The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 71

+25 Bonus

Around 8 in the morning, as people in other companies were heading into work and those that had left for the night from my own company were coming back, I found an invite–only event for local businesses. I would be the perfect time to network, to hopefully cook up new leads that could lead to some valuable connections.

The only problem was, as the event was invite–only, my company hadn’t been given an invitation.

I wasn’t going to let that stop me though, not after finding such a prosperous lead.

I did some more digging and uncovered that the chairman of the event was someone I had worked with a couple of years ago. We had a good contract that had made a lot of money for both of us.

As I picked up the phone, I hoped that connection was as good as I remembered and would lead to an invite

The chairman was surprised to hear from me, but maybe not as surprised as I would have hoped.

“Vanessa, I’m glad to catch up, but you might be slipping,” he said. “Of course I will get you on the guest list, but you should know that you aren’t the first one from your company who asked to be on the list.”

A sinking feeling opened up in my stomach. “Who else is there?” I asked, worried that I might have already known the answer.

“A friendly woman. I didn’t know her but she spoke well for herself,” the chairman said. “Her name is Sheila.”

My worst fears had been imagined. “I understand,” I said. “Sheila and I will be working the event separately.”

“That’s no trouble,” the chairman said. “There will be plenty of local business owners in attendance, including the Alpha, Jason Bradshaw.”

My heart leaped against my will, and my breath caught in my throat. It took a few seconds for me to recover. “Alpha Bradshaw is going to be there?”

“Yes, his family is represented every year.”

After my last encounter with Jason, I couldn’t imagine how seeing him again would be anything but awkward. But, he had apologized, so he likely wouldn’t trouble me again.

Maybe we wouldn’t even talk to each other.

At any rate, I needed this event. I wasn’t going to let Jason’s presence get in the way of that.

“Thank you for your time,” I said. “I look forward to catching up at the event.”

“And you,” he said, and hung up.

Slowly, I lowered the phone, not allowing my panic to get a hold of me. This was fine. Sheila might be on the list, but I was now too. I wasn’t going to let Sheila have any more of a lead. At the event itself, I would prove myself. ↑

Sheila was going to be left in the dark.

And Jason…

Well, with luck, we wouldn’t even run into each other.

I worked throughout the day until I was so tired, I could barely keep my head up. But even as I was heading home, I didn’t want

to leave work behind, so I gathered my things at 5 o’clock, including extra work to do at the hospital, and I started to leave.

I was nearly to the elevator when Sheila saw me and my stack of papers. She laughed, cruel and vicious.

“Sneaking out on the job again, Vanessa? Sometimes I really do lack your dedication,” she said. “But it’s no matter. When you lose our contest, I’ll convince the board your time is done.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify