Page 60 of Arranged Wolf's Nanny
“I told you I could handle him.”
Rick did smile back then, a secret, warm smile she’d rarely seen before. To her immense surprise, he tilted her chin up with a crooked finger and pressed a light kiss to her lips. “Apparently so.”
She kissed him again, hands creeping up his chest. “Why don’t we go find Eva together?”
He hummed, lingering at her lips, before pulling back and scanning the crowd. “I believe she’s causing mischief with Thea and the boys.”
Rosalia laughed. “As she should.”
***
They had stayed at the party well after nightfall, laughing and drinking and even dancing.
Well. Rosalia had danced with Cassie and Daisy. Rick had watched with Nicolas on the sidelines, something fierce and hungry in his eyes that quickly turned to amusement when Dane convinced Felix to try a traditional Russian dance he’d learned from some bear shifters. Rosalia had spun Eva around, the little girl giggling in delight.
Perhaps she should have been concerned about John. But she wasn’t. She was enjoying herself too much.
By the time they got home, Eva was a sleepy lump in Rosalia’s arms, but still insisted on a story before she went to sleep. Rick had left them to it, claiming he had some work to do, and Rosalia had read a story about a cat that outwitted a fox with the help of a hedgehog and a garden gnome.
Eva was snoring by the last page, and Rosalia tucked the covers tightly around her. Despite the late hour, she found herself still restless, not yet ready for sleep.
So, she gathered her courage and went to Rick’s office.
Her knock on the door was tentative, guilty almost. Rick had, after all, told her that he wasn’t to be disturbed when he was working. But things were different now.
“Come in,” he said, and she pushed open the door to find him sitting behind a magnificent desk, his shirt sleeves rolled up, a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. “Rosalia. Is there something you need?”
She closed the door behind her softly. “No, I just wanted to…wanted to see you.”
He raised a stern eyebrow, but a smile played on his lips. “Did you now?”
“What are you working on?” she asked, dodging the heat in his voice.
He huffed a laugh. “There’s an Accord meeting coming up in Washington. It’s the perfect opportunity to get the wheels rolling against the Black Claws. Truth be told, I don’t know why they’re taking so long to declare war. But I suspect they’re waiting to gauge support at the meetings.”
“Ah, yes, your secret plan,” she said with a grin, leaning over the desk, “all very exciting.”
“Hardly,” he said. “When the territory charters were drawn up after the first peace talks with the humans a century ago, some idiot made a misprint in the Black Claw transcript. Left out the word ‘automatic.’ A small thing, paltry really, but it means they’re liable for territory dissolution unless they manually renew the charter. Which they haven’t.”
“So you’re preparing the dissolution papers before they even realize the mistake?”
He hummed. “It would be unlikely to stand without a ratifiable claim to the territory in their stead. Fortunately for us, I’ve found a branch of wolves in Germany with blood ties to the Black Claws who would be only too happy to claim the territory if given the chance.”
Rosalia exhaled. “So…that’s it? The Black Claws are just going to be dissolved?”
“If only. No, this will just throw things into chaos. The humans at the Accords take proper litigation very seriously, a precious veneer of control, and won’t allow the Black Claws to simply reclaim the territory without due process. There’ll be a fight, but the Black Claws will lose a tremendous amount of credibility. Other packs won’t want to fight on their side if there are fears the humans will step in against them.”
“The humans are really so powerful?” Rosalia asked.
Rick’s jaw tightened in irritation. “Not so powerful. But negotiations with them are a delicate thing, constantly on the brink of collapse. It would only take one pack ignoring the Accord law to break the peace. And as annoying as that is, it can serve its purpose.”
“My father always said the humans were nothing more than pesky insects,” she said, looking down at her feet.
“I rather get the impression that John Heath thinks most people are nothing more than pesky insects.”
She huffed in amusement, glancing up to find his expression serious.
“Rosalia, I appreciate that this might be a sensitive topic. But your father…”
