Defying the Lycan King

The report landed on Kai’s desk at nine in the morning, which was six hours earlier than his head felt ready for anything at all.

He was having a headache, a dull, persistent thumping at the base of his skull that promised to make every single moment of this day feel like punishment. He deserved it. He knew he deserved it, but that didn’t make it any easier to tolerate.

He had woken up at half five with the taste of an entire bar in his mouth, no clear memory of getting home, and a black hole where most of last night should have been. He remembered the bar. He remembered talking at Dennis about footage. Tan’s voice in his bedroom. After that, nothing but fragments that would not hold still.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was the report waiting for him when he finally hauled himself into the office, dark glasses pressed to his face like armour.

"Unauthorised activity," his head of security said, standing too close and speaking too loudly. "Coming from one of the restaurant terminals. The ground floor."

Kai winced. "Do you have to shout?"

The man blinked. "I’m not shouting, sir."

"Then do you have to exist so loudly?" Kai pressed two fingers to his temple. "What kind of activity?"

"Someone accessed the administrative interface using shared credentials."

Any other week, Kai would have glanced at it, said "IT can handle it," and gone back to other things. But not this week, not after what had happened at the shopping centre, which he and his team were still currently working on.

"I’ll go myself." Kai was already rising from his chair, the sunglasses still on, looking like a man about to ruin someone’s morning. "Get Dennis. And bring two men from security."

"Sir, your head of security can easily handle—"

"Did I ask what my head of security can easily handle?" Kai snapped, and the pain in his skull spiked in protest. "I’ll handle this personally."

The man slapped his mouth shut.

Kai buttoned his white jacket, walked out of his office, and got into the lift.

Meanwhile, forty floors up, Alicia Westwood was trapped inside a prison of her own making. She had been pacing her office since eight.

She had made it as far as her own door four separate times. Four times she had put her hand on the handle, and four times she had turned round and gone back to her desk and sat down and immediately stood up again.

There were papers he needed. She had to see him. It was literally her job to see him.

She simply could not make her body walk down that corridor.

Because of last night. Because of what she had done.

He would not remember. She was fairly certain of that. He had been so far gone that whatever he retained of the evening would be hazy at best, a smear of bar and car and stairs. He might not even know she had been there.

But she knew.

"Oh, for goodness sake," she muttered, and grabbed the file and went before she could stop herself.

She was almost to Kai’s office when one of the junior staff members nearly collided with her.

"Oh, Miss Westwood. I’m sorry." The woman hesitated, looking uncertain. "I don’t think the Chairman is in his office."

Alicia stopped. "Where is he?"

"Someone said he went down to the restaurant. Something about suspicious activity in the security systems."

Everything in Alicia’s body went cold at once.

"The restaurant?" Alicia heard her own voice from a distance. "He went to the restaurant? Now?"

"Yes, ma’am." The staff member looked startled by her reaction. "I think he went personally. The Chairman—"

Alicia didn’t wait for the rest. She turned and went down that corridor at a speed her shoes were never designed for, one heel twisting under her so badly that she nearly went over into a plant pot, and she did not stop, she simply hopped once, swore, and kept going.

Her mind was screaming a single word over and over, like an alarm that wouldn’t stop.

No. No. No.

She hit the lift button four times in rapid succession as though violence might make it come faster, got in, jabbed at the restaurant floor, and stood there with her heart going like a drum while the numbers descended with what felt like deliberate, personal spite.

Don’t let him see her. Please. Just don’t let him see her.

***

Jessica had woken up thirty-five minutes late, which was, in her professional opinion, the worst possible amount of late.

Five minutes late, you can jog. An hour late, you may as well ring in and admit defeat. Thirty-five minutes was the exact quantity of late that meant sprinting for a bus while putting your shoes on.

She came in through the back so nobody would see her, shot into the changing room, and started dragging on her uniform at speed, muttering apologies to Gloria in advance under her breath.

That was when she heard a man’s voice, low and hard, rolling through the restaurant like a gathering storm. She paused with one arm in her sleeve.

She finished dressing, tied her hair back, and edged out to peer round the doorway.

Every single member of restaurant staff was standing absolutely still in the dining area. Gloria was among them, hands clasped in front of her, wearing an expression Jessica had never seen on her before.

In the middle of it all stood a man with his back to her, in a white suit so immaculate it looked like it had never met weather. Blond. Tall. And in front of him, an older man in a Jescore polo shirt was going a very unhappy shade of grey.

Jessica did not need anybody to make an introduction.

Almighty Chairman.

"You work for a cyber-security company," the Chairman was saying, "and thought sharing an administrator password was acceptable?"

"Sir, I only—"

"I didn’t ask what you only did. I asked why you ignored company security protocol."

"It won’t happen again, sir."

"No," the Chairman said. "It won’t."

He turned to Dennis, who stood at his shoulder like a grim statue. "Suspend his access until Security completes its investigation."

The older man broke down. "Sir, please. I have a family. I wasn’t thinking—"

Jessica watched from her hiding spot, her heart pounding in her chest. The man might as well have been a character from a television drama, the kind of ruthless boss who fired people before breakfast and didn’t lose a minute of sleep over it.

Wonderful, she thought grimly. I’ve finally seen the famous Chairman in the wild, and apparently he eats employees for breakfast. Good to know.

The man was still begging when Gloria’s head snapped around, and she spotted Jessica lurking near the back room. Before Jessica could retreat, Gloria was crossing the floor toward her.

"You’re late," Gloria hissed, grabbing Jessica’s arm in a grip like iron.

"I know. I’m sorry. My alarm—"

"Your punishment is taking the Chairman’s coffee and following him up." Gloria was already propelling her toward the counter, reaching for a mug with her free hand.

Jessica’s soul left her body.

"No."

"Yes."

"Gloria. Gloria, no." Jessica put both hands up. "Please don’t send me to that man. Did you see the way he just treated that employee? He’ll eat me alive and use my bones for office supplies."

"That’s a risk, yes." Gloria pressed the mug into Jessica’s hands. The coffee inside was still steaming, creamy and rich. "But someone has to take it, and you’re the only one standing around looking guilty. Now go. Follow him immediately. If all hell breaks loose because the Chairman’s coffee is late, I’ll make sure you’re selling pastries in the parking lot by tomorrow."

Jessica opened her mouth to argue, but the words died in her throat. Gloria had already turned away, moving to reposition the other staff, and the Chairman was already finishing his conversation with the security team.

***

Alicia came through the restaurant doors at what she hoped looked like a brisk walk.

Her eyes went round the room in one fast sweep. Staff by the pass. Staff by the till. Dennis. Two security men. A very unhappy older gentleman being escorted towards the door.

No ginger hair.

The relief nearly took her legs out from under her.

She crossed the floor and slipped her hand into Kai’s, and he glanced down at it, mildly startled.

"Alicia." Kai’s eyes found her, his sunglasses gone now, and she could see the exhaustion in his face. "What are you doing here?"

Alicia forced herself to breathe. Forced her expression into something like a smile.

"I came to find you." She tugged at his hand. "The security matter can wait. You need rest. And you know what the pack doctor said about your blood pressure."

Her eyes darted around the restaurant as she spoke, checking every corner, every doorway. Still no Jessica.

To every single person watching, it was a fiancée fussing over a man who worked too hard.

"I’m fine," Kai said, pulling his hand free with a frown. "This is important. I need to see this through."

"Please, Kai." The desperation in her own voice made her wince. "For me. Let someone else handle it. You’ve been working too hard. You look exhausted."

If she hadn’t been so desperate, she wouldn’t have noticed the flicker of irritation across his face.

He turned back to Dennis. "Full audit of every terminal on this floor. And I want to know how the credentials were obtained, not just whose they were. Find out who had access to those credentials besides him, and how they got them."

"Yes, Alpha."

He turned to go.

And at that exact moment a member of staff came hurrying out from the back with a mug of coffee placed carefully on a tray. She was rushing, her eyes fixed on the ground, moving too fast to see the uneven tile in front of her.

Her shoe caught and she lurched forward. The mug tilted.

There was a brief and terrible moment, in which the contents of milky coffee travelled through the air in an arc.

The burning liquid hit Kai square in the chest, spreading across his pristine white suit like a stain of judgement.

Somebody near the till made a small noise, and then everything went silent.

Jessica stood there, staring at the catastrophe soak into the Chairman of Jescore Tech’s expensive fabric

Well, she thought. Bye bye job. I’m officially unemployed.

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