“Matthew, if you would, please.”
Matthew turns on the giant TV mounted on the wall in front of us and pulls out a large tablet from the coffee table, placing it on his lap. “We made some final touches to the app we really want you to check out.” The familiar loading screen of the app pops up on both his tablet and the TV he’s mirroring it to. “What we have here is the main menu, where people can learn about the sanctuary at a tap or even make a direct donation if they want. But even if they don’t care about any of that, it doesn’t matter. As soon as they go to the main focus of the app,here,”he taps away again, “Springer's Sanctuary starts earning money.”
On the TV, there’s a flash of rainbow light as cute and fun music begins to play. Then, the most adorable little drawings of the cutest animals I’ve ever seen pop on the screen, all smiling, some waving or dancing, others holding flags with greetings written on them.
“Players get to pick their starter animal here,” Izzy says, gesturing to the screen, “and then the game begins! They care for their pet, and shop for their pet, expand their habitat, play with them. And they can earn more pets as they level up. More pets means more micromanagement, which means more time in the app. More time in the app for free players means more ads. And the people who pay the small monthly fee don’t get any ads. Either way, the sanctuary gets all the proceeds after the distribution fees are paid.”
My jaw drops when the screen changes to show all the little pets, including cartoon versions of all our babies at the sanctuary, all smiling and bouncing around. Even a little Springer is there.
Tears spring to my eyes, and I’m sniffling before I even know what’s happening, wiping my face with the backs of my hands. “I don’t know what to say. How can I ever thank you all for this?”
“There’s no need.” Will sits forward in his seat, that same kind smile on his face as when we came in. “We wanted to help out as soon as Adam came to us.”
“He was rather persuasive, I’ll give him that.” Asher, whom I now know for sure that I recognize given his British accent, winks at me.
“But that didn’t matter. We would have helped without Adam making a very good case for why it was so important.” Izzy has moved to the love seat where she scratches her dogs behind their ears. Their eyes close as they lean into the loving gesture, and my heart just about explodes.
“Thank you. All of you.” I turn to Adam and reach for his hand, grasping it. “Thank you, love.”
His smile is bashful at first, but as adoration grows in his gaze, he says, “Anything for you.”
Matthew clears his throat comically loud. “I think Adam wanted to show us all something, too?” He passes the large tablet to him.
Adam takes it with a dry expression and starts tapping away. The TV changes from the cute app to the internet. “This is a hidden URL,” he says as he types into the bar. “We bought multiple web addresses, and I redirected them all to the same site. So, we have Springer's Sanctuary-dot-com and Crescent Lake Animal Sanctuary-dot-com, for instance.”
The screen loads a landing page featuring the absolutely adorable logo of my smiling Springer, with the sanctuary name printed beneath her chest. The page includes several buttons that take you to other pages on the site. Adam cycles through photos of all the animals I never knew he even took, and they’re all wonderful. There are some pics that are not the most flattering of the property, though.
He must see my face, because Adam laughs. “One, this is just a draft, like I said. It isn’t live. But two, we don’t want them thinking we don’t need the donations, because we absolutely do. I know you’re standing firm on paying for the house renovations ourselves, and I support that completely.” He cycles through some more photos, and then a blank page with an “About Us” title at the top. “We’ll need you to write up something for this.”
“Like a mission statement?”
“Well, yeah, but I was also thinking a tribute to your uncle would be nice.”
Of course. That’s perfect. I look over at Adam and smile. “Thank you. This is so beautiful. And the app, too.” I look at Izzy and each of her pack mates. “Thank you for all of your hard work. It’s amazing.”
“Ah! Hang on.” Izzy pulls out her phone and taps away on it, and my phone dings at the same time as each of my Alphas. “Itook the liberty of getting your numbers from Adam. I just sent you all the link to download the app.”
I check her text message, save her contact, and click the link to begin the app download.
After a lively dinner, the guys all migrate to the basement, leaving Izzy and I in the living room with her dogs and a couple of glasses of wine.
“Ugh,” Izzy grumbles, tossing her head back against the plush couch. “I love those men—I swear, I’dkillfor them—but they are so beyond clingy. Let a girl breathe once in a while!”
My laugh is a near snort, which makes her sit up and point at me.
“It’s true! You just formed your pack, so you wait. Those guys are going to dote on you and follow you around like lost puppies.”
I purse my lips to stifle a smile. “That doesn’t sound too bad to me.”
She scoffs. “They all say that at first.”
Demeter and Sephie, as Izzy calls her, both lift their heads at the same time and sniff the air a moment before the doorbell chimes.
Izzy’s face is all confusion as she sets her wine glass down and stands. “I wonder who that is.”
It isn’t long before I hear a frazzled and kind of dramatic female voice and the clicking of heels on the tile floor.
“I saw you have company, and I’m sorry for barging in, but please, I need you.”
