Romance: Stranded With The Alpha Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Werebear, BBW, Bear Shifter Romance) (Sweet Shifters Book 1) (12 page)

Chapter 2

It was 2 pm by the time Andrea managed to walk out of Level 2. Finding Roland had been nightmarish and it occurred to her that the majority of the second floor was covered in long white stalls, white linoleum, and white lights.

The level was nearly blinding compared to her employer’s office—it occurred to her that she never got his name the entire time they had spoken—and when she had finally managed to find Roland, it was after she had bumped into a group of lab coats who had chuckled when they found out she was the newest assistant.

“Girl, I don’t envy you,” one of the same, a woman with chubby cheeks and frizzled ginger hair that hung down her head in thick braids.

“The Boss is ruthless.”

Andrea wilted, her smile becoming half a grimace when she heard similar comments from people she bumped in during her search for the head scientist.

“You’re looking for who?” One of the men asked, shifting safety goggles from his forehead to his nose. His brown eyes looked hysterically huge from behind the goggles and Andrea had to stifle a laugh when he blinked at her.

“Oh—Roland! Yeah, he’s in the safety room. Well… the test area is more like. Give it a second and you’ll know exactly how to find him.”

“Wait, how am I supposed to…?” Andrea asked with a frown when a sudden muffled explosion erupted several yards away. She nearly leaped to the ceiling in surprise, yet no one else seemed to react in the same manner.

Heading in the direction of the abrupt sound, she found a glass door that was covered in a black film from the inside. A pad on the side of the door asked for fingerprint codes, and Andrea nearly groaned in frustration when she didn’t have them.

To her relief, Roland popped out, swinging the door opened and covered in soot, curly black hair sticking up in odd angles as he headed in the direction Andrea came from.

“Simon!” he exclaimed, shouting loud, “I need another batch of the material in the office now! At least three kilograms!”

“Yes, sir,” Simon, the same young man with the huge goggles, replied, completely unperturbed by his superior’s loud speaking volume. Andrea nearly stared after him but ran after, hoping to catch up to him. When she did, he had spun around and nearly slammed into her.

“Oi, where are your shoes, missy?!” Roland exclaimed, seeing her bare feet with wide eyes. Andrea glanced down, nearly forgetting but not having time to feel bashful.

She was more surprised he had called her ‘missy.’ “Don’t you know we are working with very precarious substances? You’re a walking hazard!”

“Right, sorry,” Andrea had said, not wanting to match his volume but he was already storming away.

“Um, I need to get the Sigma Schematics?”

“You what?!” Roland shouted, whirling toward the door he had walked out of. Andrea nearly hit the wall in hurry to match his pace.

“The Sigma A schematics!!” Andrea shouted after him, hiding her embarrassed face from other scientists.

“It’s for… the Boss.” She didn’t know his name, so might as well use the title people referred to him as.

“They aren’t ready, missy.” Roland shouted back, pressing his palm to the pad. It let out a beep before the door unlatched and swung open.

“You’ll need to go back and tell him to wait until tomorrow.”

Andrea nearly melted to the ground, “I can’t. I told you, he needs them. Now.”

“And I told you,” Roland huffed, “They aren’t ready. I need to redistribute the trial information before I could get anything close to an algorithm. Sorry kid, but you just need to tell him that.”

Andrea wasn’t the one to be defeated, and frankly, she didn’t come all this way to be turned away.

“Can’t you just give me what you do have? He said you should be done with the Script Trials by now.”

Roland let out a bark of laughter, “We barely started them a month ago and he expects results now? The Scripts are nowhere near concluded, I still need to run tests.”

“Well, what results you do have, have you placed them in the…” Andrea paused to glance down at her notepad, “Hendrik folder? He needs the results of last month’s trials as well.”

“Look,” Roland sighed, pausing to adjust a pair of working goggles over his head.

“I’ll tell you what, tell him to wait until tonight at six and I’ll send what I do have, which is close to nothing. But I cannot waste time arguing with you while I’ve got trials to run. Alright? Now go put some shoes on, before you kill somebody.”

She had almost as much luck with Athena when she made her way up to level 5. Athena was a tall black woman with large spectacles and wiry white hair styled in impressive curls that made Andrea stare in awe. She didn’t have much time to stare though because the moment Andrea relayed the message the Boss gave her, Athena looked furious.

“He wants me to set up the meeting
again
?!” The woman snapped. Andrea nearly hid behind the massive desk that Athena was now storming passed.

“This is the
fifth
time this month! How many times does that man need me to cancel and reset that blasted meeting? I’ve had to call several times and deal with very frustrated executives for weeks!”

“Do you think you can have it done by tonight?” Andrea squeaked, withering when Athena gave her a violent stare.

The woman paused as if realizing she was directing her fury at the wrong person. Heaving a great sigh, Athena shook her head, white curls swinging gently by her high cheekbones.

“Tell him I’ll give him a report by this evening.” Then she threw a finger into Andrea’s face. “But that does not mean in any way that it’ll be set up by tonight. You make sure he gets that message.”

Andrea nodded furiously before beginning to walk off, but not before pausing when Athena raised a hand to stop her.

“Hold on… are you barefoot?”

Andrea sighed heavily, “I’m wearing stockings… and my shoes keep scuffing the floor.”

Athena pursed her lips, “well, we can’t have you barefoot either. I’m sure Roland nearly ripped you a new one when he saw you.”
You’ve no idea.

Nodding, Athena motioned her closer, “Alright, come here. Lucky for you, I have a few packages of slippers that came in from Japan two months ago. Domitian ordered them in for the sake of the floors.”

“Domitian?” Andrea asked, approaching the tall woman curiously. Athena snorted softly, smiling softly.

“The Boss, that’s his name. Of course you’ll never want to call him that to his face, so just call him Dom, or Mr. Rhys, preferably the latter.”

Sure enough, Andrea managed to get much of her duties completed for the day, her feet clad in comfy new Japanese slippers that apparently were used within schools to avoid scuffing the floors.

By the time 5 o’clock rolled around, she was ready to hide in her apartment and do nothing but sleep, yet she knew she had to at least approach her boss with something.

She wandered back into the office, worn out and ready to go home, when she found him sitting by the desk, scribbling furiously into a few documents on the desk. When she approached him, he glanced up at her, before glaring.

“You’re late.” He grunted.

“I was expecting information hours ago.”

“Sorry, sir.” Andrea said, heading toward him and pressing a few documents and files on the desk.

He nearly yanked them from her hand before they even touched the wood and he was flipping through the sheets swiftly. He let out a grunt of annoyance but Andrea wasn’t sure whether or not it was directed at her.

Domitian Rhys—Dom…? Mr. Rhys?—she still wasn’t sure what to call him, stood up and headed towards the large screen that took up the majority of the wall.

“Did you speak to Darnell?” He spoke without warning.

“Ah, yes.” Andrea said, “He said the error should be fixed up now.”

“Should be or it is?”

Andrea glanced at her feet, confused.

“Should be?”

He let out a long sigh before shaking his head.

“Fine, whatever.”

Another long pause of silence followed and Andrea wasn’t sure whether or not to leave, so she just stood there.

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