King's Throne(78)

Cade and Ellie were on the road, but they promised to stay in touch by phone and they all exchanged numbers and their new contact information. They were also invited to the mating ceremony in Iceland and promised to be there with bells on to party with their friends. Mitch couldn’t wait to meet the human who had managed to ensnare his best friend.
He also had to thank her for helping him that night after the attack on the dojo. Ellie had taken Cade and an unconscious Mitch back to her place and the rest, as they say, was history. Without Ellie’s kindness to a stranger, Mitch would have never met Gina and would most likely be dead. He owed a lot to the human woman.
Mitch spent most of the next week working at Phelix Corporation’s headquarters, weeding out the bad apples and replacing them with new people. Gina had been of incalculable help, overseeing the scientific and medical aspects of the various divisions. She and her team of Old Guard sons and daughters who had all gone to medical school together—not to mention some of Gina’s human medical colleagues that she called to consult—had gone through the majority of the ongoing experiments.#p#分页标题#e#
One sinister find had been the very poison Mitch had been given. There was a lab dedicated to certain black projects that all seemed aimed at killing shifters. The two scientists who had run the lab with rather telling autonomy had mysteriously disappeared almost immediately after Mitch had stormed the conference room that first day.
And worst of all, vials of the nectar had been found among the materials in that lab. It was as Gina had feared—they’d been trying to counteract the very substance that could have saved so many lives. The nectar wasn’t finished yet. They hadn’t been able to synthesize much of it and it hadn’t been tested fully, but it had been a promising experiment. She wanted it to continue. If the component in her blood that healed could be made available to all—even in a diluted state—it would mean a great deal to shifters and humans alike. She hated that they’d taken what had been a good project and actively worked against it.
Mitch seethed to think that a corporation mostly owned by the Clan had secretly funded research into ways to kill shifters. He’d bet anything that the two scientists were dyed-in-the-wool Venifucus foot soldiers.
Another thing he’d discovered was that Phelix had once been wholly owned by the Clan. Gisli had sold off shares to raise money over the years. Mitch vowed he would repurchase those shares and return the company to the Clan in time. He was already laying the groundwork for the plan and would—if all went well—be able to start on it in the next fiscal year. Sooner, if Ria was willing to help. He thought she would, but he wanted to see her face-to-face to put forward his plan.
Ria might be young, but she’d been Nyx for a while. She was a smart young woman with a head for business. In fact, her Clan of panthers had thrived financially under her leadership these past years. He’d been so proud of her for making the tough decisions that had ultimately turned out so well for her people. He’d even given her advice now and again when she’d asked his opinion on business matters. He liked to think that she’d help him now, when his people needed a little boost.
He wouldn’t mind the other investors in the company being fellow big-cat shifters. He’d even reach out to the were Tribes of North America if he had to, but one way or another, he was going to take back the company for shifters alone. It was a goal that might take a few years—maybe decades—but he’d do it.
On the personal front, Mitch was able to get his things out of storage. He spent an hour or two sorting through his stuff and selecting the items he wanted sent to the stronghold. He sent the rest to the highly defensible apartment he’d rented through the corporation. It would do for a U.S. base of operations.
The apartment was in a more expensive part of town than Gina’s old place and it boasted its own swimming pool. It was the penthouse in a relatively shorter building near the river. Nothing in the area overlooked their top-floor space and it wasn’t so high up in the air that the escape routes were limited. It was a nice compromise between safety and privacy.
Mitch carried Gina over the threshold on the first night they spent there together. She’d helped him pick it out and had already bought some new furniture. Mitch had his complete wardrobe—with items suitable for everything from state dinners to working out—and a few keepsakes he’d picked up over the years. Gina had gone shopping, picking up enough clothes and shoes to keep her presentable.
“You have more clothes than I do,” Gina complained when he showed her the dual walk-in closets. His was already full. Hers was woefully empty. “That’s not right. Women are supposed to have more clothes than men.”