Lily
Lily’s heels clacked against the gallery flooring as she made her way to her office. She needed air. Most of all, she needed to be away from Wallace.
It wasn’t his fault she was a huge mess. Lily just needed some space. If Wallace hung around, she was going to fuck him instead of getting work done, or figure out her own inner turmoil. The thoughts that ran through her mind when she was fighting back at him.
You rule him.
God, why did I think that?
Lily felt like a cross between an Alpha Bitch, and a pup pretending to be more than she was. This was just another reason she didn’t want to ‘take responsibility’ for what she really was. Alpha female wolves were rude, bitter, and angry all the time. She didn’t want to be like that. Lily wanted to have some form of compassion as a wolf—especially if she was going to be an Alpha. She would want her pack to love her, not fear for their lives with her around.
By the moon, why the bloody hell am I thinking about how I would be as an Alpha?
She heard another set of high heels coming at her. They clip, clanked against the flooring. Lily breathed in and the sweet perfume that was her best friend Lizzie as it came at her full steam. She dared a glance at the eager woman out of the corner of her eye. She held up a hand and nearly growled at the female.
Her eyes must have shown some sort of display of authority because Lizzie skidded to a halt. It gave Lily the space to dash into her office, shut the door and lock it. She thumped her mug against her oak desk; then tossed her briefcase to the corner of the room. The loud thud that accompanied it hitting the wall caused her body to tense and she jerked.
Lily was panting now as she slammed her palms against the top of her desk. Her wolf roared to life. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to shift. She felt the tell-tale tingle of her fur pushing to the surface. Her fangs got sharp and skimmed her bottom and top lip. Hot lava coursed through her veins. Her muscles started to pull against the human confines. The snap of her spinal column made her back arch and she let out a breathy sigh.
It feels so good. I want to run. I want to run far and free…
The thought faded with a rapid, harsh knocking at the door. “Lily…?”
Wallace.
“Open this door…now!” He didn’t yell. One thing Wallace had going for him—he wasn’t an Alpha, but he sure as hell should’ve been one. An enforcer for the pack he was one of the most deadly wolves she knew.
Yet, the sound of his authority, where it’d once made her simper and had her rolling over to please him, made her edgy and volatile now.“Go!” Her voice was clipped and edged with warning.
She could hear the growl through the thick pine of the door and then his heavy steps moving away. Lily sagged with relief. She closed her eyes and regained some composure. She had a big meeting today with a potential artist. The financial gain for something like this would be huge. She didn’t want to disappoint Lizzie’s father, who owned the gallery. He was nice enough to give her a job when she told her father she wanted her own life, not pack life.
Something told her that wish was coming back to haunt her with a vengeance. The beast wasn’t just part of her, it was her. She’d never accepted that. Fought it as hard as she could most of the time. Right now, in this huge office, she suddenly felt so closed off she wanted to smash the windows and escape.
Lily shook away the feeling of being trapped. She pushed down her wolf and straightened out her suit for the second time in the last thirty minutes. Giving her head a shake to make sure she was in the right frame of mind, she walked over to her briefcase. Then came back to her desk, took a calm seat, and got to work. While she pulled files on the client, she couldn’t help but think everything was about to change.
