Page 16 of Ayden

At some point, other teachers had entered the room. As the police, pack police, were handcuffing them, Holly lay on the floor between them, bleeding out. Ripping her throat out had been all on Brandy. When Holly had hit Lica for the second time, she didn’t even shift but morphed her hand into a great claw and tore her throat completely out, beheading her in the process.

No one else had anything to say as they were being cuffed and put into a room to be fired. Lica didn’t say another word, and neither did Brandy. But if the anger rolling off of the two of them was any indication, the remaining teachers would be lucky if they lived to the end of the day.

By six o’clock that evening, the school was slated to be torn to the ground. Nothing would be saved, not even the nice coffee machine that was in the place. All the desks, chalkboards, and anything else that had suffered from neglect from the staff was left to be taken to the ground as well. Lica had a crew starting on the new school the next morning. It would not only be a new place with much better learning, but there was going to be a great deal of new in the new place as well.

“There will be large trailers needed for teaching brought in to work out until the end of the school year. After that, they’ll be used for other projects in the pack, such as housing for some of the things we have going on. It’ll be watched over as well until we can get the cameras up and running.” Brandy was barking orders at everyone, and no one dared to second-guess her. When someone had a question about what was going on, they were sent to him. He seemed to be in charge of the entire project, and he was all right with that. Lica and Brandy left about the time the bulldozers showed up, and he was delighted to have them starting the work even as he stood there watching.

Going home to his family at eight that night, not only was he glad to see them, but he needed hugs all the way around. It had been a productive day, but it had also been a very stressful one. There was a call out to other packs for temporary teachers as well as other staff to start in the fall when the new buildings were slated to be up and running. Telling his daughters what had happened. He’d never been as proud of his brother and sister as he was in that moment. They had made his little girls happy by not disbelieving them when they were talking about what had been happening at the school. They were more than a little thrilled, too, to know that Mrs. Branch was no longer going to be a part of the new system.

He was going over the ledgers that they’d been able to unearth about the spending. All the teachers had been gettingbonuses from the money that had been coming in from the pack. It didn’t matter what your job was, either. If you taught there, cleaned, or were supposed to cook, they were bringing in bonuses that paid not just for new trucks but vacations and holiday homes for everyone who worked there.

“Brandy just called. She wants to meet the girls at her house in the morning. I had to ask her what she wanted, and she promised me that they’d be just fine. I really was worried about it after what you told me happened today.” He told her again how Branch had hit Lica. “Yes, so you said. I’d like to think that I’d be that protective of you, but you’re more a wolf than I am. So I don’t know how that would work with me saving your ass all the time.”

“You’d have ripped her throat out even not being a wolf. And you know that Brandy wasn’t either when she met Lica. Maybe we should try things out about you shifting. I smell wolf on you, but that could be just me and us making love all the time.” They had been, too. Every time they were alone, they were naked and having sex. He loved it. “Did Brandy tell you what she wanted with the girls? I mean, she mentioned that they’d be paid for helping them out, but I don’t know what that would entail.”

“I think that they’re a little overwhelmed about things right now. I know that Harley has been asking questions about what happens to them. I think they’re a little worried, too, after talking to you about Branch. What made her think that she could just hit their alpha and get away with it.” He told her what he thought. “I suppose she’s been in charge for so long she didn’t figure that anyone would challenge her anymore. I was thinking about her family.”

“She didn’t have one. I looked. No children either.” Summer asked him if she was even a wolf. “Yes, she was at that. As were the other teachers. All of the staff have been arrested for misappropriation of funds. They’ll all face jail time and will haveto pay it all back. All the new cars and vacation homes will need to be sold off, and the money will be returned to the pack house. It’ll be a lot of moneyifwe can get it all back.”

“You don’t think that we will?” Ayden said that he didn’t know, but as it had been going on for a while now, it was hard to tell. But he was going to be doing the work on the new place, the hiring as well as the other things that are going on. “It’ll be hard to get teachers to come here, don’t you think? After killing one of them.”

“More than likely, it’ll be easier. It’ll show that Brandy and Lica aren’t going to take any shit from people, and it’ll be a safe place to work too. The teachers will be given a bonus if they stay for the first year and after that, they’ll have contracts to work with. Calling the others to make sure that we have enough teachers will have them sending their best. There is no telling how far reaching the information has gone about what was going on around here.”

“I was thinking that as well.” She gathered up the girls and took them to the pack house. Summer was going to stay to make sure that they were all right, and Brandy was all right with that. It took them nearly four hours, a long time, he thought, to go over what had happened and assure that the girls were going to be all right now that things were taken care of. He hoped so. It would cost him his life, but he wasn’t going to allow anyone to harm his family. No matter if it was his brother and his alpha bitch or not.

~*~

Guy was enjoying the girls. They did pamper him to a point, but they didn’t overdo it. They were great at fetching him drinks and handing over the remote when he was in the living room, but he was ready to go home. He’d had enough of people, and now that he didn’t have any more headaches, it was time for him to find himself a place to hole up and heal from being around too manypeople again. He really didn’t care for people all that much.

While going over the houses that he had worked on, he heard his front doorbell ring. It wasn’t anyone that he knew, so he opened the door quickly, hoping to scare the person away. She grinned at him, and he didn’t have any idea why, but he was charmed by her.

“My name is Lily March. I know it’s a stupid name but when my parent named me, they didn’t ask for my opinion. Anyway, I’ve heard that you’re looking for a new house. Or a house, I guess. I have one for sale.” He asked her where she’d heard about it. “I was at the realtor when you called. I was going to put my house on the market, but if you buy it, I won’t have to go through all that. It’s a great house, and it’s about a hundred feet from the downtown area. Not really that close, but you could walk there. Can I come in?”

“No. Give me the address, and I’ll go and see it.” She told him that her car was all warmed up and that she’d take him there. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re pushy?”

“All the time. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just wanting to sell my parent’s home and go back to LA, where I live. Everyone is pushy out there. Or not. I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s a great house and needs very little work. I’m willing to give you a good discount if you don’t make me have to go through a realtor. Now, those are a pushy bunch of people. Anyway. It’s got five bedrooms with baths. Mom and Dad did that when they started having kids, thinking that we’d not fight over the bathrooms so much. But me being the only child, it didn’t work that way.” She laughed. “I like to fight with them all the time.”

“They’re not dead then?” She told him that they were in LA, living the dream. “I have no idea what that means. But I have things to do today, and looking at houses wasn’t on my list.”

“I can pencil it in for you. Your brother Edmond sent me over. Now, there is a nice guy.” He asked her if she was calling himrude. “You are rude. But, like I said, I’m willing to overlook a lot of things if you buy the house. It’s really nice.”

“You’re not going to go away, are you?” Again, she grinned at him. “All right. Let me get my coat. And so you know, I just got home from too many people, so if you feel the need to empty your head all the time, I’m not in the mood to listen to you.”

“Yep, you’re rude. All right. I’ll only answer your questions when you have them. I’ll be in my car.” As she was turning to leave, she stopped suddenly and turned back. “The land surrounding the house is about fifty acres. I’m thinking that it will be perfect for you since you seem to have it against people coming to visit you. Also, you have toothpaste on your chin, so you should maybe wipe that off before someone makes fun of you. You don’t seem to me to have any sense of humor.”

True to her word, she never said another word that he didn’t ask about on the way there. He’d seen the house, of course. It was sitting atop a large hill in the town and seemed to have a view of the entire city. As he was walking through the house, he did take note of the things that he liked and disliked. Guy was dismayed to figure out that he didn’t have as many things on his dislike list as he might well have liked. But he wasn’t going to tell her that. She might just be the type of person that said she told you so, and he hated that almost as much as he hated to be around people.

The house was nice. There were things about it that he’d never thought of in a place that he owned. There were built-in cabinets in every part of the place. The room that he loved the most was the dining room.

The floor-to-ceiling windows made him want it to be summer so that he could open up the large patio doors and bring the warmth into the house. It had hardwood floors and beautiful stained glass windows in the upper part of the large windows. As he was making his way from the dining room to the kitchen,he found a large room that held things like serving platters and extra plates.

“I forgot to mention that everything that is in the house is going to go with it. I know it’s a lot but if you don’t want it, my parents are going to ask more because they have to rid themselves of it. Also, the kitchen has been remodeled in the last year, so that’s all up to date.” He asked what the house heated with. “Another thing that I wasn’t allowed to tell you is that the house sits on its own gas wells. All the heat and cooling in the house is free. So long as the wells don’t dry up. They’ve been running since before my parents were born, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue either.”

He loved the kitchen and its breakfast nook, which was just off the main part. The walk-in freezer had him thinking that the previous owners had entertained a great deal and that they did it up well. While he was in the kitchen, Lily pointed out that there were gardens to the house as well as a fully functioning wine cellar. There were wines there that her parents left behind as well.

He’d not asked what the house was going to cost, but he also didn’t see a problem with the things that they’d left behind. Most of it was kitchen things, like the things in the pantry. Serving platters and the like, chafing dishes as well as serving items. Ending up in the living room again, he finally asked her what they wanted for it.

“You’re a wolf.” He told her that he was and what did that have to do with anything. “Nothing to you. But there is pack land that butts up against the land here. Some of this land has rent past due that the pack owes. It’s a good sum of money. You can check your records or whatever, but it’s nearly a hundred grand. I wanted to tell you that so that if you buy the place, you know that the dues haven’t been paid, and they might think they can still rent it. My parent didn’t want to deal with it while they weremoving. And the other alpha didn’t want to talk to them about it either. I don’t know who you might know that can get that caught up on, but my parents are hoping to get that money paid to them so that they can buy them a summer home in Florida. Like I said, it’s a great deal of money.”

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