Chapter 2

Logan-

I don't know how much longer I can walk behind this woman without going postal. Usually, I run hard up all fifteen flights of these stairs just to burn off enough extra energy to make it through a day at my desk. This is after I run here from my condo and that comes after a quick run in Central Park in my wolf form at 5 a.m. 

Though it’s redundant to have a house and a condo in the same city, I’ve set up my morning routine so that I make a straight line between all four locations– house, park, condo, work. Besides, it’s good to have the condo for business meetings. It makes a different impact than the pack house would have. I can’t imagine introducing investors to my brother and Beta. Better that we all stay a little more civilized. The more I can put myself through my paces, the better control I have of my wolf and the more civilized I can be. After all these years alone, he's becoming less like a wolf in temperament and more like a Siberian husky– nice to look at, but high strung, mouthy, and liable to destroy everything without careful management. 

It’s challenging and exhilarating to run a business, slightly less so to run a mostly-cooperative pack with my brother. Both of those combined present enough of a mental challenge that I’m able to keep my wolf at bay most of the time, but if I don’t work myself hard enough physically I start to itch and the need to shift gets overwhelming. For everyone else’s sake more than mine, my workout routine has gotten more and more extreme lately. It doesn’t hurt when it comes to the ladies, though.

While I'm chafing at the pace so much I feel like I'm breaking out in hives, I keep catching myself noticing the… assets of my obstruction. She's got a pleasant glow to her skin, presumably from exercise. She must not know how to pace herself for her cardio. That glow lights even the cleavage showing from her top. Obviously, it's been too long for me if I can't stop noticing. I’ll have to have my assistant schedule something for me, despite the awkwardness of having someone else schedule my dates. I just don’t have the time to do it myself. It's a relief when the woman in front of me finally stops to lean and catch her breath so I can stop staring at her ass. I'm sure I have some kind of rule logged with HR against feeling this way about anyone in this building– hopefully she doesn't notice where my mind has gone. 

Trying to recover my equanimity, I stand and stare like an idiot for a moment before I think to offer her a hand up. She slowly melts down the wall, awkwardly moving her feet like the floor is lava. I clear my throat to try and get her attention, or at least get her to open her eyes. I hope she didn’t pass out. It would be a strange way to do it, but if she has a history of losing consciousness, maybe she’s worked out this strategy to do it without head injuries. I’m not sure I could take the kind of excitement that comes with an ambulance with how my wolf is acting right now.