Page 16 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
Chapter Six
Raven
Alpha Damien’s withering gaze panned from the file he held to me and then back again. My breath hitched, a feeling of foreboding settling between my shoulders even before he spoke.
“Where is the data, Miss Caine?”
“The data?” I repeated blankly, keenly aware of the gazes of all the staff in the boardroom focused on me. The undercurrent tension in the room was so thick that a butter knife could have cut through it.
The last meeting that had been held in this boardroom had seen half of the staff fired and replaced, and it was just the second week of Alpha Damien handling the company. He reclined in his seat, his golden gaze dark and unpredictable, the file in front of him falling shut as he retracted his hand.
“How long have you worked in the real estate business, Miss Caine?” He asked suddenly in a voice so bereft of any emotion that I stiffened, my hackles raised.
My voice came out small and uncertain.
“Two months, Mr Blackwell.”
I didn’t realise Alpha Damien could look even more unimpressed.
“That is no excuse,” He snapped, his acerbic tone sharp enough todraw blood. “Even a common intern knows the backbone of any solid pitch is data that guarantees the buyer’s satisfaction.”
I frowned, confused.
“Mr Blackwell, you instructed me to take out the data to make the pitch less mechanical and more relatable,” I reminded him curtly.
Just the day before, he’d made that call after scrapping my third pitch attempt. Some days, it felt like Alpha Damien was purposely punishing me, as though he’d somehow sniffed out the lie I’d told him in that meeting room over a week ago. And I might have even believed it if he hadn’t rendered a heartfelt apology for confronting me in the meeting room.
“Yesterday, I had you confused with someone else. It will never happen again.” Alpha Damien was beyond embarrassed, his voice tight, his expression contrite. “However, I understand if you feel too uncomfortable working around here. Whatever compensation you require will be granted.”
His words had caused an unwelcome pang of guilt in my chest, even though I’d technically not lied to him. That day, he’d asked me if he knew me, and in that moment, as I realized that the man I’d spent weeks fantasizing about couldn’t even remember what I looked like, I’d never felt more stupid.
That night hadn’t been special for him. How could it? Alpha Damien was wealthy, powerful, and sinfully handsome. Women probably threw themselves at him all the time. To him, I’d just been one of his many conquests.
I knew then that there was no way I was going to tell him about the pregnancy. However, I still needed to make rent, and I wasn’t about to throw away a perfectly good job because of him.
“I understand, Mr Blackwell,” I met his gaze unflinchingly. “But I intend to keep working here. So long as it doesn’t repeat itself, this matter is already forgotten.”
And so we both went on pretending as though that moment had never happened. Alpha Damien had bought my lie. He wasn’t punishing me.
No, the truth was far less complicated. My new boss was aperfectionist who was dissatisfied with everything and everyone and thought of his entire staff as expendable cogs in his multi-million-dollar, sorry, billion-dollar empire.
Alpha Damien’s jaw clenched, obviously unused to being challenged.
“I asked you to cut down on the data, not to eliminate it completely,” he ground out, giving me an incredulous once-over that made me feel about an inch tall. “Do you know what I detest, Miss Caine? Ignorant mediocrity.”
He tossed the file in my general direction, at least half of the papers within the file spilling to the ground in the process.
“Create something compelling for me, Miss Caine, or you’ll need to get another job.”
Seated next to me, Wendy made a small, almost inaudible, amused sound, eyes twinkling with barely restrained delight, and I struggled to keep my cool.
The rest of the staff looked on with varying expressions from sympathy and pity to unconcerned apathy, but the entire room stayed silent. No one was stupid enough to interfere and risk Alpha Damien’s ire.
My cheeks burned with the sting of Alpha Damien’s insult, and I trembled with the urge to give him a piece of my mind, but I bit my tongue, swallowing the outrage I felt.
I need this job. I need this job. I need—
I picked my discarded papers off the desk and floor before inclining my head slightly in his direction.
