Chapter Sixteen

Zhang

I waited over a week before I made a decision. In my mind, the alpha should have been the one to take the lead, to call me if he was interested. But as the days passed, and he didn't call, I missed him more and more.

Having to step into my new position as a supervisor should have kept me busy enough not to dwell upon my distant and silent mate, but whenever I took a break or stepped out by myself for lunch or got into my car to drive home, he loomed large in my mind. My mating mark no longer stung. Now it throbbed with the beat of my heart.

I loved my new job about as much as I expected to. Sure, it gave me something to focus on, but I'd never been the management type and never for one moment had implied that I would be. Oh, I could do it, and I was doing it, but it caused constant conflict in my soul. I desperately wanted him to call me, but I couldn't wait forever for that to happen.

"Sir, we need your help."

"I'm not sir," I muttered. "Just use my name as always. Zhang."

"Zhang, can you come and see what Johnny did now? I told him that if he continued to blah blah blah… It went on and on and on. Every time I finished dealing with someone's issues and came back to try to work my way through the mountains of daily, weekly, and monthly reports, I was summoned back to deal with yet another debacle either caused by one of those under me or exacerbated by the rules they had to follow or both. Not that my coworkers weren't good people or intelligent, but there had been a reason I had a reputation for being helpful. The training they had been through sucked. I'd had to learn my job through trial and error, the string of supervisors before me having done little or nothing to teach anybody what to do.

Frustration was high, and I was doing my best to lower that. My staff were good people who wanted to succeed, but they needed support. Training. And my rushing in to put out constant fires was not, in my opinion, the solution to anything. So far, I'd engaged in an email exchange with HR and other departments about setting up an official training program. It would require a period of weeks after hiring to familiarize new employees with our procedures, an updated handbook of those procedures, perhaps even a workbook. A certification program. Our department dealt with some of the most complex cases in the company, and I seemed to be the only one who realized all that included.

"This is why we need you," Glen said over coffee one morning. "You have the best grasp on what we need to accomplish. And you're doing a great job."

"I'm trying, sir, but I can only do so much without resources."

"You can have anything you want, as long as it doesn't cost money." He chuckled. "But great work."

No money. "I suppose I could set up a document with our procedures, but it's only going to be online unless I can get at least a small budget. And if I spend all my time putting out fires, how will I be able to do one-on-one training with each member of the department?"

"That's up to you. All we care about are results. If I didn't know better, I'd think you didn't want this promotion."

I clamped my lips closed to keep in the truth. No, I didn't want it, and I'd talked to Glen about this before. My bad for not coming right out at the beginning and telling him what all the problems were. Or it could be his bad for never listening. And the company for being cheap. My plan would have a cost, of course, but in the long run, it would save us money by arming the staff with the skills they needed to get their jobs done and in a timely manner.

I had begun bringing work home almost daily, and I hadn't been to the sauna since I got back from the inn. Much less the lake. Work consumed me.

But one evening, while I was sitting on the couch reviewing a file, I let it fall to my lap and reached for my phone. I hit the contact name, and the phone dialed.

"Zhang, I'm so glad you called." His rich, deep voice ran over me and melted my bones. "I was just going to call you but then I was afraid you'd think I was pushy."

Did he think I was pushy? "I was just sitting here and wondering how you are doing."

"I miss you." There was nothing he could have said that would have had the same effect on me.

"You do?"

"Every minute of every day."

Tears sprang to my eyes. "I-I thought you might not want to hear from me."

"Omega, you're my mate. But you didn't say you wanted me to call so I was trying to respect your privacy."

Sniffling, I swiped at my eyes with the back of my hands. "I don't want you to respect my privacy. I want you to make love to me."

"How soon can you get on a plane and visit me?"

"I'll put in for vacation tomorrow."

Unfortunately, although I had tons of vacation saved up, I was so "necessary for the welfare of the department" that I was still going to be on call. This company's HR really needed to be reported to someone.