Rex Fidel was not unused to being the omega of the pack. He'd grown up surrounded by ten older siblings. And while they were all fighting over who got to be in charge, he did his best to stay out of their way. That is not to say that he didn't love them dearly. On the contrary: he loved them as much as he feared them.
Werewolf school had not been much different: you were either an alpha or you were nothing. Rex had chosen to be nothing, a shadow to his older brothers, until they graduated. Then it had been just him and the bullies, and the bullies were bigger and stronger.
He'd thought university would be different, but Were U had proven him wrong. Perhaps he could have chosen a different university, one where he wouldn't be made to play the fox on the Full Moon Hunting Party nights. One less alpha-centric, perhaps. But he was a werewolf, and werewolves went to Were U. All his brothers and sisters went there.
And all his brothers and sisters went to work for the big, shiny and respectable Bones R Ours Corporation after graduation. They were the alpha of werewolf corporations, a multi-trillion dollar corporation, the real thing. The only thing for a respectable werewolf. Which meant he wasn't respectable, because they'd turned down his application. Not alpha enough, apparently. "We need someone with leadership potential."
Desperate, he'd applied to all jobs he could find, but no one would have him. No one until the interview at Blood Lust Corporation, where the short vampire girl in high heels and makeup too strong for her age - then again, she could have been centuries old, what did he know of vampire age anyway? - had given him one look and ran out of their interview booth to talk to her boss.
"He's so cute! Can I keep him? Can I? Can I?" he heard her squealing excitedly.
Her boss had coughed a little, shuffled some papers, and said, "Well, there is that diversity hire policy."
And so he was hired.
This all went before his eyes as he watched the beautiful pale lady approach him with her cold blue eyes fixed on his tail. He wished he could make it stop wagging, but the thing had a mind of its own.
"Your name?" she asked. And, seeing as he couldn't collect himself enough to answer, she went on. "Or should I just call you Diversity Hire?"
"Rex," he managed.
She gave a snort. In the old language, his name meant king. He knew that, and, as he lay on the floor at her feet, he knew the name was a joke.
"Ah, I remember now," she said. "There was a memo. Our new werewolf. Mr. Fidel, pull yourself up, if you will be so kind, and remove yourself from my sight this instant."
"Please don't fire me!" Rex managed to say, struggling to get up. "It's my first day."
"Quite impressive for a first day," she said, without bothering to give him a hand to help him to his feet. "Nearly killing the CEO not even one hour after midnight. The immortal CEO, I might add. I'm sure Bones R Ours would love to hire you on these qualifications alone. You obviously don't need to be our diversity hire when you can be their top dog."
"They don't want me, I swear!" Rex said. His tail had finally stopped wagging, and he managed to regain enough balance to pull himself up.
"You mean you aren't working for them?" she asked coldly. "And I suppose you also had no idea what was in the package."
"No, I swear!"
"Just a simple mail boy then? A little over-enthusiastic, perhaps?"
"Very," Rex admitted.
"Well, it's good we got that cleared and out of the way. Now get out of here before the police come snooping in. And no, we cannot fire you for nearly killing me. It would look like discrimination, with you being a werewolf and all. I can see the lawyers going at it now: you can't fire a werewolf for doing what's in its nature, and it's only in their nature to kill vampires."
She rolled her eyes and turned around, her long, silvery-blonde hair slapping him gently over the nose as she turned a little too fast. The conversation was over as far as she was concerned. Rex didn't dare press his luck with more apologies. But it wouldn't have been in his nature to kill her, he knew that, vampire or not, werewolf or not.
***
The police arrived faster than expected, sirens deafening the streets below. Clearly they'd misunderstood Isobel's hurried message about a death threat. Two officers took the elevator to the CEO's floor, while the others remained below, surveying the area. From her office window, Eve's superhuman vision even detected an ambulance, parked a few buildings down the street. Had they really expected she'd be hurt, or were they expecting this to be an ambush? Did they really think she'd be so stupid as to attack the very policemen she'd called to report a crime to?
The officers who came upstairs looked scared. They were young, both male, both fit, and well-armed. From the elevator, they threw one look at the wooden stake, still lodged in the wall, and their shoulders relaxed in an instant. Yes, this was a real death threat, a real call. Nothing scary, nothing to worry about. Eve could not repress a smile. Humans. Always so entertaining.
***
Back in the mailroom, Rex found himself surrounded by all the girls in the department. They were about five of them, all vampires, all young-looking, though he didn't dare ask for their real ages.
"That was scary!" one of them said. She was a cute redhead by the name of Monica, with pale skin marked by freckles from another lifetime.
"Eve is so scary!" another girl said. This one, Naomi, was tall and dark, black eyes glistening with a touch of blood-red in them.
A few others called him a poor thing and patted him on the head, apparently to make him feel better and definitely not to have a touch of the dog ears. One of them showed interest in his tail, which he was certain bordered on sexual harassment.
Even the girl from unhuman resources came down to the mailroom to pay him a visit, and his boss informed him gruffly that he would not need to actually work for the rest of the day.
"Just try to stay out of the way, and we'll sort this out tomorrow."
But some things needed to be sorted out that very night. The policemen, having snooped around the CEO floor as much as they could, decided to interview everyone involved. For effect, they insisted that the mail boy come back upstairs, to the scene of the crime, so to speak.
Rex found it difficult to be back upstairs. He was too uncomfortable to be able to stay in full human form, his ears and tail showing. What was worse, his tail began wagging the moment he saw the CEO, standing between the two policemen with her arms crossed over her generous chest. She did not seem happy to see him.
The policemen were not the friendly sort. Most of them weren't, when it came to unhumans, whether werewolves or vampires or any other sort of not fully human creatures. To the CEO, they showed deference, as was only natural given her status in the business world. But they did not hold back when it came to interrogating a werewolf mailroom clerk.
"New hire, aye?"
"First day?"
"Odd, isn't it, to work for a vampire..."
"Odd accident too. Or was it an accident?"
"Tell us who you work for, it will make things easier on you, pup."
"He works for me," Eve said coldly, interposing herself between Rex and the policemen. "And if you are insinuating that the accident was on purpose, you will need to provide proof before you can question any of my employees in such a manner. And certainly not without his lawyer."
"We're only trying to help, Ma'am," one of them said apologetically.
"They cannot be trusted, not around vampires," the other added quickly.
"Perhaps less generalization would make you less at risk of offending any unhuman races," Eve pointed out. "I trust him. The girls in the mailroom like him, and they have great instincts. Horrible taste in men, but good instincts."
"Still, it's odd for a vampire to hire a werewolf," one of the men tried to defend himself.
"Diversity hire," Eve said with a shrug. "You know the law: we're not allowed to hire vampires only. I'm sure you have your own handful of diversity hires in your department too. You probably make them work the day shift to look good, smile at the cameras at press conferences, that sort of thing. We, at Blood Lust, take inclusion very seriously. We're lucky to have him."
She turned around and entered her office, closing the door behind her, dismissing the policemen with a wave as she passed by them. Clearly the conversation was over for her. Isobel, the secretary, stayed behind in the corridor to help with the paperwork and any questions they might still have, but the men looked abashed and retreated shortly. Even after they had left, and Isobel had retreated to the office, it took Rex a long time to realize he was no longer needed upstairs. Only then did his tail stop wagging.