Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
She snarled, eyes yellowing. Getting in my face, she growled, “This isn’t over.”
“I’d be disappointed if it was.”
Ash stomped off, leaving me under the weight of seven disapproving glares.
The collective assortment of pricks could be as pissed as they wanted. Even though everyone assumed Lucia was my bank, the truth was I had plenty of my own money. My father was clan alpha before he was killed and replaced by the middle-aged, bespectacled, dreadlocked moon wolf sitting blank-faced at the bottom left of the screen.
Clan alphas were far from poor. How could they be when they had the right to tax their people as heavily as they wanted, and pocket all the money.
My father wasn’t greedy, or corrupt, but he did end his time as a wealthy man, and everything he had he left to me in a healthy, secret, offshore bank account. The same bank account Castor topped up for me and our daughter.
I drained half a million dollars out of that bank account just to get all seven of the leaders to give me an hour of their time. Damn right I wasn’t letting Ash piss that money away and end the meeting.
No one was getting away that easily.
“Sorry for the interruption,” I said to the leaders. “Before we begin, I’m disclosing that this forum is being videoed and live-streamed on Loop Garou by that wolf in the corner with the fine ass.”
“Excuse me?” Ash shot up, twisting around to see Edric waving from the corner. “Absolutely not. Turn that off. Turn it off, Mr. Blaze, or that’s a demerit!”
“I’ll take the demerit.”
I thought she’d rip his head off. Especially when he winked at her.
“You are so sexy right now.”
“Focus, woman. I’ll fuck you after.”
I rolled my eyes, hiding my smile a lot better than the leaders were hiding their discomfort. All of a sudden, they weren’t looking so arrogantly smug.
“Actually, I don’t know how cool I am with being recorded,” Jayson, the water leader, said. I was looking into the blue eyes of the weak-ass nepo baby himself. “You never said anything about that.”
“No, what I said was that this forum would be the start of the new laws created and put forth by the clan leaders. What? Did you think if you didn’t tell anyone else about that promise, you could deny it if I ever did?”
Seven faces hardened in unison. That was a big, fat yes.
“Whoops, too bad,” I sang. “Everyone’s going to know, and everyone’s going to see. Matter of fact, Eddy baby, how many people are tuned into the live right now?”
“One hundred thousand and counting, baby.”
“Excellent.”
Growls sounded through their screens.
“Enough of that, let’s get started.” I moved closer to the podium, making sure the mic picked me up loud and clear. “First, I’m going to give you the new laws we’ve already agreed upon so that you’re not getting a bunch of repeats. After, the students will run the forum.” I beamed at Jayson. “First, the approved jobs lists are gone. Every wolf everywhere will have the right to apply for a job they’re trained and qualified for—regardless of their wolf type.”
Magnus snorted. “Perposterous. What use is an omega police officer who can be commanded to get back in their cruiser and drive away? We have the laws we do for a reason, girl.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” the alphas went off.
“Exactly.”
“It’s not oppression, it’s common sense.”
I ignored their heckling. “We have the laws we do because we’re too ridiculous and too pathetic to enforce said laws against alphas and betas.”
Meya, the moon leader, sputtered. “I beg your pardon!”
“What Magnus just described is evading arrest, which is illegal the last I checked. Since when do we blame innocent people for having crimes committed against them? That’s what criminals freaking do. Commit crimes,” I drew out. “And when an alpha commits a crime like, for example, using compulsion to evade arrest, what if instead of going—oh well, it happens. We hit the bastard with double the penalties and triple the fees.
“Which brings me to my next suggestion,” I plowed on as they all started talking at once. “Harsher punishments for power-based crimes.”
“You have no idea what you’re—!”
“There was a serial rapist running around free in the fire clan for years,” I bellowed, blowing up six brows and shutting two mouths. “He used his alpha voice to force himself on omega women. So many of them reported him, and nothing was done! Maybe if all those blessed alpha officers had done their job and cut his fucking dick off, he’d have learned to use his voice nicely!”
“Yeah!” nearly every woman in the room screamed—Nia loudest of all.
Yes, I was betraying my temple vow by telling them what Mason told me, but in his case, the rules no longer applied. Mason gave himself away that night when my fates and I burst in on him with Nia. Once he revealed himself to be a rapist, the secret was out. Therefore there wasn’t a secret for me to keep.