Page 6 of Broken Wolf

“I was wondering what else you would do that for. I know you do if your pack gets any type of traffic citation. We’ve known that for a while. You’ve made it clear because more shifter accidents happen during volatile situations like auto collisions or traffic stops and you don’t want your packs to be party to that. What else is a line with you? That’s what I wanted to ask.”

“I appreciate what you’re saying and even why you’re asking, but I won’t be answering because of the dirt people will try to throw on the pack,” I told her. “Or go digging to try and out people. I will say a few are college kids who didn’t hit GPA agreements with their parents, so they’re doing some penance. Other than that, it’s a family matter among the packs.”

“So something worse than a DUI clearly,” one of the other reporters there gloated, proving my point.

I thought about that a moment. “No, the DUI is the worst. But thank you for making it clear you’re just here for dirt and to shit on my people. Have a lovely day.”

I rolled my eyes and walked off. What an asshole.

My entire day was jumping all around and seeing projects and updates for myself. We were in the middle of wedding season, so the flower greenhouses were a madhouse, and we were selling and shipping out more than last year. We had expanded and—it was ridiculous.

And we’d gotten a lot of flak from other flower farmers for stealing their business. They would have done it to others in a heartbeat, and online business had put smaller florists out of business for years. Some of these same providers had turned their backs on those same florists for a higher payday from those online businesses and exclusivity deals.

I wasn’t going to hear about any shit of morality from them.

The fairy managing it all for Laila and me was rocking it. I basically came to show my face and check in, see if anyone needed anything and made sure people had access to me. The prey shifters we rescued always appreciated it. I talked to several of the prey we’d rescued in New York City and they looked better every time I saw them.

Especially the Russian gulls. This was the life they’d hoped for when they’d risked everything to be smuggled out of Russia. We’d rescued their friends and gotten more out. They learned English to fit in, had stable jobs, were receiving counseling and help and were safe.

And they liked their jobs. They said all of the time that helping the fairies with pretty flowers all day helped them as much as the counseling.

The seafood farms had expanded again, and they were busy because of the wedding season as well. Everything was going great, and they needed more workers.

And now we had a place for refugees who we didn’t trust and needed to watch. That was also the point of me going around. I wanted it clear that we were going to get them help, but it would come with risks since people were on the best behavior around Alena. I needed people to report things to me immediately.

They all understood and agreed.

Good.

The blood bottling factory was going great—all of the businesses and farms were. Everything was going as it should be, managed well, and people were doing well. Was it perfect?

No, nothing in life was perfect. And people had been recovering from badly lean times under Engle or fleeing from where they had lived and that didn’t happen overnight or even in a year. So everything was progress. That was the important part.

I headed to the building that was now going to be Noah’s coven house thinking it would be more good news.

Apparently, I’d hit my good news limit for the day.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Noah when he was agitated and it was bad enough that I could immediately sense it through our bond.

He did a double take when he saw me and sighed knowing he couldn’t hide it. “I just received a hundred transfers.”

My eyes went wide. “People want to leave? When you just got this nice place for them and—”

“No, transfer in,” Remus—Noah’s right hand—corrected. “Lansing, Michigan. It’s practically their whole coven.” He nodded when Noah snorted. “Yeah, probably some from Grand Rapids and Detroit as well. It’s fishy. Very fishy.”

“Then report it,” I told them, wincing when they both gave me a look like I was nuts. “I didn’t tell you to have the council handle it, but you should—let Carter slip it to Apollo or—what is the reason they want the transfer?”

“No job opportunities and their coven leader is stuck in the past,” Noah answered. “And he is from what I know. Even Vlad used to bitch about it. They never came to anything and wanted to be an island. High supe within the area, and that said a lot coming from Vlad.”

That was for sure.

“Could you use the people?” I asked.

“Yeah, I mean—we keep expanding and bringing in more prey,” he said, giving me an apologetic look.

Meaning we turned to his vampires for more security and guarding everything.

“But you don’t want to piss the council off that you’re adding people—especially a hundred after they forgave how many Vlad had here,” I mumbled. “Okay, I will handle it.” I handed something over to Remus. “If you guys could handle this through your security company. For one, everyone had a ton of fun, but it would be a training course as well.”

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