Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Austin sighed. If only they had years to do all this instead of weeks. They needed to leave soon. Kingsley had organized a meetup with some open-minded alphas before Austin hit the packs that already planned to say no. They’d just have to make do.
“We get lunch now, right?” Jess asked.
Tristan hesitated. “We’re ahead of schedule. Do you maybe want to knock out Edgar’s thing before we break for lunch?”
Her sigh matched Austin’s from a moment ago. “I guess. Maybe you can help me put an end to the constant stream of new flowers.”
“Oh.” Tristan was quiet for a moment. “Okay, I need to prepare. He twists my mind up when he argues. Let’s do lunch now, and then we’ll shove him in the slot before you meet the hacker.”
Jess spun around. “That’s happening today? I only decided to meet him a couple hours ago!”
Tristan stopped next to them, a little diary held open by his thumb and a pen in the other hand. Brochan, having walked with him, looked down at the pages with a furrowed brow.
“Yeah,” Tristan said. “Apparently he’s been staying in a hotel for the last few days, waiting for an interview.”
She stared at Tristan for a solid beat, tensing in frustration. “Is that right?” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes. “Was it your job to help bring me around?”
He showed no expression, not in his face or his body. He was damn good at hiding his thoughts when he wanted to.
“To bring you around?” he said. “No. I was honest with you. I try to always be honest with you. But I did know Niamh planted the slip of paper in Naomi’s pile. When I saw it, I suspected her, and she confirmed it after the fact. I didn’t tell you because she planned to herself. She wanted you to go to your…advisors first, and then think about it. You brought it up before she could. I’m not trying to manipulate you, Jessie. I’m trying to learn to work with you. To be someone you can lean on.”
Her bearing thawed, and Brochan straightened, no longer peering over the gargoyle’s arm to read the diary. He believed Tristan and respected what he’d just said. Austin agreed wholeheartedly.
“Well.” A sheen covered Jess’s eyes. She was still struggling with losing Nathanial and under a lot of pressure, and she didn’t have a tight hold on her emotions. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.” She cleared her throat and pointed at the diary. “Bake in a couple minutes for me to punch Niamh in the face for manhandling all of us. I don’t care if it’s for our own good—I’ve about had it. It’s annoying.”
“Manhandling…all of us?” Tristan asked, and Brochan’s lip twitch and sparkling eyes were the equivalent of another man blurting out a laugh. Tristan wasn’t aware that he, too, had been “guided.”
Jess turned to Austin, once again stealing his focus. Her beautiful hazel eyes were large and open. “Do you have some time to meet this hacker with me?” she asked. “The one I asked you about the other day.”
He inclined his head toward Brochan. Jess wasn’t the only one needing help with a schedule of late.
“I can have Kace sit in on the challenge this afternoon,” Brochan offered, “and I can take the one you’d planned to attend.”
Right, that challenge, another high-level placement. The challenger was from a prominent pack on the East Coast. She’d left without looking back, coming here with no safety net or even a hotel reservation. She’d shown up at the bar when Austin was working, waited until he was finished, and asked to challenge into the team. Not the pack, the team. The convocation.
Usually, Austin started people low and made them earn their placement by working their way up. That was standard shifter protocol. But not this woman. Her experience and her belief in what they were doing had him granting her permission to challenge for placement at any level she chose.
She was going for the top, but not the very top. Not the level she could challenge into, if he’d read her correctly. When asked why, she’d said that she still needed to learn the ropes and wasn’t ready for a leadership role yet. She’d elevate when she felt she could increase the value of the team.
Perfect answer. Perfect disposition. He hoped she worked out.
That was the only reason he hesitated now. He wanted to see her fight.
“How about we push Niamh to the evening?” Jess said without missing a beat. She winked at Austin. “Look at how good I am at reading body language.”
“He was all but screaming at you,” Brochan said, and Tristan laughed.
Austin kissed her. “Evening I can do. Good luck with Edgar.”
Her world-weary sigh spoke volumes.
NINE
Jessie
“Prepare thyself,” Edgar said with a flourish as the sun sank toward the horizon. We’d gotten delayed with other matters and had to shift him to later in the day.