Chapter 40 40
The three of us walked briskly up the steps to the grey stone building which served as city hall among other functions. Our footsteps echoed off the stone walls of the halls on our trek to Matthew’s office. The mayor’s office was on the second floor above the library and decorated similar to his den at home, black leather mid-century chesterfield furniture arranged around the huge live edge desk. Soothing forest scenes covered the walls while pictures of his family overwhelmed the hutch behind the desk. Matthew stood and waved us in when his secretary announced us. I made a show of looking around the office before raising an eyebrow in question at Matthew.
“I assure you, Jeremiah is coming.” As he finished speaking, his office door opened and the wolf in question strolled thru. Jeremiah stood inside the door with his arms crossed as he gave me a speculating look. I blanked my face and mimicked his posture.
“Give us the room.” Jeremiah ordered. The boys and Matthew quickly filed out of the room while I magically sealed the room to prevent eavesdropping. Once I was satisfied no one could listen in, I flounced over to the chesterfield love seat and flopped sideways across it. I lounged with my head resting comfortably on one armrest while my legs dangled over the other waiting for Jeremiah to speak. “I’m not going to tuck my tail or cower. That being said, Nicole Pearson, would you please help us protect our pack?”
I looked at him over my steepled fingers. “If I help you, you will never mention the incident again. Nor, will you pass on the information so others can use it against me. Any debt I might have owed this pack or your family will be considered as payed in full. Agreed?” I would have helped them regardless. But, this way he couldn’t blackmail me into training any other strays. Tristan seemed to be house broken, but, that doesn’t mean the next would be.
“Agreed.” Jeremiah opened the door and waved the rest of our group back inside.
“What incident is he referring to Cole?” Connor asked with a gleam in his eyes. Uh oh. I narrowed my eyes and tried to look puzzled.
“Incident? What Incident are you referring to?” Slightly puzzled expression-check. Mystified voice to convey confusion-check. I was so going to pull this off. Please, please, let him be referring to something they had been discussing in the hall.
“If you are going to seal a room to prevent being overheard, you might also want to check your phone.” His evil grin spread across his face, enhancing the gleam in his eyes. He was practically swaying with joy. My heart dropped to the floor as I frantically started patting my pockets trying to find my phone. I’m sure I looked like I was doing the Macarena as I felt myself up. When I groped my ass I felt my phone in my back pocket. Connor undoubtedly read the fear in my eyes when they locked with his. Without looking, I unlocked the screen and took a steading breath. A glance down showed that I had indeed made a call to him while I was talking to Jeremiah. Oh bloody fucking hell. I outed myself with a butt dial. I locked the screen and tucked it back into my pocket. Time to save face. I cleared my throat and picked up the cigar box.
“We need to place one of these stones at the four corners of the town. I’ll use them to put a ward that will allow only werewolves to pass. The human residents will have to decide if they want to be trapped in town or out. No magics or vamps will be able to gain entry nor will any kind of magic be able to cross it.” Cold, professional. Yeah, that should stop the questions. I hope.
“What will happen to any non-wolf that tries to pass?” Matthew seemed concerned. He was most likely picturing some evil repercussion befalling any human that accidently crossed the threshold.
“They will be teleported to the town holding cell. You can decide what to do with them from there.” The cell was magic resistant and could withstand the strength of a vampire or werewolf. “We will also put up a ward around the school with a peacekeeper onsite monitoring it. If someone were to somehow get past the town line, the residents will take shelter there. It will be set to just below lethal. So make sure all the humans understand they must be escorted across it by the peacekeeper.”
“While we are setting up the ward to guard the town, Thomas and his deputies should being patrolling the town. We need to be certain Hays has not already positioned people inside the town.” Yippee. Connor seemed to have been diverted away from the whole incident conversation.
Once the plan was finalized we split up to handle our parts. The boys and me headed over to the jail, Matthew activated the emergency phone tree, and Jeremiah went to find Thomas.
“So you were about to fil us in on the incident.” Damn, I hadn’t distracted Connor after all. I slid him a dark look as we walked the few yards to the jail which was conveniently located on the other side of the town square.
“Noneya.” Was my only response to my partner as I opened the heavy oak door. The jail was built with the same grey stones as city hall which caused our steps to echo as we entered the tiny reception area. The wolf behind the reception desk flagged us through with a nod towards the holding area without looking up from his computer screen. I snuck a glance at the screen as went by. He was looking at mugshots of vampires. He was either very dedicated or Thomas had installed parental locks to keep his deputies from looking at porn. A short trek through the bull pen area we reached the metal prison door that lead to the holding cells. The young deputy sitting behind the desk by the door hit a button on the wall and the doors opened with a click. On the other side were two exposed cells with a walkway running between them. I estimated ten adults could fit into each. Hopefully it was enough space. The deputy that had let us in followed us and unlocked the door to the right.
“Wait here. I want to check out the cell.” Connor gave a nod as he inspected the holding area. His cop face was on, his body language was tense. I shook my head and gestured for the girl to lock the cell behind me. My partner always got so serious and uptight around other badges. Maybe because of the rivalry between locals and peacekeepers. Everyone always fighting over jurisdiction. Me, I just inserted myself into whatever case I wanted. I so wouldn’t make it as a badge. Plus there was the whole paperwork thing.