Chapter 1 - Tristan
It was my first day of work, and I was already gonna be late. I tried my best to be early to make a good first impression. I even did all the things a respectable adult would have. I had set an alarm, I made breakfast, I took a shower, and did not waste time on funny business. I was on a roll and was fated to be at my new desk 30 minutes early, give or take a couple of minutes. That is, until I stopped for coffee.
I had thought that since I had some extra time on my hands, I could stop real quick and be in and out of there in no time.
That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was staying in the already long line. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to get the nectar of the gods so that they could start their day. By the time I ordered my coffee and a pastry, the head start I had earlier was long gone and I was practically sprinting down the streets of Spectral Falls, disgruntled yells and growls chasing my back.
Yep, growls.
Spectral Falls was a bustling new city as part of the peace treaty between monsters and humans. Ever since the human population discovered that monsters actually existed, we were hell bent on wiping them out. Naturally, we got our ass handed to us. They were faster, stronger, and they even had magic at their disposal. Sure, we had our own weapons, but whatever we threw at them, they threw right back in spades.
Before it got to the point where all-out war was almost inevitable, both parties’ respective leaders sat down and actually talked like civilized beings. Turns out that a lot of the prejudice came from our end, and although they may look different from us, we both wanted the same things in life. Thus, Spectral Falls was born.
It quickly became a beacon for people who wanted a new start in a new city, myself included. After I came out to my parents and their less-than-enthusiastic response to me liking men, followed by a bunch of crying and yelling, I had a one-way ticket to the haven where people could be free to be who they are.
It was rough the first couple of months. What I didn’t account for on my spontaneous whirlwind adventure was that I was moving to a new place with no job and very little money, much like a lot of people. Finding a place to live without a job locked down was hard. Finding a job without a place of residence was even harder. Forget what I said earlier. It was like playing a video game on hell mode.
Running out of money and facing homelessness, I was very close to swallowing my pride and running home with my tail between my legs when my roommate told me there was an opening for an executive assistant position at her job. There was no way in hell I was qualified for a position like that, but that didn’t stop me from going for it.
I charmed the pants off the interviewer, asked a few good questions, and soon enough I was being asked how soon I could start. I was ecstatic and thanked whatever god that was looking out for me that my foray out into the world on my own for the first time wasn’t going to end in failure.
But only if I made it to work on time, and the jury is still out on that one.
I could see the monstrosity of a building that housed VM Consulting and almost wept with relief. I stole a quick glance at my watch to check the time before I ran into a brick wall.
There was a sharp pain in my nose before my ass kissed the sidewalk. I brought up a hand to staunch the blood coming out of my nostrils before looking to see who the hell put a wall in the middle of a walkway. It was in fact, not a wall but the broad expanse of a man’s back. A vampire. An extremely pissed-off vampire—the fangs he was sporting were a dead giveaway.
He was grudgingly handsome, in a yeah-he’s-a-walking-wet-dream-but-probably has-a-terrible-personality type of way. It was probably wrong of me to make assumptions, but in my defense, the guy practically screamed douchebag. And a rich one at that.
It was just my luck that I ran into him while he was stepping out of his chauffeured Bentley—if the guy standing behind the vampire doing his best not to faint right then and there was any indicator—and spilling my coffee all over the tailored and probably expensive suit that fit him like a glove. The thought crossed my mind just then that you’ve never seen an ugly vampire, or even a mediocre-looking one. They all looked like they belonged in a magazine promoting a sports car or an overpriced watch.
“Look what you’ve done, you blasted fool!” His outburst snapped me out of my musings.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t see where—” I started in a nasal voice, but I was cut off before I could half-heartedly pay for a new suit.
“Well, of course you didn’t see. Your eyes were too busy looking everywhere else except where you were going.” I took a deep breath as I didn’t have time to waste on his asshole, literally, and my words would have fallen on deaf ears anyway, despite his superior sense of hearing.
I finally got up off the ground—because of dignity and all that—before plastering a fake smile and trying my best to look abashed.
“Please, sir, I really am sorry. You can get it dry cleaned and send me the bill.” He scoffed as if I offered to throw his precious suit in the washer on delicates.
“Something tells me you wouldn’t be able to afford the bill,” he said with a sniff. Ouch. Well, that made rescinding my offer to pay the bill easier.
“Listen, asshole…” I trailed off as his nostrils flared, his eyes turning crimson with a predatory glint. It was at that moment that I remembered my own shirt was covered in blood.
“Ah, shit.” Before I could convince him that my blood was one of the vilest things on this earth, he blurred and was gone, leaving me whipping my head around like I had a chance in hell of seeing him before he pounced.
After a few heartbeats with nothing happening, I heaved a relieved sigh. The reaction echoed by the driver. It seemed I had avoided becoming an unwilling blood donor. The driver walked up to me and handed me a couple of tissues. I took them gratefully, replacing my hand and grimacing at the swath of red painting my palm.
“That was a close one. For a second there, I thought I was gonna have to find a new job.”
“Know any good places that’s hiring? It’s my first day on the job and saying I’m late would be an understatement. If I walked in there looking like Carrie’s deranged brother, I don’t think I’ll last five minutes…” I finished weakly. I tend to ramble when I’m nervous. The fact that I was confiding in a complete stranger just proved how rattled I was at my prospect of still having a job.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Things happen. I got an extra shirt in the trunk you can wear if you want?”
“Really?” I asked. I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth but… “You would be willing to do that? Why?” But sometimes, things seem too good to be true.
“Well…” he said, before giving me a sheepish smile, “he was busy tearing me a new one about the sanctity of being punctual. Since you crashed into him, he’s forgotten all about me, so I feel like I owe you one.” Yep, there it is!
“Gee, glad to take one for the team,” I said dryly, but gratefully accepted the new shirt before stripping the soaked one out in the open without a care in the world.
“So uh, where were you running to in such a hurry?”
“Just right over there,” I said, pointing to the VM Consulting building. He gaped at me like I suddenly grew a second head and then bursting out laughing like it was the funniest shit in the world. I laughed awkwardly along with him for a few minutes, but then the laughter just kept on going until he was clutching his sides in pain, tears running down his face. I scowled.
“What the hell is so funny?” This just sent him into another fit of laughter, so I decided it was high time for me to exit stage right. As I was walking away, I heard the driver yelled a hoarse ‘good luck’.
I was hastily tucking in my shirt when I got to the turnstile and finally realized that I fucked up. I left my badge at home.
Gah! I’m such an idiot. Just an hour ago I was congratulating myself on how much I’ve grown as an adult. I snapped myself out of it before the sense of defeatism could grow any more. Walking over to the security desk, I put on a bright smile and tried not to think about how disheveled I probably looked. The current guard was a Lupin—they made it clear what they thought about the term ‘werewolf’—and he seemed friendly enough. His nametag read Hunter and so I filed that bit of info away.
Sidling up to the desk, I put on what I hoped to be a distraught face and not one that looked like I was constipated.
“Hey Hunter, I forgot my badge at home. Is there any way you can help me get in? It’s my first day.”
“Sure, can I get your first and last name?”
“Tristan McArthur” He typed on the keyboard for a few moments and clicked his mouse a couple of times before shaking his head.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see you in our system.”
“Well, that’s because I’m a new hire…” My pits chose that moment to start leaking. The longer it takes me to get upstairs, the less I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen once I do make it up there. Well, if I can get through this last obstacle of course.
“I’m a new hire, I promise!” I racked my brain trying to think of how else I could prove it to him. “Can I show you the email they sent me?” He shrugged his massive shoulders.
“Sure, but without a way to verify it, I still wouldn’t be able to let you up.” I took a deep breath so as to not bite his head off.
“The sender of the email. You can call them and verify that I am a new hire…”
“Ah, right.” He searched whatever database he had access to and thankfully found the employee that sent me the email. While he was doing that, I was a jumble of nerves and found myself tapping my finger against the marble desktop.
“Rough day?” He asked, a wry look on his face.
“Yeah, you could say that…” He finally found a number and called, but there was no answer, I pleaded with him to try a couple more times.
“I’m sorry, but it seems there’s no answer. I can leave a voicemail for you?”
“Are you shitting me?” I finally lost it. “What more proof do you need? It’s my first day! I showed you the email and everything.”
Hunter narrowed his eyes and stood up, all friendliness gone from his face as he regarded me as if I was minutes away from causing a problem. Which, to be fair, was probably accurate. He easily towered over me, making my respectable five-foot-eight frame feel small. He had to be close to seven feet tall at least. His powerful frame filled out the crisp black uniform of the security agency rather well. With fur the color of midnight covering his body, he was every inch the apex predator.
He’d be popular in the furry communities.
“I’m gonna need you to calm down. If you think you can just start yelling in my lobby, you are seriously barking up the wrong tree.”
“Are…” I thought it was just my imagination the first time, but there’s no way it happened a second time. “Are you messing with me?”
“Whatever do you mean?” He had an innocent look on his face, so I chalked it up to it being a coincidence.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but I really need this job. Please,” I hated the desperation that lined my voice, but I was sorely out of options. “I can’t go back home…” He just stared at me with his intense blue eyes before finally releasing a sigh and walking around the desk to stand right in front of me. He crouched down slightly and started wuffling along my head, taking great sniffs every now and then.
“Um, what are you doing?”
“Learning your scent.” He closed his eyes for a minute before giving me a kind smile. “I’m gonna do you a favor since you’re a newbie and all. You can head upstairs. But! If I hear that you or someone that matches your description causes any problems, I can easily hunt you down.”
Well, that was both equal parts scary and hot at the same time. This city was ruining me. I never really considered sleeping with a monster, but I’d bet my life savings, all thirty dollars of it, that I would be rectifying that by the end of the year.
“I won’t cause any problems, scout’s honor,” I said, even giving him a mock salute. He only shook his head while chuckling, going back to his desk and hitting a button. The light on the turntable turned green, and I rushed through, yelling my thanks as I raced to the elevators.
Checking my phone, I saw that I had a couple of missed calls. Well, more than a couple. Two were from an unknown number, but it was around the time I had to start, which led me to believe it was my supervisor. A total of five missed calls, two voicemails, and seven text messages were from my roommate alone. Whelp, if she asks, I’ll deny I ever saw them. Yeah, that should work out well…
The elevator doors eventually opened to a stunningly decorated interior, the space bright and open with cream couches in one corner of the floor. I still remember the first time I sat down on those babies. It felt like my ass was being held up by a cloud. I almost wept when the interviewer finally came out to collect me.
Standing at the front desk—the desk where I should have been seated at by now—stood my boss. He was wringing his hands nervously and looked like he was five seconds away from bolting to the nearest exit. He turned toward the elevator and spotted me, his eyes widening. He made his way to me, his long strides eating up the distance until he was right in front of me.
“Where the hell have you been?” he hissed in a whisper. Gone was the confident and at-ease figure I met when I interviewed. In his place was a man that I hardly recognized.
“I’m sorry, I went to get coffee, then I ran into—”
“Never mind that. The CEO came in today for a surprise inspection and he looked like he was about to rip someone’s head off. He didn’t ask where you were, thankfully, but we need to introduce you to him.”
He hadn’t let me say anything else as he dragged me into the massive office behind my desk. My supervisor had the presence of mind to knock before opening the door and guiding me in first, as if to use me as a meat shield. I had heard stories of how terrifying the CEO was, but I didn’t know it was bad to this extent.
The executive office was decorated in dark tones that it seemed all alpha males liked. Dark stained wood accented by furnishings of silver and black dotted the large space, creating the atmosphere of being both stark and somewhat personal at the same time. There was a massive oak desk that seemed to be more fitting as an elegant dining table than office furniture. A bank of monitors hid whoever was behind them, the steady rhythm of the clacking of a keyboard filling the air. They stopped suddenly once we entered the room.
My supervisor guided me to the middle of the room and bowed, actually bowed, before introducing me to the terror of the top floor.
“Mr. Manning,” he said, his voice having a slight quiver to it, “I’d like to introduce to you Tristan McArthur, your new assistant. Tristan, this is—” A bone-shaking growl cut him off and the man actually yelped.
The chair fell to the floor with a clatter and I finally caught a glimpse of the mind behind VM Consulting. My heart sank into my stomach as I recognized the man looking at me with a murderous glare so potent I was surprised I was still breathing. It was the vampire I ran into earlier.
His lips were curled into a snarl, teeth gritted and fangs bared as he stalked into the front of the desk. He uttered a single word, a word that had my instincts going haywire, telling me to run or else I was gonna die.
“You,” he said, the word sounding downright guttural.
I tried to think of some response, some way to salvage this shitshow of a day. My arm moved of its own accord to wave, and I found myself speaking, the words tumbling through my lips before I could even process what I was saying.
“Hey there, fancy running into you again…”
