The other man, who was tall, thin, and balding, shook his head. "You shouldn't. But sheisworth a lot of money."
Aoife folded her arms, eyeing the two men. Elliott's lion gave a butt-wiggle of delight.Our fierce lioness. Look how she disdains the weak! They should not make her apologize! We shall defend her!
I think she's doing a pretty good job defending herself,Elliott replied. The lion was right about how ferocious and magnificent Aoife was, though. He felt a bit starry-eyed, and wondered whether he could tell her about the whole mates thing before dinner or if it was something he was going to have to draw out.
You don't draw mates,the lion said, baffled.You have sex and kittens with them.
Elliott coughed, drawing a briefly warning look from Aoife before she began interrogating the businessmen suspiciously. "So what's in it for you two? Because five minutes ago you wouldn't even look at me for support and now you're telling me to back down. What's the story?"
"ColCor does all of its annual allocation of business and charity funds at once," Tall and Bald said in a suddenly desperate hiss. "Cindy Collins controls and allocates every penny herself. Doug and I both work for ColCor subsidiaries and whether we get axed or funded this year depends on what she decides today."
"Grahamsworethis was the best way to get funded," General Ross (who was apparently actually named Doug) explained. "Ms. Collins likes putting faces to names for the smaller companies it's absorbed. But she's notorious for cutting everything associated with a bad meeting or a bad day. It's not just your little animal farm that's on the line here, miss. It's nine hundred jobs at my subsidiary, and eleven thousand at Graham's."
"Eleventhousand?" Aoife squeaked. "What is it that youdo?"
"Research and development on prevention and treatment of infectious diseases," tall thin Graham said.
"Plastics cleanup in the oceans," mustachioed Doug said.
Aoife stared at them both furiously. "Could you not have been involved in something terrible like weapons development or…" Her imagination failed her and she snapped, "Fine, they can stay if they ask nicely!"
Doug and Graham exchanged a grimace that suggested Cindy Collins wasn't a woman prone to asking nicely for anything. Well, Elliott thought, neither was her daughter, and look where that had gotten all of them. He murmured, "I can roar at them if you think it'll help," to Aoife, whose fury faded into a bright-eyed grin at him.
"I'll keep it in me pocket," she whispered back.
The Collins caught up to them about then, Molly's face still red and tear-streaked. "We can't go yet. Mom promised me I could see the tigers."
Aoife, sourly, said, "Did she promise you could pet those too?"
Molly burst into tears again. A little to Elliott's surprise, because he could practically feel her anger radiating off her, Aoife sighed and crouched in front of the girl. "Listen to me, Molly. Has anybody ever told you about boundaries?"
The girl snuffled and shook her head. Aoife, without looking at Molly's mother, said, "Then your education is being neglected. Boundaries are the line where one thing ends and another one begins. When it comes to the animals at this park, safe boundaries mean that you don't get to pet them or pick them up whenever you want."
"But Iwantto!"
"Yeah, and I want a five million euro grant and a house in Ibiza, but we don't always get what we want."
Molly stared at her in clear confusion. "Ido."
There was an opinion-filled silence from Aoife before she said, "Not here, you don't," and stood to meet Cindy Collins's eyes squarely. "Ma'am, I'm going to need you to be responsible for your daughter's actions if you want to continue with this tour. If you'll check your briefing, I'm confident you'll find that this was not intended to be a tour for children in the first place, and that my employers will back me on my decision to eject you from the park if there's another incident."
She's the queen of the pride,Elliott's lion said with admiration.This other one smells like she wants to be queen, but our lioness challenges her and will emerge victorious!
"Who do you think you are?" Cindy Collins asked Aoife incredulously. Elliott had to stop himself from stepping forwardand proclaiming that she wasAoife Gallagher, a wise, generous, competent woman that he was lucky enough to call his fated mate.
And then we can swipe her with a paw and knock her into the wildebeests,his lion said with satisfaction.Then our lioness will know that we fight for her!
Um,Elliot said.Maybe not. And those are bison, not wildebeests.
The lion gave a quite magnificent shrug that shook its mane and made its golden fur ripple. Apparently the difference between a bison and a wildebeest was a matter of unimportant detail to it, which Elliott guessed was fair. Both were large herbivores with horns, and he supposed from a lion's point of view, that was all that really mattered.
"Ma'am," Aoife was saying with far more patience than Elliott had for Cindy Collins's tone, "I think I'm the person leading your tour and trying to give you an overview of a location your corporate foundation expressed investing in as a bridge to our future and the health and safety of dozens of endangered species. You do want there tobetigers and bison in the world your daughter grows up in, don't you?"
Molly gave a horrified gasp. "Ofcourseshe does. Don't you, Mom? Don't you?"
"Of course I do, Molly." Collins gave Aoife a look that suggested she was less concerned with whether there was an Aoife in the world Molly would grow up in. Elliott's lion growled, and Elliott took a protective step forward. It wasn't that he was concerned Aoife couldn't handle herself. She obviously could. But a little backup never hurt.
We are alargebackup.
