Chapter 521
Nina, from her chair, was not containing anything. Her shoulders were moving in the specific way of someone who’d decided that this was the entertainment that Monday deserved and was fully committed to receiving it.
Jordan had his notebook.
Of course Jordan had his notebook.
“How long,” Ivory said again, and she was advancing on Kael’s side of the desk with the specific energy of a woman who’d had her book club idea rejected and had subsequently discovered that the people who’d rejected it had been conducting the exact activities that the book club would have organized.
“Move,” Ivory said.
“These are-” Kael started.
“Move,” Ivory said again.
“They’re mine,” Kael said.
“You don’t get to have-” Ivory started.
“I’m the Alpha,” Kael said.
“You said no to the book club,” Ivory said. “You said no to the book club, you said it was time- wasting, you said-” she stopped because she’d spotted something else, “-is that book eleven? You have book eleven? I’ve been on the waiting list for book eleven for six weeks!”
“The waiting list,” Kael said, “is very long.”
“I KNOW the waiting list is very long,” Ivory said. “I know because I’m ON the waiting list and I have been for six WEEKS-”
“The supplier,” Kael said, in the tone of someone constructing a defense he was aware was inadequate, “had limited stock and-”
“You jumped the waiting list,” Ivory said.
“I may have made a specific arrangement with the supplier-”
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“With WHAT MONEY,” Ivory said.
The silence that followed had a specific quality.
Kael’s expression did the thing it did when he’d made a decision he’d known was going to be difficult to justify and was now at the justification stage.
“Kael,” Nina said, from somewhere behind him. She was in one of the chairs, her notebook on her knee, her expression the one she deployed when she was watching something develop that she found genuinely interesting. “What money.”
“The operational budget has a discretionary line,” Kael said.
“The discretionary line,” Jordan said, from the other chair, “is for pack operations.”
“Cultural resources,” Kael said, “are pack operations.”
“BL novels,” Ivory said, “are not-”
“They are extremely relevant to understanding human psychology and relationship dynamics,” Kael said, with the complete seriousness of someone who’d prepared this argument, “which is directly applicable to Alpha leadership and interpersonal pack management—”
Ivory went for the books.
Kael moved sideways. Ivory moved the same direction. They went around the desk in the specific coordinated way of people who’d been in each other’s proximity for twelve years and had developed a mutual understanding of how the other person moved that was now being deployed against itself.
I watched this.
Silver watched this with me.
*This is what Monday looks like,* Silver said.
*Apparently,* I said.
“Jordan,” Kael said, backing toward Jordan’s chair with Ivory advancing, “help me.”
“I’m going to need more context,” Jordan said.
“Tell her the books are-”
“You bought books from the discretionary budget,” Jordan said. “I’m not helping you with that.”
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“You’re my second,” Kael said.
“Among the circle,” Jordan said, “you’re Kael. Titles are more decorative than functional in here and you know it.” He paused. “Also I’m slightly annoyed at you about the bat.”
“The bat,” Kael said, redirecting with the specific energy of someone finding a new defensive front, “is a completely separate issue-”
“The bat,” Jordan said, “was very effective.”
“It broke on my head,” Kael said.
“Yes,” Jordan said. “At significant volume. I timed it perfectly.”
“You knew it wasn’t going to stop me,” Kael said.
“I knew it absolutely was not going to stop you,” Jordan agreed. “That was never the goal.”
“Then what was the goal,” Kael said.
“You were going to have a very significant headache when you woke up,” Jordan said. “And I wanted to make a contribution to that.”
Kael stared at him.
“You hit me,” Kael said, “on purpose, knowing it wouldn’t work, to give me a headache.”
“To make the headache worse,” Jordan said. “The headache was going to happen regardless. The bat was incremental.”
“I’m your Alpha,” Kael said.
“Among the circle,” Jordan said again, “you’re Kael. As previously established.”
“Ivory,” Kael said, pivoting again, “come on. Tell them the bat thing was—”
“I’m not helping you,” Ivory said. “You bought books behind my back with money that wasn’t even from your personal accounts and you said no to the book club.”
“The book club-”
“You said it was time-wasting,” Ivory said.
“It does take time-”
“You have been reading MY books,” Ivory said, “in your office, alone, and having opinions about the plot, and I KNOW this because Aria told me about the window discussion-”
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“The window discussion was-”
“Everest,” Ivory said.
Kael went quiet.
“You had feelings about Everest,” Ivory said.
“That’s-”
aid the wife’s timing was specific and deliberate,” Ivory said. “That was your analysis. You
oing literary analysis. In your office. By yourself. Without a book club.”
ad given up on the neutral observer role entirely. She was making a sound that she was en attempting to contain.
in was writing something in his notebook. I could see from across the room that whatever was writing was titled *evidence: Monday session* and had multiple bullet points.
lina,” Kael said. “Tell them they’re wrong.”
You bought the books,” Nina said. “With the discretionary fund. That’s documented. The supplier receipt is-” she consulted her notebook, “-in the intelligence files under miscellaneous cultural acquisitions, which is a category that Jordan created during the second curse year and which I’ve never looked at closely until now.”
“I created it for Ivory,” Jordan said, “when she was buying the original series. It seemed legitimate then.”
“It was legitimate then,” Ivory said. “I was buying them with my own money. The category shouldn’t be used for-”
“Pack cultural enrichment,” Kael said.
“STOP saying pack cultural enrichment,” Ivory said.
“The books are enriching,” Kael said.
“They’re about wolves having sex,” Ivory said.
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Mated To My Mate’s Worst Enemy
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.