Dodging the Alpha (Betas in Waiting Book 1)

  She wants her boss, so she leaves. He wants her, so he follows. Negotiating for her time, he manages a date, and she begins dodging the alpha. Fate will have to take steps.

  Nora was an excellent administrative assistant until the day a business associate of her boss made an aggressive pass. She tells her boss, and he tells her to thicken her skin, having heard the other male’s version of the event. She can toughen up or quit. She chooses the option that will stop the pain of the dismissal.

  Sabin is shocked when he finds out she is leaving, and he’s devastated when he learns that it is her last day. He had enjoyed having her next to him, breathing in her scent all day every day and spent many hours trying to find a way around the whole employee-employer thing, but now, it was solved for him. A frantic kiss tells him what she tastes like at long last, and now, he has to find a way to get her back to his side.

  Nora ends up in a situation where she smells like a hot omega and is at a party full of alphas. Sabin is there and offers his help for the bargain price of one night.

  That night spins into events that will echo through their lives, and defying families, a curse, and stalkers, they make their way to a family future.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Dodging the Alpha

  Copyright © 2021 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-990635-03-8

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Published by Viola Grace

  Look for me online at violagrace.com.

  Dodging the Alpha

  Betas in Waiting Book 1

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Nora smiled and took the last hug from her co-workers. It had been a long eight years, but she was done. Sabin Skarov could take his job and shove it up his ass. She just wasn’t going to tell him.

  “So, what did the boss say when you told him you quit?” Leanne smiled.

  “I don’t think he knows, but the call where he told me to get out is at HR, so it is legally sound.”

  “Wait... he doesn’t know you are leaving?” There was a slow horror on her face.

  “I am pretty sure he is clueless, but I have trained Marnie to do my work, and she really wants to get into his pants, so it should pander to that enormous ego of his.” She glanced at the clock. “Five minutes to go, so I am just going to shut down my computer and make sure I have everything off my desk before I drop my credentials off at HR.”

  “You think he will notice?”

  “That I am gone? It will take a few days. As long as Marnie is willing to answer to Nora, it could be weeks or months.” She snickered. “Don’t worry about it, and call me with gossip. You know I love gossip.”

  She headed up to her desk and swiped into the office. The empty box that she had ready was tucked next to the palm tree that Sabin had insisted on because the placement made it tickle her neck, and he thought it was funny. She was forbidden to move it.

  She kicked the pot and packed up her pictures, a stuffed animal that she kept in her desk for the rough days, and her favourite pen. She was stealing it from the company and didn’t care who knew. She loved that pen.

  Nora had just heaved the box to her hip when she heard the call of her master’s voice. “Nora? Where are the Zukov files?”

  “Your desk, on the left. Third file from the top.”

  “Come here for a moment.”

  She paused and sighed, setting the box down.

  She stood in his doorway with her fingers tangling together. “Was there something you needed, Mr. Skarov?”

  “What was the party for?”

  “Party?”

  “You smell like cake and a lot of hugs.”

  She nodded. “That follows.”

  “So, what was the party for?”

  She kept her voice bright. “Going away party. A staff member is leaving?”

  He looked up and pierced her with his denim-blue gaze. “Which one? Anyone I know?”

  “Uh. One of the admin staff. She just finished her two weeks’ notice.”

  “Hm. So, what did I get her for her departure?” His wide sharp jaw tilted with the rest of his head when he looked at her.

  She jolted. “What?”

  He frowned. “You always buy something for outgoing staff. Something was different this time?”

  “Yeah, that would have been super awkward.” She checked her watch and smiled. “Well, have a nice weekend.”

  He frowned. “You never said who was leaving?”

  She had been starting her turn, but then, she paused and turned back. “That would be me. My last day. All nice and legal with HR, so don’t worry about paperwork. My replacement has been trained and will be at the desk out front Monday morning. It’s all taken care of.”

  He got up from his desk, walked around, and picked her up by her arms. “You are leaving me?”

  She looked at him. “You told me to. I have the recording of our call. It was three weeks ago. Etien Margen had assaulted me at the expo, and you said it was just the way that business was done, and if I didn’t like it, I should leave.” She looked at him and licked her lips nervously. “So, I left.”

  He frowned. “Etien mentioned that he had flirted with you.”

  Her eyes got wide. “He grabbed me, shoved me against the wall, shoved my skirt up with his knee, and held my head still with his fist in my hair while he sniffed my neck and breasts, telling me that a beta like me needed to be properly handled. If that was flirting, I would hate to guess at foreplay.”

  “He. Did. What?” He was turning scarlet with fury.

  “Sized me up as a snack. So, as I no longer work for you, I really need to get going. Some friends and I have some heavy drinking planned for tonight, and I need to get home to change.” She idly kicked her feet. “As I no longer work for you, you are waylaying a stranger. I would recommend you set me down.”

  “You have worked at that desk for five years. We are hardly strangers.” He set her back on her feet.

  She smiled. “You don’t know me, and I promise to avoid all your usual haunts, so you won’t have to see me again. Marnie has a huge crush on you, so just a head’s up in that department. Oh, and HR is aware, so don’t worry about her.”

  “Yes, she has been throwing herself at me for the past six months.”

  Nora smiled. “So, catch her and live happily ever after or as much as you can without an omega.”

  “I don’t need or want one. They are too high maintenance and expensive as fuck.”

  She chuckled. “Right. Well, have a nice life. I have to start mine.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I am taking a week off, and then, I have a new job lined up. Same position, different alpha.”

  He frowned. “So soon?”

  “Sure. Folks have been trying to poach me away for years. When I made the decision, I made one call, and it was settled in five minutes.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” He sighed. “That you were going.”

  “You can be a little temperamental. I didn’t want to spend two weeks with a target on me.” She smiled softly and then inhaled and exhaled sharply. “It was interesting working for you.” She stuck out her hand.

  “You are not an empl
oyee anymore?”

  She shook her head and took a few steps back before he snapped forward and pulled her back toward him and against his chest. She felt the starch of his shirt and the silk of his tie under her palms a moment before he kissed her, and then, her senses were spun to the winds as he carefully tasted her. He lifted his head and smiled. “How did I not know that you taste like hot chocolate?”

  She blinked in shock. He tasted like toasted marshmallows. She hadn’t known that either. She whispered. “Put me down. I have to go.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes, I do. Now, put me down or figure a way to get my shoe out of your thigh.”

  He sighed and set her down. She turned and made a controlled walk for the door.

  She grabbed the box off her desk and took her ID lanyard off her neck, and she swiped out of his office for the last time. He had a preference for little to no scent in his vicinity that had come on in the last few years, and the dual lock was a creepy symptom of it. She juggled the box and her swipe card, but she escaped his domain with a few steps. She walked to the elevator and pushed the button for the ninth floor. She didn’t turn and look back. She knew he was watching her leave. She could feel it.

  * * * *

  When Nora had disappeared behind the elevator doors, Sabin called Etien Margen and made an appointment for a boxing match. That smug bastard had cost him Nora. He was going to pay.

  Sabin looked down at the other alpha and growled. Etien spit blood, and he muttered, “I didn’t know she was yours. She wasn’t marked.”

  “You attacked a beta in public you didn’t know. And then, you told me you had simply flirted... with your knee up her skirt and your head between her breasts?” He flexed his hands, wanting to hit him again.

  Etien’s eyes widened. “Oh, her! She smells amazing. How do you not spend every day with her on your lap, catching that scent from her neck?”

  “Because she worked for me.”

  Etien paused. “Worked? Past tense?”

  “She quit two weeks ago, and because I thought you had just overwrought her sensibilities with some light flirting, I told her that this was business, it did no harm, and if she didn’t like it, she could find another job.” He growled. “So she did.”

  Etien tried to stand, and Sabin raised his fist. “Sorry, Sabin. I was appalled at my own lack of control, so I downplayed it. She just smells so good.”

  Sabin nodded. “I know. I had my whole HVAC system redesigned so that I could keep her scent with me in the office. Now, I have to get it reset, or I will be suffocating in her replacement.”

  Etien looked at him. “Can I stand?”

  “Sure. But watch what you say, or I will flatten you again. Really, you need to keep in shape. It’s a wonder you could lift her. She is not petite.”

  Etien stayed on the ground. “But those curves are maddening. The world has never seen such a warm hourglass, even in those frumpy suits she wears. When I gripped her waist, my hands collided.”

  Sabin growled and leaned toward him until he flinched back. “Now I have to find out where she went and beg for her back. I despise begging.”

  “So, just find another beta to warm your bed. It isn’t as if there aren’t lines waiting for us.”

  Sabin looked at him and growled, showing teeth. “But, as you just pointed out, they don’t have her curves.”

  “She is stunning. If she was an omega, she would have suitors around the block.”

  Sabin glared at him. “And I would beat them all bloody until thoughts of her turn to dreams, or I rip their throats out.” He grinned. “Their choice.” He leaned back. “Now, I just have to find out where she went. How hard could it be?”

  Sabin searched social media for weeks and nothing until one day he saw her, standing behind a powerful alpha, and she was laughing with an omega. Her figure was outlined in a daring gown at some charity fashion event, and she walked behind the designer and his omega, next to the other three alphas in the pride and a male omega.

  “Fuck. She is hiding with the cats.” He snarled, and then, he thought about his options and the monthly gatherings at his uncle’s place. The cats and their omegas usually showed up. He could deal with his family if Nora was there. He just had to figure out how to get the designer’s assistant to a family party.

  Chapter Two

  Nora parked outside the Rathmussen mansion and removed several garment bags from inside her SUV, and then, she grabbed the four bags of takeout. Rick opened the door with a grin, and she headed inside. She whistled sharply, and surprisingly, an omega appeared to take the bags. “Evening, Ford.”

  “Shouldn’t you be at home with your feet up?” Olivia was lying on the couch in the family room, and Yemeen was under her hips, and Dexter was rubbing her feet. “I can definitely recommend it.”

  She chuckled. “My couch doesn’t come with accessories.”

  Yemeen grinned. “Did they finish the alterations?”

  “They did. Though you are so familiar with her figure, you should be getting it right the first time.” She swept past and headed for Yemeen’s workroom. She got the gowns out and smiled at them as she finished fluffing them into a picture-perfect arrangement. When she was done, she stowed the bag and headed out the door.

  She was nearly to the door when Ambrose stepped in front of her. “Eat with us.”

  She blinked. “Uh, sorry, but there is a drive-through with my name on it and an early day tomorrow.” She fidgeted with her nullifier cuffs. They needed a charge, and being around four alphas and two omegas were causing the nano-mist to run nearly constantly. She had an hour left, and then, they would be able to smell her, and mated or not, she had a weirdly attractive scent. Everybody loved chocolate.

  Ambrose crossed his arms. “You are staying. Yemeen works you too hard.”

  She snorted. “This isn’t half of what I used to do for my previous employer, and here, if there is a creep, I know that Yemeen has my back. He’s proved it a few times.”

  “Fine. You still need to eat. Stay. Please.”

  She blinked. “Uh, okay.”

  Ford grinned. “Good. Now come on to the kitchen table. And you three, don’t cum on anything.”

  She turned and plodded toward Ford. “What’s up?”

  “Well, we need help brainstorming a present for a seven-year-old for Halloween.”

  She got a plate and put an eggroll on it before sitting down.

  Ford looked at her. “That can’t be it.”

  “It is it. You are literally not the boss of me, and my boss was just acting as a couch, so he is off duty as boss for the day.” She grinned and applied plum sauce and hot sauce. “Honestly, though, the eggroll is enormous.”

  Ford laughed. “Your scale is off if you think that is big.”

  She dropped the eggroll to her plate with a clunk. “And that is it for me.”

  The others gathered around the table, and Argus arrived, washed his hands, and filled a plate. Olivia asked a question that had been three weeks in the making. “So, Nora, I have to ask, and you do amazing work, but why did you leave your last job?”

  Nora wiped her fingers on a napkin. “I got tired of being bothered by alphas.”

  Yemeen frowned. “Bothered?”

  Ford snorted. “Nearly raped.”

  The table froze. She shrugged. “He isn’t wrong. In the last two years, there were six incidences at work events, and the last one wasn’t the most violent, but I tried to tell my boss about it, and he told me that it was part of business, and if I didn’t like it, I should quit, which nullified my contract because I got it on record. Turns out that the guy who grabbed me told him that we were just flirting.” She grimaced. “I don’t flirt. I wear the nullifiers to keep my scent from being discernable, and I keep them charged. There was no scent for him to track. He was just an asshole.”

  Yemeen frowned. “What is your scent? I catch bits of it now and then, but all I can figure out
is something sweet.”

  She grabbed a fortune cookie and cracked it. “Chocolate. I smell like a chocolatery. I taste like hot chocolate. I am a diabetic’s worst nightmare.”

  Olivia was looking at her with intense eyes. “Can I taste you?”

  “No. There is no chocolate in Chinese food.” She read her fortune and snorted.

  Ford hadn’t started eating yet, so he leaned over and kissed her. His tongue stroked along hers, and she felt him vibrating happily. She slowly moved her hand up his chest, and then, she grabbed his throat and pushed him back. He whined and tried to get closer, but she shoved him hard, and he staggered. Argus and Olivia got up protectively, and she nodded to Yemeen. “See you tomorrow, or not if you want my resignation. Text me what you decide, but that is not going to happen again.”

  He looked at her in surprise. Ford was shaking his head as if coming out of a dream. Olivia was kissing him. She paused, lifted her head, and kissed him again.

  Yemeen looked at them, and then, Argus joined in. “What is going on?”

  “From what I recall, it is a fondue party. I linger on the palate. Night.” She left the pride house and got into her car. She hadn’t expected Ford to do that, but he was more impulsive than the rest of them.

  She sighed and drove home, pausing for a chicken sandwich before she finished her journey. Working for Yemeen was physically demanding, and she had lost a few pounds, but emotionally, it was easier. She didn’t have to worry about him ogling her or trying to touch her. She hadn’t counted on the omegas. They were frisky buggers.

  She sat back, ate her chicken sandwich, and checked Yemeen’s schedule for the rest of the week. A day in his studio meant she just had to run back and forth to get fabric and notions if she still had a job after shoving one of his omegas.

  She got a text after she had climbed into bed. See you tomorrow, and can you help brainstorm a Halloween costume for a seven-year-old?