The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence by R.E. Butler

dealing with. I won't let you go under, but it's going to be a
tough couple of weeks while I get things straightened out."
    "Well, that's what I'm paying you for,
right?"
    "What the fuck is your problem?"
    "I have no problem." He ground out.
    "You're being a prick."
    He growled under his breath but said nothing.
"Just get out." She said evenly, trying to control her temper.
    "It's my office. I don't have to go
anywhere." He smirked and folded his arms.
    "Fuck you, Jason. It's my office; that was
part of our deal."
    He snorted and put both hands on the desk and
leaned out of his chair until he was towering over her. "I can do
whatever I want with my business, Cadence. You're an employee.
Mine. Remember that."
    "Fuck. You." She said, gritting her teeth
against the sob in her throat that threatened. Why did he have to
be so cruel?
    They stared at each other, everything she
hated about him roaring to the surface. Why had she thought that
she could ever be around him like this? She must have been on
drugs. She was about to lose it, staring into his eyes, so she
gathered every ounce of courage she had and said, "Get out or I
walk."
    His lip curled into a snarl and his eyes
narrowed. He looked like he might want to punch her as much as she
wanted to punch him, but instead he spun without a word and left,
slamming the door with such force that the glass insert shattered.
Fantastic.
    For her lunch break, she sat on the hood of
her car after getting a cinnamon bagel and an iced coffee from the
mini-mart down the street, and groused about her current situation.
She couldn't have been more furious at Jason, but also more broken.
He just had no clue how much he hurt her, and he'd been hurting her
for a long time.
    "Go away, Michael."
    He approached her slowly with his hands up,
like she was going to shoot him and the way she was feeling right
then, if she had access to a gun she might have considered it.
"Listen, about Jason."
    "I said 'go away'."
    "I heard you, darlin', but you need to hear
me out."
    She popped the last part of the bagel that
she hadn't really even tasted into her mouth and hopped off the
hood. "You know what sucks? I've known both packs since before I
can remember. Jason and I used to be really close, even closer than
you and me, and now I can barely stand to be in the same room with
him when he has a tantrum. I must be some kind of idiot for coming
to work here. Chris was right." She wadded up the napkin and
grabbed the empty iced coffee cup.
    "What exactly did Chris say?" His voice
tipped angrily.
    "He said I was too good for this place. I
didn't think so, originally, I mean it's important to me that the
garage stays open and everything, but I can't help but feel like
I'm some kind of horrible burden to everyone in the Tressel pack.
That's the funny thing about my life lately. Everything I thought I
knew is just disappearing."
    "Is this about Jake's pack?" His tone was
accusatory.
    As she put her hand on the door to go back
into the garage, she turned, just for a moment and glared at him.
“I am not a fucking trophy to be won!”
    He looked confused. “What the hell are you
talking about?”
    “Jason has been treating me like the
red-headed stepchild of the town since I was like 11. Now that
Jake’s pack is opening up to me, warming up to me, suddenly
everything is shifting and changing before my eyes. It’s…pathetic.”
Opening the door, she let it slam shut behind her, effectively
ending the conversation.
    She went back to the small closet-like office
to clean up the glass, and it was already cleaned up. Shrugging to
herself, she went back to work, trying to dig Jason and his
business out of the hole.
    For the remainder of the week, Jason barely
made an appearance to her but she spoke to Chris every night after
work. On Friday, the checks for payroll were cut and she skipped
her own check and paid for her own gas. She didn't need the money
yet, and she'd been wrong in her original calculations that