Desert Heat (Complete)

{Dorian’s P.O.V.}

I should have known the conversation about Jed’s rank would come up again, but I honestly didn’t think Allie would bring it up so soon. We ended up arguing more about it after dinner and well into the night, and no matter how many times I told her to let it go, she just couldn’t. She was as stubborn as ever, even worse now that she was pregnant. I was able to convince Allie to pause her idea until I talked to Jed first, to get a better idea as to why she thought the way she did.

The next day, I was at work reviewing contracts, summary reports, and going over payments that would be filtering in from last week’s jobs. Business had been steady, and I finally finished approving those raises I promised to Sam and her team. She still had no idea that I let her win the match that day on purpose, but she was starting to get pissed off because she had yet to reclaim another victory. I was sure eventually she’d figure it out, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise when that day actually came around. I was buried underneath a pile of papers when my assistant buzzed me.

“Yes, Dana?”

“Mr. Shaw, there’s a package for you sir.”

“A package?”

“Yes sir.”

“Did it clear through security first?” Ever since that fateful day four years ago, I never allowed packages into the building without being fully vetted.

“Yes sir, it did. Security brought it up directly.”

“Bring it to me.” Dana came in and showed me the package. It wasn’t even a package, I’d call it a large envelope. “Did security say where this came from? There’s no postmark on it.”

“They said that it was delivered via bike messenger. They vetted him and the package before bringing it up.” I lifted a brow and opened it. Inside was a decorative card and an RSVP slip. “What is it, sir?” Dana asked.

“It’s an invitation to a charity event here at the convention center this next weekend … Holy s**t,” I answered and gaped at the invitation.

“Mr. Shaw? Is everything alright?” I flipped the card over and showed her what caught my attention. “$25,000 a plate!? What could they be possibly serving people there? Because if it’s worth that much money, I’ll want to go as your plus one sir,” she grinned. I couldn’t help but chuckle at her.

“Dana, I doubt that your wife would be very happy about that.”

“Psh, if I told her how much those plates cost, she wouldn’t care!” she insisted. I shook my head and smirked.

“Do me a favor—RSVP on my behalf, and make sure you mark Allie as my plus one.”

“Of course, you’re going to take the Mrs.,” she said with mock disappointment.

“It’s a charity event Dana, of course, I have to take my wife with me.”

“Sure you do,” she said as she marked the RSVP plus one and took it out with her to mail off the response. I rolled my eyes at her because I could never take Dana seriously since she always gave me a hard time about Allie.

At first, Allie was surprised when I hired a human to replace Brittany two and a half years ago. She was a little jealous because she felt it would prevent her from being possessive of me. Dana never made any advances towards me, and I figured it was because she respected my boundaries as a happily married man and maintained her professionalism.

A month into her tenure, Allie and I went out to lunch and caught Dana in the parking garage making out with another woman. We found out that Dana was gay and also a happily married woman. That alone made Allie very accepting of Dana as my new assistant.

I figured I would call Allie to let her know about the charity event so she could go shopping for a dress. With individual plates costing that much, it was obviously a black-tie event and Allie would need something elegant to wear.

“Hello?”

“Hey, baby.”

“Hi, Dorian, what’s up?”

“Allie, I just got an invitation to a black-tie charity event.”

“Let me guess, you RSVPed me as your plus one, and now I have to go shopping for a nightgown.”

“Yup.”

“Ugh! Dorian, you know I hate wearing dresses!”

“Come on, Allie. You should be used to it by now, we’ve gone to plenty of events where you needed a dress.”

“Yeah, but not a nightgown. Plus I’m pregnant.”

“Exactly, so I already know you’re going to want something new to hide the baby bump.”

“Bleh, fine. When is the event?”

“Next weekend.”

“Okay, I’ll go shopping this weekend then.”

“Love you, baby.”

“Yeah, yeah, love you too.”

I chuckled when she hung up. Allie was still being pouty about the whole Jed thing, but I already knew she would cheer up once she got ahold of my black card and went shopping with Sin over the weekend. I didn’t have to understand retail therapy to know that it worked by now.

After another hour of working non-stop, Lucas and Sam strolled into my office. “Hey boss,” Sam said as she plopped down onto my office couch while simultaneously letting out a m**n. I lifted my brow at her and then looked at Lucas.

“She wore the wrong shoes so now her feet hurt,” he explained.

“Say no more,” I replied and shook my head. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We were wondering if you could sign off on this consent form?” he said and handed me a sheet of paper.

“What’s this?” I asked as I read it over. “Moonlighting as security guards?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “I just gave Sam’s team a raise, and you make more than any other team leader in this company and the pack.”

“It’s for fun.”

“How did you even find out about this?”

“One of the humans down in surveillance. Originally, it was for him and his brother-in-law who’s a cop for Metro P.D., but the brother-in-law got sick, and the surveillance guy couldn’t find anyone to go with him. So, he asked if Sam and I wanted the job, and we did.”

“How much is this one night of moonlighting going to pay?” I asked as I signed the consent form.

“$50,000, each,” Lucas answered and my eyes widened at his response. “Hence why the guy downstairs wanted it so bad,” he continued; I nodded my head and handed him the form.

“When and where is this going to be?”

“No idea, actually. We have to send in this form by 5 p.m. tonight along with our resumes, and we should get a call by the end of the week with the location.”

“You two are insane.”

“Hey, it’s $100k total for one night. That’s a lot of money and half of it is going into Keegan’s trust fund,” Sam said from the couch. I looked over and she was flat on her back with her hands on her stomach.

“Sam, get the f**k off of my couch and go back to your office.”

“My office? I have a f*****g corner cubicle with walls a foot from the ceiling. I literally go an entire day without seeing a single soul because I’m practically in a cell. I think I’m good here.”

“Come on babe,” Lucas said to her and pulled her to her feet.

“Ugh, remind me to never wear these shoes to the office again.”

“Aren’t those Allie’s!?” I asked when I finally saw what she was wearing.

“No, these are mine. I bought the same pair, but these little suckers hurt. I don’t know how she wears them the way she does,” she grimaced. I couldn’t help but start to laugh at her. “What’s so funny!?”

“I don’t know if you ever noticed, but Allie only wears those when she’s here, in her office.”

“Yeah, I know,” she started to say. I gave her a look and just lifted my brow. “Oh, son of a b***h! She leaves them here in her drawers, doesn’t she!? She literally only wears them when she’s here inside her office!” I nodded my head in confirmation. “Oh, that sneaky little …”

“Hahaha!!” Lucas and I started to laugh harder.

“Yeah, they hurt her feet too,” I finally said. Sam growled in frustration and kicked off the shoes, swiftly scooped down to pick them up, and stomped out. Lucas and I just smiled and shook our heads. I’m sure once Sam got home, she would make sure to give Allie a piece of her mind.

“Boss, don’t you think you should warn the Luna?” Lucas asked at the door.

“Nah, she’ll be fine.”

{Jedediah’s P.O.V.}

Since it would still be a few days before I started working, I decided to spend the limited free time I did have building the dining room table and some new drawer sets for Vivienne’s side of the closet to store her undergarments. I had been slacking majorly with my carpentry work because ever since we mated, that’s all we ever did up until she left to go visit her family.

Right now would be the best time to finish these home improvement projects before I had no more time to do them at all. I went out to the garage and retrieved the measuring tape. I made my way to the closet with my clipboard, a pencil, and the tape, and I immediately got to work figuring out the dimensions of the drawers. After jotting down all of the specs, I drafted up a mock sketch and returned to the garage to get straight to business.

It was late spring so I noticed it wasn’t too hot outside yet. I pulled out all of the tools I needed and started to measure and mark up the plywood, cutting out the pieces in their corresponding sizes. I planned to make a two by three drawer set for her which should be plenty of space. At least, I hoped it would be since it was hard to tell with women.

Four and a half hours later, I finally had the frame all put together and spacing for each drawer. I sanded down everything to the smoothest finish that I could manage. The last thing I wanted was for Vivienne to get a nasty splinter when she ran her hand across it. I rounded out the edges so that they weren’t too sharp. Once that was done, I put a layer of primer on so it would be ready to paint tomorrow after drying and setting overnight. As I was putting on one more coat of primer, I got a mind link from Amos.

Hey Jed.

What’s up, Amos?

Look, I know I said you would start work next Monday, but the Gamma just told us that our team is needed in Brussels to track down a fugitive wanted by Interpol. Apparently, he’s some serial killer that they’ve been tracking, but he always seems to be one step ahead of them. The Gamma thinks he may be supernatural which is why the humans are having problems.

Sure, when do you need me?

Now. Do you have a go-bag?

Sure do.

Alright. I’m sending Amy to go get you now. She will bring you to the airstrip where the pack’s private jet is waiting.

Damn, I knew Dorian was banking, but a private jet?!

Hahaha! It comes in handy.

How long will we be gone?

As long as it takes to find this psycho.

Alright. I’ll be ready for Amy.

Good. See you soon.

After cutting off the link with Amos, I put away the project and closed the garage door. I ran inside, took a quick shower, and grabbed my go-bag from the top shelf in the closet. I felt bad knowing that Vivienne would probably come home before I did. I sent a quick text to Andre to let him know that I was leaving for a contract so he could tell Viv to stay in France longer if she wanted to.

I was excited to finally start working again and happy that I no longer had to wait several days. But a part of me was a little disheartened that I would be leaving for my first job without getting a k**s goodbye from Vivienne. Hopefully, this job wouldn’t take too long and I would be home in a couple of days.