Chapter 58

Grace

I walked in, still fuming, and heard clapping. I looked up to see Charles there. The receptionist stood up and clapped, too, as did the security officers on the floor. Someone let out a wolf whistle, and I flushed.

Charles grinned. "See. All of the above worked just fine."

I turned back and let out a sigh of relief to see them dispersing.

"Was… that the hard or the easy part?"

"Neither. It was just step one," Charles smiled. "Now, head back to the lab before two through ten starts."

Eason came in behind me, grinned, whistled, and clapped, too. "There's my sister! I haven't seen feisty Grace in a long time!"

I winced. "I just pissed off a lot of people, didn't I?"

Eason and Charles laughed.

"Way more than you know."

In the days following the protest, I found myself drowning in exhaustion. The aftermath had been a whirlwind, with emotions running high and my patience stretched to its limits. But as I had promised, I was prepared to sign off on every transfer request that came through.

After, I had hired my assistant full-time. When I presented the contract to her after reading it over, her eyes glimmered with tears.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Really."

"How soon can I start?"

I laughed. "As soon as you sign."

She whipped out a pen with a beaming smile, and I handed over her credentials into the pack system along with a designated phone for the pack and Wolfe Medical.

"I'll do my best not to call you at crazy hours," I smiled. "But thank you for you hard work. I look forward to working with you, Amira."

We shook hands, and she was off setting up her credentials on her laptop and looking extraordinarily happy.

"Mail!" The mail clerk said, pushing a cart out of the elevator. "’ Mira, where do you want it?”

“My desk is fine.”

“All of it?”

She looked up, and I frowned at the cart. “How much of that is…?”

“All of it,” the man said. “I didn’t have room for anything else. And there’s more to come.”

I picked up one of the letters and set my jaw. They were all the old transfer request documents from when my father was alpha and before he’d digitized the system. I tore one open and read it. I lifted my head and looked at the mail clerk.

“Leave the cart here for now. We’ll sort it.”

“Alpha Wolfe,” Amira said gently. “I know that… this is probably not going to mean much, but I really am sorry.”

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. I told them I’d sign off on it, so I’ll do it. I’ll give you access to the electronic database and have you work on those.”

Her eyes widened. “Surely there’s something I can do to help?”

“Unless you have my signature on a stamp, probably not.”

She blinked. “Give me an hour. Your seal should be in your office still.”

She turned and pulled out a piece of paper before putting it on her desk. “If you could give me your prettiest, pettiest signature?”

I laughed and took the pen, signing it with a flourish, my middle initial and a scrolling heart beneath it.

She grinned. “I have a feeling I’m going to love working for you even more than usual.”

“I used to sign my papers like this in undergrad for professors that really pissed me off…” I paused. “And fuck off notes.”

She snickered and went to the scanner. I started sorting through the letters before I realized that more of them than not were transfer requests instead of something else.

“Better than bills, I guess.”

I frowned. “Does our tax bill to the State decrease with fewer people?”

Amira frowned. “I have no idea.”

“I’ll check.”

Meaning, I’d ask Charles or the pack lawyer. I went to my office with an arm full of letters. As I tore them open and started to sort them by which pack they were transferred to, a sense of calm washed over me.

Traitors deserved no mercy. The President had passed a law about pack transfers. Miscellaneous transfers could only happen once every five years, and alphas were no longer required to accept transfers back for born-pack members.

I made a note to get the infrastructure of the pack’s records updated so I could flag every single one of these people in the system. It felt petty, but it felt right.

Once a traitor. Always a traitor.

I knew that this was just the beginning, but I was determined to see it through. Mooncrest deserved a leader who was committed to what they said, even if it meant making tough decisions and facing backlash along the way. I couldn’t be seen as weak. I had done enough of that. The path I had set myself on, the legacy I would add to the Wolfe legacy, was going to be a controversial one for sure.

I decided to call Eason.

“Are you planning another impromptu address?” He asked, laughing. “Cause I want to be invited to that one, not just catch the tail-end.”

I laughed. “I actually wanted some… public relations advice. I’ll pay you—“

“Let me come over and enjoy your new boyfriend’s cooking, and consider me paid.”

“Eason.”

“Those are the terms. Take them or get off my phone.”

I sighed. “Fine. I’ve got a small mountain of transfer requests to get through… Maybe a large mountain, but this isn’t a problem that’s just going to go away. The people transferring will need a reason to trust me, and I’ll have to smooth things over with the people who can’t just up and leave.”

I sighed. “There is more than one kind of deserter after all.”

“Well, I could tell you to watch the news.”

“I’m not ready for that.”

A knock sounded on my door, and Amira entered. I smiled at her and waved her in. She placed another box of mail on my desk before taking a look at the letters I had already opened.

“Fine, I’ll give you a rundown. It’s everywhere, and maybe I spread it a little further with some editing.”

“Eason!”

“Chill,” Eason's voice held a touch of amusement as he replied. “I’m the expert here, and believe it or not, it's actually being well-received by the pack."

I was taken aback. "Well-received? But I was practically snarling at them!"

Eason chuckled lightly. "That's exactly it, Grace. You showed them that you're not to be trifled with. They respect your strength, and I've been receiving messages from pack members who appreciate your determination to do right by them, to deal with your mistakes, and to call people out. You remember Ms. Carson?”

“Yeah.”

“I ran into her, and she told me to tell you to yell at more people. It’s better for your blood pressure.”

I laughed, and relief washed over as Charles took a seat across from me.

“Well, I’m glad that someone is enjoying this… Hey, would you happen to know anything about the way Mom handled crowds? I got another round of just like her mother after I yelled at people.”

I bit my lip. It hadn’t been said in a nice way, more like a spooked way, but I knew that they had been strong and unwavering in their beliefs.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll send you the footage I found that I used for edits.” I frowned and went to my laptop as his email came through. “I thought you’d done it on purpose, but it’s almost better that you didn’t.”

I opened the video. The video was pretty grainy. Our father was at the podium, speaking confidently to the crowd about Wolfe Medical's efforts during the Crescent Flu epidemic. It was when he announced that Mooncrest would be under quarantine, and there wouldn’t be travel in or out of the city without people being isolated to limit the spread.

The crowd seemed outraged and filled with protests. In the middle, my mother took the microphone.

“Heather, darling,” he said, his tone fond.

“We don’t forgive traitors or deserters,” she snarled. “Don’t leave or stay out if it’s a problem.”

No one laughed, but our father grinned and took the microphone back before wrapping his arm around her waist in a loving gesture I had seen him do a million times. I saw the tension almost leak out of her.

“Try not to piss off my wife while she’s pregnant with your questions. I don’t think there are any laws that would stop her from almost killing you.”

Our mother gave the crowd a blood-thirsty grin as our father continued with his speech.

A smile tugged at my lips as I watched the video. It was a glimpse into my parents' dynamic, their strength, and their shared dedication to the pack. Suddenly, I felt a surge of inspiration.

"Eason," I said, my voice filled with determination, "I think it’s time we shift the media coverage.”

“I can finally stop the smear campaign?”

“Taper it,” I said. “We still need the stock price to be low enough to get people to sell, but let’s focus on my vision for the future of Wolfe Medical and Mooncrest after Wolfe Medical can be delisted."

“You got it.”