Purrfect Chaos
Purrfect Mates: Book 1
A Billionaire Panther Shifter Romance
By Misha Carver
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0994026729
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NEWSLETTER SIGNUP
Want to connect? Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Misha_Carver
Other Books in This Serial:
Book 1: Purrfect Chaos
Book 2: Purrfect Storm
Book 3: Purrfect Harmony
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
Thanks for Reading!
About The Author
CHAPTER ONE
~Tom~
“I don’t care,” I yelled, pounding my fists down on the boardroom table. “Majestic Industries is going down if it’s the last thing I do.”
“You don’t get it, Tom. It’s not economically feasible,” Jarrod, my Vice President, advised.
I wanted to pounce across the table and rip his throat out. I was the President and CEO for a reason. It was my place to make the decisions, not his. How dare he question me.
“Look, that’s what we’re doing. In six months’ time, I want Majestic to be history. They’re our biggest competition, and we’re going to wipe them out. Do you hear me? Wipe them out, disintegrate them, abolish them, and wipe the floor with them.”
Everyone was looking at me like I’d lost my mind. I didn’t care. Big business was all about stomping on the competition no matter the cost. Even if we went in the red doing it, we’d make up for it down the road. If they couldn’t see that, they were insane.
“We just don’t have the numbers to justify it,” Jarrod continued. “Maybe a year or two down the road, it could be a possibility, but right now, I just can’t see it being a profitable venture.”
“A year or two down the road,” I growled. “We’ll do it now. Why wait when there is so much to be gained by putting that godforsaken company out of its misery?”
“Sir, with all due respect,” Paul, one of the board members, said, “that company isn’t in any misery. It’s doing quite well at the present. It’s going to cost you a lot of money to put them out of business. Can we really afford that kind of investment?”
“Again, I don’t care.” I could feel my face getting hotter as my heart started beating through my chest. Who were these people? Didn’t they have the foggiest idea of good business sense? “We’ll find a way, and we’ll do it.”
“If we fail and go under, a lot of people will lose a lot of money,” Jarrod said.
“We won’t fail,” I said. “I won’t fail.” I never failed at anything I set out to do. I was Thomas Puma, founder and CEO of Calico Enterprises, one of the biggest corporations in the US. The word “failure” was not in my vocabulary.
I wasn’t about to listen to another one of their protests. We were going to shut Majestic down one way or another. Once they were out of the way, we’d have a much higher market share and profit margin.
“I just can’t see it happening right now,” Paul said. “No matter how I crunch the numbers, it just...”
I stood up, towering over the table. “It’s going to happen now,” I bellowed. “I don’t care if we buy them out, blackmail them, or sabotage them. Majestic is going down.”
Everyone glared at me wide eyed and open mouthed. I knew I had let the panther in me get a little bit too close to the surface. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before adjourning the meeting.
“I can see we’re getting nowhere fast today,” I said as calmly as possible. “Let’s end this meeting for now and readdress it next Monday at the same time.” I excused myself, put my files back into my briefcase, and walked out of the room.
***
When I was finally back in my office, I leaned with my back against the door. That was so close. I was ready to pounce on every one of those guys. Every fiber of my being wanted to go straight for their jugulars, and it took all I had in me to hold myself back.
I went into my adjoining bathroom to splash some cold water on my face to help calm myself down. I couldn’t risk letting my wild side show any more than it already had at work.
I knew I was going to have to give into my beast soon, to go out into the woods in a secluded place and run wild for a day or two. Either that or risk killing all of my board members, and the CEO of Majestic.
***
I awoke at four o’clock a.m. to the telephone. Who the hell is calling me at this hour, I thought to myself. It’s probably a wrong number. I covered my head with my pillow and tried to ignore it.
It kept ringing and ringing to the point where I thought I was going to go insane. Someone better be dead, I thought as I picked up the phone.
“What?” I grunted into the phone.
“Tom, it’s Sherry.”
“Sherry, who?” I asked as I rubbed my weary eyes.
“Jarrod’s wife.”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
“Jarrod had a heart attack. I’ve been at the hospital all night.”
“Oh, God. How is he? Did they say when he’ll be able to come back to work?”
“Tom, he’s dead. He passed away about thirty minutes ago.”
“What the hell am I going to do now? He picked one hell of a time to up and die on me.”
“Tom...”
“Sherry, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I’ll send flowers or something.”
“Yeah, thanks. Goodbye.”
I felt terrible as soon as she hung up the phone. When it came to my company, I was a true narcissist. That was the secret of my success. As a person, separate from the business side of me, I was very tenderhearted. I just had a hard time separating the two.
I was trying to work on that, but it was a process. It was part of the nature of my beast. I was a cat shifter, but not just any werecat. I could shift into a run-of-the-mill black cat or a panther at will.
I could claw your eyes out or rip your heart out, depending on my mood. If you rubbed me the right way, I could even curl up on your lap and purr myself to sleep.
***
The next morning the office was abuzz with the news of Jarrod’s passing. Everyone was in tears at the news. They were crazy if they had expected the day off. It was business as usual. Something as mundane and common as a death of a coworker didn’t call for a holiday.
“Miss Lawrence, can I see you in my office, please,” I said as I passed my assistant’s desk on my way into my office.
“Yes, Mr. Puma,” she said as she got up to follow me.
Sarah Lawrence wasn’t the best employee, but she was faithful. I’d kept her with me all these years, not because of her competency, but because she knew how to keep a secret, my secret. She’d found out about it during her first year with Calico Enterprises and had never told a soul. I trusted her implicitly.
“I need you to find a replacement for Jarrod,” I said as she sat across from me.
“But, Tom, he’s only been gone for a few hours. Don’t you think you should let everyone adjust first?”
“Sarah, I have a business to run. I don’t have time to wait around for other people to prepare themselves. I need a Vice President as soon as possible.”
“The Vice President is someone you’ll have to work closely with. Don’t you think you should be the one looking for Jarrod’s replacement?” she asked.
“I have to go out of town
for a few days. I’m sure you’ll do just fine. At the very least, find me a couple of people to choose from. I’m looking for someone with the right background, who is a cutthroat business tycoon like myself.”
“Oh, I know exactly what you’re looking for, Tom,” she said sarcastically.
“Then I can count on you?” I said.
“Tom,” she said as she stared me straight in the face, “you know you can always count on me.”
CHAPTER TWO
~Jacy~
“Jacy, come in here a minute,” my father said over my intercom.
“I’m busy working on next quarter’s projections,” I said.
“Get your butt in here now. It’s important.” I got up and walked into his office.
“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait an hour?” I said as I tapped my foot impatiently.
“Word has it that the Vice President of Calico Enterprises passed away the other day.”
“And that’s my problem how?” I asked as I crossed my arms in front of me.
“Well, they’re going to be looking for another Vice President,” he said as he gave me a devilish grin.
“So?”
“Don’t you get it? They’ve been trying to run Majestic into the ground for a while now. This is our opportunity to infiltrate their company and find out what they’re up to. Maybe we can even turn the tables and destroy Calico Enterprises once and for all.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“The board of directors and I were talking, and we...”
“Wait, you had a board meeting without me? What the hell is that?” I asked. I was outraged at the thought that they would even think of calling a meeting without informing me.
“Jacy, relax. It was an impromptu meeting. More of a discussion. We thought that if we could send someone from here to replace their Vice President and act as a spy, we could stay on top of our game.”
“And just who are you planning on sending? Katie in finance?” I asked, half chuckling. Katie was such an airhead, I couldn’t imagine her acting as either a Vice President or a spy.
“Not exactly,” he said as he stared at me, grinning.
“Oh, no,” I said when I realized what he had in mind. “There is no way in hell I’m going to work for Tom Puma.”
I knew all about Tom Puma. His reputation preceded him. Not only was he a shrewd businessman who ruled his company with an iron fist, he also had a reputation as a playboy, making his rounds with the ladies, only to dump them after he got what he wanted.
“Technically, you won’t be working for him, you’ll be working with him. And you’ll be doing it for the greater good of Majestic.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “I don’t see how making me work side by side with that jerk is going to help Majestic at all. I’ll only be there two minutes before he sends me out the door, and we both know that.”
“For starters, you’re going to have to keep that temper of yours under wraps. It’s important to your cover. Secondly, you have the experience and the know how to make it believable. You’re really the only person we can send. Third, we’ve made a special resume for you, with a different last name so he won’t connect you to me.”
“No. I’m not doing it. Make a fake resume for someone else,” I said as I stood up to leave his office.
“It’s too late,” he said.
I spun around. “What do you mean it’s too late?”
“I faxed your resume to his office this morning.”
“How could you without asking me first?”
“I didn’t think you’d be so dead set against it. Ever since you’ve been the Vice President of Majestic you’ve always been all about whatever was best for the company. I thought you’d jump all over the opportunity to knock Calico on its knees.”
I winced at him in disgust as I shook my head. “I cannot believe that you guys went ahead and did this behind my back,” I said as I stormed out of his office, slamming the door behind me.
I heard him open the door, but I just kept on going. “Where are you going?” he yelled.
“Anywhere but here,” was all I said.
***
“God dammit,” I said as I pounded my palms against the steering wheel. I was twenty-five years old and yet people always thought of me as little Jacy. Oh, don’t worry, Jacy will do it. Well, guess what, Jacy’s a grown woman now, and she has a mind of her own.
I brushed the tears away from my cheeks with my hand before I pulled into the gas station to fuel up. It was a long drive up into the mountains to our old family cabin. I hadn’t been there in years. But at least for tonight, I needed some peace of mind. A nice quiet place where I could be all alone with nature.
CHAPTER THREE
~Tom~
I was glad Miss Lawrence was taking care of things back home while I was on what I referred to as my hiking trip out in the mountains. In reality, I was letting my wild cat run free, at one with nature.
From time to time, I’d shift back into human form and walk through the trails or go into town for a drink or something to eat. But, for the most part, I was enjoying running around on four legs, scaring the hell out of any human that got near me.
I would never harm them. I just didn’t want them near me. This was my quiet time. My time to rest and relax. The only way to keep it to myself was to growl and roar at anyone whose scent I picked up. If they were within smelling radius, they needed to be evicted from my territory, and my territory ran the entire length of the woods.
***
Everything was perfect and peaceful until the day I curled up to take an afternoon nap under a lush berry bush. The sun threatened to wake me, but I kept my eyes covered with my paws. I was so comfortable in the cool grass until I heard the truck off in the distance.
God dammit, just when I was finally getting the rest I so desperately needed, another human had to come along and interrupt me. I listened for the sound to come closer, but it stopped suddenly.
I moved my head around curiously as I tried to listen. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t make out any sounds at all. Maybe they’d just gone away. I tucked my head back in my paws and fell into a deep sleep.
I woke up a few hours later to the most glorious scent. The scent of a woman, but not just any woman. This one smelled unlike any woman I had ever smelled before. Like daisies, vanilla, honey, and sugar, all rolled into one. I knew it had to be a woman because nothing else on earth could ever smell that sweet.
I tried to fight my urge to look for her and scare her away. The scent was so engaging that I wanted to keep her around just so I could inhale it for a little while longer. Maybe if I just searched for her to see what she looks like, I thought to myself.
I got up on my haunches and started sauntering through the woods, looking for the woman who had stirred my curiosity. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I started running through the woods. The moonlight and darkness didn’t bother me. My vision was perfect no matter the time of day.
As I drew nearer, I slowed down and trod lightly, careful not to make a sound. My nose wriggled as I sniffed for her scent to get my sense of direction. Finally, I saw her, in an open field of grass right there in the center of the woods.
She was even more beautiful than I had imagined. The moonlight danced across her long raven hair, giving it bluish silver highlights, and made her plump red lips look akin to cherry wine. I stood staring at her in awe as her appearance refreshed me much like an oasis in a desert.
When I finally came to my senses, I ducked behind some bushes before she could see me. She was saying something, talking to someone, named Willow. I couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, but it seemed like it was some rhyme of some sort.
A hiss startled me, and I jumped backwards. A small black cat peeked through the bushes at me, and I figured out quickly who Willow was. “Shoo, shoo,” I whispered as I motioned for Willow to move on. But she stayed right there with her back up and her tail up, hissing away
.
Finally, I smacked her upside the head with my massive paw, and sent her sauntering off with her tail between her legs. I couldn’t risk her blowing my cover with her beautiful master.
I listened some more to the beautiful raven-haired princess as she waved her hands around over the tree stump in the middle of the woods while she repeated her incantations and rhymes. I turned my head from side to side while I tried to figure out what she was doing.
Then it hit me. Black cat, woods, rhymes, and incantations, she was a witch. At that point, I decided to head back to my own neck of the woods and leave her alone. If I stayed there and watched her, or if I tried to frighten her, she might turn me into a mate for Willow, and I really didn’t want that.
***
On Monday morning as I was getting ready for work, my telephone rang. God damn, I thought. Can’t anything wait until I get to the office?
“What is it?” I said as I answered the phone.
“Oh good, you’re back,” Sarah said.
“Of course I am. I have a Board of Directors meeting this morning. I hope you have a few candidates for the Vice President position for me to select from ready.”
“That’s what I’m calling about. It’s all been taken care of.”
“Great, how many do I get to pick from, four, five?”
“No, sir. I mean it’s all been taken care of. You have a new Vice President. The board voted unanimously on Friday.”
“Very well,” I said. “They’ll be at the meeting today, I hope. The best way to start a new job is to jump right into the thick of things.”
“Even better,” she said. “You’ll be able to meet your new Vice President as soon as you get here. She’s waiting in your office.”
“She,” I said. “She...what do you mean, she?”
“Now, Tom, just relax.”
“Don’t tell me to relax. How the hell did this happen? You know...”
“Tom, she’s worked as the Vice President of several Fortune 500 companies, including Majestic. I think you’ll be able to use her to your advantage.”
“We’ll have to see about that,” I said before I hung up without even saying goodbye. So much for faithful employees who know me. She should have known better than to hire a woman to be my sidekick.
CHAPTER FOUR
~Jacy~
“Well, how was your trip?” my dad said when he greeted Willow and I at my front door.