“Okay, I feel like crap but let’s get this done.” Melody watched Ellie say this, but she’d been in her position with both accounts. Only not at the same time. She was feeling the side effects of the vaccines and morning sickness. She looked like death warmed over. “Now, what are we going to do? Do we close that shop? I don’t know if I want to risk ours or anyone else’s lives there. If they pull something publicly while the market is open there’s no way to get help fast enough in there. There’s just too many people in the way.” “Well, the floor most likely must be replaced as well as the lower half of all the walls. You were correct our base ingredients were fine, but the packaging did take a hit. We could back out. We have until Friday to get the request in for that. If we do choose to leave, I want the request in on Thursday so they can’t pull any stunts with it.” Melody watched Ellie making notes to herself from her seat across the table from her. “So, what ar
“So, we’re sure they were there to kidnap Melody for some unnamed person. Who would want to do that, and why?” Jordan became frustrated as soon as they got an answer, and it came with six more questions. “The list is long than I’d like to admit, and you know it. However, the ones with an interest that I’m aware of…” Malcolm shrugs as he paused speaking. “We have a treaty, which everyone signed, and I am not aware of anyone unhappy with the results of the treaty.” The treaty Malcolm spoke of set the purpose of the Toronto Council of Alphas and its expectations for everyone, including themselves. Jordan knew the names on the list, and he had to agree. This didn’t fit anyone on the list. Speculation didn’t raise any flags that would point out who was the offender. “I wasn’t talking about those on the list. I’m asking, who else could it be?” “It must be someone who has no foothold or the intimate knowledge of our unique form of governing. But th
“Thank you, everyone, for coming to this meeting. I wish we had more time, but we don’t have the luxury right now. So, without further ado, we’ll get down to business then.” Melody stood at the front of the conference room. Ellie sat to her right beside her. “Now we have a pivotal decision to make about the Saint Lawrence Market shop. It’s our first shop. We were lucky when the draw happened to have our application drawn. If we leave, we’ll probably never get another shop there. That being said, the repairs are not as bad for us as some there.” Melody wrote her words on the whiteboard behind her as she spoke. “Now those are the pros. The cons, however, are that we don’t know whether the sewers leak was an accident or sabotage.” Melody paused to look at the faces of the wolves before her. But she only sensed curiosity and confusion between them. A couple though we’re here, but they didn’t want to be. She couldn’t blame them, either. “After the attack
They went to get coffee and food. The guys would be late getting home because there was far too much to get done. “Okay, we have several surveys already. The results are early, and the results can change with more survey submissions. But they say they want to stay at the market and work.” Ellie had her phone at the ready, waiting for the results to start coming in. The light in her eyes came back, at least temporarily. “Okay, maybe coffee was a bad idea.” Ellie’s hand went to her stomach, and she winced. “This sucks, and before you say anything, I need some fresh ginger and lemons to make the lozenges.” They made their own stomach cure with lemons and ginger. Melody thought they tasted like ginger ale or a watered-down version of ginger beer. “I have an idea about that. Why don’t you talk to someone in the kitchens? You’re the Beta female. Maybe talk to them about bringing in ingredients for candies. We can work on the recipes and get through the p
Melody brought David back to the dining room and gave him his dinner. Only his attention quickly changed from his food to a little female pup at a nearby table. To keep him from hurting himself or falling, she had to take him out of his chair and let him run. David went straight to the little female pup and handed her a piece of pancake. Melody wanted to cry because pancakes were David’s favourite food and he hated to share them with anyone. “Well… I believe my son knows what he likes when he sees it, and I think that includes girls.” Malcolm laughed delightedly. “If that’s the case, we could be in for a tough time if we don’t teach him to respect women.” Melody said as watched her little guy fawn over a girl. It was surprising actually to see her baby think of someone else for the first time in his life. She felt it was all too soon. “Oh, don’t worry, I will work on that soon.” Malcolm promised as he watch his son become a flirt and enterta
Jordan and Ellie lay sleeping after having a quiet night in with no work, getting in the way after Ellie’s rushed email. Jordan’s phone rang, breaking their comfortable silence. He grabbed up his phone to answer. Jordan took the call and immediately left the bed, hoping that Ellie wouldn’t be disturbed by their plans. “Yeah? This better be good.”Jordan mumbled into his phone.“Get dressed and meet me at the elevator as soon as possible.” It was Malcolm, and he disconnected the before Jordan could ask questions.Jordan leaned against the wall beside the bedroom door with a heavy sigh and looked up at the ceiling.“Is there something wrong?”“Probably. That was Malcolm. All he said is I need to get dressed and meet him at the elevator.”“Well, you signed on for the position of Beta. It’s your job.”“Yeah, it is. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Then he headed for the bathroom and got dressed as quickly as he could. “I just wish he told me what’s going on. There’s so
One day we’d fix the traffic issues in this city. It was getting worse, not better, and the foolish humans resisted change because it wasn’t convenient in the short term. So every time someone posed a change, it became a political issue. What should have been a fifteen minute drive turned into twenty-five minutes as we dodged delivery vehicles and early morning commuters through one-way streets. It was a pain in the butt. But it is what it is, a failure in traffic control. We got to where the meeting would be held. The enforcers stayed upstairs or with the vehicles as did the other packs’ enforcers while Alpha and Beta’s went down the narrow stairs to the basement conference room. Malcolm was tired, and with having to all but walking sideways down the stairs was aggravating him. Because someone thought leaving the old stairs from when the building was first built in place was a security feature. Only one person could go up or down the stairs at a time, and movem
The meeting went on with each Alpha reporting on their experiences and observations from their investigations. At some point, Jordan’s map was projected onto a wall. There, the map gathered steam as we cornered the guilty party or parties with the information everyone brought to the table. Everyone in the room felt the excitement as the instinct to hunt rose in everyone. Territory of the packs here was blacked out. They placed the incidents and events on the map. Regions crossed out. Known perpetrators’ or victims’ homes were added. Now they were getting somewhere. The patterns appeared and holes formed. Holes where nothing happened, and no one was contacted. Soon enough, fewer holes passed scrutiny. Until it left them with five spots. “One or more should have our guilty party. However, before anyone goes half cocked to deal with the unknown. It’s our job to deal with whatever creature they are. We need to curb the instinct to deal with