The Mating(52)

Someone with black, spiky hair raised his hand. “Do we have the money for this?”

John answered. “Yes, but between what we’ve already spent on containing the spill in the water, combined with the expense of the land clean up, it will severely deplete our reserves.”

“So we might be forced to take Northern Oil up on their offer, just to clean up this mess and keep our accounts out of the red.” The spiky haired man summarized.

“Not necessarily, but we are planning for a worst case scenario. The lab tests might have better results than we expect, but at the same time we need to be realistic.”

Marla snorted. “With everything that’s been happening around here lately, I sometimes think we should cut our losses, sell everything to Northern Oil and buy some land elsewhere. With what they’re offering, we’d certainly have enough money to afford it.” The assembled crowd reacted noisily to Marla’s statement.

“How could she even say such a thing?”

“Marla has a point.”

“I could never live anywhere else. This is my home!”

Elise noted that the muscle in Kane’s jaw was working and she knew he was extremely irritated by Marla’s comment. Surprisingly though, his voice was calm when he called the crowd to order yet again. “That is also an option. This land is our heritage. It’s belonged to our pack for hundreds of years and, as Alpha, I’m charged with caring for it. However, if the pack as a whole feels the need to move on, then we would do what we must do.”

“I was just playing devil’s advocate, Kane.” Marla smiled at Kane. He gave the briefest of nods but his brow was still furrowed. Elise noted that Marla’s expression sobered in the face of the Alpha’s disapproval.

“Uh-oh. Now she’s done it. Marla’s pissed off Kane,” Carrie whispered gleefully in Elise’s ear. Pressing her lips tightly together to keep from smiling, Elise gave the briefest of nods and then focused her attention on her mate. Kane was listening to someone from the far side of the room now.

“Do you think the oil company is deliberately poisoning our land in the hope of forcing our hand?”

“It’s a possibility that we’ve been looking into, but we’d need hard evidence to make such a claim stick.” Kane agreed. “It could also be that someone unthinkingly dumped the oil by our river or maybe it fell off a delivery truck. There is a bridge there, where the highway crosses that corner of our land.”

“Ryne’s footprints were found in that area, weren’t they?” One of the Elders stood and addressed Kane.

“Yes, they were. His scent was also near the traps we found. That’s common knowledge. Whether any of these events are related or if they are all just coincidences, we don’t know. But rest assured we are looking at every possible angle.” Kane checked his watch. “It’s getting late, if no one has any other business that needs to be brought to the floor, we’ll adjourn. John and I are both willing to stay and answer any questions you still might have. And, of course, my office door is always open if you have any issues that need to be discussed in private.”

When no one spoke up, Kane closed the meeting. A buzz filled the room as everyone started to talk. Small crowds began to gather around both Kane and John, and Elise could see that the evening was far from over for the Alpha and his Beta.





Chapter 15





Elise and Helen worked together to clean up the meeting room, having sent Carrie off to bed. With her pregnancy so far advanced, she tired easily and her ankles were swollen. As Elise gathered paper plates and napkins, she glanced towards the front of the room. A few people still remained talking to Kane and John. Marla was standing near the edge of the group and seemed to be trying to catch Kane’s attention, but the Alpha was too busy to notice.

Helen walked by with the remains of the slab cake and paused, taking in the scene. “Marla made a strategic error tonight when she mentioned selling the land. Now she’s trying to backpedal. Kane loves this place and he’s been worried sick about losing even a corner of it. Her ‘playing devil’s advocate’ line didn’t go over well. William could get away with it—Kane knows he’s a crafty old coot and was just setting things up so the facts could be stated—but Marla was simply planting seeds of doubt. It’s going to take something pretty big to get her back into Kane’s good graces.” Smiling smugly, Helen went on her way.

Elise finished collecting the garbage, keeping one eye on the group at the front. Eventually, it was down to Kane, John, Marla, and Franz. Marla was looking distinctly irritated that Kane was basically ignoring her, and Elise wondered how the woman couldn’t get the message. Shrugging, Elise began to gather the chairs, stacking them in the corner.