I explained, “No… no… it’s a Certificate of deposit. It’s a savings account that holds a fixed amount of money for set periods of time. Usually, six months or twelve. You leave the money in the account and the bank pays you a fixed rate interest. So, you literally earn money for it sitting in an account… which is why most people have savings accounts with money sitting there. CD’s just earn more than savings accounts… for the same thing… and you can just keep earning interest on it.”
She questioned, “What if you need the money?” I explained, “You pay a penalty, and you get it back.” She nodded, “Ok. Youare officially in charge of my finances.” That would be fun. After we nailed everything down, I took her to a place I had in Arizona.
Her voice changed and she asked, “How much money do you have?” I admitted, “A lot. I’m a billionaire.” Twice over now. I’d earned it faster than I had my first that I mostly gave away. My foundation was doing great things though.
Kingsley snorted, “Then you are definitely beyond in charge of my finances.” I assured her, “I promise I’ll turn you a good profit and…” She interrupted, “I’m sure you will.” I called Paige again. She answered, “Caine is going to lose his mind, and you keep calling me.”
I said, “Well, I need you to go through our holoport to the Arizona house and set up our new friend.” She showed up within moments and everything was done. I showed Kingsley around, thinking it was the best house for her really.
I told her, “It’s ok if you don’t like it… we have other places…” Paige snorted, “She likes it, Mel. Take a breath.” I continued, “You can change anything you like. There’s a card in the safe, which…” I handed her a file I’d worked on while she flew around the warehouse.
“We give this to everyone… and you could have people here to host before they leave… for your stuff and mine… like combining our stuff…” She smirked saying, “Sounds good. I’ll look over this.” I sighed in relief before I left her there.
Paige snorted, “To the firing squad.” I grumbled, “They will be fine.” We walked through the holoport and into King’s diner. Mason shot me a look while Hendrick shook his head. Caine growled, “Are you for real? Why do we vote if you just do things regardless of what we say?” I winced, “They were going to…”
He cut me off, “And you brought someone else in.” I explained, “She does the Underground abuse group. It’s called Operation Saint Rita.” He rubbed his temples before telling me, “You’ll give me gray hair. You know that, right?” I reasoned, “Itis highly unlikely you’d get gray hair until you’re like… seventy.” He snorted, “Well, you’re trying to give me it DECADES ahead of time.” I was not.
More time went by, and it was time to go to a Hunters meeting. I was late because Edward had stalled me. I pulled up outside the den. I found it INCREDIBLY ironic they called it a den since wolves... the real ones tended to live in dens.
These people hunted wolves… but only some wolves. I couldn’t believe their own stupidity. They basically worked for the bad wolves. The ones they hate. The ones that attack humans and crap like that. They were too blinded by their hatred to realize they are run by awful wolf packs.
They got around it saying, ‘oh well we make them work for us’ … but what do the bad wolves get? They send wolves, who are not harmed unless they act out, and Hunters avoid their packs. What packs get hit? The good ones that were not hurting anyone.
Honestly. It was just sad how easily manipulated these people are. They had no idea they were going against their true purpose. Anastasia was working to restore it, but it was a slow process. At least she could realize they were dead in the water once they started incorporating other wolves into their schemes.
The larger group did not realize it yet. They thought they were safe because they had silver. Yet every single wolf in there could snap their neck before they reached for a weapon. We are faster than they are. Which is why they should hone their hunting skills, but they were lazy.
My musings were interrupted by Addison. She linked, “Mel, where are you? Dante is here and he seems to think this new guy is a Conners mate. I don’t know what all of the mates looklike because I didn’t look at the mate files you have on them. That family has a lot of people so I’ve never seen Micah.” He was in the folder for Max…so she should’ve seen him….he had a separate folder too.
I questioned, “His name is Micah?!” Addison answered, “Yes.” I snorted, “Sure, why change his name? It’s probably not him. It could be him… CRAP! Does Dante want him to take off his shirt?” Addison groaned, “He does.”
I grabbed a concealer I’d been working on. It was for the Hackura and I’d perfected it last week. I got out of my car and palmed it. I ran into the house, my mind racing with solutions. If Micah was here… who came with him?
Was it Max? There had to be someone else here with them. Tristan said Levi told him that they always went places like this with at least one other person. That rang true from the files I’d looked at for the Hackura. What if…? That thought stalled me.
What if Xander was here? I shoved that from my mind because I needed to help Micah. I could hear them downstairs. Micah was trying to leave. Oh my gosh. Did they try to stop him? Idiots! He could kill them so easily. I came down the stairs quickly. Micah wasn’t facing me, but I knew who he was. I recognized him instantly.
I quickly said his name. “Micah? Is that you?” He turned and I smiled because I felt at ease despite the situation. It really was him. He was my mate’s brother in law. Why the HELL would they send him in of all people? They couldn’t have changed his name at least? Come on.
I replied, “Oh my gosh… it is!” I ran over and touched his arm putting the concealer on him. I saw his questioning gaze. I continued, “It really IS you! How are you? Is Dante being dumb? I mean… he usually is… so I’ll just consider that question answered. Ignore him.”
Dante asked, “You know this guy, Ashley?” I hated that Micah was going to call me Ashley. It literally felt like my soul may die if he did. I replied, “Obviously, since I said his name.” Honestly, it was a little insane they didn’t know this was Micah Percival.
Anyone who paid attention… which was DEFINITELY not Dante… would know who he was. He somewhat paid attention though because Micah’s name must have caught his eye. It was a little insulting that these guys thought they could stop him. Maybe I should’ve just let it go and let Micah and whoever was here kill them all.
They would’ve left Addison and Sierra alone… the problem was me. What would they do to me? They definitely call former Alpha Eric about Addison and Sierra. I was coming anyway so me too. Then all hell would break loose.
I commented to Micah, “Saying your name makes it obvious… I’d say don’t judge on his lack of intelligence, but you kind of should… so… take that how you will. Anyway, Micah’s fierce. What’s your kill count up to Micah? I feel like it’s got to be in the thirties…. maybe forties…. it’s upper thirties for sure.” It easily was.
I bragged about my should be brother in law, “He’s impressive you guys, and you KNOW I'm not often impressed… since not one of you has EVER impressed me. He could beat ALL your butts, so easily… it’s kind of sad… you should work out more… not that it would help… he’d still beat you, but it could be less tragic for you.”
I asked, “What are you doing here, Micah?” Micah said, “Hey, Ashley.” I was right. It felt like a piece of my soul crumbled and died when he said Ashley and I barely kept my gasp of pain internal. He continued, “I was thinking about joining your cause, then shit got weird.”
I grumbled, “Dante, what did you do? Why are you even here? Where’s Nate? You know we hate it when you show up. Well….‘We’ could be strong word… I mean me. I definitely do, but I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that.”
Dante answered, “I heard we had a new recruit, and wanted to meet him personally. Especially when I heard his name was Micah. There’s a Micah mated to one of the Conners brothers.” Everyone stiffened. I muttered, “Yeah, sure Dante that’s logical. Like a mate of the Conners would just stroll on up in here.”
I shot Micah an annoyed looked adding, “That’s like the WORST idea of all time. Also, Micah is near the eighty-seventh most popular name for boys dating back to biblical times… so… that’s a horrible reason to be weird about a name. There are over three thousand boys and two hundred girls born who are named Micah every year ON AVERAGE. Do you know how many people are named Ashley?”
