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)
I was out there all of four weeks before I was called back. Four weeks is plenty of time for me to go feral, though. It’s long enough for my muscles to grow, my hair to get thicker, my voice to deepen, socks and shoes to feel fucking wrong, every electric light to assault my senses, and for the rank and ripe scents of the city to make me either want to retch or roll in them depending on the source.
Can’t do any of that today, because today I have to address a problem of territory.
A pack is nothing without its borders. Ours encompass the city. There are other packs who exist around us, but anybody who dwells in the city itself owes us fealty. There can be no other alphas in my primary territory. I don’t like leadership challenges. Well, that’s not true. I do. But the ones who challenge me tend to not like what I do to them. It’s best to make an example.
Chase Ratcliff is my accountant. He’s the one who rang the alarm bells about the problem that requires me to be here. He’s also the one who has been trying to handle it without me. I appreciate the effort, though it hasn’t seen much fruit as yet.
While I wait for the emergency tailor, I put a call through to him.
“Hello,” he says, sounding slightly dubious.
“How are your negotiations with the Runaways coming?”
We have been dealing with a small group of what seems to be previously lone wolves who have set up in the city. At first, they flew entirely below the radar. A few young rogues wandering the streets was never going to rise to the level that we would pay attention.
Then they began to organize around a single alpha. Nick Love. I have the name written on a manila file in front of me. The file itself is incredibly thin, because very little is known about this particular upstart.
I have let this go on for the better part of a year by now, but others in the pack are telling me that these Runaways are starting to become an economic and social force, and that means a challenge is inevitable.
Best to try to bring them into the fold as soon as possible, in my view. A few scrappy youngsters can easily be absorbed into the Regent pack. We are many hundreds strong, and very well established in many senses. Some consider us new, but it is the money that is new. The pack itself is as old as this country.
“Excellent, sir. We’re about to sign the final takeover documents. We might be able to have you out on the reserve before lunch time.”
Fescue is going to be so disappointed. We’re going to be back on the reserve by dinnertime.
Usually I’d handle things like this myself, but I can tell he wants to prove himself to me, and I am happy to let him do so. Having competent people working for me is the way to regain the chance for some freedom.
I hang up, and Fescue brings the emergency tailor in. I spend the next thirty minutes being tailored to within an inch of my life. When he, Bradbury, and Fescue are satisfied, I am able to take another call from Chase.
He sounds less excited this time.
“Sorry, Rex. They’re refusing to sign.”
“Why? I thought the deal was done?”
“I thought the deal was done too. They said it was, but Nick Love says he doesn’t feel like signing today.”
“What kind of name is Nick Love?”
“A fake one, probably, but with legal status, so I’m not going to interrogate it.”
“Uh huh.” I scratch my chin. I shaved, but the beard is already coming back through. “So, why isn’t he signing?”
“He won’t talk to me directly, so I can’t be sure, but the secretary told me it was because he doesn’t feel like it.”
I thought I heard that wrong the first time. I repeat it, so he can correct me.
“Doesn’t feel like it?”
“That’s what the secretary said. Quite the piece of work. Not a people person.”
“We are offering to pay them money, right?”
“Oh, yes. Five hundred thousand, as agreed.”
“Do you think they’re holding out for more?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I didn’t get the sense they cared about the money, but you never really know how people like these are running tactics. They’re young. They don’t follow the rules. Not of business, and certainly not of polite society.”
I am more befuddled than angry at this point, though anger could be coming soon. I do not enjoy being fucked with, and the fact that my hopes were raised to return to the reserve is causing dangerous disappointment.
“They do understand this is a hostile pack takeover. That there will be jaws on throats if this isn’t handled by end of business today?”