Garrett Garrett and Wyatt were sitting in the conference room on the 12th floor holding interviews for the position of Garrett’s new secretary. The last one had stupidly walked into his office unannounced, while he was berating a pack member, and had gotten to see him with Huntley on the surface. All Alpha Wolf, demanding answers from his pack member, who’d breached not one but two of the wolfen laws. Not just pack laws, but laws mandated by the wolfen council themselves. That man had told an underage she-wolf that he’d taken a fancy to; a pretty, barely 17-year-old girl, that had just gotten her wolf a year ago that she was his Mate. That he could scent her out already, and so it was okay for them to be together. Then he’d seduced her into his bed as well, only to scent out on the last full moon just last week, his actual Mate. That young girl had been devastated, upset that she had given herself to that wolf, thinking he was going to be her Mate, and now he was mated to someone else. She’d tried to run away this week, and when he and his unit had hunted and found her. She’d cried all over Ryan, told them everything that had happened, and that she didn’t want to see him with his new Mate. Now she didn’t have to at all, he was currently in a wolfen council prison serving time for breaking the wolfen law. But Garrett had not handed him over without having a piece of that wolf himself. Had announced his crime, left out the young girl’s name and lashed him. Put him on their pack shaming post, he’d still been there when the council had sent someone to collect him. Not even his actual Mate was happy with him for what he’d done. Now they were separated for the next three years. She was going to have to suffer her heats on her own due to her Mate’s stupidity. She’d left and gone back to her home pack after the council had taken him away, hadn’t rejected him but had not told him she’d had the intention of leaving either. It was going to be up to him to hunt her down and beg for forgiveness when he was released. His previous secretary, Kim, a human, who had been told to never come into his office without using the intercom first, as all others before her had as well. Had just walked in with papers in her hand that needed his urgent attention, and had been terrified at the sight of his Alpha Aura rolling out of him, at his pack member. Lucky for her, it was not aimed at her, and she’d only gotten a low dose, but she’d been freaked out enough to resign from her position, and they’d been running through temps for the past two weeks while advertising the position and now going through the applications. His mother had reduced it down from 50 applicants to just 20, and now he was doing interviews. It was not the first time he’d lost a secretary, some just couldn’t abide by the rules, and stay out of his office. But he needed to hire a human. It was the human world office. His father had instated a few rules, which his older brother had also agreed to when he’d taken over, before he’d died in a battle. Garrett himself also kept that rule in place. At least one third of the employees here in their office had to be human. If a human resigned or went on maternity leave or vacation, their replacement had to be human as well. So, his secretary would always be a human, he didn’t much care if they were male or female, as long as they did their job. He didn’t mind the rule of having a third of the staff here be human, and it did give his pack members a chance to see if they had human Mates. Quite a few over the decades had found human Mates here in this very building. His mother also liked having them around. She’d been human once; enjoyed hanging out with humans just like everyone else did. He’d seen her name on the list and smiled, pointed it right out to Wyatt, who’d chuckled softly ‘Well, well, well, look at that.’ One Miss Harmony Preston was interviewing for the position of his secretary. It had been two weeks since he’d seen her. The moment he’d seen her name on the list he’d been curious as to how she was. If she’d broken up with her boyfriend? Or stupidly taken him back? Though he couldn’t ask her that in this interview. Garrett watched her walk into the conference room. He and Wyatt had already gone over her resume; she’d been a paralegal secretary over at Blackwell Industries, since she was 24. He also knew that her boyfriend had been one Damien Blackwell, he was hoping a change of job meant a break-up. He’d heard that Damien’s father had written out the cheque for the bill received and wondered what had gone on there, why the dumb man couldn’t cut a cheque himself; it was curious to him. He knew the Blackwell’s had looked into them long ago, very wealthy humans that ran a large law firm, that was tied to an auction house, and a stockbrokerage firm. They were currently trying to get themselves into the building industry as well as housing planning and development. That wasn’t going so well. Garrett was halting that himself, he had the monopoly on the housing development and planning here in town. Wasn’t willing to give up an inch to that company, and now knowing just what Damien Blackwell was like, would be making it even harder for them to buy up large chunks of land. Today, Harmony was wearing a black pencil skirt and a red short-sleeved blouse with black hemming, her hair was pulled loosely back into a braid, with a few tendrils framing her lovely face. She had light, natural-looking make-up on. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Though as he looked at her, he liked it better when her hair was out and framing her face, he thought absently, as she smiled at him, and then Wyatt and introduced herself. That smile lit up her whole face. He’d not seen her smile like that on their last encounter, but today here she was utterly stunning to look at. Damien was a damned fool to let this young lady go. Who the hell cheated on someone like her? She held her hand and out to him, and he took it as did Wyatt, there was no recollection on her face as she smiled at him. She did not recall him, and he sighed internally just a little. Was he unforgettable? He shook it off, no he didn’t think that was it. She had just been really drunk, and likely didn’t recall anything at all from that night. He was glad that he had sent her that footage now. If she didn’t recall him, it was likely she’d not recall seeing Damien cheating on her either. It had been the right decision, he thought, to send that video to her so she could see the truth about that man. ‘Doesn’t she look nice?’ He heard Wyatt’s voice come down the mind-link. ‘That she does.’ He replied. She was wearing heels that made her seem taller, but he knew she was only tiny. She wore no flashy jewellery, just a simple watch on her left wrist. He noted her fingernails were well manicured and were a glossy dark red with a tiny snowflake on the tips. She liked Christmas time, he thought to himself, though he was thinking about the way her nails had dug into his skin that night. How good it had felt, almost like a set of wolfen claws. He had to shake it off and focus on the interview, though he already knew he was going to give her the job, and would enjoy looking at her every day while she worked for him. Would have to make sure she understood the rules of not coming into his office, ever, without using the intercom to ask permission. He would not want to scare her and have her resign. He watched her sit down and the two of them asked her many questions, the same questions they had asked the other applicants. She answered every question after only a moment’s thought. He could tell she would be good at the job. Asked her why she left the job at Blackwell industries after four years of working there? He was curious himself. She’d sighed heavily and stated “I won’t lie to you. I slapped Damien Blackwell twice on work premises and,” She shrugged “was going to be fired for it. I quit instead.” He’d smiled at hearing that, and leaned right back in his chair “I like your honesty. May I inquire what the slaps were for?” “I’d rather not state. It was personal, not business.” She told him. “Fair enough.” But he knew why she’d slapped her boyfriend, she’d left him, had confronted him in the workplace. It was not exactly professional, but it was likely Damien had ducked her on the weekend, and tried to talk to her in what he thought would be a safe environment. She’d likely not cared where they were. Either that or she had wanted to humiliate him in his own workplace. He didn’t really mind which. He liked that she had stood up for herself, ended it on her terms by the sounds of it. He walked her out of the interview room and shook her hand once more, told her she’d receive a call within 24 hours, to let her know if she had the job and, if so, he’d want her to start the very next day, get used to the place and rules prior to the Christmas break in a weeks time. Harmony had nodded and thanked him for his time. He’d stood and watched her walk all the way to the elevator, smiled to himself before returning to the room where he had seen Wyatt’s fully amused face. “What?” he’d asked. “Are we still interviewing the remaining six or are we just calling Miss Preston and offering her the job?” he chuckled. “We’ll finish the interviews and let mother call her to tell her she got the job tomorrow.” “Why waste our time? You know you’re going to hire her. It’s a done deal in that head of yours. It was the minute you saw her name on the list.” Garrett chuckled; his Beta was not wrong. “It is. But mother set up the times and everyone is here waiting, so let’s not make them feel their time is wasted, and we can put the top five on a short list, in case she doesn’t fit in.” They did just that, he even had Wyatt put in a call to Blackwell Industries to get her reference checked, only to be put through to Damien Blackwell, instead of Spencer Wilson who was on her reference. When Wyatt introduced himself and requested her reference, that man took it upon himself to say not so nice things about Harmony. Stated she was quite lazy, had a history of turning up to work late, called in sick a lot if she bothered to call in at all. Sometimes just didn’t show up for work for days on end. Didn’t get her work done on time, and was always behind and off loaded her work onto others, but made it look like she’d gotten her work all done, and in record time. Gave his ex-girlfriend an absolutely horrid review. Wyatt had asked why they kept her in the company so long and working for one boss all that time, if she was terrible at her job. Stated it didn’t seem to fit. He was informed she was sleeping with her boss, and firing her would be seen as s****l harassment and unfair dismissal. So they had to wait for her to do something out of line. Garrett shook his head, that man was clearly ticked off that Harmony had ended their relationship, and he’d gotten caught out in his own lies, found out to be a complete scumbag. He wondered if the man’s father had reprimanded him. Garrett himself had called back and requested to speak with Spencer Wilson, and when asked why, he stated simply I need an appointment with the man. Had been put through to him after just a few minutes. Then he stated who he was and that he was reference checking for Harmony Preston. That man gave a glowing review. She was punctual, polite and professional, had never missed a day of work since starting at the company. That she had quit, for personal reasons, that he would recommend her for the job. She’d been his secretary for a long time, and left due to unfortunate circumstances, and had been sad to see her leave. But he understood why she had. He did not elaborate on that and Garrett didn’t press the situation, just thanked the man. And then, as an afterthought before, he hung up told him about what Damien had stated. He’d gotten a heavy sigh down the line and a muttered “I’ll have a stern word with him.” “You might want to remind him Slander is punishable. I record all calls coming and going.” “I’ll remind him,” he’d been informed before ending the call. Garrett had sighed “That man needs another ass kicking, it seems.” He muttered and wondered just how many other jobs Damien Blackwell had sabotaged for the young lady. Well, she would be getting this job, all she had to do was accept the offer when his mother called her.