Billionaire's Hidden Mate

Orienting Part Two

(Penelope's POV)

Valerie and I decided to utilize the staircase to ascend the one floor to reach Michael's office. 

After walking to the farthest door on the right, Valerie opens the door to the waiting area where Kevin greets us. 

He says-Hi Valerie and Penelope! When Michael arrived this morning, he gave clear instructions that Penelope could head right into his office when she arrived. 

Valerie replies-I will leave the care of Penelope in Michael's excellent hands. Please remember Penelope that my door is always open if you have questions or concerns. 

Valerie heads back out the door while I walk forward to the doors of Michael's office. 

Taking a deep breath to compose myself I opened the doors.

Upon my entrance, Michael looks up from his work to greet me.

He says-Hi Penelope. Every employee here goes on a first-name basis unless in the presence of a guest. Outside these walls, I can call you Ms. Williams if you prefer. 

Lightheartedly he says-Minimally, I prefer it if you call me Michael outside these walls. Nonetheless, I truly prefer if one day on your own accord call me your alpha. 

Smirking she replies-Hello Michael. Inside these walls since it is company culture to call every employee by their first names, I can accept that you will call me by my first name here. If you continue to push me, there are countless other names I prefer to call you. I will give you a hint. None of the names are friendly. 

Laughing he says-Feisty, I was just putting all my cards on the table since I expected you would appreciate my honesty. 

Composing himself he says-Let us get back on track, shall we? Please sit down. 

Once I sit down, he explains what the plan is for this portion of the orientation. 

He explains-I will provide a tour of the facility and afterwards you can set up your office. 

For a moment, he pauses before saying-Naturally, we cannot stop at every spot on this tour and spend a large amount of time at each one. However, one of the places we will spend considerable time is in the security office where you will receive your employee badge and security clearances. On the tour I will point out werewolf-only accessible areas. Normally, these are only for pack members. However, due to your situation I trust you in these areas. 

Retracting she says-Why are you trusting me in these areas? Notably, I persistently repeat that I will not join your pack. Why put your pack in potential jeopardy by trusting me? Also why would I even choose to enter the werewolf-only accessible areas?

Retorting he says-One of the requirements to being a proper alpha and CEO is being an  excellent judge of character. With this in mind, I have long honed my instincts to determine if I should be able to trust a person or not. Ultimately, in your case my instincts tell me I can trust you. A majority of the areas you will have access to will not put the pack in jeopardy. The areas this conversation pertains to are a werewolf shift area, a werewolf medical area, and a werewolf exercise area. The only risk area you have access to is the werewolf research area. 

He explains-At Thomas International we care about our employees both their human and werewolf side. Sometimes werewolves just need to shift if they are angry or stressed. We would rather employees know that if they feel that need they have someplace to run to rather than need to worry about them potentially shifting in front of the humans if their emotions become uncontrollable. 

Continuing in his explanation he says-As you know our bodies work differently than our human counterparts. Therefore, we place the medical facilities separate for the humans and werewolves to maintain the secret. We also place the exercise areas separate for the same reason. 

For a moment, he pauses before finishing his explanation-For your information, Thomas International is one of the leading werewolf research faculties in the world. We truly wish to understand both the human and werewolf parts in order to know what we can implement that will be best for each side. While it is completely optional, werewolf employees have taken part in the trials or provided samples. We even bring in other packs werewolves to explore if there are differences on a biological level. Accordingly, the only risks you could potentially bring to having access to those areas are telling a non-human mate about the area or attempting to show them the area, which seeing as you haven't told Helena Troy about yourself yet makes me positive you understand and follow the no-telling non-human mates about werewolves rule. Additionally, you choose not to interact with werewolves, thus I cannot envision you telling outside pack members about any knowledge you could gain from our research. 

Clearly, she can tell she has frustrated him since he takes a deep breath before trying to say-Notably, that while I chose to give you access to the werewolf areas in order that if you ever desire to utilize it in the future you can. Obviously, the decision to actually utilize the area is up to you. Sincerely, I hope that one day you will choose to enter there on your own accord. Not just owing to the fact that I want you to enjoy the werewolf community, but so you can stop denying a part of who you are. Actually letting your wolf self be free since I can tell by looking at you, that you barely let her out. 

She retorts-Surprisingly, you actually thought it all out. Admittedly, you are correct that I will not tell anyone about the areas or the knowledge I gain. Your assumption that I live this half-life denying a part of myself is presumptuous. Yes, I am a werewolf and yet I will not deny I have no desire to be part of that world. Why would I, a strong independent female, desire to live in a world that tells me to subjugate myself to a man? Ultimately, I rather orient myself to living as a human for the most part. At least they are progressing in the right direction in terms of female rights. 

He states-Hopefully, in this year my pack will show you that we are also one of the progressive ones. Furthermore, that you can orient yourself to living both as a werewolf and as a human. However, I know that would be unfathomable to you now. Thus, let's just focus on continuing your orientation as a Thomas International employee. 

(Hi Everyone. I hope you all like the chapter. It is officially after midnight on my birthday and this is my gift to all of you. Unfortunately, my family is dealing with issues so I do not know when the next update is going to be.)