The CEO’s Human Mate

The CEO’s Human Mate

Willow has been working for Dimitri Rustanov the past nine months and with each passing day, she feels like quitting. Her attractive boss has been making her life a living hell — but she has no idea why. Little does she know that Dimitri has a valid reason for pushing her away...he has always known he would have a werewolf mate. When Willow shows up and by all indications is his mate—his human mate—he does everything he can to push her away. That is, until the day his wolf gets fed up and decides to take matters into its own hands (paws).

Tags:

WerewolfBillionaireBxGMateOffice RomanceExotic RomanceAlphaBossGood GirlShapeshifterRomanticSexyDramatic

Word Count: 35,528

Rating: 4.9

Likes: 13

Status: Completed

Chapter One

Word Count: 2,070

Willow’s POV.

“Willow!”

I shook as I heard my name being shouted. Of course it was my boss. Of course the intercom was right there, but the odious man chose to scream like we were in some kind of medieval horror movie. I sighed and walked to his office, making sure to make my expression neutral.

I had been working here for five months and I was contemplating leaving… The pay was extremely good, but from the first day this man hired me, he had been nothing but a dickhead to me. I was sincerely tired and I didn’t know how much longer I was going to cope in this aggressive environment.

“You called, sir?” I said, with the most professional tone I could muster.

“What the hell is this?” Dimitri Rustanov, my boss, and inarguably the most hateful man I had ever encountered, threw papers at me, confusing me.

I picked them up. “Sir, the accounts you asked me to work on…”

“Do those look worked on to you?” he asked in a deadly tone.

I didn’t know what to say to him. I had had sleepless nights because of the project and here he was telling me I had not worked on them? I blinked fast, trying not to cry.

“I worked on them…”

“So I’m blind?” Dimitri asked rhetorically, then he sighed and continued, “I want them on my table in an hour’s time. You can leave.”

I was caught between the urge to run behind his desk and give him a piece of my mind. But I thought of the pay and all the benefits I was getting and I held my tongue. I had moved to Seattle about seven months ago, and had used up all my savings for housing and to survive. I needed this job. Desperately.

I picked the files up docilely and walked out of the man’s office. I stared at the clock, willing time to run so I could go get lunch—code for calling my best friend and telling her all the amazing things Dimitri Rustanov was doing in my life.

I heard the intercom beep. This time he was civilized. I went to his office immediately after. One of his rules was not to wait for him to say anything after the intercom beeped. I was supposed to go to his royal ass-ness right away. And be quick about it.

“Call Natalia and tell her our date tonight is cancelled. Send her…” he paused, probably thinking, “A Cartier bracelet. She was nice.”

How I wished one of my exes just woke and sent me a Cartier bracelet simply because I was “nice”. Was this how all rich people did things?

“And call the photographer and tell him not to worry about tonight.”

“Would that be all, sir?” I asked.

He looked at me strangely for one second. Then he sniffed the air. I frowned. Was this man okay?

“You changed your scent,” Dimitri said cryptically.

“My scent?” What the hell was this man on now? Mushrooms?

“Your fragrance… perfume or whatever you call it,” he elaborated, waving his hand.

I lowered my eyes unconsciously, feeling the heat spread on my face. “I… yes I did, sir.”

“Change it back. This one is too light. You can leave now.”

I was shocked speechless. The audacity of this man. I was sure I looked like a frog, gaping at him. Cause what the fuck was this even? I swallowed my words and walked out, fuming. Who the hell did he even think he was? He was rude, arrogant and conceited, and now he added condescending to the list by telling me to change my scent? And what the hell did he mean by my scent was too light? Was he trying to imply that I smelled bad?

Well that was his goddamn business. Color me red and call me a rebel because the last thing I was ever going to do was change the scent. If it irritated him, he was going to have to bear with it just like I had been beating him for the past months.

The rest of the day went by slowly. I had decided to use my lunch break to work on the files Dimitri had given me. And honestly, I had done a piss poor job. By the time the day was over, I went to his office and dropped the files.

I looked up a little too soon and saw him staring at me with some expression of longing on his face. I widened my eyes. The expression changed swiftly to the usual, bored and arrogant.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

The switch up was so sudden that I was sure I had imagined whatever had gone on. I shook my head at him, then said, “Nothing sir. Just came by to drop these and let you know I was leaving.”

“Did you call Natalia?”

My lips twitched at the mention of that particular call but I didn’t dare smile, or laugh. I didn’t love my job but I loved the benefits that came along. And the last thing I wanted to do was lose them.

“Yes I did, sir. She said never to call her again unless you wanted to put a ring on her finger.”

That, honestly, was the most ludicrous thing I had ever heard. Giving someone an alternative like that was bound to make them run even further from you, did Natalia know that?

“Well I won’t ever be calling her again, then. You can leave now, Willow,” the man said with a twist of his lips. Who knew the devil had a sense of humor?

“Good bye sir,” I said softly, then walked out.

It was six pm and there was almost no one else in the office. I walked down quickly and headed to the metro just as quickly. It was soon going to be dark and the last thing I wanted to be was in a deserted office after dark, all alone. My boss was probably going to hear my screams of agony and laugh.

The first things I did when I got home were take off my bra and my shoes, then call Kendra, my best friend. I didn’t know if I would be sane without her. Talking with her about my boss had cleared that killing urge I had with him sometimes. And today was no different.

“He actually told you that you smell bad?”

Kendra was a genuinely nice person, and she thought everyone else in the world was just like her. According to her, Dimitri Rustanov was just a troubled man and if I showed him enough kindness, he was going to change.

It was a funny thought. The man was probably more evil than the devil, and it wasn’t my kindness that was going to make a difference. He could rot for all I cared, but the last thing I was ever going to do was be kind of a man who clearly despised me and thought of me as a joke.

“He didn’t say I smelled bad. He implied it,” I said, walking to the kitchen and taking a bag of chips out of the cabinet. I was so tired the last thing on my mind was cooking. So the next best thing were snacks.

“What did he say?” Kendra asked suspiciously. I knew she thought I was just exaggerating like I tended to do sometimes.

“He told me to change my scent because it was too light. Imagine. You can’t even twist this, Kendra. This man doesn’t like me and to add to that, he thinks I smell gross.”

“But…”

“Why the hell else would he ask me to change my scent to something heavier?” Kendra was not going to succeed in rationalizing this one. The man despised me for I don’t know what reason.

“What if this scent irritated his senses or something?”

I laughed. Kendra was something else.

“We both know that could never be the case, babe. If my scent actually did irritate him, why would he prefer the heavy scent over the light one? Make it make sense.”

“Some people are just built differently,” Kendra said stubbornly. I rolled my eyes.

“Oh my goodness, Kendra, this man is the devil incarnate. He hates me. Stop trying to see the good in everyone. Some people are just inherently evil. He’s just one of those people,” I said, exasperated. Sometimes, it was so annoying that she thought like this.

She was an extra optimist that much was sure. I wasn’t surprised, but there were just some things we had to be real about. Dimitri Rustanov did not like me. And I didn’t like him either so consider us even. Full stop.

“I still maintain he likes you, and that he’s attracted to you,” the girl said mulishly.

I sighed. It was a waste arguing with her. Once she had her mind set on something, nothing you said or did was going to get the idea out of her head. I didn’t care. So long as she didn’t maintain the ludicrous idea that my boss was attracted to me.

But the thought lingered in my mind for a while after we ended the call. It was weird… what if the man was actually attracted to me? And being evil was his own warped way of showing it?

I shook my head. It would do me no good to entertain those kind of thoughts. Because they were so far fetched it was laughable. I was sure if someone told him what I had been thinking, Dimitri was going to laugh and probably even fire me for thinking someone like him could be attracted to me.

I couldn’t deny the fact that he was attractive as hell. The first thing I noticed about his was general appeal. He was tall, he could wear a suit, he was articulate and his facial features were almost perfect. I wondered how the hell I was ever going to work if I spent all my time drooling over him.

I was quickly desensitized to his looks, when I started working and he started treating me like shit. Actually, the first few days had not been total shit. But in the second week, it seemed like he had some kind of personal problem with me. I couldn’t do anything right. He always had something to say about the work I had done, even if I felt I had done it successfully.

Of course, I wasn’t trying to imply that I was the perfect employee. This was my second official job, and I was still learning. I tried my best not to make any stupid mistakes. But it was getting harder and harder not to crack under this man who seemed to enjoy reminding me of all my mistakes.

It didn’t help that I had moved to a completely different city, and I was still trying to adjust to everything. I didn’t expect my boss to baby me. I would feel insulted if he did. But I was asking for respect. The least he could do was give me that at least. It wasn’t much I was asking for, was it?

I didn’t know why Kendra was so bent on defending him. She usually cut down everyone she thought was being horrible to me, especially when it was a man. So justifying this man’s behavior? Especially with a line as stupid as “he likes you that’s why he’s bullying you?” Yeah there was something up for sure.

But I didn’t want to look into it too much. I sighed and walked to my bed, but as soon as I was about to get into it, my phone rang. I looked at the contact name and saw of course that it was my boss. I thought of ignoring it but I remembered that it was due to the job that I could pay my bills and I picked the call. I fought the urge to sigh as soon as it connected.

“Hel—”

“Be at the office by 6 am tomorrow,” he said interrupting me, then he hung up.

I stared at the phone for a few seconds, in disbelief. I couldn’t wait to leave this fucking job.

Chapter Two

Word Count: 2,214

Willow’s POV.

6 am.

I was standing in my boss’s office, shivering a little. It was one of those overly chilly fall mornings and it didn’t help that my boss had cranked up the AC to the coldest. If that wasn’t confirmation that this man was weird, I didn’t know what was.

I stared at him as he worked, ignoring my presence. Why did he command me to come to his office at 6 am when he was just going to keep me standing and staring at him while he did whatever he was doing on his computer?

As if he had read my thoughts, Dimitri looked up at me. Staring into this man’s eyes was always a heady experience for me. No matter how he treated me, I couldn’t deny that he had a weird appeal. I fought the urge to look away as he scrutinized me. He stared at me for a short while before speaking.

“You didn’t change the scent like I asked you to,” he said, his voice soft.

I shivered a little, and this time around, it was not because of the cold. I felt like his voice being that soft was deceptive. He had never spoken to me in that way. And I don’t know if he was being harsh to keep me in line or something but to hear him speak to me calmly and without raising his voice was surprising.

So I stumbled on my words while I spoke. “Uhm, sir… I… yesterday we finished a little late and I was tired, so I headed home.”

I didn’t know why I was this nervous. One thing I had remarked about my boss was that this man preyed on weakness. I wasn’t supposed to show him I was nervous. And in the months I had worked with him, I had perfected the art of taking him head on without sounding disrespectful. It had worked for me so far.

I frowned a little as his nostrils flared. Was this man alright?

“Leave,” he said. His voice was chilly, even more chilly than the outside air.

“Sir?” I asked, a little worried. Was this normal?

“I said leave!” he shouted, then he hit his hands on his table.

I rushed out of his office, my heart beating fast and very loud. I had never seen him like that. Sure he had been abrasive, but he had never demonstrated this level of anger. I didn’t know what to make of it, I didn’t know how to take it. I sat there, wondering what to do. I couldn’t leave, that much was for sure. But was I just to sit around until he decided that he was no longer in an unrepentant mood? I was so uncomfortable.

I sighed and placed my head on the table. If I had known that my fragrance would cause such a reaction, I would have changed it. Was he allergic to it or something? Was that why he was so mad at me? I started feeling bad. I had thought I was just being “rebellious” and that I needed to show him that he could not control me. But boy, it seemed like I had dug myself a deeper hole.

The intercom beeped and gave me a little start; I jumped and stared at it.

“Willow, get in here.”

I swallowed and stood. I was nervous. I couldn’t lie. I was very nervous. I had not sat on my desk for more than half an hour but the scenarios that had gone through my head were terrible. Scenes of how he called me into his office and told me I was fired. Man. Imagine that. Imagine being fired because of something I could have changed so easily.

Fragrance?

I had many more bottles of perfume home. Wearing this one was me being stubborn. And boy, how I regretted it now. No matter how scared I was though, I took in a deep breath, knocked a little on his office door and got into his office. I advanced towards him warily, his eyes on me giving the impression that he was a predator. I swallowed.

“Sir? You called?”

“Place an order for some other stronger scent. I’ll try to control myself while we wait for it to arrive.” The last bit was mumbled but it got me confused.

I’ll try to control myself. What did he mean by that? I was sure there was a frown on my face but I smoothened it out, trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He could have fired me. After all, I had gone against a direct order coming from him. I muttered a small okay and sat where I usually did so we could finish up the work together.

I spent about two hours there, sitting next to him. After I had called Kendra and asked her to bring a stronger scent for me of course. It was so awkward. I was sitting there, trying to behave as normally as I possibly could. And I noticed how Dimitri was flexing his hands. Usually, he wasn’t that fidgety. And his eyes were never that red. It seemed like what he said about control was actually true. It seemed like he was truly trying not to lose hold of his control.

I didn’t know what would happen if he did. But I had no desire to find out. Despite the awkward atmosphere, we managed to work well together, completing the work in record time. By the time I stood from the chair, it was 9 am. Time had passed so quickly. And I kind of felt bereft when it was time for me to go back to my desk. I enjoyed working with this man.

Yes, he was abrasive. Yes, he had been nothing but an ass to me since I started working with him. But I took his attitude as a challenge. I was bound not to let it affect me. I was probably going to have to face people worse than him in the future. So this was building up my tolerance. Plus, he was one of the best in the world of business. I had a lot to learn from him. If one of the consequences of learning from him was his surliness, then I was ready to bear it.

“Willow,” Dimitri said as I was walking out of the office. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and I stiffened. This was the second time he was calling my name like this and I wasn’t too sure if I appreciated it.

It was making me feel things I had no business feeling. I turned towards my boss and what I saw on his face had me feeling confused. There was a hunger in his stare, a longing. Emotions that he masked very quickly. But it didn’t change the fact that they had been there. Longing… longing for me? Hunger for me?

I decided not to linger on it too much. I was going to go mad. There was no point thinking about it too much. He was my boss. There was nothing there. And left to him, there would never be anything there. Left to me as well. I had no desire to lose this well-paying job with all the amazing perks because of a few minutes of pleasure. I was good on that.

“Get yourself breakfast,” he said.

I frowned a little. “Yes, sir… I will.”

“You can leave now.” He dismissed me in his usual manner then stared at the computer in front of him.

Okay now I was really confused. Dimitri Rustanov was asking me to get breakfast? My boss had just told me to get breakfast. It might not seem like a big deal but it was! We had had so many of these six am sessions and some had even been longer than two hours thirty minutes. But my well-being had never been my boss’s interest. It didn’t matter to him whether I had eaten breakfast or whether I was dying and weak because of hunger. This was the first time.

His behavior was so weird. But again, I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. I spied my phone and saw a message from Kendra telling me she was downstairs so I picked up my phone and my purse and headed downstairs. I could not wait for whatever weird theory she was going to come up with. Before I got into the elevator, I stopped. My boss had been nice enough to free me so I could get breakfast. It would be rude not to ask what he wanted.

So I went back towards his office and knocked. Then I opened the door and got in. Dimitri was leaning back in his chair and when I got in, his eyes snapped open. For one second, they were red. Then they became normal. I frowned. What the hell was that? Had I just imagined that? No human being on this earth had red eyes. Who was this man?

“What do you need?” His voice was gruff. Ah. Back to default setting.

“I wanted to ask you if you needed anything, sir,” I asked softly, trying not to provoke the beast.

“The only thing I need is for you to change that godforsaken scent,” was all he said, then he closed his eyes and leaned his head on his hands.

I was a little hurt. I wasn’t supposed to be. I mean, I thought I was already used to his words and how hurtful they could be. I definitely wasn’t as desensitized as I thought I was. Ha. So much for trying to be nice.

I left the office and closed the door softly behind me. I didn’t want to bang it and provoke his ire even more. I didn’t need this. I went downstairs like I had planned to do and there at the reception was Kendra. I smiled. I loved her so much that just seeing her lifted my mood so much.

“Why do you have your purse with you?” she asked after we had hugged each other.

“My boss permitted me to get breakfast,” I said drily.

“I sense there’s more to this story.”

I didn’t answer. I waited until we were strapped in her car then I sighed. “There’s a lot more. Just take me where I can get food and I’ll you everything.”

In less than ten minutes, we were sitting in a small diner. It looked promising and the aromas I was getting were making me even hungrier.

“Spill, what happened?” Kendra asked, staring at me intently.

“Do you know of anyone that can change their eye color at will? Like from brown to red then from red back to brown?” I asked out of the blue, before even delving into the story.

Kendra’s reaction was weird. She sat there calmly and it seemed she was stilling her entire body so as not to let anything show on her face. I frowned. This was not how I expected her to react when I asked her that question.

“Don’t be absurd, babes. You know there’s no such thing as a human with red eyes, much less a human that can change his eye color at will,” Kendra admonished with a wave of her hand.

I felt a little offended. “I’m not stupid, Kendra. I am aware of all this. But I know what I saw!”

“What happened before then?”

I explained everything to her, from the time I got into the office and he screamed about my scent to when I went to ask him about breakfast. Kendra listened intently and I made sure to get all of her reactions. Because she was being weird that day.

“I still think you imagined the red eye thing,” she insisted.

I sighed and looked away. I knew that the thing about red eyes didn’t sound plausible at all but it still hurt that she didn’t believe me. It made me feel a little stupid. I faked a little smile and dug into the food the waiter had placed in front of me. And I felt someone touch my hand.

“Babes,” she started with a sigh, “I’m not implying you’re stupid. Far from that. I just think that your mind and the lighting played tricks on you. Because we both know someone with red eyes is ridiculous.”

Kendra was right. “Right,” I said with a sigh.

She rubbed my hand and smiled. “You see now that you were building stories in your head about Dimitri hating you and thinking you smell bad? I still think he’s hung up on you and he knows it will never work because he is your boss.”

I looked away. I hated that Kendra was telling me all of this because it was just helping to put stupid ideas in my head. I didn’t need this. I didn’t need to think that my boss had more feelings for me other than exasperation. I wasn’t even going to entertain Kendra’s train of thought. It was going to bring me heartache for nothing.