My Shifter Boss

Lucy’s heart jumped just a little. “Ok.”

“The Head and I were talking about you yesterday,” he began.

Her heart calmed immediately. A sliver of disappointment crossed her mind, but she pushed it aside as silly. You’ve known him less than three weeks! she chided herself. Lucy lifted her eyebrows at him in question.

Nathan cleared his throat and took a sip of his wine. “He asked me what you are going to school for, and I explained that you planned to be a journalist. Isn’t that correct?”

Lucy was wary now. “Yes,” she said, dragging the word out. “I still have two semesters left before I graduate.”

“I told him you weren’t finished, but I wasn’t sure how long you had to go,” Nathan replied. He still held her hand; he squeezed it gently and smiled. “He wants to talk to you about working for the Guard.”

Lucy tilted her head, a quizzical look on her face. “The Guard? What kind of journalistic job would he have to offer me at the Guard?”

Nathan shrugged. “Some kind of media liaison-type person. There really isn’t anyone to handle that kind of stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Like the Austin going to the press kind of stuff.” Nathan’s answer jarred her. Austin had attacked her with the intention of assaulting her, but she’d shifted and frightened him away. A few days later, with the encouragement of Marissa, he had gone to the press about being attacked by a were. “That could have been handled by a media liaison, right?”

“Sure,” Lucy replied, her mind on the possibility of working for the Guard. Finding a job as a journalist was difficult, and sometimes unpaid internships were the only jobs available until you proved yourself. “But I still have two semesters. Is he willing to wait for me to finish?”

“I have no idea. He asked me to talk to you about seeing him and talking to him about it,” Nathan said. “So are you interested in talking to him?”

Lucy frowned. “What do you do for the Guard?”

“I work in security, I guess you’d say,” Nathan offered. “My job is to keep an eye on new weres and make sure they’re behaving, visit with weres who have not been following the rules, sometimes arresting them, things like that.”

“So you and I wouldn’t be working together?” she asked.

Nathan cocked an eyebrow at her. “Don’t want to work with your boyfriend?”

Lucy giggled. “It’s not that. IF, and I’m staying with if right now, but if I were to work there, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m getting preferential treatment because my boyfriend has been there for a million years.”

Nathan guffawed, causing a few heads to turn his way. “I have absolutely no power to give anybody preferential treatment.” He shook his head, still chuckling.

She playfully punched his shoulder. “Shut up. I don’t know.”

He caught her hand and brought it to his lips again. “My apologies, love.”

She sniffed. “Apology accepted, but only because I want to get into your pants later.”

“Babe, why do you think I apologized?” Nathan wiggled his eyebrows at her and ran his hand up her thigh. “If I were your boss, I’d s*xually harass you every day.”

Lucy laughed loudly. “I’d let you, handsome man.”

He sat back and returned to the subject. “So what do you think? Will you go talk to him tomorrow?”

Lucy sighed, thinking. “Yes. Tomorrow afternoon?”

“I think that will work,” Nathan smiled at her. He lifted his hand and signaled the waiter to bring the check. “I’m ready to get you home and s*xually harass you.”

“Oh no, boss man, don’t do that,” Lucy playfully responded. “I’ll tell.”

“Sure you will,” he sarcastically agreed. Her hand snuck under the table and rubbed over his crotch slowly while she looked at him. He shifted in his seat. “I think I’m more in danger of being harassed by you.”

*****

The next morning, after saying good bye to Nathan and promising to meet him at the Guard headquarters at two, Lucy decided she needed to speak to her mother about all this. About Nathan and about the job with the Guard. Her mother would be happy about Nathan, mostly. Her saying had always been if Lucy was happy, she’d be happy too.

The job with the Guard might take a little convincing. Her mother had been banished from the city after attacking a criminal who ran a child s*x trafficking ring. Although she could have been imprisoned or even executed, the Head at that time chose to only banish her because the man had been causing harm to others. However, her mother still harbored ill feelings towards the Guard because they hadn’t helped her get the man arrested. They’d ignored the issue because, in her opinion, he wasn’t harming weres, only humans. Weres came first for the Guard, her mother believed, which was despicable.

Lucy considered the matter from all angles. Should she call her mother? Should she see the Head first, and then talk to her mother? She cursed under her breath. She wished she had a friend in the city who was a were, other than Nathan of course. Kayla was human, but knew the truth about her and loved her anyway, but she didn’t know anything about the were underworld in the city. She could call Chopper, the weird werewolf recluse who had offered his assistance at any time. He had a prejudice against the Guard as well, though a lot less pronounced than her mother’s. He wouldn’t like the idea of her working for them anymore than her mother would, she assumed, so she decided her mother should be her first option.

Sighing, she picked up her phone and waited for her mother to answer. On the third ring, her mother picked up. “Hello, sweetheart!”

Lucy smiled. Her mother’s voice sounded so close; she missed her so much. “Hi, Mom. What’s going on?”

“Oh, you know, same old things.” Lucy heard her father’s voice in the background. “Your father says hi.”