Page 11 of Broken Wolf

Yeah, fair enough.

I listened to the rest and thanked Orson for filling me in. I gave him another kiss as I stepped off the elevator with my food, laughing when he bitched he wanted to come with and give me a rubdown.

Carter shoved them back into the elevator and followed with me though. He kissed my shoulder when we reached my door. “I was planning on having you for dessert, darling.”

I nodded, not wanting to give him the bullshit of being tired. I was tired. That wasn’t the bullshit.

I was always tired.

But that wasn’t the reason I wasn’t in the mood for sex… And Carter could normally talk me out of feeling that. So I wasn’t about to doubt him.

I texted Simone asking about the deets and if she had a moment. She video called me holding a glass of wine and a towel on.

“Seriously, you guys take the whole Alpha calling and jumping to it a bit too seriously,” I said with a groan.

She laughed. “I’m Alpha too, but we finished our fun and I was curious.”

“I could have kept going,” Harris said from the background.

She laughed again when I made a gagging face. “I needed a break, Michael. Now fill me in, and what has Orson been telling you?”

So I did, making it clear that no one was snitching or running to Mom basically.

“Yes, we want all of the stores out, but the problem is it’s not going to just be only supes in that building, just supes allowed now. We assume most will not renew their leases when they find out us evil supes will be there as well, but—it’s tricky.”

“Right, but their leases don’t have it in there that there are certain stores or what they have access to like that. Just that there are stores and perks like the gym. We have the gym listed in the lease but not the equipment.” I smirked when her eyes flashed shock. “So that’s the way around it, and if the stores are problems, they’re out. There’s always a way.”

“Dain said the same,” she promised.

“We need a supe-friendly lawyer for all of this with you that’s not Dain. It’s big enough that we should have one but a human not attached to us. Dain is too visible and immediately people will know it’s me.”

“He said the same.”

“Good. Lastly, we need to make at least this sushi place membership-only. That’s legal. And we make one of the requirements that you have to contribute to a tithe. That makes it shifters, and the vamps do chip in somehow because they’re under me. That’s the legal workaround. I also think we should have—there used to be a place—”

“Slow down and eat some. Not all of us are as intelligent and have such fast-moving brains as you, Sera,” she said without any malice. She’d already set down her wineglass and was typing notes in her phone.

Fair enough.

“Okay, I’m ready for your next genius,” she told me after I’d eaten five rolls.

No, she didn’t take that long to type. I shoveled my food in that fast.

“There used to be a place by my apartment where you made your own take-and-bake meals,” I told Simone. “The menu would change weekly. And you could change things up, so like I didn’t ever add jalapeños to the Mexican stuff. But I’m thinking of something like that. Or how Dain keeps having all of the chefs make me everything freezer meals.”

“I know what you’re talking about. It was the option before Home Chef and all the delivery places.”

“Yes, but those are more expensive and meant for a couple, not a family and definitely not supes.” I rolled my eyes when Carter snickered. Yeah, the normal wolf or vamp would eat like six of those dinners. “But bulk everything is always cheaper. I’m thinking like egg bakes that people could adjust and have for the week or however long.

“Stuff to help out. Even Brian’s mom made us those baked pasta trays with all the meat and—she’ll probably never give up that recipe, but we can do our own. Just something to help people and make it adjustable. I know some hate ricotta or prefer vodka sauce—”

“Yes, yes, you’re making me hungry.”

“Me too, and it’s a fucking great idea, Sera. Simone was talking about it a few years ago, but everything was so fucked with Vlad and… Yeah,” Harris said from the background.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“But you can’t have them all be supe businesses, Sera,” Harris warned. “That would bust you way too fast.”

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