You're all I need

  Chapter 1     Hailey's Point of View   "Are you going to be able to make it home next weekend for the engagement party?" Mom asks, and I manage to hide my complete and utter disdain for the topic.   "I really wish I could. If I had more notice, I might have been able to take it off, but work is crazy!" I lie, but I say it with so much fake disappointment I know she'll buy it.    "On the weekend? Hailey, you're always working. You're never going to find a man like that," she sighs. No matter how much she wants me to settle down, I can't change where I am in life. I would love to be married and have babies, but it hasn't happened yet. I thought it did a few years ago, and that is the exact reason I do not want to fly home for the weekend for my brother's engagement party. I love my brother, Kyle, and I even love his fiancé Lindsay, but I do NOT love Lindsay's brother. Lindsay and Kyle met because I was once engaged to Lindsay's brother, Luke.   Luke turned out to be a cheating asshole, and Lindsay turned out to be the apple of my brother's eye and nothing like her brother. Luke and I broke up three years ago and were together for four years. While I love my brother and Lindsay, I really do. I can't deal with Luke right now. Luke and Lindsay's parents died last year, and my Mom seemed to take them both under her wing. No doubt, she remembers how hard it was for us when we lost my dad to a heart attack four years ago. Not going to lie, though; it kinda stings that she accepts Luke after everything he's put me through. It was a lot, and it feels like a betrayal. Not to mention, he is now married to the woman he cheated on me with. Even though I am SO over him, it's messy and stressful. Plus, this isn't some big fancy party. It's just dinner at my Mom's with twenty or so people.    "Mom, I'm happy. I love what I do. Now is the time for me to work and save while I don't have a family. Plus, they got engaged three days ago. I can't be expected to fly all the way home with less than two weeks' notice," I reason.   "I understand it's short notice, but how are you going to find a man if you don't get out of the office?" she presses.   "I assure you: I meet plenty of men."   "Well, I hope so. You're 28 years old, hun. You aren't getting any younger," she says gently.   "And on that note, I gotta go. I'm walking into the elevator now," I rebut.   "Okay, love you. If you're not coming, you're going to have to call and tell Kyle yourself. Don't expect me to do your dirty work," she adds.   "I will. Love you too. Bye, Mom!" I hang up, slip my phone into my bag, and step into the elevator.    I'm ten minutes early, and I had enough time to grab an iced coffee from the deli across the street, so I'm feeling good as I walk into the office. I work for a real estate investor in Denver. I've been working here for about eight months now, and I love it. I've been promoted to head of the design team. I mean, I was the first person they hired for the design team, but I was promoted after just a few months. I only have two people working under me, but it's a win, and I'm taking it. My boss is buying up more and more real estate, and there are always renovations and staging that need to be done, and that's where my little team comes in.    "Hailey! I might miss this morning's meeting," my boss, Grant Montgomery, says as I exit the elevator.    "Okay. Want me to pop by your office and give you a quick rundown on it after?" I ask.    "Yes. After lunch?"    "I have two meetings with vendors out of the office this afternoon. I might be able to cut out our middle man for our brick and stone," I smile. "Hopefully, save us ten percent," I add.   "Nice! Let me know how it goes. Good work," he nods, seeming impressed.    I dated a guy a while back, and he recently took over the family brick business. We ended on great terms, so there is no reason he wouldn't want to cut out the middle man for us. We purchase enough product to make it worth his while.   "I have a little time at 10:30 am if that works?" he asks, and I nod.   "Mr. Montgomery, can I get you something?" One of the temps asks as she rushes eagerly over to him. He's leaning against the front desk, talking to Emily, our secretary. If he needed something, he could ask her. She's looking for attention. The temp has one too many buttons undone on her blouse, which pisses me off. The man clearly has a wedding ring on his finger.    Grant is in his mid-30s and built like a Greek God. He's tall, dark, muscular, handsome, and successful. He has built this whole company from the ground up with just him and his brother, whom I have yet to meet. Some might think a guy like this would be whoring it up and refusing to settle down, but the man is completely and utterly devoted to his wife and children.    I met his wife, Ellianna, at the Christmas party when I'd only been working here for about two weeks--8 months ago--and we became fast friends. We bonded over our love of dancing, and she stated she appreciated that I never hit on her husband. Apparently, that's unheard of for her, which I found really sad. Sure, I noticed he was good-looking, but I also saw the ring on his finger. I could never! Needless to say, I want to claw this temp for Ellianna. Ell is the sweetest person ever, and I feel protective of her. Grant says no, and pays her no attention.    I head to my office to get ready for my meeting with some of the guys to present a few price-point options on a building that Grant acquired recently. Sometimes if Grant's not 100 percent sure of the direction he wants to go, he asks me to put together a few different price-point options, and it helps him visualize it better. Now that he's not going to be at the meeting, it'll just be a few of the guys in the construction and financial department.   I have my own office, and Britney and Cara share one beside mine. Cara is fantastic and hard-working. Britney though? She's late all the time, she never completes the smallest of tasks, and Cara and I are constantly picking up her slack. I need to babysit her, and it's driving me nuts. She's been here for three months, and she's getting more comfortable and lazier. She likes staging and enjoys shopping for furniture, but otherwise, she's useless. There is so much more to the job than just that, so she's often underperforming.    It's now 9:03 am, and she's not here. She was responsible for making two financial charts for the meeting. I don't know if she completed them, and she isn't returning my text. I can't risk looking like a complete i***t, so I ask Cara to get started on one while I do the other.    At 9:40 am, I press print, and even though they don't look as polished as I'd like, Cara and I managed to get the information readily available.    "I'm going to head to the washroom, be there in two minutes," Cara states.   "Of course. Thank you for helping me get Brit's work done," I sigh.   I stand at my printer, waiting for the few pages to finish printing, and Britney comes sauntering into my office with a goofy smile on her face.    "You're late," I point out, feeling annoyed. I grab the papers and start to walk towards the conference room. Our meeting is in a few minutes.    "Don't forget your financial documents," I test.    I hear her heels clink after me as she tries to catch up.    "I forgot to finish it," she whispers. Yeah, no kidding.    "Are you coming?" I hear Grant say, and I look to see him looking at a man.   He mumbles something, and oh.my.gosh. I feel my breath hitch, and it's like the world stopped turning momentarily. Oh.My.Fuck. YES! Grant's talking to a gorgeous specimen of a man! He's tall, dark hair, piercing gray eyes and broad muscular shoulders that my fingers ache to touch. Mm! He is so sexy. I want! Vivid images of his hands trailing my body, his lips on mine, and then kissing all over my body fill my head. My body is heating up, and my lungs struggle a little for air. Oh s**t! What am I doing? I just stopped walking to stare and fantasize about him? Suddenly, I'm filled with embarrassment. Are my cheeks red? Am I blushing? Does he know? Oh f**k; not only is he gorgeous, but he has that aura of power that makes him all the more alluring.    "I'm sorry," Britney whispers and bumps into me.   "Uh-huh," I mumble. I have no words. I'm jello. I force myself to act like a normal, non-stalker human being and open the door to the conference room. Act normal, I tell myself. Don't turn around and look for him. That would be weird, and I've embarrassed myself enough.    I say hello to everyone and fight the urge to turn around. The hairs on my neck are standing. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I feel him watching me? Or maybe I just hope he is? It takes everything inside me to not turn around and look for him. I've never felt such an immediate and powerful attraction to someone before.    Blake's Point of View   I look down at my phone and see my brother Grant is texting, asking if I'm coming in today. We own our company together, and our home base is in Colorado, but I've been doing business in New York for the last 8 months. I don't usually do business away from home, but there was an opportunity too good to pass up. An associate in the industry was dealing with some health issues and wanted to quickly get out of the real estate game. He had a piece of prime real estate in New York he'd been sitting on for a while. He gave us a price too good to be true, and we snatched it up. The only condition was that we take on the property management of his rental unit in Colorado for the next few years until he sells. We'd still make a commission on that deal, too, so it was a no-brainer.   I went to New York to oversee the purchase and renovation of the building we turned into eight high-end luxury condos. I planned on staying another few weeks to supervise the staging and listing, but I had to come back early because things on the 'pack' front are not great.   Eleven years ago, Grant and I started our business, 'Montgomery Assets management.' I was 23, and Grant was 24, and we've been busting our asses ever since. We didn't have a ton of capital at first, so it took a lot of time and patience, and we were very selective with our investments. I have an eye for real estate, and Grant is great on the business and financial side of it. We sit on property sometimes and rent it, and sometimes we flip and sell. Now that we're getting bigger, we're hiring people to help us do the things we used to do all on our own.   Sixteen years ago, when I turned 18, I officially became a rogue. Grant had left our pack when he turned 18 as well. Our mother died of pregnancy complications when I was eight. Both her and my baby sister died. My mother, Eliza Montgomery, was a saint of a woman, and she lived her entire adult life dealing with my asshole father. He treated her like s**t, and she stayed for us. She loved us more than anything. Without her there, at the first chance we got, we left.    Our father, Angus Delmor, was the Alpha of the pack we grew up in. He was a total d**k, and our oldest brother, Knox, is the spitting image of him. He might actually be worse. I have four brothers, and I am right in the middle. Knox, 37. Grant, 35. Me, 34. Beck, 31, and Holt, 30. With five alpha-blooded males, you'd think there would have been fighting over who got to take the title of Alpha of "Fire Moon Pack," but Grant and I sure as hell didn't want it. That left Knox, Beck and Holt. When Knox took the title, Beck and Holt were 13 and 14, so there wasn't much competition. He's made them both his Beta and Gamma, and that's all I really know. I haven't spoken to Beck and Holt in about a decade.    After my mother passed away, Grant and I were biding our time. As teenagers, we talked about our desire to change our last name, start our own pack, and never step foot on Fire Moon Pack ever again. And we both held true to that. Knox hated us for it, and he forced Beck and Holt to abandon us when they turned 18 and accepted their title as Beta and Gamma.    We've made a lot of money in the last ten years, and we haven't been foolish with it. We moved about an hour away from our old pack to Denver. We purchased a 420-acre parcel of land a few years ago, about a half-hour from Denver and an hour and a half from my brother's pack.   We have cleared large sections and had roads built. We have had to bring hydro, water, and sewage into the property because it was vacant land. With permits and everything, the process has been grueling and expensive, but we had a goal, and we've been working towards it.    Our kind thrives best in a pack setting. Even though Grant and I are both Alpha-blooded, Grant's more suited to Alpha title than me. I'm more Sigma; I'm more introverted than Grant, but I am taking on the role of Beta for our pack.    We had about 15 people that followed us all those years ago. People we grew up with that weren't happy with the way Fire Moon was being led. They left with us and never looked back. At first, we all had our own jobs and tried to rent something close to each other. As our business grew, we could eventually employ everyone. Now, we all live in the same apartment complex.    Construction on the packhouse has started, and the money I make from this deal in New York will go towards building it. Grant began to register our pack with the werewolf council, which seems to be gaining us some negative attention. There are a lot of requirements to be recognized as an official pack by the council, making it nearly unheard of nowadays. An official pack needs at least 300 acres, a packhouse, and an Alpha that took the council's 'Alpha Training' program. We both attended the program when we were 17 and then went straight to university afterwards.    I don't know how it happened, but word got out that we're very close to making it official. We have had people reaching out from Fire Moon and all over, considering joining us. We're not taking anyone in until our packhouse is finished because we can't house and take care of more members at the moment. We recently had a warrior from Fire Moon join us, but his brother Larry is a member, and he moved in with Larry.   Because of this, Knox is pissed. He threatened Grant, his mate, and me if we didn’t revoke our application. Grant found his mate two years ago, and they share one-year-old twins together. I'm not sure if Knox knows that and if he is serious or not, but we need to take all threats seriously. Grant was fuming yesterday when he called me, and I assured him I was on the next flight home. I don't have a mate, but I see how Ellianna and Grant love each other, and I'll be here to help keep his mate and children safe.    From what I hear, Knox has about 350 members, about 50 less than when we lived there. That threat is serious. Our pack has 25 people. Even if Grant and I could take Knox on by ourselves, he outnumbers us.    I've flown back and forth in the last eight months to see Willow and Finn, my nephew and niece, and to check out some property, but I haven't been in the office since. As soon as I step into the elevator, I smell the faintest smell of lemon cake. My Mom made the best lemon cake with this delicious vanilla glaze, and it was my favorite as a kid. It smells like that. I revel in the delicious scent for just a moment before a woman walks in just as the door is about to close.    I see her eyes scan up and down my body, and her lips start to curl up.    "Hi!" she chirps.   I give her a polite nod. The vanilla-lemony scent is now overpowered by her strong perfume that smells like she bathed in cotton candy. To the human nose, she probably smells fine, but for my heightened senses, it's too sweet and overpowering.    Our office takes up the entire top floor. I push the '12' button.    "What floor?" I ask since I'm closest to the buttons, and it's only polite. Plus, I don't want her leaning in and getting any closer.   "I'm on the 12th floor too," she smiles even wider. Great. Did we hire her? Or are we doing business with her? She's looking at me like she wants to devour me. Sure, she's a beautiful woman, but she's not my type. Plus, I've taken a break from women. Not that I'm giving men a try or anything, but once I saw what Grant and Ellianna had, the way they seem to rotate around each other, that gravitational pull... knowing I have a mate somewhere that would love me like that: suddenly, being with anyone else felt wrong. We didn't grow up seeing parents in love. My father viewed my mother as a checkbook and a baby maker. That's it. My Mom came from a wealthy family, and it was no secret that my father was struggling financially before he mated with my mother.    "So, I've never seen you around here before," she states, and when I turn to look at her, her tongue wets her lips, she bites her lower lip, and she runs her hand through her long blond hair.    "Yeah, it's been a while," I nod. Please, stop talking to me; I groan internally. I hate small talk.   Ding.   The elevator opens, and she exits the elevator first. I see her swaying her hips, and maybe I'm supposed to be impressed, but like I said - she's not my type. She's far too lean for my taste. I like a little meat on the hips, ass, and thighs. She turns back to me, "See you around, I hope. I'm Britney, by the way," she says flirtatiously, but I don't respond. I step out, and that vanilla-lemony scent hits me again. This time stronger than in the elevator. Mmm. Did someone bake a cake here or something? I need to check the kitchen out before I leave.   I'm greeted by Emily at the front desk. Emily is a member of our pack, and before Grant and Ell found each other, I was dating her. She's pretty, with red hair and big blue eyes. We went on a few dates, and then Ell and Grant found each other, and I knew immediately I wanted what they had. I told Emily I wanted to wait for my mate. She was disappointed, but luckily we didn't take it too far. We only ever kissed, so it wasn't awkward for her to remain a member and a friend.    One downfall to not having an official pack is not being invited to pack-related festivals, ceremonies, and balls. We are considered rogues, and until we're official, we have been excluded from these large gatherings, making it harder for us to find our mates. Grant found Ellianna by chance. I'm hoping once we're set up and everything is official, maybe I'll find my mate at one of the council's festivals or balls for unmated wolves. Even though it feels like I'll never actually find my mate, the thought of being with someone else while she's out there feels like cheating.   Maybe I'll abandon that thought process if I don't find her in the next few years. Right now, it feels so wrong. Emily skirts around her desk and wraps her arms around my neck, "I missed you so much," she whispers. What? She's holding me tight like she really did miss me.   I tap her back gently to not be rude. After about five seconds, I try to step away from her, hinting for her to let go, but she only loosens her hold to look up at me.   "Maybe we can talk this weekend sometime?" she smiles.   I nod, "Maybe. I'm pretty busy," I say honestly.   "Of course. Silly me. You must have a million things to do, being away so long. When you have some free time, let me know," she smiles hopefully.   "Blake! You're here! Thank God!" Grant huffs. He slaps my back and motions me to follow him to his office.   -You saved me.- I mind-link him.    -I know. I should have warned you. She mentioned to Ellianna that she wanted to try and rekindle whatever you both had. She thinks after two years and you traipsing off to New York, you may be open to a chosen mate again.- He mind-links back.    -Nope.-   "What's up with the lemon cake?" I ask, and he furrows his brows in response.   "What?"   "That smell. It smells like vanilla and lemon. Like the lemon cake mom used to make," I add.   "I don't know what you're talking about," he shrugs.   And just like that, I see the side profile of a woman crossing the hallway from an office, making her way to the conference room. Britney, from the elevator, is trailing behind her.    What the f**k? I noticed the shape of her body immediately. She's wearing baggy, high-waisted cream-coloured pants, and her tight white t-shirt is tucked in. It shows the shape of her tiny waist, and even though I can't see the whole shape of her ass, I can tell she's got a nice one. I scan up her body and take it all in with awe and appreciation. She has a smaller chest, but I'm not a boob guy. Her hair is wavy and about shoulder length. At first look, her hair is dark brown, but there is also a very dark purple hue peeking through some of the ends.    "I forgot to finish it," Britney winces as she rushes behind her. Suddenly the smell of vanilla-lemon cake hits me hard.    "Mate," I hear in my head. I'm stopped in my tracks. It's like my nerve endings are firing on all cylinders. My whole body is buzzing, and it feels like my skin is all prickly. My heart is pounding, and everything has sped up, or maybe it's slowed down. I don't know. I'm hazy.    "Are you coming?" I hear Grant, but I can't take my eyes off of her.   "Mate!" I say out loud, and she turns to look at me. Her big green eyes widen a little, and f**k. She's gorgeous. I notice her pupils dilating, quickly making her eyes look black. I heard her breath hitch, and she stopped mid-step.   "I'm sorry," Britney says quietly to her and bumps into her as she stands staring at me.   "Uh-huh," she mumbles to Britney, still distracted by my presence.    It's like she's suddenly snapped out of it, though. She turns her head to look forward, and she opens the door to the conference room without saying a word to me or looking back. What the f**k?   I'm reeling, and suddenly it hits me. I didn't smell her wolf. She's a human.   I feel my shoulder being shaken, and I see Grant at my side again. "Did you just say, 'mate’?" he asks wide-eyed.    "Who is she?" I ask, taking a few more steps so I can look at her through the glass of the conference room.    "Who? Which one? Britney? Hailey?"    "Not Britney," I scoff.    "Purple hair," I clarify. My chest feels like it's going to explode. I want her. I need her. Does she not want me? Does she not feel it? What's going on? A human? Can I be mated to a human? All of me physically aches at the thought of her not being mine.    "Purple?" he raises a brow. "Oh, she does have some really dark purple in there, doesn't she? That's Hailey. I've talked to you about her. She's the head of our design team. She's your mate? A human? Well, this is f*****g perfect," he chuckles, and I don't know if he's being sarcastic or not. I see her talking to some guy in the conference room. She smiles and nods, and a growl rumbles from my chest.   "Calm down, that's Hero, and he's married to another man. He's not your competition. Come on, let's go to my office and talk. She's a human; you can't just barge in there and pull her into your arms. You'll have to take it slow with her. Plus, we need to talk about how to keep her and Ellianna and everyone safe from Knox," he says. I feel the anger rise inside of me, and I'm filled with dread. She's human. f**k! The weakest wolf could kill her in a split second. What am I going to do? I need to think this through before I act.    I reluctantly follow behind Grant and steal one more look at her before she's out of sight.