Page 49 of Broken Wolf

“He warned me. For the record, I didn’t know either. We—there’s so much going on, keeping up with the First Lady’s luncheons aren’t even on the damn radar.”

I snorted. “They shouldn’t need to be.” I sighed. “She’s such a useless cunt.”

He chuckled. “Don’t hold back what you feel, Thomas.”

“We’d be here a while and your ears would bleed from my potty mouth, sir,” I drawled.

“I don’t blame you.” He sighed when I didn’t say anything. “And I don’t blame you for going after my ex-wife. I tried to call Dain and have him—”

“I can’t get into this with you, sir,” I muttered as I went over and closed my door. “I don’t know what he’s even really doing.”

“I know you have to say that, but she’s gone too far and—”

“Scott, you’re not hearing me,” I cut in, my voice tight. “I’m not okay.” I cleared my throat when he didn’t say anything. “Eva’s not just here to visit. My wolf is—Stacey tried to kill me. They don’t think I know, but I know enough and how people reacted… She tried to kill me, not just she wished I had an accident. Clayton stopped it or—I’m not okay.”

I think finally saying that and admitting that I knew was like a weight off my shoulders.

And too much to bear at once, blinking back tears.

“So I don’t know what he’s doing,” I whispered, trying to keep the tears at bay. “But please understand it’s not just petty gossip. Everyone believes what she says with how loudly she says it and for how long, and we keep not jumping on that crazy. It’s more than my career, and I have a son to protect too and—”

“I know,” he muttered. “I know and I’m sorry, Sera. You didn’t deserve any of this because I’m attracted to you and my wife was crazy jealous and I ignored it. I’m sorry about your birth mom—all of it. I should have taken better care of you when you were mine. You did well yesterday—you’re doing amazingly well. Just keep going and know lots of us are on your side.”

“I’m trying. I’ll tell Dain to let you in if you’re not going to fight us.”

“No, I want his help to get full custody of my kids since she’s using them as leverage to try and keep me quiet while apparently going to the First Fucking Lady as her new goddamn mouthpiece to spew lies and bullshit. It all makes me look bad too, but she doesn’t care and—you don’t need to hear this. I’m sorry.”

No, I didn’t, and I had enough on me already.

“You are doing amazingly well,” he said again after a few tense moments. “I knew you and Perez would shine and handle this all like rockstars. The system you’ve put into place—even a lot of the older guys here in DC are singing your praises. We’re not changing a single idea of how to upgrade the buildings from what you’ve done.”

“Thank you. It was a pain for a week to have everyone check in through the parking garage, but making the teams assemble at an exact time and go together made it seamless and helped security. They can come in early and adjust their hours for a damn week. And for one week, everything can move fast instead of bureaucratic slow. The tech guys you sent were good.

“They got the new security gates installed and running great. Only one with a hiccup, and they replaced the chip fast—stellar work. I know people aren’t going to like this, but the key is having the vamp painters and floorers. They just get it done so fast overnight for that bonus that would take weeks for humans to do.”

“Yes, but we’re still keeping that quiet,” he reminded me.

“They don’t want the attention. They just want protection. Noah and I are willing to let them travel and do all of the offices. We’ll handle it on the supe and coven side, but we want our people protected and not hassled. These aren’t fighters. They’re—several have abusive pasts and like the calmness of painting and peace of putting pretty flooring together.”

“Understood. Perez is going to be in charge of overseeing each office overhaul and staying there while it happens.”

I blinked at the wall of my office for a full minute as that sank in. “Oh, he’s gonna kill you. I mean… I’ll wear something pretty to ya funeral because ya dead.”

He burst out laughing, but I was only half joking.

“He is still swearing up a storm, yes. But we need it done and right, and too many will use this as a way to fuck us—especially me and get me out. And not have him take over. It’s bad.”

“Shit, his wife is going to divorce him,” I groaned.

“He’s worried about the same,” he admitted. “He’s trying to leverage not being in DC when this is all over as what to work with. She hates it here, and he doesn’t ever want to be the director.”

“I have no problem with him here. Stick him in an office out with Brian so he’s closer to the airport instead of the downtown madness and—they get along great.”

“I thought you would be upset it would undermine your authority,” he admitted.

“Yeah, if he was in here from the start of my taking over, but he’s going to take years updating all of the buildings. That’s not a small task and I love his wife. She’s way too good for him, so I don’t blame her for wanting out of DC. But he can have an office here but make him mostly out of the training facility. That will make the conservatives happy that a human is watching our supe army-building facility.”

The amount of sarcasm dripping off of my last sentence was a lot, but I wasn’t wrong.

---