Chapter 4
Ciara
Oh. My. God. Jason Martin was infuriating. Worse than infuriating—he was a cheap, lousy conman, and he was just the king’s lackey.
Fucking coming in here and treating me like just another human, like a source of personal amusement to him. He was as bad as any of the pack.
In fact, he must have thought I’d come down in the last heavy rain if he thought I couldn’t even tell he had land missing from the contract.
And…maybe even fucking worse, he barely answered anything I asked him. Not in full sentences, anyway. Just little repeated statements that told me absolutely nothing. If he’d just have engaged with me properly, we could have talked everything out, had a chat…maybe even reached a deal.
Like he said he wanted.
Maybe like the king of Baton Rouge wanted.
Certainly how Conri wanted.
But maybe a deal was the least of my worries now. I glanced at the paperwork I was clutching so tightly it was creasing where my fingers gripped it. I needed to look this over properly, see what they were really trying to cheat us out of.
I sat at a big table in the communal area then changed my mind and relocated to one of the comfy chairs.
I was less visible here, especially if I drew my legs up and made myself as small as possible, but I could still read the paperwork without any issue and focus on what it said.
I could be almost invisible and still get my job done.
Just like any other day in the pack, really.
I shook my head as I read the words. Those damn tricky vampires. Were they trying to one-up us? Beat us somehow? But after what Conri had done—and had risked—for Nicolas Dupont, would they dare? Did they even realize how much my brother could have damaged his own reputation?
My cheeks prickled in self-aware discomfort. I was the reason he had a soft spot for humans. I was the reason he’d risked his status in this pack by working so closely with the vampires and asking the others to do the same.
If this all went wrong, it was as good as my fault, and the rest of the pack knew that. People like Sienna would use it as an excuse to come after me even harder, and there wouldn’t be a thing Conri could do to protect me. Not if he wanted to save himself and his position, anyway.
And my brother was easily the best leader this pack had ever had—better even than his father. Everyone would be poorer without Conri.
Conri rarely spoke to me about pack business. Not because I wasn’t good enough, but because that was the way in the pack. Women weren’t involved if the men thought they could take care of it. It was a subject of much eye rolling in our shared cabin, but I’d long since stopped trying to change it.
He was trying to go legit, though. That much I knew, and it was hard. Our criminal ties seemed to be very much established, and it was what the men gravitated toward for the easy buck.
That was partly why I had to ensure this deal didn’t go south and that the fucking leeches didn’t take us for damn fools.
It was a foothold in another direction. One that could lead to better.
So not only was Conri personally counting on me, but a hell of a lot rode on the fact that I needed to get this right.
I got comfy in the best chair and started reading the lines of official text. If Jason thought some legalese thrown liberally into every paragraph would put me off, he was sorely mistaken. He’d clearly never met me.
I laughed softly. He didn’t know me at all.
Once I had a mission, I saw it through. I’d always had to earn my lowly position in this pack through sheer hard graft—it was the only reason most of them let me stay, and I wasn’t about to change that now.
I’d get this negotiation right by working for it and proving my worth.
“Right… so if that tract of land goes there, and the river is here…” I traced the lines with my fingers before breaking off and looking out of the large window to the tree line, imagining the lake and the small tributary river beyond.
I could picture the land in my mind, and something wasn’t right.
“What’s up?” Conri stepped out of the office behind me, and his question startled me.
I glanced over my shoulder and flashed my brother a quick smile, but it was more a smile of pleasure to see him than a reassurance that everything was okay. “There’s something up with this deal the vamps have brought us.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Oh?” But he didn’t sound worried. Just curious.
“I don’t think all of the land is showing on this paperwork Jason brought.
There’s some missing. Like they’ve held something back.
Like they’re trying to steal from us.” The word steal was pretty strong, but going back on a deal was very serious.
Especially when the signing of this paperwork should have just been a formality after everything Conri had already done for them.
He leaned forward and cast a quick glance over the area I showed him before standing straight again. Then he tousled my hair a little, the way he always had, and I didn’t bother to push him away because there was no one else here to see the familiar gesture.
“You know what? You’ve got this. I know you’ll take care of this.” And he sounded so sure of me that pride warmed my insides.
My brother believed in me. Even though I was the only human in his pack, he had faith that I could handle the negotiation that would benefit every wolf here.
I’d never doubted that Conri loved me. He always had, and he probably always would, but actual faith that I would act to protect the pack’s interests was more than I had a right to expect.
For the most part, I was a lone human in a sea of monsters, and even Conri understood that.
He patted the back of my chair. “Right. Things to do.”
I waved him away. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
The door banged behind him and I watched as he loped down the steps, his grace always a source of admiration and envy for me. Even in human form, the wolf shifters had something animal and predatory about their movements, and I’d always wanted that exact same thing.
I shook my head at my ridiculous thoughts—I knew better than to get lost wishing for things I could never have—and returned my attention to the contract paperwork. I shook my head again. The bastards.
What gave them the right to try to double-cross us this way?
I pushed my hair over my shoulder and immersed myself in the ridiculous, almost archaic text. These vampires really took themselves seriously. Way too seriously, and they had definitely underestimated me.
The clock in another room chimed the hour and I lifted my head. One o’clock… one o’clock… Well, shit. Leon.
And Leon didn’t tolerate lateness very well.
Still, if I told him what I’d been doing on behalf of the pack, maybe he’d be okay with it?
Then I laughed. Who the hell was I kidding? Leon didn’t care about contract work or tracts of land. He cared about defense and the wolf guard—and that made him the perfect captain.
And knowing my luck, if Leon was feeling especially evil, it’d be burpees or wall sits. Maybe some squats or crunches. I scrunched my nose as I thought of the punishments he could impose for lateness then checked my watch.
Maybe if I ran there, I’d be on time. I didn’t mind arriving a hot mess if it meant no extra reps. I tucked the paperwork into my small backpack and slung it over one shoulder before leaving the main cabin at a jog.
In reality, I could probably get out of any punishment Leon tried to give me by offering him the right kind of smile and a promise to see him later, but that wouldn’t be fair. I didn’t feel that way about him, even though he seemed to like me.
I ran into the training yard just as Leon looked up from checking his phone.
“La—”
I raised my hand to cut him off before he could bark out that I’d arrived late. “Sorry. Won’t happen again.”
“Not if I give you enough mountain climbers to ensure you remember what time training starts.” A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he spoke, and I relaxed.
“How about if I just put my full effort in? We can forget the mountain climbers.”
He brought his hands dramatically to his chest and parted his lips, feigning shock. “You mean you don’t always bring your A-game to training?”
I laughed as I dumped my backpack in the corner and walked to stand opposite him. “I always bring my A-game.”
It was entirely possible that he was so used to seeing the shifters fight that my best didn’t even look like I was trying.
“Okay. How do you feel about going over some of those same defensive maneuvers as last week?” He asked the question gently, and I immediately bristled.
“Did Conri talk to you?” Last week, Leon had been in wolf form, teaching me how to defend against an attack, and apparently, I’d forgotten everything the moment Sienna leapt on me.
He shrugged noncommittally. “Does it matter? Is wolf form something you need to be able to defend against? Is this a good time to practice? I wish the answer wasn’t yes to either, but we both know I won’t help you by lying about your vulnerability.”
I tried not to react to his words. Leon was probably the kindest person to me after Conri, but it hurt for him to know I was vulnerable, and for him to acknowledge it.
I still wanted to be as strong as the rest of them, and it hurt to know that wasn’t ever going to be true. I couldn’t shift. I couldn’t do that most basic of things. I’d never be as strong as them, but parts of me—inside, where it mattered most—were still wolf.
Pride.
I had a wolf’s pride. That was strongest of all, although none of the others ever truly saw it. They never looked deep enough to see that part.
Only Conri.
If I could only shift, surely, I’d at least be a beta? I could easily better Simon with many things—and I’d prove it with this vampire liaison assignment.
“Okay. We can.” I shrugged, too, suddenly not at all enthusiastic about this session. Perhaps a forfeit would have been better. I should have walked here.