Stealing the Alpha’s Heart

I dutifully applied my mascara as Lyssa recounted her story about a real Karen who had come into the store while I’d been on a call with our supplier. While those tales were a dime a dozen in retail, I did love the way my friend recounted things. She had a quippy sense of humor that tickled my funny bone in all the right ways.

“And the look she had on her face! You should have seen it!”

“I wish I had,” I admitted, grinning at her in the mirror. With her hours still cut down to accommodate her schooling, I preferred to work as much as possible with Lyssa while I could. It felt less like work and more like getting paid to hang out. “Maybe I’ll have to check the security feeds tomorrow.”

“You totally should.” Lyssa paused a minute as she carefully painted her l!ps. “Hey, are you still serious about hiring new employees?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s becoming more blatantly necessary by the day.”

“Do you have anybody in mind?”

“No. I don’t think anyone in the pack would be interested, which is who I would give preference to. I guess I’ll just put a help wanted sign up?” I waffled a bit, running through options in my mind. “Although, I’m going to be incredibly picky with this stuff. It just takes one bad egg to ruin the awesome atmosphere we’ve got going.”

“Ew, yeah.”

“And I don’t want any bullies, either. I know fashion is full of people who look down on dark-skinned people, or fat folks, and I won’t have it. I’m all for body positivity and making everyone feel like they deserve some nice, fashionable clothes.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but I really appreciate that you’re like that. I know I’m skinnier than a stick, but I’ve always hated any of that sort of stuff. It’s so mean, and dumb! I hate it.”

I nodded along, the normal righteous indignation I had about the subject bubbling up inside me. “I mean, when I was younger, I always felt a bit alienated from other people because I was a shifter. I knew it wasn’t the same, but when I went to public school, I always knew I was different than anybody else. It was isolating, in a way. Lonely.

“And while I know that’s not the exact same as fat or gay or different kids getting bullied, I always felt like they were the ones who understood me best. They didn’t care if I had to miss three days of school every month around the full moon and always returned a bit prickly. They didn’t tease me in gym class for my incredibly hairy legs or the mustache I always got right before said full moon. They were just happy to be my friend.”

I wasn’t that upset about what I was saying, figuring I was just explaining a chunk of my backstory that Lyssa may not know. But the next moment, she was hugging me, resting her cheek against my shoulder.

“You’re such a good person, Emma.”

Good Lord, she really was so sweet. I hugged her back, cherishing the sisterly affection. “Technically, I’m a terrible person considering that I burst into a wolf a few times a month,” I joked. “But I’ll take the compliment anyway.”

“Good! You better!”

The sentimental moment was cut off when I heard Lyssa’s phone ring with what I instantly knew was Mahlan’s tone, if only because my younger friend had set it to “I’m too s3xy for my shirt,” but it had been edited to say “skin” instead. It drove my brother up the wall, but Lyssa and I were pretty thoroughly amused by it.

Lyssa picked up and the two exchanged their normal, lovey-dovey greetings. But then I could hear Mahlan continue on, sounding a bit guilty.

“Hey, would the two of you be comfortable having a later dinner? Theo and I ran over to work and we still need to have our meeting with the guys.”

Lyssa looked at me and I nodded. “Yeah, that’ll actually work perfectly,” I said. “We can get some photos done for the website.”

“Oh, you’re right!” Lyssa said, grinning. She was always a fan of getting work done, the dedicated woman. “Emma says that’s perfectly fine. We have stuff to occupy us.”

“Perfect, thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon!” Lyssa echoed before hanging up. “Alright, I’m done with my makeup. What do you want to shoot first?”

“You said that the hats are still flying off the shelves, right?” I asked, still trying to get my hair right. It must have been the humidity because it was refusing to lay how I wanted it.

“Yeah, we haven’t been able to keep enough in stock between orders. Usually we’re sold out within a couple days.”

“Okay, let’s do the three new colors we got in. We can kill two birds with one stone if we put you in that new cashmere turtleneck, and…hmmm… we just got a series of plaid skirts in four different colorways, right?”

“Six, actually. Pink, red, blue, green, gray, and purple.”

“No pastels?”

“No, not yet. But I can put in a request to the manufacturer tomorrow if you want.”

“Let’s see how these do first. Anyway, match the skirt to the beret, and then we can use the photos for all three of the item listings.”

“Sounds good! The camera’s still set up in the guest bedroom from the last set we did, so I’ll get started.”

A heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Have I ever told you that you’re a godsend?”

“Every other Tuesday!”

“Remind me to up that to every Tuesday and every third Friday.”

Lyssa gave me a little salute. “Aye aye, captain!”

She hurried off while I busied myself with taming my long, dark hair. I’d taken to growing it out ever since I turned eighteen, and it was getting to be a bit unmanageable. While most humans had a sort of terminal length that their hair would reach before it would eventually just start breaking off, apparently wolf-shifter hair had no such limitation. I’d gotten a trim when I had a spa day with Lyssa, but maybe I should get some layers cut into it and a few inches off.

Then again, I always wanted to shave my head every time my tresses caused me stress. But a few hours later I would be back to forgetting that haircuts were ever a thing.

When I was eventually free, I went to join Lyssa, deciding to shoot some of the rompers that I was sure were going to be popular when the temperature spiked. That was another tricky thing about fashion and retail—being just ahead of the trends to make sure I could order them in time, but not too ahead that they just sat there and clogged my inventory.

“Hey Lyssa, you don’t happen to know any plus-size models, do you?”

She shook her head as she changed into a pastel pantsuit set that I knew was a little risky but was just too good not to keep in stock. “No, why?”

“Well, I know that we put what sizes are available under our pictures, but I thought it would be nice to actually see some of the clothes on a larger body. Or maybe even get some plus-size exclusive stuff.”

“Sorry, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school as it was, and I’ve lost contact with most of them.” Ah yes, an unfortunate side effect of how everything panned out. I still wasn’t very happy about that. “Could we ask Hannah? She’s like a size sixteen or eighteen, right?”

“Hmm, maybe, but she’s kind of busy with some big, corporate espionage stuff. She won’t be available for a long while, I’m sure.”

“Okay, well, I’ll keep a lookout.”

We kept on working and my mind was full of so much info between price points, inventory levels, and stock that I didn’t realize Lyssa was staring at me until after a good ten minutes or so.

“Something on my face?” I asked.

“Uh no, just uh…I guess…I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to mother-hen you, but you’ve seemed a bit on edge at the shop.”

She’d noticed that, huh? And here I thought I had been pretty covert the whole week.

“I dunno. I guess I keep feeling like someone’s watching me.”

“You mean like when we were doing that photoshoot out front on our lunch? Because people were absolutely staring.”

“No, I don’t mean anything like that,” I said, chuckling before quickly growing serious. “I expect people to stare at me when we’re in puffy selkie-inspired dresses. This is something different. I’ve done la*ps around the shop, checked the security cameras, but no one is there.”

“Is it all because of that one customer? She really seemed to get to you.”

“Maybe,” I admitted, feeling absolutely ridiculous. “I’m not sure. I just can’t shake the feeling no matter how hard I try.”

“I’ll try to keep an eye on things, too. Put my new nose to the test.”

“Thanks,” I said, eternally grateful that she didn’t think I was crazy. I suppose Lyssa had had enough crazy things happen to her in her life that it would be rather strange for her to dismiss my experience right off the bat. “Now, how about we pick out something killer to wear for dinner?”

“Sounds good to me!”

We busied ourselves with finding outfits and I set an alarm in my phone to remind me take a few pictures while we were out if we could find a non-identifiable place to take some promo snaps. With that, I could focus on relaxing for a bit and soon I forgot all about the intense paranoia I kept feeling around the shop.

It wasn’t until Mahlan texted us that he was on his way that I realized something.

“Hey, Lyssa?”

“Yeah?”

“Why weren’t we at the meeting?”

We didn’t sit in on all the meetings, but it wasn’t entirely unusual for us to end up at one while we waited for a family dinner or other outing. I never minded, as I could work on my phone, close my eyes to relax, or even pitch in occasionally. It wasn’t like we were expected to silently sit there without giving our opinions. If anything, Mahlan encouraged us to share our perspectives.

“Oh, huh. Maybe because I told Mahlan that you and I had a massive order we had to archive online? He’s pretty thoughtful like that.”

“Yeah, that was probably it,” I said, nodding to myself as I packed up my essentials in my purse. “He’s got a lot on his plate, but he really tries to listen. And it’s not like we can’t talk about it at dinner.”

“Exactly.”

We finally finished up with our outfits. I pulled Lyssa to the living room to take some more casual shots before Mahlan texted us that he was out front. Then, right after his message, I got a text from Theo.

“Huh, what could he want?” I wondered.

I opened the message and saw it was indeed meant for me, not an accidental text or anything like that.

Family dinner is at my restaurant tonight. Please keep all your sister tendencies in check and try not to embarrass us in front of my customers.

Anyone else would probably think that was a jerk thing to say, but I’d known Theo my whole life. His humor was about as dry and sarcastic as it came, giving the Sahara a run for its money.

Lol, don’t be a d!ck, d!ckface. I sent right back.

“What are you chuckling at?”

“Oh, just Theo, being an as*s,” I answered, showing her my phone. “You know, joking around in that way of his.”

“Wait, Theo jokes?”

“Kinda. In a sarcastic way.”

“Huh, okay. Guess I have a lot to learn about him.”

“He’s like an onion. Layers and all that.”

“They say the same thing about ogres.”

“That’s probably not a coincidence,” I shot back before we broke into laughter.

Somehow, we managed to get ourselves together and go out to where Mahlan was waiting in his car. Sliding in, we boogied over to Theo’s restaurant where we saw most of the others’ cars already parked.

“How many of you guys own restaurants?” Lyssa asked absently as we got out of my brother’s car.

“Pretty much everyone but me. It was part of Theo’s idea to diversify our investments, and it’s worked out pretty well,” Mahlan answered casually.

“Then why don’t you or Emma have a restaurant?”

“Well, I’m not actually a part of the company,” I replied, checking my makeup in my mirror one more time. I knew Kaleb wasn’t really one to care about cosmetics, but I enjoyed looking impeccably styled. “Just a beneficiary on Mahlan’s life insurance.”

“Probably a bad move on my part,” Mahlan joked. “Never give a little sister incentive to drive you into an early grave.”

“Excuse you,” I said with mock indignation. “I am completely innocent.”

“Sure you are,” my brother shot back before continuing with answering Lyssa’s question. “But I just haven’t gotten around to it. I want to find a place I enjoy and in a good area, but has room to expand.”

Lyssa nodded, seemingly satisfied, and we finally met up with the rest of our group. I tried to position myself closer to Kaleb, but by the time I did, we were all headed inside. Annoying.

Once we got to the table, I tried again, managing to get myself the seat opposite of him, but almost immediately, he pulled out his phone and started texting, ignoring everyone, including Parker.

Huh, he was quiet, but normally never anti-social. I began to wonder if maybe something was wrong with him. But how could I find out if he didn’t want to talk?

“You’ve got a look on your face,” Theo said, leaning in from where he was sitting next to me.

“I always have a look on my face,” I retorted. “That’s what faces do.”

“Clever,” he shot right back, shaking his head. “But you do look nice tonight.”

“Oh? You think my outfit’s up to snuff?” I batted my eyelashes at him, really playing it up.

Theo and I had an…interesting dynamic. When we were younger, we were mortal enemies, if only because girls had cooties and boys were buttholes. Then, when we were teenagers, we developed all the normal snarky antagonism one would expect from juvenile shifters.

Finally, as adults, we were like two somewhat distant friends. We liked each other well enough, we had our own brand of humor with each other, but we were just so busy that we rarely had time to talk. Theo wasn’t someone with whom I would ever share my feelings about Kaleb, but I would trust him with most other things.

“I think you do clean up rather well,” he said, putting his arm over my shoulder like he was hitting on me and pointedly looking at Kaleb.

Wait, does Theo know?!

I was shocked. So shocked that I didn’t even react before Theo leaned in and k!ssed my cheek. Was…was he trying to wingman for me? That was awful nice.

The rest of the table soon dissolved into conversation about Hannah and Addison’s positions within the company and how best to put feelers out into the community about hostile witches. But it all flowed over my head.

Maybe it was stupid for me to be so caught up with a dead-in-the-water romance with a man who seemed more interested in his Samsung than me, but I needed something to hold onto given everything that was going on with the pack.

“Do you think the covens really would betray one of their own for us?” Jacobian asked, his tone deathly serious.

“Perhaps not,” Mahlan admitted. “But I have a contact we can trust. I know that for certain.”

“A contact? You mean the green witch who helped us locate the girl?” Parker asked.

Huh, even Kaleb noticed the excitement in Parker’s voice and we all looked at the youngest of the inner circle. But he just shrugged. “He told me next time he saw me he’d give me this plant I’ve been trying to get my hands on. You know how hard it is to get my hands on a pink princess philodendron?”

“And why do you want a pink princess philowhatever?” Theo asked, eyebrow raised.

“Don’t get him started,” Kaleb answered dryly, returning his gaze to his phone nonchelantly. “His plant collection takes up most of our apartment.”

Parker nodded. “It does, and I will not be shamed for it!”

I chuckled despite the tension in my stomach from trying to get Kaleb’s attention while also not looking too desperate. “You do you, Parker-boo.”

“Well, someone has to.”

It wasn’t exactly the dirtiest joke, but it wasn’t like Parker, and so we all broke into laughter. Well, failed romance or not, at least I could always count on loving my family.

Not everyone could be so lucky.