The Heir of Crescent Moon

Chapter 2 - The Soon to be CEO

Cory POV

'James, are you coming or not?' I mind linked my soon-to-be Gamma and best friend. 'I am not afraid to leave you here. I am not starting my first meeting in charge late because you got stuck under your bedsheets.'

’I’m going. I’m going. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Alpha,’ He chided. ‘I’m almost there.’

Two minutes later, he came running out the front door of the pack house, still trying to make a tie knot.

“Why did I ever think you would make a good Gamma when you still don’t know how to tie a knot?” I mocked when he was getting frustrated with his tie on the drive over to the pack’s security business offices.

“Because I’m awesome, and you love me. Besides, I am supposed to be in charge of the warriors. Warriors don’t need ties.” He huffed. Five minutes before arriving at the headquarters in town, I pulled over and took his tie from him, formed it in a proper tie knot, and gave it back to him.

“Thank you.” He said quietly. I nodded.

“When is Joe back again?” He asked. Josue was our best friend and my future Beta. He usually took care of accompanying me to all the big meetings. I know James hates the paperwork and formal meetings that we have been doing as we got ready to take over the leadership of Crescent Moon. But Josue had gone to Mexico to visit family and introduce his new mate.

Salonen Security Industries was a human and supernatural private security business. It is one of the top most requested services across the country for security software and event muscle. It was founded over forty years ago by my grandfather and, at the time, Alpha of Crescent Moon Alexander Salonen, as a security rental service for packs holding special events.

Later, my father, Alpha Markus Salonen, expanded and grew the company to what it is today by bringing a tech genius on board and creating some of the top leading security software in the country. Now, as I prepared to take over for him when he passes the title in a few short weeks, it was my turn to make my mark and grow the business, and I knew just how to do it.

Joe, James and I were taking over leadership of the pack and the company in three weeks, and we had been working nonstop on the changes we wanted to make. It wasn’t that Dad was doing anything wrong. I just had some thoughts that I think would be better for where I saw the company going.

“He’s back in three days, and even if he was here, you need to be at some of these meetings too.” I reminded him.

“Yeah, but why can’t I be at the ones in the new complex? That way, I can just wear jeans.” He grumbled.

I rolled my eyes at him. You’d think the suit had thorns on the inside the way he was squirming.

“You’re about to become an important man. Get used to it.” I finally said.

“Fine.” He said when we arrived at the three-story building. It was pretty boring looking on the outside. Inside however, the highest level of security and technology dealt with every facet of its functionality. We walked in and joined Dad. He had arrived early, wanting to gather everyone to let them know when the change in ownership would take place and his involvement as an advisor for the first couple of years.

It's not like every shifter living near by didn't already know that I would be in charge once the title of Alpha changed to me, but about thirty percent of the company were humans and even a few vampires in the last decade. For them and the general public, we had to do this right. Becoming one of the best private security companies in the world made us less private than I would like. I had already seen articles regarding the change in ownership in Cisco magazine and Silicon Valley. We've been getting an influx of resumes left and right. A house cleaning was usually expected in changes of guard.

I am planning on making changes. However, I am not firing anyone. I'm expanding our reach. That's why I'm here today. To officially introduce myself to the team, and I was here to talk to Mr. Roswell. He has been Dad's head of technology for the last thirty years. He was practically family, having grown up with him and his family around the pack house, and he was technically cousins with James' dad.

I always feel a little dumb when I talk to him. The man is a technology genius and a genius in general. He used to babysit us from time to time. He might have literally wiped my ass, and now I had to get the courage to talk to him like his boss.

We walked in on time as Dad was beginning to gather everyone. There were, of course, many people sad to see him leaving. He has been an amazing boss and Alpha. I had big shoes to fill. I had waited too long already though, wanting to finish my masters and slowly grabbing the reigns. Dad has been more than amazing at letting me do this at my pace, knowing that I was also taking every free moment I had to look for my mate.

Tenoch whimpered at my thoughts of our mate. She was playing hard to find, or something had happened to her. We were sure of it. We were twenty-six now, and we'd been looking across the country, Mexico, and abroad. It was like she'd yet to be born. We felt nothing for she-wolves. No desire to bed them, kiss them, or date them. We only wanted her, and she wouldn't show herself. I was running out of places to look, and the prospect of taking a chosen mate, after seeing the love my parents share was depressing.

The applause and words of welcome brought me out of my thoughts, and I gave a small speech, letting them know that I while I was making some changes in the next months, everyone's job was still secure. The only person that wouldn't be working alongside me was my father's secretary, who was retiring along with him, thanks to Dad's generous pension program that he provided for her. She deserved it. She was a human female, taking care of her grandkids after her daughter died of an overdose. Dad hired her when she was already near retirement age almost eight years ago, and he'd discussed with Mom about giving her this so that she wouldn't work until she passed away. The woman was kind and smart and deserved some rest.

“So, what's the plan for your first big day in the office?” Dad asked.

“Mr. Roswell. I want him to get started on hiring all the staff we'll need. The new building is almost finished.”

“It is a great idea. To have a building and staff specifically for magical security and technology needs. We never tapped that market enough. I stuck to the easier market. Humans are not as complicated as they like to think.” He smirked.

“If you hadn't done all the work you did, we wouldn't be in a position to expand. I'm just following the next step into the natural growth you've set for us.” I was really proud of everything my Dad had accomplished. I looked up to his and Mom's work ethic. I only hoped I could be half as good an Alpha as he was. Right now, he and Mom were planning a proper honeymoon. They were taking off for a couple of months now that Areli was in studying in University. Everyone was already taking bets on how long Mom would actually last away from her kids.

“Well, I'll leave you to it. Your mom and I are finalizing those plans for our time away before things get crazy and we have to come back.” He said, smiling but I could also see the worry in the back of his mind showing on his face.

There was a knock on the door, and Mr. Roswell walked in the door with James, who had a plate of cake in his hands. I glared at him.

'What? It's good cake.' He argued and sat beside me at the small conference table.

“You say you won't have layoffs, and yet you bring me in right after you take over speech. Should I be worried?” Mr. Roswell asked with an amused look on his face.

“No. Actually, I would like to promote you, Mr. Roswell.” I said, his eyes widened, and then he looked confused.

“I'm already the head of my division.” He answered.

“Yes, and we're expanding it. The building being constructed near the pack's property will be retrofitted to fit the needs. This division will stay the same, however, the one near the pack will be exclusively for shifter and supernatural tech.” His eyebrows went up at that.

“And you want me to head up that division instead?”

“No. I would like you to manage the head of both divisions.” I explained. “While having the liberty of pursuing any projects of your choosing. This also means you can keep an office in the new building and the one you have here.”

“That's... a really tempting offer.” He said. My heart sank. I know he might want to retire when Dad left, but I was hoping to entice him into staying.

“Who's going to be the head of the new building?” He asked.

“We're going to be looking internally and externally for the best candidate. Will you accept the position?” I asked.

“I will think about it. Do you have the plans for the building I can look at? How many people are you hiring?”

“It's bones right now. I was hoping to bring you on board. You can have total design freedom, within budget, of course. I want it retrofitted with our best technology. It needs to be tighter than Fort Knox, which I believe you have been able to hack before.” I buttered him up. One side of his mouth went up in a half-smirk. I know he likes to time himself on how fast he can hack a place.

“Email me everything, and I'll take a look. I have some ideas that might be handy.” He said.

“So you accept?” I asked, doing my best to keep the nerves from my voice. He chuckled.

“You're basically giving me a multi-billion playground of my own design and allowing me to choose who gets to play in it. I wouldn't be able to call myself a genius if I turned it down.” He answered.

'YESSSSS' James practically yelled in my head, making me flinch, and Tenoch shook his head at the noise.

“That's great to hear. I'll have everything in your inbox right away. As for the selection process, we had some ideas.” I said, motioning to James, who choked on his cake and spilled crumbs all over my lap.

“Sorry. That's my queue.” He grinned. “So we want to be able to allow you to hire who you like, but we also want to hire the best there is. For this, we will allow you to take anyone from this division that you choose and any shortlist you may have. The rest, we want to do a blind selection.” He explained. James may be clumsy and occasionally immature, but this was his idea, and we thought it was brilliant.

“We want you to build a submission application that will provide us with people's resumes without names, gender or species.” He said.

“That can be risky. What about security? We need to be able to do backgrounds on who we're hiring. I'd be uncomfortable bringing people that close to the pack and giving them access to some of our technology.”

“We agree, but this is just for the initial selection. We want this to be an unbiased selection for the most part. Once we pick the best resumes for our new project, we can complete our due diligence. For one, you're right. We don't want strangers so close to home. Anyone hired will have to join the pack, and despite the rigorous background check we will do, Alpha Helios and Gamma Theodore have agreed to let us use his gift to make sure they aren't coming into the company and pack with ill-intent.”

“Interesting, so I would be in the dark as to who's applying until we're gone through the first round of purging?” He asked

“Correct.”

“Are we allowing humans into this new division?”

“Eh, no,” I answered. “This will strictly be a division for technology to defend against supernatural threats. It will be staffed with only non-humans. Which type, doesn't matter, however.”

“Very well. I will come up with something that allows us to ask this without alerting the humans, and that will still keep us in the dark. It will work out well since I do have a few in this building I'd like to bring with me, so their position will still need to be refilled, and we can grab some humans that show promise from the selection.”

“Right on!” James said. I couldn't help the smile. This went better than expected.

“Was there anything else that you need from me, Alpha? I have a few thoughts on how to do it, and I think I can have it done by tomorrow.”

“No need to rush. The job post won't be going up for another week. But, if you do have that shortlist, please bring it by at any time.” I said, standing up and shaking his hand.

“Sounds great, and please call me Evergreen.” He said before he left.

“That's going to be weird,” James said.

“Yeah. Though I guess that's something we're going to have to get used to as we deal with the ones not retiring with Dad.”

“I can't wait for the ceremony. Everyone is coming. Maybe we can find our mate. I think Mom said that every pack member and about six other packs are showing up.” James said, rubbing his hands together.

“It's mandatory for every pack member to be here at the swearing-in of the new Alpha.” I reminded him. “And we've already searched all the nearby packs.”

“Yeah, but that was years ago. Maybe our mates came of age since.” He said.

Fair point - Tenoch said.

I don't even know if I should get my hopes up. - I said.

“Let's go grab lunch,” I told him, changing the subject.

“Hey, maybe we get to see Evie again. I haven't seen her in years. I feel like she abandoned us.” James said as he walked into the elevator. I said nothing, but Evie was always a confusing subject for me.

She was Mr. Roswell's daughter and a distant cousin of James. The genius had definitely passed from father to daughter. We all grew up together. We had all been so close when we were little. We did everything together, but something I never understood changed sometime in our sophomore year. She skipped two grades ahead and graduated early. Then she left to study at MIT. We all knew she was a genius since we were little, but it never affected us. Then when she became a senior, she just stopped hanging out with us. That whole year, she ignored us. Her excuse was that she needed to study, but I knew high school classwork was child's play for her.

No matter what Bells, who was the only one who still talked to her occasionally, told me, something had changed. Something pulled her away from us, and I could never figure out why it bothered me so much. It was like she left a gap in our circle of friends that no one had been able to fill. We still talked about her and remembered the s**t we pulled on our parents, and it often left me wondering if she ever thought about us too.