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“So, that was why you wanted all of us gone?”
Claire gave her beta a very stern look from her desk - one that clearly stated she did not want to have this conversation. Ever.
“No, Beth. I obviously had no idea that we were going to end up doing that.”
“Bullshit.” Beth started, holding up her fingers as a checklist and counting as she went. “One: you specifically told everyone - everyone - to fuck off for the day. Two: you scrubbed clean the entire den, I mean come on Claire we both know you hate doing the deep clean.”
“Still do it more than you.” Claire stated, shifting documents slowly from pile to pile - much slower than she wanted to with all this interruption.
“And three.” Claire’s attention once again shifted to Beth. Beth, who had a very triumphant and smug look about her. This did not look good.
“You payed top dollar to make sure that I had a certain item made very quickly for you. One that I gave you the day before this “unplanned” event took place.”
Claire scribbled a rushed signature before trying calmly to put down her pen and interlock her hands. She then proceeded to stare literal daggers at the girl leaning so casually against her doorframe. Despite all humour gone from her best friend’s face, Beth wasn’t backing down.
“I’m fairly certain that payment also covered a promise that you would never bring that up?”
“And I’m fairly certain that I’d deeply regret passing up the opportunity, boss.”
Claire’s eyes turned to slits (bit too cat-like for a wolf shifter, Beth thought) and her glare seemed to freeze the whole office.
“Beth.” Claire said, with all the I’m-the-alpha-watch-yourself dominance she could.
“Claire.” Beth smirked, not watching herself at all.
And if looks could kill, there’d be an ice-encrusted grave in the middle of Claire’s office by now. But, after striking Beth dead with her eyes about a thousand times over by now with no sign of her beta backing down, Claire realised there was only one way out of this.
“Fine, but I didn’t go in with the intention of it happening-“
“So you admit it. I knew it, I fucking knew it - you know, the next time you wanna dick someone down you can just tell us to go-“
Claire honestly didn’t know what was worse: having Beth use the phrase “dick someone down” or being trapped with Valera in the car again. Right now, the bloodsucker seemed the much more appealing option.
“-I mean, sure, we’d all probably bully you for a few years but we are all totally respectful of you and your everlasting quest for love.”
“I’m not on an everlasting quest for love.”
Beth laughed so loudly Claire was certain the whole pack heard it.
“CLAIRE YOU CLEANED THE ENTIRE FUCKING DEN! If that’s not a sign that you’re head over fucking paws for our favourite ranger, then I don’t know what is.”
Claire’s complete radio silence after that made Beth very, very confused. She was never silent - where was the bite back?
So she stopped her rant-pacing, and gave Claire a good long look. And just over the top of the papers Claire was using to try and cover herself up, Beth noticed the sweetest thing.
Maybe only three times had she ever seen her dear alpha blush before in her life - now she noted a fourth. No matter how small it was, it was still a great achievement. And it made her smile broaden for her best friend.
“Who knew the big bad alpha was such a romantic, right boss?”
Claire snorted. “Not the ‘big bad alpha’ that’s for sure. And I seriously wasn’t trying to be romantic or anything - I genuinely didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“But…?”
Beth was trying her absolute hardest to keep Claire talking. This was her first opportunity to get her to open up about Ranger now knowing that the khaki-clad baker felt the same. Who knew when the next opportunity would be, and as her best friend, she had responsibilities to uphold.
Claire drew a long breath, staring blankly at the papers she held.
“Since you’re clearly not letting this go then I suppose… I also wanted to impress them?”
She didn’t really know how to explain herself - emotions were hardly her strong point.
“Maybe not impress, just, I wouldn’t want them seeing all the mess that you all leave all over the place (“I don’t do that”, “Beth you did it yesterday after you rediscovered that waffle-maker”, “Touché”) and then not want to be around me or think I’m disgusting or something. If they were ever gonna think of me in that way, I wouldn’t want to ruin that.”
Beth just smiled at the lovesick girl in front of her. At least now she knew Claire wanted it - consent is always key and if a spanking-clean house doesn’t show that who knows what will.
Now she just needs another chat with Ranger. The “I will murder you if you hurt her” chat. Should be fun.
“Well,” Beth sighed, “Planned or not, I’m happy for you. For both of you. God knows we’ve all waited long enough.”
“Didn’t realise you all cared so much - I’ll make sure it becomes a public holiday. Now, surely you can go bother your seer for a while? I need to file these papers or Ranger will hunt me down.”
“Kinky.”
“Not what I meant.” Claire retaliated, quickly opening the door to kick Beth out as soon as possible.
“Are you sure? Cause I’m pretty sure that thing I made would definitely come in handy for that-“
And even with the door slammed in her face, Beth snickered to herself the whole way home. No matter how sweet she found Claire’s new daring romance, holding this over her head was going to be fun.