Okay, so, yes, I’d need to come up with another infusion of cash a little further down the line for ongoing expenses like taxes and salaries and oh, maybe, food. But I was hopeful I’d be able to rope in enough potential students by then to keep the school operating in the black all on its own.
“Well, realistically you’d need to charter a flight to the International Space Station or maybe set up an installation on the remotest corner of Antarctica,” Chris clarified. “I mean, you’re talking about putting a bunch of unattended pack princesses in this school, right? I don’t personally see the appeal, but males like Orville are gonna be beating down the doors to get those students out.”
Only when my shoulders relaxed did I realize they’d previously been hunched up around my ears in disappointment. Because my companion was right...and wrong. I’d spent half the night dreaming up a solution for that particular thorny problem, so I slapped a rumpled and scribbled-upon paper napkin down on Chris’s keyboard in lieu of a reply.
The younger male twitched away from me for the first time since becoming engrossed in my story, and I spared a second to dial back my inner beast’s aggressions. Because, yes, the notion of Blue-eyes getting kidnapped by a loser like Orville chapped my ass. But that worst-case scenario wasn’t going to happen, so there was no reason to get preemptively pissed about it.
Chris turned the napkin around a couple of times until he was finally able to make out my unruly scrawl. Then he grinned. “Yeah, this could work,” he admitted. “Assuming the fathers will go for it.”
Thinking of the way Angelica had the otherwise untouchable Chief Stormwinder wrapped around her little finger, I had a feeling the fathers would go for it. So I simply shrugged. “Can you set it up?”
“Sure,” the other male replied. “I can channel all of the money into an account now and pay for whatever once the bills start rolling in. I’m assuming you don’t want to wait to create a non-profit, so I’ll need to skim thirty percent off the top for taxes and a bit more for my time.”
“That’s fine,” I said, slapping the credit card down on the table. “But the money needs to come out all at once and it needs to come out now.”
“Please take my eight-hundred-thousand dollars,” Stooge muttered behind my back in a mocking, high-pitched tone of voice. I shot my partner a glare that was really a thanks-for-coming-with-me-man and he responded with an I-have-your-back smirk.
“Is that all you need?” I asked after a few more minutes. Chris was so engrossed in his typing that a pack princess could have plunked herself down on his lap without the geek being any the wiser.
“Sure, sure,” he said distractedly. “I’ve got the names right here....”
“Addresses,” I interrupted, realizing my oversight. “You’ll need addresses for the acceptance letters.”
Chris looked up from his work at last and for the first time all day his eyes met mine in a split second of alpha aggression. The youngster was pissed enough and my wolf was relaxed enough, though, so no sparks flew.
“I can find the addresses,” he replied flatly. Then, sliding my maxed-out credit card back across the table, he dismissed me as if I wasn’t an uber-alpha so strong I could command him to rip out his own spleen.
“Now get out of my hair,” the youngster finished. “I have work to do.”
Chapter 28
“So this is it?”
For parting number two, I wasn’t sneaking off base like a thief in the night, afraid to meet my long-time partner’s eyes. Instead, our paths diverged as we reached the sidewalk lining the front of his apartment building.
Stooge was in uniform, heading in to work. I was in borrowed jeans, scuffed and worn but fitting considerably better than the pair I’d snagged from the thrift store a couple of days earlier. They smelled a heck of a lot better too.
“I’ll be in touch,” I promised. Then, plucking at the sleeve of my t-shirt. “After all, I’ve gotta return these.”
In response, Stooge’s face twisted into his characteristic smirk, but the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. After all, he and I both knew our relationship would never be quite the same after this.
Because, yeah, you can take a man out of the EOD without taking the EOD out of the man. But you can’t really take a pair of brothers out of daily proximity and expect them to still finish each others’ sentences when they catch up during infrequent vacations stolen away from very different walks of life.
I was losing a lot more than I gained by casting aside Stooge’s unfailing loyalty in order to run back to Stormwinder’s manipulative pseudo-friendship. And yet...I found that I couldn’t resist Angelica’s blue eyes and her challenges to better both her way of life and my own.
“I’ll see you later, dude,” I continued, punching my friend on the shoulder before putting a little more distance between us. I’d seen male shifters rolling around on the ground in impromptu wrestling sessions as a way of showing affection. But here on a military base, a single shoulder slug between men would have to suffice.
To my surprise, Stooge was the one to call my bluff. He pulled me in for a guy hug, all aggressive back-pounding and stiff posture. But, up so close, I couldn’t miss the pheromones that gave away his true emotions.
Regret, melancholy, love.
“You too,” I whispered, responding to the unspoken words. Then, louder: “Take care of yourself, Paul.”
“Ditto, Swamp Beast,” he replied, offering up the call sign I’d never merited until it was too late.
Then the best friend I’d ever known was walking quickly in the opposite direction while I slid behind the wheel of my stolen pickup truck. And if I found it hard to see for a couple of minutes as I drove off base? Well, obviously it was only because a gnat had flown into my eye.
I ALLOWED CHAD TO AMBUSH me. The kid needed a way to save face after our previous scuffle and this was the best solution I’d been able to come up with on short notice. So I parked at a distance and made sure I entered pack boundaries right where Stormwinder’s only son was patrolling. Then I didn’t resist when he took me down in a chokehold I could have snapped out of with a flick of my wrist.
The knee in my kidney was neither necessary nor anticipated. But you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
“I’m here to see your father,” I said after spitting out a mouthful of leaves. Wait, was that a centipede crawling in front of my nose? Maybe there was time for a quick protein boost before we got down to business....
Focus, Hunter.
“What you want and what you get aren’t always the same thing,” Chad replied smugly, yanking me onto my feet while twisting my right arm up behind my back.
Or, okay, so he tried to yank me back onto my feet. But muscles are heavier than flab and we would have both ended up in a heap on the ground if I hadn’t deftly reversed our orientations in an effort to remain vertical.
Bad move, kid.
Nose to nose, I allowed my wolf’s presence to speak for both halves of my being. We didn’t even have to growl before terror entered Chad’s eyes and his wolf began whimpering beneath his human skin. No, all it took was a single disappointed glance and my opponent was ready to fall onto his knees and beg for mercy.
Immediately, though, I dialed back the aggression. I wanted Chad to clue in to where we both stood, but I also wanted to leave his three henchmen in the dark. Because Stormwinder Jr. wouldn’t save face if his companions knew I possessed the upper hand.
Time to make a deal, I thought, hoping Chad would be bright enough to realize what I was offering when I gave the illusion of being dominated by his measly inner wolf. Would the kid be mature enough to understand that I expected moderation in return for my fake submission?
Oh, yeah, and there was one additional problem associated with my oh-so-clever plan. I wasn’t entirely certain I was capable of backing down in the face of a weaker wolf.
Still, I’d spent quite a bit of time pondering Angelica’s parting line during the long
ride west. And what I’d come up with was as simple as it was profound.
Spending too long in my two-legged form made my cooped-up wolf unruly. Meanwhile, if I got too overwrought worrying about lesser beings’ safety, then my wolf also tended to seize the reins in an effort to protect us both.
But I’d prepared for my current meeting well in advance. I’d shifted recently and had allowed my inner beast to vent its aggressions with a growl here and a stare-down there along the way.
In response, my lupine half was now both mellow and malleable. So I raised both eyebrows in warning...then I relaxed and willed the kid to gaze deep into my entirely human eyes.
Chad nearly yelped when he saw the terror-inducing beast disappear from my demeanor. Then, when I rounded my shoulders and averted my gaze in mimicry of the submissive postures I was so used to seeing all around me, Stormwinder’s son lengthened his own spine in unconscious reaction.
Now—would the kid throw the gift back in my face and force me to overwhelm him in front of his buddies? Or would he dredge up a little of his sister’s wisdom and accept the gift in the manner which it had been intended?
For a moment, I was sure Chad was more like his father than like his sister. But then he smiled wryly and nodded once. “Yeah, Dad will want to talk to you,” he concluded. Finally, stepping back to allow space for me to walk unhindered, he ushered his supposed prisoner down the path toward clan headquarters.
To our audience, it appeared as if Junior had managed to clamp me firmly beneath his thumb. Meanwhile, I wasn’t pulling a muscle being manhandled by someone who didn’t know the first thing about hand-to-hand combat.
In other words, we were both happy.
One day soon, I’ll have to teach the kid how to actually subdue an unwilling opponent, I thought with a sigh.
But that was okay. There would be plenty of time to turn Stormwinder Junior into the alpha wolf I was giving him the ticket to become.
Assuming, that was, I could make a similar deal with his heavy-handed father.
Chapter 29
My reception back at clan headquarters didn’t go nearly so smoothly. Barring our slightly unsavory introduction and Angelica’s limousine episode, Stormwinder had always appeared suave and civilized in my presence in the past, so much so that I sometimes forgot he wasn’t a one-body human. But now a sharp bite of anger filled the air as my boss’s beast attempted to claw its way out of his furless skin.
“Leave us,” he said curtly, dismissing son and lackeys alike nearly as soon as they followed me into the room. Only once the older shifter had turned away to stare out the nearest window did I smell the underlying aroma filling the bookcase-lined study—gut-roiling fear.
Yes, Stormwinder was so angry he wanted to rip my throat out...but he was also piss-his-pants terrified to be left in the same room with my uber-alpha self. Interesting. Was that what my boss had been hiding beneath his fatherly demeanor all along?
An average shifter would have crowed his triumph from the rooftops. But I’d come back for a reason, and that reason wasn’t to rub Stormwinder’s nose into his own excrement.
Instead, my primary goal was to gain the older shifter’s support for my proposed werewolf finishing school. I’d also decided that I liked being an enforcer...assuming I was given enough leeway to make my own decisions about who was and wasn’t breaking shifter law. In both cases, I could achieve my ends more efficiently with Stormwinder’s blessing than without it.
In other words, I’d come to grovel.
“I apologize,” I began, noticing the start of fear rippling across my boss’s skin when my voice first filled the air. Then Stormwinder’s neck tilted ever so slightly to the side as he became intrigued by my words.
“I manhandled your daughter, I left my post, and I didn’t return your calls,” I continued before pausing. I wasn’t sure exactly how much I wanted to reveal about my recent actions, and as I spoke I’d also caught a whiff of sweet and spicy pumpkin pie emanating from the adjoining room.
For an instant, my train of thought was completely derailed. Did Stormwinder realize his daughter was standing on the other side of that door listening to every word we said? And would Angelica approve of my problem-solving abilities once I laid the results at her dainty little feet?
I didn’t have much time to worry, though, because my boss turned toward me at last, his face once again as smooth as a waveless sea. A moment earlier, the older shifter had been all predator, ready to tear me to shreds. But now I might have passed him on the street without even realizing he possessed an inner beast.
Yes, I had plenty left to learn from the man standing in front of me.
To my surprise, Stormwinder ignored my apology and instead waved an unrelated document through the air. “How do you explain this?” he demanded.
Unfortunately, the paper was too far away for me to figure out what in the heck had gotten Stormwinder’s panties in a twist. Leaning forward and peering closely, though, allowed me to catch the company symbol of the credit card that still sat in my wallet despite its complete lack of ability to charge further purchases. The conclusion was obvious—my spendthrift ways rather than my general disobedience were at the root of Stormwinder’s current frustration.
Well, that was an easy one to counter. Doing my best to keep both face and tone as emotionless as my mentor’s, I answered, “A charitable donation.”
“To save the whales?” Stormwinder shot back. Behind him, the door dividing study from library slid open a crack and Angelica’s mischievous face filled the void. She rolled her eyes at me and I fought to keep a straight face.
“Something like that,” I confirmed. Save the pack princesses, save the whales. Tomato, tomahto.
“It wouldn’t instead be related to an acceptance letter that came via private courier this morning, addressed to my youngest daughter?” Stormwinder continued, his voice lowering into a growl.
The credit-card statement slid aside to reveal a very different page underneath. Chris did a bang-up job, was my first thought. The letterhead was professional, the paper heavy and textured. I could almost believe that the Stormwinder School for Girls was a venerable, old institution that had churned out decades’ worth of worthy graduates.
Wait a minute. The Stormwinder School for Girls? Oh, Chris. What havoc have you wrought?
Seeking reassurance, my gaze flicked to the young lady who had been the impetus for my recent insubordinate actions. In reply, she shot me a smiling thumbs up. “Good job,” Angelica mouthed before pulling back into the shadows and out of sight.
I wanted the daughter’s approval more than the father’s, so I stood firm. “We appreciate your donation,” I replied. Then, unable to maintain the emotionless facade I’d been striving for, I couldn’t resist adding: “Are you going to let her attend?”
“Am I going to allow an eighteen-year-old girl to leave home for the sole purpose of learning how to live in a world that doesn’t currently exist? Am I going to send four of my best men to guard her back every moment of the day and night even though I’ll still be left worrying that some scavenger could break through the school’s defenses at any moment and harm my Angel? Is that what you’re asking?” Stormwinder’s nostrils flared as he elaborated and I caught the faintest hint of bitter almonds once again filling the air.
In an instinctive response to the other male’s animosity, my inner wolf begged to be released from his bonds. We can beat him, he whispered, the promise warm and seductive in my belly. After all, Stormwinder had tricked us and treated us like lackeys. Why should we be the one to grovel in the face of his pitiful anger?
Because we need him, I reminded the wolf. I deftly wove images within our shared mind of the world-changing results of Stormwinder’s unequivocal support for our proposed school. Fathers now and for years into the future would look to their Tribunal representatives before deciding whether their own daughters could be trusted outside the clan. In the end, if Stormwinder let his daughter attend, he woul
d be impacting far more than Blue-Eyes’ future.
My wolf responded with his own cascade of images. Us ripping the older shifter into shreds. Us taking our rightful place at the head of the other wolf’s clan. Us triumphant.
I had no reply that an animal could understand. Instead, I offered the only sop I had to his wounded pride. You have to trust me on this one, I murmured silently. Stormwinder’s good will is necessary to us right now.
For a moment, I thought the wolf would rebel. But, instead, my earlier preparations paid off as the beast settled down with a long-suffering sigh. Sure, my gut still roiled and my throat still itched, but those symptoms I could easily ignore as long as my animal half wasn’t actively fighting against my will.
Then, at last, I channeled my one-time CO and spoke as calmly as I could to the alpha who had roped me into his world and thought he could call the shots. “Angelica is smart and brave, sir,” I told Stormwinder. “She’ll create a better world if we give her half a chance.”
Like my own inner wolf, my boss’s beast wasn’t easily cowed by a few pretty words. Instead, his eyes met mine, passion glinting in those orbs’ depths as my opponent’s instinctive urge to dominate surged back to the fore. With Angelica’s future on the line, Stormwinder was adamant in his attempt to knock me back down to size.
And for an instant, I actually considered letting my companion win. Perhaps the effort would butter him up the same way I’d salvaged my ailing relationship with his son. It was no skin off my teeth if Stormwinder thought himself the victor.
But the easy way out wasn’t always the best way forward. No, I’d learned that lesson already when I followed Stormwinder’s lead without thought...and then came to regret it. So, instead, I relaxed and released my barely repressed wolf.
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