It didn’t take much to find Sarah’s office. She was sitting in a room strikingly similar to Cullen’s office. Her door was open, inviting anyone to come in. That differed from Cullen’s usually closed door. Aislinn figured that the invitation was for someone to bother Sarah before bothering Cullen and then Sarah would decide if the problem was worthy of the real boss. Aislinn smiled to herself. That was certainly one job she knew she didn’t want.
“You guys don’t have much variation in your decorating from room to room do you?” Aislinn said hopefully as she poked her head in the doorway and waited to be invited in.
Sarah looked up. Her brow was furrowed but she smiled at Aislinn just the same and waved her in. Aislinn walked across the room and sat down in the chair across from Sarah at the desk. “So, Cullen suggested that I come to you for some kind of assignment. But you look worried about something. Is this a bad time?”
“No,” Sarah sighed and pushed the papers in front of her away. “I was just looking over the room assignments. Cullen apparently chose to demote everyone instead of killing them. Good for them. But a lot of work for me. Omegas don’t get to live on the same floors as the others. That means moving everyone around. It’ll be easier to deal with if it’s done before we all come back from the reservation. That way they’ll all be moved before the place fills up again and they have to face the embarrassment of moving downstairs with people watching.”
Aislinn nodded through the explanation. “So what can I do to help?”
Sarah smiled at her. “Yeah, why don’t you go recruit a few omegas to help the others with the move. By the time you get back I might have the new room assignments figured out. Then you can help me get the rest organized before we leave.”
Aislinn nodded and headed out to take care of the job.
***
Jenna ran her hand up Maon’s chest. His eyes swirled molten Amber as he looked down at her. He had wanted her as his own since they were very young. He blamed the fact that they weren’t mated now on Brennus and his ridiculous expectations of her. He also blamed her blind ambition on her father. He knew full well that the pack followed her for now because her decision at the battle with the Arnauk had paid off. But it was only a matter of time before someone large enough to rip her apart took control. That was unless someone like Maon protected her and kept her in power. She needed him. She knew it and he knew it. Now he was just waiting for a point when he could force his hand with her. She had too many alliances that she could use against him at the moment. But he had his own ambition. If he could convince her to mate with him and he could take the alpha position with her at his side, so be it. He didn’t want to have to kill her. But she had ambitions on being the sole alpha and not wanting to share power. For now Maon would hold his position and see what happened. The more time that passed between her show at the battle and his move the better off he would be. Each moment brought doubt into the Tairneach minds that Jenna would be capable of remaining alpha.
Jenna’s eyes gleamed with pleasure as she looked up at Maon. He towered over her and his size gave her a feeling of ultimate power, knowing that he would do anything she asked without question. He hadn’t slept since she started to send him on her little trips He was perfect. “What present have you brought me?” she asked sweetly.
Jenna’s eyes left Maon and traveled over the man who was on his knees in the middle of her great room. He looked a great deal like the last one that Maon had brought in. Rafe’s list hadn’t been very detailed. There had been a list of names with several crossed off and several others with check marks next to them. What she had found out, that afternoon, after having her teams bring in several of the men and women on the list was that no two druids could do the same two things.
It was getting very frustrating. She hadn’t believed the first druid when he said that he couldn’t reproduce the formula Rafe was using. Jenna had him beaten several times before working on the woman. The second druid told her the same thing. That only made her pissed off. When the third druid hadn’t panned out she brought the three of them the list and told them that they had a choice. The first one to point out a name on the list who could reproduce what Rafe was doing could have a hot meal and a real bed. That was when she was told that the people on the list most likely to be able to help her were all crossed off or had checkmarks next to their names.
Jenna then found that the crossed out names had been killed and the checkmark names were missing. Her life was getting infuriatingly complex. The only bright spot seemed to be that these druids were very willing to cooperate. They bent to logic or threats very easily.
This new druid had been very difficult to find. His name was one of the ones with a checkmark. He was tall and thin, with Aislinn’s bright blue eyes. That only made Jenna dislike him from the beginning. She smiled at him winningly but the man didn’t seem to be affected by her looks. She walked around him. He was wearing jeans and a white polo shirt. Maon had found him boarding a train. He had made the mistake of being the first name on the list to use a credit card while Maon had a man monitoring the names on the list through a connection at a local government office.
Jacob Senach was young, but exceedingly intelligent, as were most of the members of the Senach. When he’d received word that Rafe had been killed he had been the first to come out of hiding. He’d been waiting for the news because his mother was sick and had been taken to the hospital while he was in hiding. The minute the phone call came that morning and his cousin with the watchers said that the council had felt Rafe’s force eliminated from the circle he jumped to take the next train home. If he’d only had cash left.
Jacob knelt on the floor resigned to his situation. He already knew vaguely what she wanted. Rafe had been doing something with alchemy, he’d been killing off all the Senach with alchemical abilities, he’d been after books with old information about were creation and maps to the circle located on Arnauk territory. Now he was on his knees in front of the lycan who had been used by Rafe to attempt to build an army large enough to take the Arnauk territory. Jacob knew that Jenna Tairneach was dangerously ambitious and that at last count the circle had been undecided as to whether they thought she was cooperating with Rafe or planning against him. Jacob deducted that if she was hunting down the druids where Rafe had left off that she wanted him to make something. Probably whatever Rafe had been trying to make. There had been suspicions that He figured though that his main advantage in this situation would be that she had no way of knowing how much he knew about her, this situation, or what he was actually capable of.