Defying the Lycan King

Jessica was stacking clean plates behind the counter, half-humming to herself, when Gloria suddenly appeared at her elbow.

"The boss wants coffee brought up to his office. Immediately."

Jessica froze, one plate still in her hand. "The boss?"

"Yes, the boss. His usual assistant didn’t show up this morning, and since you’re the newest, you get the honour." Gloria said it as though she were announcing a prize rather than a death sentence.

Jessica’s mind went blank for a second. Somewhere in her chest, a very small alarm had begun to ring, and it was ringing in Sebastian’s voice.

She had promised Sebastian — sworn to him, actually — that she would never set foot in the main Jescore Tech building and never, under any circumstances, go near the Chairman. According to Sebastian, the man did not respect women, and the less contact she had with him the better. Sebastian had also sworn that the Chairman never ate in the company restaurant, so the worst she would ever have to do was catch a distant glimpse of him from afar.

And now, on her very first proper day, she was being sent upstairs with coffee.

Gloria snapped her fingers in front of Jessica’s face.

"Earth to Sidonie. Take the coffee."

"Sorry. Yes." Jessica came back to herself and found her voice. "Couldn’t someone who already knows the building do it? I’ve only just started."

"Everyone else is on the floor and we’re two down." Gloria pushed the mugs into her hands. "Top floor. Turn right out of the lift. Big office at the end, you can’t miss it."

"But—"

"He doesn’t bite." Gloria paused, then added, "He’s grumpy, yes. Strict as anything. But if you walk in, put the coffee down, and walk out without making a performance of it, I promise you he won’t even notice you exist."

Jessica looked down at the two mugs in her hands.

Two. He drank two coffees at once, apparently. Marvellous. A grumpy, strict man with a caffeine problem who didn’t respect women. She was going to be up and down in ninety seconds and Sebastian would never have to know a thing about it.

"Go," Gloria said. "He can’t stand lateness."

"Of course he can’t," Jessica muttered, and went.

***

Up on the top floor, Alicia’s phone had gone off at the worst possible moment.

She had been perched on the edge of Kai’s desk, halfway into a sentence about the engagement, when one of the floor staff rang up about a scheduling issue.

So she’d got up, smoothed her skirt, given Kai a look that promised she wasn’t finished, and stepped out into the corridor with her heels clicking and her mood souring by the second.

She walked a short way down the corridor, and met the employee and listened as she explained some minor scheduling problem.

Behind her, the lift doors slid open.

Alicia finished the conversation, said something crisp about sorting it by lunchtime, and turned to go back to the office. And came face to face with Jessica.

The sound Alicia made was not dignified. It came out somewhere between a yelp and a wheeze, her whole body jerking backwards, one heel going out from under her. She went down hard, flat on her backside.

Jessica jumped back a foot and only just saved the coffee.

Alicia’s eyes widened to a degree that seemed medically inadvisable. Her mouth opened and no other sound came out.

For a second nobody said anything at all. The staff member stared. Jessica stared. Alicia sat on the floor with her legs folded awkwardly beneath her, going a shade of red that no amount of expensive foundation was ever going to fix.

"Oh my— I’m sorry!" Jessica said, because someone had to. "I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Sidonie, I was just... coffee—" She gestured vaguely with the mugs, which suddenly seemed like inadequate explanation for causing a woman to collapse.

Alicia’s heart was still hammering, but the name and the polite, slightly nervous tone slowly registered.

Sidonie.

Not Jessica. Sidonie.

The staff member crouched down and got a hand under Alicia’s arm. "Ma’am, are you all right? Let me help you—"

"What did you say your name was?"

Jessica blinked. "Sidonie. Sorry. I’ve been sent up with the coffee for the Chairman, because his assistant’s off sick and I’m new, and honestly I’d rather be anywhere else, so if you could point me at the right door I’ll be out of everyone’s way."

Alicia watched her, and there was no recognition or flicker. No cold little tightening around the eyes that would have told Alicia the woman remembered or knew who she was. The woman was looking at her the way you look at a stranger you’ve just knocked over.

Alicia was on her feet before she’d decided to stand. She shoved the staff member’s hand off her shoulder, straightened her spine, and reached out.

"Give those to me. I’ll take them in."

"Oh." Jessica handed the mugs over so fast she nearly sloshed them, relief flooding through her like warm water. "Thank you. Honestly. Thank you so much."

Alicia’s eyes went down, and that was when she noticed the restaurant uniform, and the little name badge pinned to her chest.

SIDONIE.

She let her gaze travel up again, slowly, taking in the height, the shoulders, the hair, the shape of the mouth.

Two possibilities, and her brain was throwing them both at her at once. Either this was a woman who happened to look extraordinarily like Jessica Ashfang, or this was Jessica Ashfang, standing in front of her with no memory of who she used to be.

Either way, this woman needed to be nowhere near this floor, this building, or the man sitting forty feet away behind that door.

"Do you work here?"

"In the restaurant." Jessica smiled. "Started this week."

And Alicia’s stomach dropped straight through the floor. Because it was the same smile. Exactly the same.

"You need to leave." Alicia’s voice came out clipped and hard. "Now. And I don’t want to see your face anywhere near this building again. Restaurant staff aren’t permitted up here."

Jessica’s brows pulled together. "Oh. Sorry, nobody told me that. I was sent, so I just assumed—"

"Now."

"Right. Yes." Jessica nodded, still baffled, and stepped back towards the lift. "Thanks again. For taking those."

She pressed the button. The doors opened. She stepped in, turned around, and glanced back down the corridor.

Alicia was still standing exactly where she’d left her, both mugs in her hands, watching her go.

***

"She said what?"

Gloria stopped wiping down the pass and stared at her.

"That restaurant staff aren’t allowed in the main building." Jessica shrugged as she tied her apron back on. "She was quite firm about it, to be fair."

"There’s no such rule." Gloria frowned. "There’s never been such a rule. We take orders up to those offices four, five times a day. Who was she?"

"No idea. Well dressed. Heels. Very shiny hair." Jessica considered. "I frightened the life out of her, apparently. She ended up on the floor."

Gloria snorted. "Then she’s probably embarrassed and taking it out on you. Forget it. Get back on section."

So Jessica got back on section.

But all through the lunch rush, in the gaps between orders, her mind kept sliding back to that corridor. To the way the woman had frozen. To the way she’d asked for her name twice, like the answer mattered so much and hadn’t been the one she was expecting.

Nobody looked at a stranger like that.

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