“Okay!” Karen stood and began gathering empty coffee mugs, and I noticed for the first time that I could see her veins through the skin of her hands. My mother’s looked much the same. “Who wants chili?”
Anticipatory chatter accompanied the general movement toward the office door, and my stomach was already growling. I hadn’t had Karen’s chili in years.
“Wait.” Abby spoke so softly that at first no one else seemed to hear her. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Wait. Dad, I can’t go home with you tomorrow.”
“What?” Rick Wade arched one brow at me, as if I had any idea what she was talking about, but I could only shrug. Suddenly, I had an all-new respect for the late Greg Sanders, who’d constantly been left out of the loop by the only young tabby in his Pride—Faythe, of course.
Wade turned back to his daughter. “Why not?”
“Because I belong with Jace.”
My pulse jumped. Everyone turned to stare.
Abby’s face flushed as red as her hair. “That came out wrong. I meant that Jace will needallhis enforcers to catch the killer. Including me.”
“What?” Rick turned on me, anger flashing bright in his eyes. “Youhiredmy daughter?” “You had no right—”
“Hold on a minute,” I growled as fire surged through my veins in response to the challenge from a fellow Alpha. I had no intention of fighting Rick Wade, but my body didn’t know that. I had no idea what Abby was taking about, but there was a reason conflicts between Alphas escalated quickly—we were hardwired to exert our dominance whenever it was challenged. “In fact, Idohave the right. Abby isn’t yours anymore. She’smine.”
Abby’s eyebrows shot up and her flush deepened.
Damn it. “I mean, I’m her Alpha, and I don’t need your permission to hire her.” I would only need his blessing if I tried to hire a member of his Pride. Which Abby no longer was.
Shock rippled across his angry scowl, and I could see the brutal realization as it dawned on him. Abby was an adult and a member of someone else’s territory; he no longer held any authority over his own daughter.
That had never happened before, because in the history of the US Prides, Abby was only the second tabby to leave home, and she was the first to actually transfer into another territory.
True, her membership in my Pride was intended to be as temporary as my leadership of it, but that didn’t change the fact that she was now under my sole authority. Just like all the male members of my Pride.
“I...” Rick struggled to finish his sentence, while everyone else looked on in the tense silence. I almost felt sorry for him.
“There’s really no need to get worked up,” I said, when his mouth just kept opening and closing. I turned back to Abby with a scowl, silently demanding an explanation for why she would pit one Alpha against another. “I didn’t hire her.”
“The hell you didn’t!” But the indignation in her voice didn’t match the desperation in her eyes, which practically begged me to just go along with...whatever she was up to.
She should have known better.
Karen quietly closed the office door. Our council meeting had just gone into extra innings, and nobody wanted to miss a single pitch.
“Firstof all, don’tevercurse at your Alpha,” I growled, only slightly mollified when Abby lowered her gaze and took a small step back, accepting my rebuke with none of the resistance or hesitation she’d shown in the past, when we weren’t in a room full of Alphas. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared about her language; that particular courtesy was antiquated, in my opinion. But by shouting at me, she had challenged my leadership, and lettinganyoneget away with that would erode my authority. “Second, you do not work for me.”
“I apologize.” Abby still stared at the ground, yet her voice was neither soft nor weak. “But if you’ll recall, after I freed my roommate from those ass—” She stopped abruptly for a rephrase, and one corner of Faythe’s mouth twitched. “After I took out those hunters over fall break, you said there’d be a job waiting for me if I wanted it.”
My eyes fell closed.Son of a bitch!I’d forgotten all about that because I hadn’t intended it as a real job offer. When she’d gone back to school without even mentioning it, I’d assumed she’d taken the offer as the simple compliment I’d intended. As evidence that her Alpha had noticed and appreciated her abilities.
I scrubbed both hands over my face, stalling for time to think. “I meant for that offer to applyafteryou graduate.” I hadn’t thought she’d take it seriously, because she was supposed to marry Brian right after graduation.
“But you never said that.”
Irritation narrowed my gaze at her. “You never accepted the offer.”
Her brows rose. “I’m accepting itnow.”
Damn it. I’d walked right into that one, and I couldn’t get out of it without going back on my word.
A good Alphanevergoes back on his word, and Abby knew that.
She’d just thrown me under the bus in front of half the territorial council.
