The Pet Shop (bxbxb)

17. Huff

Warden shook as he leaned back in the chair Drake had recently vacated and closed his eyes. He wanted to tell himself that Drake just hadn't had enough time to cool off yet, or maybe hadn't gotten laid recently, but he wasn't fooling himself. There was no way Drake would kiss someone he didn't want to screw into his bed repeatedly. He wasn't that kind of wolf, horny or not.

"Fuck."

Deciding to push aside his worry for the immediate moment, he leaned forward and began going through what Drake had gotten done. To his surprise, his friend had done a very thorough job of going through the accounts and separating the issues from the normal reports.

I knew I gave you your position for a reason... glad to see that you can still do a solid job.

Reaching to his right, Warden pressed the speaker button, then waited two seconds before talking.

"Hello, please send my scheduled meeting to Drake's office when it's time."

His assistant hurried to acknowledge him with a "Yes sir!"

About thirty minutes later, Warden looked up when he heard a knock on his door. He had read back through the reports, much more slowly and carefully, so that he was ready. "Come in." He said, folding his hands together on the desk before him as he placed a fake smile on his face.

The meeting went exactly how he wanted it to. He got the account numbers to where the man had been stashing the stolen money. Then, after giving those numbers directly over to the other financial employee working that day, he promptly fired him. To his surprise, most of the money was easily recoverable, and the rest, he had no doubt, would be acquired after he got one of their lawyers involved.

With that issue taken care of, Warden set to work on his own job. Since he was already at a computer, he quickly logged out of Drake's account, then logged in with his own information. It was convenient that most of the computers, at least in the higher up management, could all be used by everyone. All they needed was their username and password to log in and out. It wasn't recommended, but he'd be damned if Drake ever did more than change his screensaver to a graphic porn photo when he accidentally left his account signed in.

The memory made him chuckle, because Drake had done just that three times in the past month already. Once, Warden had forgotten to check it, too, and it came on right in the middle of a board meeting.

That had not been fun to talk my way out of.

Going through his files for the day, he quickly got his basic duties finished after only two hours. Since he had worked so much overtime recently, there wasn't too much to weigh him down. The idea of getting home to see Cerat... and perhaps his perverted wolf, made him eager to hasten his pace.

Unfortunately, when he finally clocked out and headed home, a whole two hours early at around six in the evening, he was surprised to walk into the apartment and not have Drake immediately greeting him with either the smell of food, or himself. After setting his briefcase down by the door and hanging up his suitcoat in the bedroom, he glanced around.

Cerat's not here?

Warden quickly realized that Cerat and Drake were definitely not there. 

Wait. The bathroom? 

Granted, there was no reason why both of them would be in there together, but Drake did get a bit dominant when his wolf was frustrated. He might have shoved Cerat in the shower again... 

Hoping that they were both just out for a logical reason, Warden put his hand on the bathroom door, then gave it a gentle shove. It easily slid open, revealing a scene he was not prepared for. At. All. Cerat sat on the floor, a new electric collar fastened around his neck. He wore a pair of Drake's old black basketball shorts with a white tank top that was clearly too big. In front of him, Layla sat, her hand full of playing cards and a wide grin on her face. After a hesitant glance around the small room, he found Drake, but not human Drake. He changed? And he's still sane? And in the bathtub? Warden wondered in absolute confusion as he watched the canine obsessively clean its large front right paw.