Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ken
Ken and the other men watched Dewi leave the office. Duncan peered through the doorway for a moment. He finally closed it and turned back to them. “She went into Gillian’s bedroom.”
Trent looked at Ken. “You think she meant it? About not running off?”
“Yeah,” Ken said, sinking into the chair she’d just occupied.
“I mean, I hope she did. In that moment, she did. But I don’t know how long that mindset will hold.
If Peyton turns up d—” He snipped that thought off because he didn’t want to think like that.
“Should we be confronted with different circumstances, I don’t know if anything will keep her here. ”
Badger solemnly nodded. “Yer right, lad.” He heavily dropped into the other chair in front of the desk. “We have our orders. Like it or not—an’ I don’t—it’s what we have to do.”
“What happens now?” Ken asked.
“We hold everything until tonight when we break the news to the Enforcers,” Trent said. “And we pray to the Goddess Peyton turns up safe and sound before then.”
“We have to bring Lyssa and Adair over here from Asia’s,” Ken said. “One or both of them will need to nurse soon, but I know I sure as shit can’t hide the fact there’s something wrong right now.”
“Badger and I will get them,” Duncan said. “We’ll tell them you, Trent, Gillian, and Dewi are talking pack business and ask them to not interrupt you.”
“Thanks, Da,” Trent said.
The two men headed out.
Ken slumped in his chair and stared across the desk at Trent, who occupied the chair behind it. “Worst case?” Ken asked.
“I don’t know.” Trent rocked back in his chair. “Trevor doesn’t have any new info, last I heard.”
“What about that father? Geir Haugen? Any chance he’s behind it?”
“Extremely doubtful,” Trent said. “He’s been checked out by Primes in the past to help with operations.
He’s loyal to the pack. Besides, he wasn’t anywhere near there when it happened.
And he wouldn’t have killed his children and mate—they had a mate bond.
Even the shittiest people can deeply love their mates and children. ”
Ken snorted. “Faegan Lewis sure as fuck wasn’t one of them.”
“Yeah. I know. But I feel reasonably certain he didn’t have a mate bond with his wife.”
Ken leaned forward and mouthed the next words, knowing the older shifter could understand him but not wanting any chance of Dewi or Gillian overhearing.
“If they find Peyton dead, or if there’s an actionable lead to rescue him, I doubt we’ll be able to contain Dewi. You should be prepared for that.”
Trent grimly nodded. “I know.”
Ken tried not to focus on all the new knowledge swimming around in his brain because he knew if he did, he’d be sick.
Like, literally hurl everything he’d ever eaten ever kind of sick.
“Will there be other Primes here tonight?” Ken asked in his normal voice.
Trent nodded. “A couple of the Enforcers. Carbry Deverelle from Los Angeles, and Bob Axelrod from Seattle.”
“Well, that’s one thing, at least,” Ken said. “Maybe they can help Da and Badger sit on Dewi. Might want to ask them to change their travel plans to stay here longer.”
“Not a bad idea,” Trent said. “We’ll play that by ear, but once we tell them I’ll privately give them a heads-up.”
“Do we need to worry about either of them?” Ken knew he didn’t need to explain what he meant.
“No. They’re loyal to our pack. Neither of them has any desire to be Pack Alpha. They’ve said as much in the past. They’re happy being the lead Enforcers in their regions. Every Enforcer who’s a Prime has been talked to about that in the past.”
“Peyton didn’t want any competition?”
“Like Dad, Peyton didn’t want resentment to build.
That’s what’s so goddamned pointless about Endquist. Had he simply been a team player, Duncan would have given him a stake and let him run a region on his own.
But Endquist didn’t want to put in the work.
Peyton’s made a point of talking to every Prime in person since last year and told them if they ever want to be in charge of a pack, he’ll be happy to set them up, but there’s no room for petty territorial bullshit when lives are at stake. ”
“How do we know it won’t become a future issue?”
“Because Peyton told them the basic facts of life, that it’s not as simple as being powerful enough to fight and overcome any challengers, and hold on to land and money, like it was a hundred years ago.
That it’s government bullshit and financial bullshit and everything it entails.
If you had a choice between making damned good money doing something you’re good at without having to worry about the paperwork bullshit or trying to own the whole enchilada, which option would you pick? ”
“No-brainer,” Ken said.
“Exactly. Did you ever look up the salaries of the Enforcers?”
Ken shook his head. He knew he had access to that data, but he’d never felt a need to peruse it.
“The Primes are all millionaires,” Trent said.
“The Alphas who aren’t Primes are paid a starting rate of $250k a year, with annual raises.
Their housing and cars are paid for. Expenses.
Their mates, if they have one, don’t have to work if they don’t want to and receive a pack stipend.
They get health care and retirement pensions.
The pack pays to send their kids to school.
All they have to do is take a knee, show their throat, and do what they’re told.
If they ever physically or mentally can’t do the job anymore, the pack still takes care of them.
Most of them, as you know, their jobs usually amount to little more than settling family disputes and scaring rowdy teenage pups straight.
To keep the peace so human law enforcement doesn’t step in.
“Unlike the old days, it’s not a matter of survival where people get slaughtered for land and resources.
The resources are there for the asking as long as people toe the pack’s line.
” He laughed. “There was this one Prime who grew up here in the pack compound who started hinting to Dad he might want to challenge him for Pack Alpha one day.
He was full of himself, pretty stupid when it came to how the real world worked.
“Dad took him into the office one day and spent the whole day boring him to death with all the minutiae running the pack entailed, and asked if he still wanted to challenge him for the job.”
“What happened?” Ken asked.
He smirked. “The guy was a lot less sure of himself, but said yeah, he did. So Dad made him a deal. He gave him a stake, gave him a territory, and told him the requirements. That if he ran it for five years and turned a business profit for four out of those five years—legally—then he could come back and challenge Dad.”
“I take it that’s not what happened?”
Trent snorted. “No. Guy made it ten months and then begged Dad to send him one of the pack’s CPAs to help him get out of an IRS audit.
Guy decided maybe being the head cheese wasn’t such a great deal after all.
” He smirked. “What the guy didn’t know was that the IRS agent doing the audit?
His boss was one of ours, and Dad told him exactly what to look for. ”
“Buuut… I thought you said your Dad would stake people to have their own territory?”
“Oh, he absolutely would. The ones who came to him, respectfully, and asked what their next steps should be to advance through the pack hierarchy. Usually, once someone is stacking reams of paper and living in a nice house, with a happy mate and pups attending the best private schools, any ideas of trying to take over tend to…become pointless. Because they look around, realize how good they have it, and decide they’re happy. ”
“Because it’s easier to make people happy now than it was back then.”
“Exactly. People don’t have to trudge through the snow hunting for food to keep their family from starving.
They climb into their fancy SUV with the traction control and heated seats and drive to the grocery store to pick out whatever cuts of meat they want.
When basic needs are satisfied, it becomes easier for our kind to keep order.
Moving up the ladder, in our case, is when life gets more difficult.
In the old days, moving up the ladder meant that daily living became easier as long as you could fight to gain and hold power, land, and resources.
“But now? When there’s nothing to fight for, the average person is happy and doesn’t feel driven to keep fighting, Prime Alpha or not.
Are there exceptions? Of course. But usually once a Prime Alpha is an adult and in control of their hormones and emotions, they can look at the situation with a more nuanced eye and weigh the risk versus the reward. ”
Trent leaned back in his chair and templed his fingers.
“Now the fight is against the larger and global existential threats, and that impacts all of us. It motivates the average shifter to go along, because life is easier and safer that way. They’re not exploited, they’re fairly compensated, and the pack takes care of them as long as they do what they’re supposed to.
Some people struggle more because they want to go their own way.
We ask that they not do anything illegal.
That they obey the Pack Alpha. And that’s when the Enforcers intervene.
“When we have problems, it’s usually from packmates who didn’t grow up close to the compound, who have nonshifting parents, and who have no idea shifters are even a thing.
Because as more people mate with humans and nonshifters, the less we intervene in an attempt to protect our secret.
We try not to draw attention to ourselves. ”
He sighed. “But then we have shitheads like Faegan Lewis who cling to obsolete mindsets and let their ego drive their actions. Fortunately, they’re a dying breed.”
“Not dying fast enough,” Ken muttered.
“True.” Trent’s gaze grew hard, cold. “And that’s why when someone like him shows his ass, especially the way he has, we pull out all the stops. It’s why shifters from other races—non-canine races—are jumping in to help. Because this impacts all of us.”
A blip of the new information bubbled to the surface of Ken’s mind and sat there like a toxic bubble on the surface of an oil-slicked pond, rolling his stomach. “We have standing agreements with the other shifter races to eradicate threats like that,” he quietly said.
Trent slowly nodded. “Yeah. Because to keep the majority of our people safe—not just wolf shifters—it means sometimes we have to get our paws bloody. That’s why the Enforcers make big bucks—because sometimes it’s necessary to ask them to take lives.
The kind of people we want to be Enforcers hate that option, but know sometimes it’s the last resort. ”
“It’ll get really bad soon, won’t it?” Ken asked, already knowing and yet dreading his answer.
Trent leveled a gaze at him. “It’ll get as bad as it gets. All we can do is fight for our pack.”