Chapter 523
“Look,” I said, and I used the anchor the way I’d been learning to use it — not to command, just to get to the front of a conversation. “I understand that the book situation is important—”
“More important than the root,” Nina said.
“It’s not more important than the root,” I said.
“The root,” Nina said, “is Kael being in wolf form, which we have all had extensive experience with and have processed into our nervous systems as a known quantity. The books are new information. The books are a first. Books purchased with pack funds while refusing the book club while everyone was secretly reading them anyway that’s a novel situation.” She paused, recognizing the word. “Pun acknowledged.”
“We need to actually discuss the root,” I said.
–
“The root,” Ivory said, “is a problem we can address with specific solutions that I’ve been working on for the past two days. The solutions require Kael’s cooperation and a specific set of compound applications timed to the next lunar cycle. It’s on the agenda.” She looked at Kael. “It’s item three.”
“What’s item one,” I said.
“The book audit,” Nina said.
“And item two,” I said.
“The bat,” Jordan said. “Official record. The retirement of the bat deserves documentation.”
“The bat,” Elite said, from the corner, “was a three year emergency measure that served its function.”
“It broke on a wolf,” Kael said.
“It served its function,” Elite said. “The function was contributing to a headache. It succeeded. We retire it with honor.”
“With honor,” Jordan said.
Kael looked at the ceiling.
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Firushed
“You used pack funds,” Ivory said, returning to the core issue with the focus of someone who’d let a conversational detour run its course and was coming back. “For personal enrichment.”
“The books enriched the office,” Kael said. “The office is a pack resource. Therefore—”
“That logic,” Ivory said, “would allow you to put literally anything in the office and call it pack expenditure.”
“Within reason,” Kael said.
“Books about-” Ivory started.
“Educational content,” Kael said.
“Kael,” Ivory said.
“I’ll pay you back,” Kael said. “Personal funds. With interest. And I’ll share the new volumes.”
“And the book club,” Ivory said.
“The book club,” Kael said, with the resignation of someone accepting a condition they’d known was coming.
“Once,” Ivory said. “One session. One chapter. We discuss it.”
“Which chapter,” Kael said.
Ivory looked at him.
“Not fourteen,” Kael said.
“We’ll see,” Ivory said.
“Ivory-”
“We’ll see,” Ivory said again, with the serenity of someone who’d already decided and was enjoying the uncertainty.
“Jordan,” Kael said.
“I’m not in this,” Jordan said.
“You’re reading the same books,” Kael said.
“I’m a supporter of literary discussion,” Jordan said. “I’ll attend the book club.”
“Traitor,” Kael said.
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“I would like to note,” Killian said, from his chair, his voice having the quality of someone who’d spent fifteen years away from these people and was recalibrating everything he’d remembered, “that when we were teenagers, this is also how it went. I thought the additional years of responsibility would-”
“Would what,” Kael said.
“Change it,” Killian said.
“It changed us in the ways that mattered,” Kael said. “The other ways-” he gestured at the room. “They stayed.”
“This specific version of things,” he said, indicating the room with a gesture. “The books and the bat and the budget.”
“No,” Nina said. “The books and the budget are new developments.”
“But the general-” he started.
“Yes,” Jordan said.
“The general dynamic,” Killian said, “of-” he seemed to search for the framing, “—all of this.”
“Yes,” Nina said. “More or less.”
Killian was quiet for a moment. He had the expression of someone doing a calculation they hadn’t been expecting to do.
“I thought,” he said, “you would have outgrown it.”
“Outgrown what,” Kael said.
“This,” Killian said. “The way you all used to be, back when we were teenagers. When you were all running around getting into trouble and breaking things and-” he paused, “–being exactly like this but smaller.”
“We’re significantly more competent now,” Jordan said.
“You have a budget category called miscellaneous cultural acquisitions,” Killian said, “that your Alpha is using to buy romance novels.”
“The novels have literary merit,” Kael said.
“And your security chief is laughing at your Alpha,” Killian said.
“That’s ongoing,” Nina said, not stopping laughing.
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“And your intelligence officer,” Killian said, “hit your Alpha with a bat on purpose to give him a headache.”
“Preemptively,” Jordan said. “I hadn’t confirmed the reason yet. The reason confirmed itself
later.”
Killian looked at Kael.
“You’re the Alpha,” Killian said.
“Among the circle,” Kael said, with the resignation of someone who’d had this distinction explained to them twice already this morning and had accepted it, “I’m Kael.”
“That’s a very specific arrangement,” Killian said.
“It works,” Kael said.
The bat,” Kael said, which was either a subject change or a return to the batting situation he’d been building toward since he’d sat down. “Jordan.”
“Yes,” Jordan said.
“The bat,” Kael said.
“The bat was a valid emergency response,” Jordan said.
“The bat broke on my head,” Kael said. “On. My. Head. Which means the bat was less useful than nothing because nothing doesn’t generate pieces of wood.”
“The bat generated a headache,” Jordan said. “Which was the goal.”
Kael looked at him.
“My goal,” Jordan said, “was not to stop you. You’re a full Alpha in the cursed wolf form. I am a human man holding a cricket bat. The bat was not going to stop you. I understood that before I swung it.”
“Then why,” Kael said.
“Because you were going to wake up with a very bad time regardless,” Jordan said, “and I wanted you to have a headache on top of it. So that the morning after would be slightly worse and you would think about it.”
“Think about what” Kael said.
“Ever
The root. The clinic. The wolf situation. All of it.” He met Kael’s gaze
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steadily. “You deserved the headache.”
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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.