Xander Ursi tugged at his tie. He hated the damn thing. He couldn’t wait to be out of it every day after his meetings and undo most of the buttons on his shirt so he could feel less like he was being choked to death. He stomped down the long hallway that led from the office building to a private gym he and his employees used to de-stress. He’d rather go off and run the forest in his bear form, but he didn’t have enough time for that right now.
“What’s up, bro?” Keir, his close friend and head of marketing, greeted him. “Are you hitting the bags or running?”
“Hitting the bags.” Xander headed straight for the changing room with Keir by his side.
Keir glanced around the empty locker room before speaking. “Did that ad work out?”
“They sent me an email saying they’re sending the person their system feels would work best for this job.” He switched out of his suit into a pair of workout shorts and a tank top. He grabbed his wrist wraps and gloves and headed to the main gym.
“This is good, isn’t it?” Keir got on a treadmill next to his and proceeded to start warming up. “You asked me to find you a way to solve your problem, and I did. Now you use the girl, let your grandmother think she’s your mate, and your troubles go away.”
Right. Then why did it feel like shit was only going to get worse? His human grandmother made it a point to let him know in no uncertain terms that the only way she’d give him the controlling portion of XJ Financial was when he mated and showed her he was ready to settle down.
“She’s got a good heart, but trying to get me to mate is not like getting a human to marry,” Xander growled. He hopped off the treadmill and wrapped his wrists. He was too antsy to wait any longer to hit the bags. Once his gloves were on, he started with straight one-two punches and continued talking. “A bear can’t mate any female just because she’s hot.”
“Well, my father did. Granted, he’s not a bear.” Keir laughed. “Didn’t work out as well as he would have wanted.” He strapped on his gloves and hit the bag next to Xander’s. “Try this new place. I know this is weird, but you need to do something to get her off your back and finally take control of XJ.” He took jabs at the bag. “Julia is a lovely woman, but just because she is loaded with dough does not mean she knows anything about shifter love lives.”
That was the truth. His mother had been human. That didn’t stop Xander from taking after his father and picking up the shifter gene. He’d been a bear and had bear needs. One of them was a mate. Unfortunately, he hadn’t met the right woman. His grandmother felt that dangling the majority share of the company she owned would somehow make Xander go out there and magically find a mate. If it were that easy, he’d have done it a while back. At almost forty, he was yearning for cubs.
“Grandmother feels it’s time she had some great-grandkids. She misses my parents and I’m the only one she can really bug about it. No other grandkids to go harass and all that.” He ignored the burn in his muscles and the sweat dripping down his temples.
His grandmother was a great woman. But she assumed because she’d read up on shifters and had a few years knowing Xander’s father before his parents had died that she was a shifter encyclopedia.
“When do you meet your new employee?”
“Later today. I have a dinner meeting at Ricardo’s. Maxton’s sister Ally is in town, and she’s demanded I make time for dinner. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and set up for Josilyn to meet me there so we can discuss the arrangement.”
“Ally.” Keir frowned. “I don’t remember an Ally being Maxton’s sister. I remember a Sara.”
Xander chuckled at Keir’s intense frown. “Yeah. Maxton has two sisters. Ally was younger, so unless you visited his house, you wouldn’t have met her. They sent her away to boarding school when she was young.”
“Ah. Well. That explains it.” Keir hugged the giant punching bag and huffed out a breath. “Let me know how that works out with … did you say her name is Josilyn?”
Xander stopped punching and started throwing high kicks at the bag. “Yeah. Ms. Josilyn Martinez. There was a photo included, but it wasn’t a close-up so I’ll have to figure it out when I see her. Thankfully, the staff at Ricardo’s knows me well enough to send her straight to my table when she arrives.”
Keir glanced at the clock on the wall. “Good luck. I think it would be a great idea to use their services. Especially since I might be needing to hire my own mate in the near future.”
“Your dad still giving you trouble?”
Keir growled and hit his bag again. “Yeah. For a lion, he’s being a real pussy. Ever since he lost his sense of smell, he’s freaking out over someone taking advantage of him and wants me to take over the operations at the bank.”
“What’s the problem? You know you can do it.” Xander punched and kicked the bag with his left arm and leg, staying on his toes, and then did the same with his right.
“I don’t want to mate. I’m fine as I am.” Keir started kicking his bag in full earnest.
“You mean having meaningless sex with women you’ll never see again?” Xander asked.
“Yeah! Let me tell you something: meaningless sex is very underrated. You don’t have to call, and everybody knows where they stand. I don’t have to worry about some woman getting her feelings hurt. It’s great.”
“Only you, bro.” Xander laughed outright, his arms starting to tire from the grueling exercise.
“Don’t give me that. You’ve had enough sex-only dates that you can appreciate how well it works.”
That was true. He had enjoyed it at one point. Not any longer. “There comes a time in a person’s life where you want more. You want to have that link to someone and feel like there is another person who wants to be with you just as much.”
Keir stopped and stared at him with raised brows. “You need to get laid, man.”
Xander shook his head and tugged the gloves off to grab one of the towels on a shelf. “Sex is easy. What I need is a lot more complicated.”
He needed a fake mate, but if he had his wish, he’d finally find the right woman for his bear. His animal was growing antsy and needy. It wasn’t natural to go this long without a life partner. Xander’s bear reminded him daily that he needed offspring and a mate. A real one.