Chapter 3- The Mistress

Chapter 3

Crystal’s POV

“I think we should take her to the pack courtyard and drown her,” Tina my assistant scowls as we eat our lunch. 

I have just shared the Amilee situation with her. She is making me laugh.

“It gets worse!” I chuckle.  “Jason called HR today and asked if Amilee could get an assistant job.  HR said her CV looked good.  I said she can be your assistant.”

Tina’s smile takes over her whole face. “Are you serious?”

“She starts tomorrow,” I bat my eyes.  “So she will be your runner and any grunt work you don’t want to do you won’t have to.”

“She is going to see Mr. Laine come into your office for your afternoon quickies,” Tina warns sipping her iced tea and eyeing me closely. 

“I know.  You may want to clear out for a while, I plan to dial up my moaning,” I smirk and Tina laughs. 

“Jason is going to regret getting her a job,” Tina smiles and we continue to plot Amilee’s downfall as we eat.

At 5pm, Jared appears in my door.  I smile and he looks at me with questions. 

“What did you do?” he asks trying not to laugh.

I fill him in on hiring Amilee. He sits on the couch we made love on a few hours ago.  Our afternoon sex is actually well known.  It’s on the book as CEO/CFO collaboration, but everyone knows between 2:30 and 3:30 we are unavailable. 

“I want to be shocked. I should be shocked.  I should tell you no, but she mocked you.  She taunted you,” Jared shrugs his shoulders in defeat.  “Don’t get us sued.”

I laugh and agree.

The next morning Jared and I are in the office early.  We are standing with his assistant Patrick when Tina escorts Amilee from HR to where Amilee will be working. 

“Ew,” Patrick whispers to us.  “That thing thinks anyone would look between Mrs. Laine and her and chose her?”

Amilee is not bad looking.  She is very thin.  Her breasts aren’t much to talk about, her teeth are big, her hair is overly styled and could use come serious TLC.  She is pale almost gaunt. 

“Her picture made her look better,” I hold up my phone to confirm it’s the same girl.  It is.

“What does Jason hold on to?” Jared asks looking actually disgusted.

I giggle and kiss his jaw.  “I love you.”

“I love these,” Jared takes a firm hold my hips. 

“I’m out,” Patrick turns away as Jared kisses my lips. 

“I need to go greet my new assistant,” I tell him.

“Keep her away from me,” Jared warns.  “She tries to touch me, my wolf might bite her hand off.”

“Won’t that be confusing for her,” I tease as I walk away. 

“I love you Mrs. Laine,” Jared yells loud enough that Amilee and Tina turn to face him. 

“I know,” I yell turning back and winking.

When I turn back Amilee is smirking at me. 

“Mrs. Laine this is Amilee Joiner.  She is the new hire for the CFO’s office,” Tina plays her part perfectly. 

“Very nice to meet you  in person, Mrs. Laine,” Amilee’s smile is faker than the plants in my apartment.  She holds out her hand with her knuckles up but her fingers down, like she expects me to kiss her hand or something. 

“Welcome to the team.  Tina will be your direct report,” I stick my hands in the pockets of my skirt.  “I have work to attend to.”

I spin on my heel and enter my office.  I shut the door, something I rarely do.

“We don’t use our personal phones at our desks,” I hear Tina begin to scold Amilee.  “You can make calls or send texts on your breaks.  You get three, one 15 at 10:30, one 60 minute break for lunch at 12, then another 15 at 3:15.  And you will be most thankful for that one!  The CEO/CFO collaboration starts at 2:30 everyday.  Never schedule a meeting for Mrs. Laine that can’t end by 2:30.  That is the number one rule in this office.”

I smile because Tina and I know that will be her first “mistake”.  Jared, Tina, Patrick and I have a bet the winner gets $400 cold cash.  Jared says tomorrow, Tina thinks three days, so Monday, Patrick thinks Friday, I say today. 

I may have asked a client to call in for a meeting around 10 when Tina will be on her break and Amilee will have to catch the call. Cheating?  Maybe.  So if I win I plan to hand them all back their money. 

The customer I couldn’t reach two nights ago finally wired their payment last night.  I enter it in the books and review open invoices.  Most I can trust to Tina, some I like to handle. 

My door opens and Tina comes in with Amilee in tow.

“I have the payroll figures,” Tina lays them in front of me on top of everything.  She turns to Amilee.  “Mrs. Laine is the absolute definition of ADD.  So you put the payroll on top of her desk and stand here while she reviews it.  When she gets distracted you need to redirect her back to the payroll.”

I roll my eyes without looking up.  Tina is not completely wrong. 

“I need Jared to approve the overtime from last week,” I highlight four coders and three programmers who put in extra time with Jared on the government software he had to fix on Monday night.  “I will likely have more overtime for them to approve for Monday. Jared said they worked until 3am Tuesday morning.”

Amilee holds back a laugh.  I keep my head down so she doesn’t see me smile.  I know she thinks Jared was with her, that thought makes me smile. 

I hand the pages back to Tina.

“I’ll take them to Mr. Laine,” Amilee volunteers. 

“We just need to take them to Patrick,” Tina tells her.  “I’ll walk with you.”

As they leave my office Tina turns back and gives me a smirk.  A personal bet between me and her is how hard Amilee will try and get into Jared’s office alone.  Every female in our office knows Jared doesn’t allow females in his office.  Amilee is about to learn the hard way.

“What do you think you are doing?” I hear Patrick yell. 

I get up and open my door.  Outside my office is the bullpen, where the best of our coders and programmers work.  The office is set up like a huge semi-circle with collab tables running down the middle.  On the walls are the offices with doors.  Mine, Decon, our COO, Beckett, our lead designer, Jared, Tucker head of Marketing, and Clay head of sales.   The conference room is across the hall from Clay, next to the restrooms and Elevators. Across from me is the small HR department.  Outside each office is where the assistants desks face the bullpen. 

I’m standing in my doorway, along with everyone else staring at the back center of our floor. Patrick is standing in front of Jared’s door red faced and breathing heavy. 

“Mr. Laine does not allow female employees in his office for any reason.  Only Mrs. Laine is allowed in here,” Patrick yells at Amilee.  “You hand that to me and I will take care of it.”

Tina holds three fingers up behind her back and counts down to one. 

As if on cue, Amilee starts to cry. 

“I’m so sorry,” Amilee cries trying to sound week. “It’s my first day and I was just trying to do my best, be proactive for my boss.”

I see those working in the bullpen snicker.  They are mostly werewolves and can see the truth of Amilee.  The gold-digger, home wreaker has no mask.

“Save the tears,” Patrick tells her.  “My husband can’t change my mind with tears, no way in hell you are ever going to. Give me this and go back to your desk.”

Patrick takes the payroll from her with a snatch and a low growl. 

Amilee moves back to her desk like her ass caught fire.  I turn back to my office and close the door so no one sees me laugh.

The mindlink come through before I sit back in my chair.

Jared-You enjoyed that too much.

Me-You didn’t enjoy it enough then.

I can hear him laugh in my head.

Jared-Jason is going to have some smooth talking to do. 

A knock on my door startles me.

“Come in,” I say looking at my desk for something to make me look busy.

“I’m so sorry,” Evelyn from HR comes in a closes the door behind her.  “I just got a call from someone who says they are Mr. Laine but the request threw me off.”

I look up at her and motion for her to take a seat.  “What was said?”

“The caller asked that I write a formal reprimand for Patrick and publicly give it to him at his desk and then ask him to apologize to Amilee,” Evelyn makes a face like she is choking on the words. 

I try not to laugh.  “Well, go ahead and do as Mr. Laine requests.”

“Are you okay?” Evelyn looks at me with shock.

 I am trying to hold back my laughter. I feel like I need to tell Evelyn what is going on, but Jared and I agreed only Patrick and Tina would know at the office. 

“I’m fine,” I compose myself.  “Please do as Mr. Laine instructed.  In due time I will have the reprimand removed, but for now, make it public and have Patrick apologize with the same energy he yelled at her with.”           

Evelyn looks confused.  “Mrs. Laine, I’m not sure that is the best course.  It is going to set a tone that Amilee is above correction. It might give the younger staffers the wrong impression.”

I smile and shake my head.  “The ones who need to know, already know.  Do as Mr. Laine requested.”

Evelyn nods her head and stands up to leave.  “I hope you know what you are doing Mrs. Laine.  You hold a lot of power here, I hope this doesn’t undermine any of that.”

I stand to meet her eye to eye. “My position is not in danger.  Mr. Laine and I are on the same page. Treat Amilee as if she is the boss’s mistress.  I know what her real position is.”

Evelyn looks even more shocked but nods.  “Yes Mrs. Laine.”

I sit down after she leaves.  Evelyn is human so she doesn’t understand the mate bond. 

I mindlink Patrick and Jared so they know the play.  Patrick is not happy, but goes along.   This is going to be fun.