SWNOVELS Chapter 89
Chapter 89
LEAH
I ordered the back fields mowed after all. The grass will likely stick to feet and shoes and get dragged inside, but there is nothing
to be done for it.
We need a place to set up the bars and to move out all the booze. And lest my brother and his packmates fr eak the f* ck out, I
thought it better to move their stash rather than pour it
down the drain.
I’m not sure the kitchen staff is up to the task and the wolf I remembered so fondly from my childhood passed away a few years
ago, I’d learned. The ‘chef’ is a nineteen year old wolf
with an attitude and penchant for fusion dishes.
I like that he wants to take ownership of the menu. I think he
was expecting me to boss him around. Instead I shook his.
hand. Welcomed him to my pack. And told him to make us
proud.
We’ll see if that results in something amazing or the kind of
sp iteful coup that might ruin this entire party.
This is a country estate, it’s not like Uber eats or Doordash are
driving all the way out here.
“Relax,” Aaron tells me. “Chef Dom is sending trays of food
too.”
I still don’t know why Aaron is here. Or why he is helping me.
“Is this because you feel bad?” I ask. “About my dad?”
Aaron draws me aside from the flurry of wolves working to clean up the main pack house. We’re outside and he points to a set of
benches on the side of the back lawn, a good hundred
feet from the main house.
After we sit, he says, “Have you checked the books yet?”
“The library books?”
His smile is wry. “Accounting books. The records for Pack Roberts and their corporations.”
“No.” I’ve been depressed and dealing with some things.
Here’s the moment I can lean into the conversation and just
come out and say, “I’ve been busy with your baby.” But of
course I don’t.
“Leah, your pack’s been struggling for a long time. There has been a lot of mismanagement. Your dad was pulling money from
the company for years. Your brother... there’s evidence
linking him to several underground gambling rings and even weapons trafficking.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I am.”
“Taking that money from the marked account, that was just one misstep among many.” He expels a deep breath. “You should
know that my pack has bought up a sizable portion of Roberts Corporation.”
I haven’t been to our corporate headquarters in years.
I wonder when my brother last sat on the board. “How
sizable?”
“We now have a controlling majority.”
I gasp. I wrench myself away from him. “Gods, it’s always
something with you. Just when I think I can start to trust you,
you do something awful. Again and again and again.”
He grabs my shoulder and spins me back around. “Don’t you
walk away from me when we’re talking.”
I shove him back. “I’ll walk wherever the f**k I want, whenever
1 choose.”
His eyes flash gold.
“I’m not yours anymore, Aaron.” I rub my eyes and try to make
sense of things. “So let me see if I understand everything
correctly... you set up my father for embezzlement, while
secretly buying up shares of Roberts Corporation-”
“It’s pu blicly traded, Leah. Anyone could’ve bought that stock.”
“But it wasn’t anyone. It was you. Da mn it, Aaron. I always
knew you were a ruthless ba stard, but can you just leave us alone!? You win. Okay. We’re weak, poor and apparently alpha-
less.”
“You’re the Alpha.”
“Stop. You know I’m not what this pack needs.”
He towers over me. His huge body blocking the sun and
overwhelming me with his scent and strength and nearness.
“You want to save your pack, quit feeling sorry for yourself. Be
the Alpha they need you to be.”