“But you didn’t hear that Eamon hasn’t been the Marshal in more than a year and a half?” Vance asked as he closed the office door behind us.
The stranger shrugged. “I guess my information is a bit dated.”
“Well then,” I said as I sank into my desk chair, gesturing for him to have a seat in one of the guest chairs. “Consider this your check-in. Welcome to the northern zone of the Mississippi Valley Territory. I have just a few questions for you.”
“Okay.” He gave me a solemn nod as he sat. “Fire away.”
How cute that he thought I needed permission.
“First of all, what’s your name?” I asked as Vance leaned against the door at the stranger’s back, arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Austin Graham.”
“Mr. Graham, when were you infected?”
“Just over four years ago. I’m a Tennessee native. Though this was the free zone, back then.”
So it was. We had many shifters who pre-dated the recognition of our Pride.
I leaned back in my chair, holding his gaze. “Do you plan to stay in the territory?”
He crossed his arms over the front of his gray jacket. “Am I obligated to divulge my plans?”
The question raised my hackles, but I reminded myself that it was not unusual for strays—or humans—to feel protective of their privacy. “No. Though we try to keep our census updated, so if you leave, we’d appreciate a heads up.”
“Fair enough.”
“As I said, I’m Charley Studebaker. I hold Titus’s authority and I operate in his name everywhere in the territory north of the Tennessee state line.”
For a while, Titus had tried to do it all himself. Educate all the strays on the rules and obligations that came with our new citizenship. Track down all the newly infected members and teach them the basics of instinct, shifting, hunting, loyalty, and the pecking order. He’d tried to be father, brother, priest, and king to every werecat in the Mississippi Valley, and burnout came hard and fast, even with Robyn Sheffield at his side and Jace Hammond at his back.
Dividing the territory into zones was Titus’s first major decision as an honest-to-god Alpha, and from what I’ve heard, he didn’t have much trouble getting approval for that from the Territorial Council. Some of the other Alphas truly didn’t care what went on in the “stray Pride.” Some actually had faith in him. Others were hoping to give him just enough rope to hang himself with. Regardless, within six months of the Mississippi Valley Territory’s inception. Titus had divided it into three zones and appointed two Marshals to run the day-to-day operations of the middle and northern zones.
Titus oversees the southern zone himself, from his house an hour north of Jackson, Mississippi, and as an Alpha in his own right, Jace was the obvious choice to run the middle zone.
I was not Titus’s first choice to take charge of the north. In fact, I wasn’t even infected yet, when he created the zone. But how Eamon MacLean screwed things up and I got his job a year later was a whole ‘nother story.
“The gentleman behind you is Vance Cooper, my second-in-command,” I said. “The gentleman behind the bar is Tucker, another of my enforcers.”
“And the woman?”
“Davey. My sister.” I watched him closely for any sign of interest, but I saw none; Austin Graham appeared to be all business. Still,everyonegot my standard warning. “The fastest way to get yourself escorted out of the northern zone in the trunk of my car is to make trouble for her. That means you can talk to her while you’re here. Politely, obviously. You can order food and drinks from her. But the moment you leave the bar, you will forget she exists until the next time you come in. Understood?”
“Of course.” Another nod.
“You will not seek her out, outside of this bar. You will not ask her personal questions. You will not speak to anyone else about her. Everyone in the northern zone knows those rules, so if anyone asks you a single question about Davey, you will immediately report that to me or to one of my enforcers. Do you understand?”
“Ms. Studebaker, I have nothing but respect for your efforts to protect your sister. More than you could possibly know.” Graham’s brows furrowed over those deep blue eyes. “Is she in some kind of danger?”
“That’s unclear. As I hope you know, exposing our existence to a human carries the death penalty for a shifter, all over the world. But guidelines for what to do with humans who already know about us are rather vague. So we take every necessary precaution with Davey. With Titus’s blessing.”
“That is very good to hear.” He seemed to truly mean that, and my curiosity about him swelled. But he’d already declined once to give us any personal information beyond his name, and I was starting to believe he had real reasons for that.
“Good. Now, we don’t have any official citizenship process—everyone is welcome—but those who live in the territory are expected to follow the rules at all times. Breaking any one of them is grounds for immediate expulsion not just from the northern zone, but from the entire territory. Are you familiar with all of the rules and expectations that come with citizenship in the Mississippi Valley Pride?”
“I suspect I am. I’m not exactly newly—”
Shouting echoed toward us from the front of the bar, and I spun in my chair to face the north wall of my office. It was a cacophony of sound. A sudden burst of voices, all of them outraged.
