Page 48 of Legally Mated
This was going to beinteresting.
We sat around the table and stared at each other. Well, the rest of them did—I flipped open the first of the trust agreements, clicked open one of my pens, and began making notes down the side of the page. It was well done, but I found a few loopholes. Things the pack could exploit. It was tempting to leave them, but Mutch had implied that this would be a template for future agreements with other packs. And while I was fairly sure that Salma Wood and Winter Moon and probably Las Padros would take care to obey the spirit of the agreement, I had my concerns about some of them. So I wrote in changes that should be made to protect the funds, changes to decision-making, plugged a few other leaks that could bleed the trust dry, and passed it back to Eva just as Holland came back throughthedoor.
“I’d recommend that you make those changes if you want to be certain to protect the funds,” I advised her, then stood up to let Holland squeeze past me to sit by Quin. By the time we were settled again, Eva was reading over my notes on the second page and when the room had fallen once more into silence, she looked up at Mutch andnodded.
Fuck. It was a test. I fell back in my chair in irritation, then winced as a wave of pain bloomed out from the surgical site and faded. But it made my voice harsher than I’d intended when I bluntly said, “You were testing me. Or us. To see if we’re honest, or to see if I haveaclue?”
Eva shrugged and smiled, shark-like. “Both. I wanted to see if you still had the edge you had in law school. And, honestly, this really was my work—I avoided those classes like the plague when I was in school. But I had someone look over them to tell me what you should be picking out if you’re any good, and if you mean to do rightbythis.”
I pressed my lips together against an unwary response and picked up a pen to doodle a set of painfully straight lines on the corner of my legal pad. “So, didIpass?”
“You have to understand,” Mutch said. “We have watched the packs and how they deal with each other, how they deal with humans. I needed to know what protections have to be built into these agreements. These are large sums of money and I will not have them wasted, regardless of what the original Jesse wanted.” His voice was fierce and for an instant I thought he’d be able to stand uptoQuin.
Holland leaned over to whisper in Quin’s ear. Quin nodded, then got to his feet. “We will not be treated like children. I’m sorry if we’ve wasted your time. I’ll have Security come take you back toyourcar.”
I expected to feel anger coming off him, but…nothing. And then I noticed Holland watching Mutch closely, so I sat back and waited to see how this would play out. The sensation of warm fur brushed over my skin, approval from myAlpha’sMate.
“So you don’t want the money?” Mutch asked in adrytone.
“Oh, we want the money,” Quin told him, and held out a hand to Holland. “But not enough to sign every detail of our lives overtoyou.”
“Without my help, you’ll never get those lawsstruckdown.”
“Possibly. Or maybe not—it might just take longer. But for someone who claims to have such a long history with us, to have had so much interest in our culture, this seems a bit ham-handed. Why should we trust you if you’ve made it plain you don’t trust us?” He nodded to me and I rose to my feet. Casually, I gathered the other trust contracts in with my pad. I wanted to look at them and see if they were as full of holes and traps as thefirstone.
“So you’re turning this down over a littleoversight.”
“This isn’t oversight. There’s surprisingly little in these documents,” I pointed out. “This is about trust.” I looked at Eva. “I’m really disappointed in you, more so than him. I thought we were becomingfriends.”
A knock on the door interrupted us. At a nod from Quin, I went to peer out into thehallway.
Bax was there, holding Zane. “Can you get Holland, please?” he said. His mouth was tight and he bounced the baby in place more as if comforting himselfthanZane.
“Sure.” Shit, what was going on now? Zane didn’t look unhappy, as much as I could judge babies. I pulled my head back into the room and said, “Holland? Bax is lookingforyou.”
Holland bolted out of his seat, startling the rest of us. As he squeezed out of the room, I heard Abel’s voice in the hall callingBax’sname.
Chapter40
“Dammit,”Quin muttered and stood. “This will have to wait. We’ll be back in a few minutes. You two can decide how you want to go forward on this while we’re gone.” He ushered me out into the hall with him and we closed the door behind us. “What’sgoingon?”
“Mom,”Abelsaid.
“Oh, fuck,” Holland muttered. “What did she say now?” He reached over to take Zane, smiling delightedly at him. “How’s my baby?” he cooed, then winced. “Well, that phrase is spoiled formenow.”
Bax sighed. “Yeah.” He ran his hand over the back of Zane’s head, then turned to look at Abel. “I was thinking I might take the pups to visit my mother for a while,” he said, his voice tentative. His gaze switched over to Quin’s face. “Cale will cover for me in the office, if you’ll okay the travelpapers.”
Quin pinched the bridge of his nose, then let his hand drop. “I’ll talk to heragain.”
“I already did,” Abel said. “It’s like trying to stop the wind. This is why I moved back here. What the hell were youthinking?”
Quin looked harassed. “I forgot how bad she can be. I’ll tell her to go. I’ll carry her bodily out the gate if I have to.” He put and arm around Holland and kissed the top of his head. “I’msorry.”
Holland leaned into him. “I don’t want to cut them off from your side of the family too.” But he didn’t look entirely unhappy abouttheidea.
“Well,” Quin said judiciously. “It’s a cost benefit analysis, as Cas would say. I have three brothers, and I’m related to about a quarter of the pack here. Is that enough family to balance out not having one crotchety old she-wolf in the pups’ lives?” He glanced at the closed door behind us, then looked at me. “Can you look after this while I deal with mymother?”
Holland patted his arm. “Let me deal with it. She still carries a lot of weight in Salma Wood, we don’t want to cut off that support if we find out later weneedit.”
