in her eye he associated with the Lioness whenever she’d cornered her prey.
She’d been after their account for weeks now, or ever since Maverick Development, the Pride run construction and demolition company had gotten some bad press about possible environmentally unsound practices in their business. Since they mostly worked on bids for the state, that was a big no-no for the firm.
Silas nodded his thanks and grabbed the phone. He’d met Hunter Maverick once before, and the memory of the powerful Neta, or Alpha of the Bengal Tiger Pride, was keen in his mind. He was a good man, a good Shifter, no doubt about it. Larissa had done well to seek their business.
“Hello, Mr. Maverick, this is Silas McKennon, let’s talk about what I can do for you.”
And so he began to list how Safia Inc. could help Maverick Development the way it had helped countless other business go greener and improve not only their public image, but their responsibility to the world as well. Mother Earth was sacred to most Shifter subspecies, and Tigers, though not as awesome as Lions, were no different in that aspect.
“I believe we could use you and your firm, Mr. McKennon. You have a deal,” Hunter Maverick replied.
Silas grinned, typing the date of their next phone meeting into his calendar, and forwarding the information to Larissa. He loved this part of the job. The brainstorming and planning.
“Yes!”
Larissa celebratory exclamation reached him through the otherwise soundproofed glass and his grin became a full-blown smile. She’d worked hard to land this account. So hard in fact, he was thinking of making her the lead.
“She’d like that,” he murmured before his next call came in.
The hours flew by and soon it was quitting time, but not for Silas. He often worked after hours, sometimes until the next morning. It was the nature of the beast. And his was particularly restless just lately. He closed his eyes, rubbing them for a moment.
Even Shifters could only take so many hours of staring at computer screens. Besides the necessary correspondences, he had plans to work on, consultations to oversee, and invoices to approve. Without Larissa’s efficient handling of his daily duties, Silas would be a mess.
She was his right hand man, er, woman, or was that Lioness? Whatever. Point was, she was irreplaceable to him. Even better, she shared his dream. Had even told him hers when he’d first hired her.
“I want to live in a world where smog no longer chokes the skies and pollution is a bad memory. Where endangered species can once again flourish without threat of forests being wiped out and destroyed. Where continent-sized islands made of plastic debris no longer clog up the oceans. We have a lot of work to do, Mr. McKennon. So, when do I start?”
Yes, she’d basically hired herself. And since he couldn’t think of any reason to get rid of her, he’d tried her out for a few weeks. Those became months, then years, and now. Well, he needed her. Silas exhaled heavily as the truth of that statement settled over him.
He’d consulted with the leaders of organizations such as Tiger Oil, Jetty Shipping, and SkyHawk Travel, to name a few, to create credible plans for them to decrease their carbon footprint and help save the planet. He’d mapped out plans, put together estimates, and provided real data to show how every little bit helped and got his clients onboard. He did all of that, and yet Larissa had been there with him at his side throughout every meeting and consultation.
She was the only person he trusted. Not since his mother passed away had Silas confided in a female or employee the way he did in her. She knew everything about him. And she worked hard, did the job, and did it right.
He wasn’t the easiest man to work for. Dominant Shifters could be tough as fuck on other people, Shifters especially. He had no choice in the matter. Silas was a true Alpha. Besides, his job dictated he be tough.
He was brutally honest, and sometimes a little harsh, according to the fearless Lioness. He’d tear into the fragile egos of those in power who were not used to being barked at or told what to do. But they listened to him if they were smart enough.
