Page 24 of Broken Wolf

“Our one infection of all of my people—she’s a kid. Sixteen.” I swallowed loudly. “She went out on her own after just getting her license and stopped at a gas station. She wanted to be normal and stop for a damn Slurpee on the way to her friend’s house to show that she passed her license test. And three men in their forties thought it acceptable to harass her because she’s a wolf.

“They cornered her and started groping her while others in the gas station watched and a few egged them on. No one helped. No one said, ‘Don’t touch the underage girl even if she’s a werewolf.’ Right there in a busy gas station right after most got off work and stopped in on their way home. They just watched as a man in his forties grabbed the breast of a sixteen-year-old girl.

“She told them to stop. Begged them to leave her alone, but they laughed and told her to shut up or they’d rape her. Her wolf came out to protect her and that people reacted to, threatening to shoot her and put her down like a dog. Not the public sexual assault of a minor. She used her strength to get free and cut two of them up, one becoming a wolf in the process.

“They deserved much, much worse, and if any of you say otherwise, look at the women in your life and say that to them directly. Go tell your daughters, sisters, mothers, and loved ones that what happened to that girl is okay. Justify it because she’s not human and tell me you’re on the side of right or have a soul.”

“Is she okay?” a woman asked from behind me.

I flinched, having forgotten we had a whole audience and others waiting to speak. I turned and looked at her. “No, no, she’s not. She’s a mess. It was the first time her parents let her drive alone because they were too scared she could be hurt. The monsters knew she was a wolf from some event at school and targeted her because of that.

“Now she’s too scared to get back behind the wheel, go to that school, or even leave her house.” I nodded when tears filled that woman’s eyes. “We’re getting her help. She’s also torn up that she infected someone. Even if it was in self-defense, she never wanted to take that choice away from someone.

“She never wanted someone to struggle the way her grandpa did. So she’s a mess, but we’re—she’s getting help. We have a trauma counselor working with her, and arresting the monsters helped. Her parents are a mess for letting her go out alone to do something completely normal because being a wolf is what’s dangerous, not us.”

“I hope she recovers, and I’ll pray for those parents. I can’t even think of what I would do if that happened to one of my babies,” she rasped, shaking her head. “And as a mother, I thank you for what you did for that mother the other night.” She chuckled when I simply blinked at her. “It’s been all over the news, Chief Thomas.”

“She’s normally buried under too much work or crap like this council to have time to get much praise,” Carter told her. He smiled when I glanced at him. “That mother you saved has been all over the news praising you for saving her baby and helping her. She said you were like a shoeless angel swooping in to rescue them.”

“Running in heels is still uncomfortable as a werewolf,” I muttered as if it explained it all. “No, I haven’t seen that, but I’m glad they’re doing okay.” I thanked the woman for her kind words before focusing back on the council and the mayor. “That is the type of hate you spread with your authority to try and screw over supes.

“You have no reason to hate us. None of us have hurt you. I can understand being afraid because something happened or you witnessed something, but you are spreading hate because you’re hateful. Well, I can’t make you be good people and look into your hearts and ask why you’re like that. But I can make you follow the law. And I will. That’s a promise.”

“One smart people listen to,” Carter chuckled. “But a few here won’t. They’re not worried or hesitant. They’re full of rage and revenge.”

“We don’t need to hear from one of her many, many lovers on top of everything else we’re enduring here,” one of the councilmen that hadn’t spoken yet bit out.

“The hypocrisy never stops,” I chuckled darkly, meeting his pissed-off gaze. “I’m not being judged by a man with a child from a woman that he paid to be quiet and his wife doesn’t know about. I’ve never cheated. Not once. So you may judge my love life, but those in my life don’t because I respect them more than the woman you made vows to before your god.”

He snapped. I saw him fucking snap before he slammed his hand down and stood. “You have no proof and are a whore who—”

“I’m FBI. I don’t guess. I don’t open my damn mouth without proof.” I smirked at him. “Your wife has the proof now too. Baby mama wasn’t the only affair either. Yeah, you should lecture no one on their personal life ever.”

He exploded, the amount of bile that came out of his mouth ridiculous, and even the other council members looked disgusted. He had to be removed from the room while screaming that he would kill me and hang my fur on the wall like the animal I was.

“Yeah, yeah, I saw that in Memphis,” I grumbled. “Hopefully, that same level isn’t going on here because the people doing that didn’t survive going up against me.” I looked at the mayor. “Now my business is done with this meeting.”

He ground his jaw. “But certainly not with this council.”

I snickered. “It’s so much more fun to fight when the other side isn’t all idiots. No, not done with you guys or Sioux Falls. Not when my people are here and having problems.”

7

The elf who managed all of my properties, Brett, was taking a tour with the Betas Felix had brought in and trusted of the hundred extra homes I’d bought. Brett was amazing like Vinn, but I didn’t deal with him often since it was all pretty hands-off and he just did his own thing.

But there were no complaints about him which I loved.

Basically, he managed all my houses that I bought to help all my packs and allowed them to rent to own. They could pay for their own upgrades or borrow more money for renovations. He managed all of that and gave approval as long as it wasn’t something huge. He also checked that people followed the rules.

They were behaving in the pack. Everything was in good standing. He also protected the properties like when some neighbor tried shit to get a supe evicted. He did inspections to make sure no one was trashing the places… All of it.

And the man loved the job. He loved that he could help people, everything was neat and tidy, and I didn’t show favoritism like there was too much of between the fae. So he’d found his calling. Truly.

He’d even studied to get his contractor’s license so he understood more about the homes and how to help everyone. Now he was working specifically on his electrician’s license, and Lalia and I thought it was a great idea to have more doing that. Why have strangers go in and do that when we could have our own for an area?

Normally, there was. There was a supe for everything normally, and that was pretty standard, but we kept expanding. So with Brett’s wise lead in mind, I was going to start offering to cover the cost of trade school for anyone in my packs. As long as they took it seriously and finished, that was more than worth the investment.

I needed to ask Felix what he thought about it, but first I was going to show him the house I’d bought for the Alpha of Sioux Falls. I wasn’t going to charge rent or even a mortgage. It was his to use during the contract and a perk of being the Alpha. Hesta and Linus had the same for being Alphas for me. So did Melicent.

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