“Yes, that is a good idea. I didn’t realize that you were going to think of it as that. There is a lot of ego sometimes from department heads. I don’t purposely step on toes, but when you tell someone that something they have been doing for twenty years or so is wrong, they tend to get a little upset.”
Harold nodded and then walked off. Sarah guessed that was her being left to her own devices. Sarah already had a couple of reports that she was going to turn in. She had some ideas on how they could be more efficient and save more. It was what she did, and Sarah was glad to be back in the saddle, doing what it was that she was supposed to do, with the person she felt like she was supposed to do it with.
Sarah thought of her mother and the words she had spoken to her, telling her it was time for her to get into the dating scene. She wasn’t getting any younger, apparently. Sarah sighed to herself. The office was big, and the job was perfect, the boss was a bit of a tyrant, but she could live with that. She could already hear him yelling on the other side of the space on the phone. Sarah didn’t know who had pissed him off as bad as that, so soon after he’d gotten on the phone with her, but he sounded like he was practically foaming at the mouth.
Whoever Katie was he certainly wasn’t too fond of what she was saying to him. Just another thing that gave Sarah pause and made her wonder. Who was Katie and why was Harold so mad at her?
Chapter 14
Harold
“Katie, why the hell are you telling me this?”
“I am telling you this, Harold, because you know that your father is not running his clan right. You knew that, and you still know it. You are the true alpha, Harold. You are the one that is supposed to be running the clan. You have always been the one. It is your namesake for goodness’ sake. Why are you trying to fight it?”
Harold sighed inwardly and closed his eyes. Katie was the only mother that he really remembered. He saw pictures of him and his real mother when he was young, but he didn’t have anything more than vague recollections of her. It was hard to feel anything for Madeline, except this sense of loss. Harold heard stories about her from everyone, and it would seem like there weren’t many people that didn’t like her. Harold wished that he could remember something about her, but instead, he was stuck with Katie.
Katie was his stepmother and she had done a lot for him when he was little. She was the one that had fed him, made sure he was bathed, and kissed all of his boo-boos. It was the sort of relationship that Harold had relished in, but something had changed. Somewhere along the line, Katie had started to rile him up on purpose, put stuff in his head that made everything harder to deal with.
This time was no different. She was constantly trying to get him to fight his father again. He’d done it once before, tried to take the Alpha title away from his father, but all that had happened was he’d almost killed someone in the heat of things, lost his rights to the leader position, and then he was also expelled out of his own clan. It was all done because of Harold allowing his stepmother to get in his head.
“I am not trying to fight it; I am just not hoping for anything to change, either. This is just the way it is and both of us are just going to have to accept it. If you don’t want to be with him anymore, you can just leave. You don’t have to send me after him.”
She scoffed. “I don’t want you to kill him, Harold. I just want you to take what is rightfully yours. It is the way it is supposed to be. You know how destiny is. You can’t stop it, so why try?”
Harold had heard it all before. She was just like a broken record sometimes, and he was getting madder and madder. She was like his mom though, so Harold couldn’t yell at her, like he could everyone else. His tone would get low and what could only be described as hostile, but he never did raise it all that much. He didn’t want to fight with her, but why did she find it so important to rile him up?
“I have to go, Katie.”
She sighed loudly and said that he was just wasting his time with what he was doing. Katie didn’t think that Harold belonged in the human world, at all.
“I don’t think so. We make lots of money here, money that goes to the clan, even though I am not a part of it, anymore. It takes care of all the things that my father does not.”
He was getting to the fact that he sent her quite a bit of money. His father had limited his wife’s money long ago. He likely didn’t trust her or something to that effect, so he would only give her a little bit of money here and there. Harold sent her a substantial amount every week because she was spending all he sent her too fast. He took care of Katie, even though he knew her true desires. Before though, Katie had been there for him while his father was away taking care of business. It had been Katie that had raised him. Harold knew that much, but at some point, he had started to see her for what she was.
Katie was an unhappy woman that had married the wrong man and would never truly be happy with him. Harold wished that the two of them would finally get divorced, but that wasn’t how things worked, not for the Alpha. No one would look at Katie ever again, not as she was still mated to Harold’s dad. The only way she could walk away and not be chased down and dragged back was if his father was killed, something Harold worried that Katie wanted. She was a persistent sort of person and if that was really what she wanted, she would have it, one way or another. Harold knew that and it worried him, but not enough that he was going to do it himself. If it happened, it wouldn’t be by his hands. That was going to have to be enough.
Harold was so mad at her that he wanted to throw something when he got off of the phone with her, which he did. He slung the cellphone at the door and almost hit Sarah who was walking in. She wasn’t ready for it and made a small scream when it whizzed past her head.
“I will knock next time, Harold. You don’t have to throw things at me.”
Harold was surprised that she thought that was what was happening. He started to explain that he wasn’t trying to throw anything at her, and he wasn’t mad at her, but Sarah just broke out in the biggest grin. He realized she was just joking. He was disarmed by the way she was acting and the antics. He wasn’t expecting that. He was expecting her to be all upset about it, but she was taking it in stride and that was enough for him to completely be pulled out of his foul mood. No one else could do that, not even Steven. What was it about Sarah that he didn’t quite get?
“So, what are you here for? You have more reports to show me how to save money, suggestions to save me millions?”
“Well, I don’t know about millions, but this will save you about one hundred thousand a year, plus salary.”
Harold didn’t know what she was talking about and when he asked her, she handed him the report. Something was in it that she didn’t want to say to his face, which, of course, intrigued him even more. Whatever could it be?
“Just tell me what is it that I have to do to save over a hundred K?”
Sarah hesitated and then sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk.
“You need to fire someone.”
Sarah said it so simply and Harold laughed again, thinking that she was joking.
“Why would I save money firing someone? You know how much it costs to recruit and train.”
