Turner (White Wolf Ridge 1)

I growl, but Daphne puts her hand on my chest. “Calm down. Your eyes.” They must be glowing. I really need to get my wolf at bay. We rush over to the elevator bank, pressing the button to my private elevator.

“Inside, now,” I growl as it opens. She taps her card, the doors close, and we immediately take off. Once we reach my floor, we quickly walk past the receptionist, Nancy, who constantly smiles and then greets us with a good morning. I grunt hello and then we rush into my office. She hasn’t been overly flirtatious with me like some of the women I’ve met, but she’s too sweet, like someone itching to be noticed. There’s nowhere more up than the position she has other than Daphne’s, and unless my assistant quits, that won’t happen.

“He’s fired.”

“I’ll have it taken care of. Are you sure you’re okay?” Her brows knit as she looks at me.

“I’m fine,” I grunt, hating the pity and worry that I’m getting. I’m the Alpha of the pack. There isn’t anything I can’t handle, even though my wolf is going full-blown erratic.

“You’re anything but fine. You’re a mess. Are you too stressed? I’m only teasing about running out on you. I’ve been training Nancy to handle little things just in case she has to fill in. No one will be as good as me, but hey, we all can’t be amazing.”

“I suppose you do have a point.”

There’s a knock at the door, interrupting our conversation. “That must be your breakfast, Nancy wouldn’t let anyone get past the front desk.” She walks over and opens the door. The sous chef, Mariano, brings my breakfast tray in. “Here you are, Alpha.”

“Are you well?” he asks. He’s a shifter as well, so he senses the anger rolling off me.

“I am. I just need a moment. Please have a good day.” He nods to both of us and departs quickly, hoping to flee my growing ire.

“Take a seat and relax, Daphne. I swear I’m okay. I’m not even sure why I got so bent out of shape.”

“Yeah. I could see my mate being that angry, but not you.” She makes another great point. My cousin would rip the valet’s head off for such a comment.

“Maybe I should have stayed home today.” I blow out harshly, running my fingers through my growing hair. I could use a cut, but I don’t have time for it. I take a bite of my bacon and moan. “So let’s go over everything while I eat. I promise to pay attention.” One thing I learned about my assistant is that she hates repeating herself, especially because someone wasn’t paying attention the first time.

I can’t let this go on; the matter will be dealt with before we go any further. “Hold that thought. Before you get started, I have to make this call.” I pick up the receiver on my desk and call the head of Human Resources, Rachael. “Hello, Rachael. I need you to fire that blond fuck that does valet.”

“What? Why?”

“Let’s just say that he made some disparaging remarks about my assistant and me that he thought we wouldn’t hear,” I say, clenching my teeth at the end, seething with overwhelming contempt.

“Done. I’ll have security take care of it right now. Also, I need to discuss the new hiring list requirements and potential candidates with you. Are we still on for that meeting?” Meeting? Shit.

I look to my assistant and cover the receiver and whisper, “Meeting with HR today?”

She nods. “Yes, two pm.”

“Yes. We’re still good,” I inform Rachael as if I hadn’t forgotten about it.

“I don’t know what you’re going to do without her,” she remarks.

“Tell me about it. Do you know how to be an assistant?” I question. She’s a great HR manager, even if she’s human.

“Nope. Bye.” The line clicks. No one likes working for me, but my assistant tolerates me. I put down the receiver and snatch another slice of bacon off my plate. Maybe my mood’s off because I’m hangry.

“You better take it easy. We’re not immune to heart issues.”

“You’ve got a point, although the old chief was like ninety, though.” That’s the reason we got stuck with Chief Anderson. Our old chief decided to go up and die on us from a heart attack.

“You have a point there, but we live a lot longer than humans.”

“Well, can we get started?”

She rolls her eyes at me, then starts going over my day.

We spend the next hour going over the plans, making subtle changes, and then I dump my tray off with housekeeping before starting my day outside my office. I do a lot of inspections of the individual cabins personally. I don’t have time to inspect them all in one day unless it’s the off season, which is only about two months, but so far every single one of them has passed the inspection.