An Alpha for Christmas

Chapter 7: Come All Ye Unfaithful

Chapter 7: Come All Ye Unfaithful

Nick

I had made a complete f*****g mess of things in record time. How had this escalated so quickly? I was so mad at Gloria but at least she was being a decent employee. It wasn’t her responsibility to make Dolly feel comfortable, it was mine. No one knew about us anyway if there even was an us. 

You blew it, man, said my wolf. You suck with the ladies.

Screw you, I said to my wolf.

Screw you! Said my wolf.

That got me thinking. Maybe, she really had been telling her wolf to shut up.

She was probably telling the truth just like you were, said my wolf.

I sighed. I reached my private office and slumped down in my chair. I put my head in my hands and groaned. A knock at the door made me look up. 

Gloria was standing in the doorway knocking on the open door.

“Hey,” I said, managing a grin.

“Hey,” she said, sliding right into my office and slamming the door shut.

“Um. You can leave the door open, Gloria,” I instructed.

“Oh, I’ll get it on the way out,” she said, promptly hopping on my desk.

“Gloria,” I said sternly. “I didn’t appreciate you kissing me out of nowhere like that.”

“Out of nowhere?!” Said Gloria incredulously. “You were giving me the eyes!”

Unless an eye-roll counted as giving her the eyes, I had not been giving her the eyes.

“You know that’s not true,” I said.

I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I needed to be on good terms with my employees. I was supposed to take over this company in addition to the pack. I was determined to run them both successfully.

“Look, you’re a great girl,” I said although she’d been a terrible selfish girlfriend. “You will find your mate and he’ll be awesome!” I assured her.

She crossed her legs and leant back a little, still sitting on my desk.

“Good talk,” I said, hoping she would leave.

“Okay, thanks,” I said.

Gloria giggled.

“I haven’t even gotten to say what I came in here to tell you,” she said.

“I’m all ears,” I said with a sigh.

“Thank you for being so open to my ideas about the Christmas Day-te Auction!” She said.

Stupid name. It should be called the Holidate Auction, suggested my wolf.

That furry guy had some good ideas every now and then.

“About that…how about the Holidate Auction. Is it too late for a name change?” I said, leaning back and putting my hands behind my head.

Gloria’s eyes widened.

“That’s amazing!” She shrieked, clapping her hands. “I can easily make the design department print a new banner and I’ll let the main emcee and special guest emcee know to change their notes.” 

I grinned. She wrote it down.

“Who’s the main emcee by the way,” I asked.

“Me,” she said, doing a shimmy.

“Awesome,” I said.

“And the guest emcee?” I asked.

“You,” she said.

I frowned.

“Or Nate since you are also the main attraction among the daters for auction,” she added. “I actually just fired Nate for you as guest emcee. He’s in his feels about it.” 

“Please rehire Nate as guest emcee pronto. I’ll need to be a more free to monitor both the Auction and the Carnival and of course I’ll be your main attraction. That’s fine,” I said, compromising.

“Thank you for agreeing to be our star attraction for the Holidate Auction!” She said.

I nodded. I hoped Dolly didn’t hate me for that one. I was already on thin ice with her but I was pretty optimistic about our future.

You are? Said my wolf.

Yes, I snapped back.

Christmastime was the perfect season for impressing a girl and making her feel loved. There would be many opportunities to win her over.

If you say so, muttered my wolf.

“You’re welcome,” I said quickly. “Well, I better get back to my objectives for the day!” I lied.

I had no objectives for the day. Helping with the joint project was the only responsibility Dad had given me here so far but I didn’t feel like talking about the auction with Gloria anymore and I knew Dolly needed some time to cool off.

“Right, I just wanted to know if you liked the decor in here?” Asked Gloria.

I looked around my new office. It was nice and spacious with a hardwood floor, a large L-shaped sturdy wooden desk. The walls were beige. Nothing too out there. There was garland lining the windows, a wreath on the door and a small white Christmas tree with white lights and blue balls. 

Blue balls, how fitting, commented my wolf.

I sighed inwardly,

Get it? Cause you won’t be getting anything else! Said my wolf, cracking yet another corny joke.

I groaned inwardly.

You get the jokes right? Blue balls cause you blew it with our mate. That also explains the not getting any joke, explained my wolf.

Of course I get your humour. You’re my alter ego, I grumbled.

Well you didn’t seem moved! You seemed devoid of any emotion, said my wolf.

I’m annoyed. Annoyance is an emotion, I countered.

Annoyance is more of a mental state. It can precede certain emotions like anger, retorted my wolf.

Is it possible to get divorced from you? I said to my wolf.

Without me, you wouldn’t be an Alpha! You’d just be a douche! Said my wolf.

I growled inwardly.

“Nick, are you listening to me?” Asked Gloria.

“Oh, sorry,” I said.

“I was saying I did the decorating in here. Your father asked me to as I’m his most organised employee, you know. I get the job done. He didn’t want to give the task to anyone else. You know how many of the others are. They get overwhelmed by the slightest thing,” said Gloria, shaking her head.

“I like the decorations. You did a great job. Thank you,” I said politely.

Gloria grinned.

“Thanks. Your father also shared something else with me. He said there’s a promotion available for whoever raises the most money this Christmas so that would be me or Dolly as we’re both in charge this year,” said Gloria, pursing her lips as if she found sharing the project distasteful.

“I didn’t know that,” I said, kinda angry with my father for not telling me that he’d be using this as a test to see who deserved the promotion.

“Does Dolly know about the promotion on the line?” I asked.

“No, Nicholas thinks she tends to crumble under pressure so not telling her would work in her favour but I think she has a right to know, don’t you?” Asked Gloria.

I wasn’t so sure if I should tell her. She definitely had a right to know but I hadn’t known her for very long. Dad might be right about that. Putting more pressure on Dolly by hanging a promotion over her head might make her more stressed out.

You should tell her anyway. Full disclosure between mates, said my wolf.

“Let’s hold off on telling her,” I said.

If she was to be told, I wanted to be the one to tell her.

“Hmmm,” said Gloria. 

“Please?” I said, stressing the word.

“Oh, Nicky,” said Gloria, grasping my chin and smushing my cheeks together. “Anything for you!” She said in a baby voice.

Good grief.

Dolly

It was hard to confirm the companies for tomorrow and spread Christmas cheer with this charity work when I just felt like moping about. I was so grateful for Cesca. She was amazing and she was flying through these companies. Even if one wanted to pull out last minute, she would talk them into it. If she couldn’t manage to convince them, she still remained undaunted. 

“My Sanderson, I know it’s a lot to ask but Full Moon Motors would really get a lot of promotion out of participating in the Christmas fundraiser. If anyone is thinking of buying a car, Full Moon Motors will come to mind because they would have seen your logo and your charity work recently. It’s all subconscious,” I said, spewing whatever bullshit I needed to in order to stop this sponsor from pulling out.

Although, to be fair, part of me did believe what I was saying. If I saw a good ad for something, I tended to remember that place the next time I went shopping. I also preferred supporting charitable ethical companies.

“But an entire car?” Barked Mr Sanderson so loudly I jumped, startled.

I was trying to convince him into donating a car for a Christmas raffle for the event. We had numbered the tickets. We would put all the ticket numbers in a big box designed to look like a present. We would mix them up and pick the winner of the car. That was a huge incentive to attend: a brand new car! Every time I thought about it, I heard Bob Barker’s voice in my head. We had already mentioned the car in the ads for this and now Mr Sanderson didn’t want to donate it. 

“Mind if I try?” Whispered Cesca.

“Not at all,” I said. “Mr Sanderson, I’m going to put you onto one of my amazing associates so she can explain further.”

“Explain further?! I’m a busy man,” quarrelled Mr Sanderson as I handed the phone to Cesca.

“Mr Sanderson, we respect your time so we’ll be brief. Let’s face it. There are cars in every dealership that don’t sell well. They’re sitting there on the lot becoming older. Cars do not age like fine wine. Give one of those hard to sell cars the chance to raise the public opinion of your company by having the most buzzed about prize at the fundraiser. Your car will end up being the main attraction! It’s probably the main reason many even bothered buying a ticket and coming in the first place! You’ll be putting Full Moon Motors at the centre of this fundraiser and in the minds of all in attendance. If just one sale happens because of this, it’d be worth it and trust me, a lot more than one sale is gonna result from this great publicity,” said Cesca.

He was silent. We waited with bated breath. Had he hung up?

“We have one last Ford Flex that we can’t seem to move,” muttered Sanderson.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr Sanderson!” I squealed.

“Bless you, Mr Sanderson. Merry Christmas!” Said Cesca. 

“The Alpha will hear about my donation, right?” Said Mr Sanderson.

“Yes!” Said Cesca and me in unison.

We hung up.

“You’re amazing, Cesca!” I said in earnest.

“Oh stop it,” she said with a wave of her hand.

“You really are,” I insisted. “I wish I could persuade people as well as you do,” I said.

“You’re young! You’ll get there. You have loads of time to learn,” said Cesca, patting me on the shoulder. “Besides, you’ve had a rough day and you’re still getting stuff done.”

I nodded.

“That reminds me…if you don’t mind me being nosey…what did you and your not-so-secret Santa talk about in your private moment?” Asked Cesca doing a little shimmy.

“Nothing worthy of that shimmy,” I said sadly. 

Cesca smiled sadly.

“He was scolding me,” I mumbled.

“For saying ‘shut up’?” She wondered.

“Yeah!” I said.

“Was that really directed at him?” Asked Cesca.

“It wasn’t! I swear,” I said indignantly.

“I was thinking that,” said Cesca. “It seemed like you were talking to yourself.”

“To my wolf,” I admitted.

Cesca put her hand on my shoulder. Hearing Cesca say it didn’t seem like I was talking to Nick made me feel better. I wasn’t ready to reconcile to the point of walking down the aisle or anything but I was ready to be cordial again with a touch of warmth. We could at least be on good terms especially if we were going to work closely together this Christmas.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Cesca who was already on another call.

She nodded. 

I had heard Gloria bragging about being asked to decorate some new office. That had to be where Alpha Nicholas had stationed his son. I stood outside the door, feeling hesitant. I heard muffled laughter coming from the room. I put my ear to the door. That was Gloria’s voice! And Nick’s! 

That unfaithful asshole, snarled my wolf.

If I was a cartoon character, steam would have come out of my ears. I burst through the door, barging into the room, not exactly sure what my plan was.