Page 87 of Broken Wolf

Good times.

Someone at the bank leaked the list of houses I bought and every bullshit contractor looking to screw over supes or church trying to call them names is showing up to harass them. It sucks, but with my permission, the council has sent two teams to help and be visible. They’re wearing cameras and reporting it all to the new remote FBI office there.

Though I had to remind the police who keep showing up to care more about the crimes being committed instead of the council guards they keep trying to run background checks on. They weren’t even allowed to get involved in that shit, and my office handled it.

So we made three steps forward and one back, but there was progress. I was hearing from Felix that a lot of the neighbors were nice and couldn’t care less that wolves had moved in. The ones who did… They could be ignored as long as they bitched from afar.

Awesome.

The wolves from Milwaukee who were involved in the DUI—and the others who were doing penance for the summer—learned fast not to piss me off and my packs were not a joke. They were privileged that they had the lives they did when other supes were shot on sight or suffered other horrors.

And not just supes. There were people who were beaten for breathing in other parts of the world. People so poor they skipped most meals in this country.

My wolves were blessed, and I bled to make that a reality. I wasn’t going to let any of them be fucking stupid and risk all of that so they could be stupid.

They would never forget it. Every time I saw them return to the packhouse apartment, they looked ready to drop… And Ashley looked amused.

Good.

The only bad thing is we’re running out of chores for them. It gave me an idea, so I called up the Chief of Police and asked if my idiots could wash and detail some squad cars. I could get some extras, and maybe it would show these asshole police in other areas how nice it is when the police are decent to their local shifters and get along.

He agreed… Probably because I’m not someone he wants annoyed with him now that I’m in charge of both Chicago FBI offices more than he wanted to make the statement, but it works for me. So we’ve got that set up for soon.

Noah is getting over a hundred new vamps. The council is handling that Master vampire and it’s a bit of a mess.

A mess they want to clean up on their own, and now Noah’s getting a bunch of vamps. Awesome.

No, not really, and it’s a group package deal, so it’s bullshit.

The council isn’t happy that I said it was a 90-day trial since it wasn’t the normal application process. Too fucking bad. Then they could drop them all off on someone else. This wasn’t our mess, and I was tired of cleaning it all up for everyone. I was the biggest Alpha next to Alena with all my packs, not their fucking fixer or garbagewoman.

Assholes.

Seriously.

I did also bring up what I discussed with the judge and found out a lot of humans thought Master of the City was a unisex term like actor or waiter. I floated by the council that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea or at least to allow each person to choose for themselves. Mistress was too bastardized in the US from what they were used to… And the actual term of the “other woman.”

So it was tricky, but something to think about. Even if they were sexist and some hated me, they had to hate how often I was demeaned for one of their roles and wouldn’t like it when I was the boss of some of their most talented vampires. That last part seemed to perk them up.

Good.

Zeno loved his Father’s Day gift. Absolutely adored it and the “date” we had picking it out. I promised we would do it again, and he’s checking out other exhibitions coming up in Chicago that we could experience together. It’s really so cute, and I adore having something to share with a parent like that.

Alena seems to be a bit jealous I have a thing with him and we don’t. That amuses Eva and even Mauro.

Mauro is amazing. I seriously love him and not in a sexual way at all. He is like… Honestly, a brother from another mother in the not weird way given Eva is his mother. But he’s like a male older me. He’s abrasive, distrusting, sarcastic, no-nonsense, and just amazing.

A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.

He’s still doing his audit of everything, but the first thing he put an end to is everyone wearing so many damn hats. He is now my business manager and agreed to do it for at least the next few years. That shocked Eva to the point she couldn’t speak for a full minute.

Which Mauro enjoyed. A lot.

I did too.

But he explained that this was a challenge unlike any he’d seen and starting businesses to sell them had become boring for him. This was exciting, thrilling even.

I laughed and told him to please, please take it all.

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