Page 25 of Bria and the Tiger

Chapter Five

“Feeling overwhelmed yet?” Rosalie asked as she and Bria walked toward the office kitchen.

“Surprisingly, no. You’re good at training,” Bria said.

“Good.” They were passing a cluster of cubicles and Rosalie said, “Hey, Sam?”

The squirrel shifter with the sand-coloured hair popped up like a gopher from her cubicle. “Yeah?”

“Can you listen for phones? Bria and I are going to have lunch.”

“You bet.”

As they walked into the kitchen, Bria said, “Sam is the assistant to the agents, right?”

“Mostly right,” Rosalie said. “She helps Rhonda, Derek and Warren, but I help Jace and Lincoln. Hey, Ivan. Thanks for getting Bria set up in the system so quickly.”

“No problem, Rosie.” Ivan held out his fist and Rosalie bumped it with her own. Rosalie was tall and curvy, she was over six feet tall in her short and sensible heels, but she still had to reach up. The office IT guy was a giraffe shifter and close to eight feet tall. His blond hair stuck up in short spikes and like most giraffe shifters, his face and long, thin limbs were covered in freckles.

“If you have any computer issues, just let me know, Bria,” Ivan said.

“Thank you.”

“Yep. Welcome to the office.” He grabbed a salad from the fridge and, ducking to get through the doorway, left the kitchen.

Bria grabbed her lunch from the fridge as Rosalie heated hers in the microwave. When they were sitting at the small table in the corner of the kitchen, Bria said, “Are you the only human in the office?”

“No, Derek is human too. Rhonda is an ostrich shifter, Warren is a wolf shifter and Lincoln is a lion shifter. You can tell by scent what Sam and Betty are, right?”

“Yes.”

Rosalie took a bite of her pasta. “It’s quiet in the office today, most of the agents are doing showings, but they have their weekly meeting tomorrow, so you’ll definitely meet everyone then.”

“Sounds good,” Bria said.

“You’re a tiger shifter like Jace?”

“I am.”

“Cool.” Rosalie hesitated, and Bria gave her an encouraging look, but Rosalie took a bite of pasta instead of speaking.

“How long have you worked for Mr. Shepherd?” Bria bit into her sandwich.

“Two years,” Rosalie said. “Jace is a good guy and a great boss. A little disorganized sometimes, but still great. You’ll like working for him.”

“Is he, um, going to be in the office today?”

Rosalie took a sip of water. “Probably not. He had a lot of client meetings this morning and some networking event this afternoon. I doubt he’ll come back to the office when that’s finished.”

“Oh, okay.” Bria took another bite of her sandwich. She wasn’t disappointed that Jace wasn’t in the office today. She wasn’t. In fact, the less she saw of him, the better.

“Can I ask you a question?” Rosalie asked.

“Sure,” Bria said.

“All right, and just let me know if I’m overstepping, okay?”

Bria nodded, and Rosalie said, “When you’re at home do you shift into your tiger form or do you spend most of your time in human form?”

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