Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
There’s a brief pause as my wolves look around at one another.
“No!” The first shout is loud, and is joined by a resounding chorus not long after. They get very rowdy about that refusal, just as I knew they would. None of us are interested in being dominated. We all know firsthand what it is to be discarded by a hierarchy that doesn’t see us as worth keeping, let alone protecting. This group, the one we made for ourselves, is the only thing most of us trust.
“Rex Regent is out of his fucking mind if he thinks he can absorb us like any other company,” I say. “We’re built different. We value freedom. We think we’re all important, no matter who we are. And no matter what, nobody gets left behind.”
Another round of cheers and such go up. The mood is lifting, and that is a good thing for the pack. Behind the mask I’m wearing, though, the truth is I have never been so scared in my fucking life. I keep seeing the expression on Rex’s face when my security detail confronted him. For a second, he thought about killing them all. I don’t know why he decided not to, but I’m glad he showed restraint.
He is dangerous. To them, and to me. He is programmed with a system that says his desire for me equals ownership of me. He is definitely going to try to mate me sooner rather than later, and when that happens, I am not sure I am going to be able to resist.
I look for my guard. They haven’t gone far. Maybe they’re not as slick as the Regent suits, who spent their afternoon crawling around on nearby roofs, so the lookouts tell me, but they’re good in their own way. We’re adapted for our environment. Even when we seem stupid, sloppy, too young, too casual, there’s reasons for all of it.
Still, I’ve got them to put the guns away, and to put some decent clothes on. We’re going to have to make a move shortly, and I don’t want us looking like we just evacuated in the middle of the night. Their fashion was giving unexpected fire alarm.
“Don’t worry, boss,” Cal says. “We’ve got this.”
I cannot begin to state how much we do not got this, but being a good leader means not freaking out even when that’s clearly the best and maybe even only option.
“We just pulled weapons on Rex Regent,” I remind him.
“He was touching you.”
“He was,” I agree. “But we just started a hot war with him. Before this, it was all paperwork. Now there’s been weapons. He’s not going to just let that go.”
“Nah,” Sam grins. “He ran off with his tail between his legs. He isn’t shit. He’s old, and he’s used to being in charge. He’s gotten soft. But we’re here now and we’re not going to back down.”
Cal, Simon, and Sam spend the next twenty minutes hyping themselves up and talking shit about Regent. I get why they’re doing that. They walked in with guns and he walked out. They think they’ve intimidated him into retreat.
I saw something different in his eyes. I felt something else in his energy. Nobody here frightens him. He didn’t give a damn about those guns. The reason he didn’t react is because they weren’t really a threat. If he’d wanted to, he could have shifted and probably taken the damage from those bullets without even noticing it.
“No,” I say eventually.
“No, what, boss?” The boys look at me.
“No, he’s not soft. He let us get away with that shit. He’s going to be back. I can guarantee it. We’re all staying somewhere else tonight. Hey. Laura. Do you still have a key to that loft?”
“I think so,” she says, lifting her head from her phone to tap her pocket.
“Good. Tell everyone we’re heading there.”
Laura is my secretary, though that’s a strong word for what she does, and kind of not really all that accurate. She’s more like my 2IC. I trust her with absolutely everything. Laura keeps things running smoothly, basically. She knows more about the way things work here than I do. She’s also got access to a very cool loft in a building downtown that used to be used as a content farm house.
It’s a second location that definitely doesn’t belong to Regent, and that’s why I want to go there. I need to escape him. I need to get myself to a place where he cannot find me no matter how hard he looks.
“Sleepover, everyone!” I call the command out, and we all start heading out.
“Don’t all just head straight there! They might be watching. Everyone go get a meal, go to the movies, go do some work. Make sure you’re not being followed. We’ll catch up with each other later!”