I showed up at Tom’s door right at nine, and he opened the door just as I was ready to knock. “Ella!” He pulled me into a hug, then walked me into his large office and closed the door. He had a conference table opposite his desk, and he pulled a chair out for me on one side.
“Thank you, Mr. Harris.” I smiled as I set my coffee and manila envelope down.
“No need for that formality, Ella, you’re practically family.” He noticed my face fell and he looked in my eyes and saw the conflict. “Trouble in paradise?”
I was so glad he was fully informed about werewolves and Pack life, having been involved with my father and grandfather for decades. It made the next few minutes much easier. “You could say that. Last night Mark came over, things were going well, we were both happy when he left.” I looked at my hands. “Then a wolf showed up, one I had seen before. I don’t know who he is, but I do know what he is. He is my mate, he recognized me, and I could feel the tingles in my arm when I touched him. He smelled me, and I could see his anger. He ran away from me, from us.”
Tom didn’t say anything for a bit. “I’m sorry, Ella. I’m sure this was the last thing you expected when you and my son started to get serious about each other.”
“Yes.” I put my hand on his. “I have to tell him tonight, please don’t say anything before then. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I have to step back and take time to figure it all out. I don’t want to hurt him more than I already have, more than I will when I talk to him tonight. I need you to know because marriage is not on the table for me right now. As we go through my affairs, we need to assume that I won’t be married or mated anytime soon.”
He squeezed my hand and I looked up at him. “I understand. It’s probably for the best, you need to be sure of what you want before you take such a big step. I would love to have you as my daughter, but I don’t want you to regret it later.” He handed me a handkerchief and I wiped my eyes, I swear I have cried more in the last few weeks than the rest of my life. “Now, we have a lot of stuff to talk through and things for you to sign, so we should get busy.”
The sheer volume of paperwork required to deal with my parent’s estate was mind boggling. We started with the death certificates and insurance paperwork. The life insurance was easy, the auto was more complicated. He had sent copies of the accident report and the coroner’s report in. Since it was a single vehicle accident, there was no one to sue. I signed the various forms, and he told me the money would arrive in the next few weeks.
Next up was the estate. He had already been granted executor status by the state, but we had a lot to go through. He did the formal will reading, which left everything to me. I had a lot of forms to sign, transferring the ownership of our house and the various lands we owned independent of the Pack. Our trucking business had been sold for a decent price to a larger firm as well. We took a break after a few hours, and I popped back across the street to get more coffee before heading back.
The piles slowly got smaller as we worked through the division of the Pack assets. Our dissolution plan had given him the authority to do the sales and the breakup in our stead, and he had done a great job with that. I giggled a little as I looked at the sale prices of the Bakken mineral rights; we had gotten out just weeks before the market tanked. My eyes bugged out when he was talking about the capital gains taxes that would have to be paid, but unlike Alpha Goodwin, I’d cashed out at the right time.
We took a late lunch, then we started on my assets. This went pretty quick; I had told him before to keep assets liquid so a lot was in cash, short term bonds or market funds. He had been looking at lands surrounding my current properties, and I gave him the go-ahead to make offers on a few of them. I also asked him to arrange the purchase of the houses owned by former Pack members on the road to my house.
“Why? What would you do with them?”
“Well, long term I think it may be possible for our Pack to be rebuilt. I don’t want them to have their assets tied up in a house they aren’t using, and I don’t want it sold to a human before we get it all straightened out. I’d rather take the costs and risks myself to keep the options open. I should know in a year or two whether it is possible.”
He rubbed his chin for a moment. “Would you be open to something else?” I nodded.
“Let me contact the owners first. We agree to lease the houses for a year and tell them why; the lease income will cover their taxes and upkeep. I can write the lease so they can cancel it on short notice, so if they decide to move back it’s easy. That way we don’t have to deal with two sales in a short time.”
He was right. “Do that, but if someone isn’t interested just make the cash offer for the house. If nothing else, it can be an investment property.” We finished up the paperwork about three in the afternoon. Now for the fun part.
“Tom, I need to set up a company. Call it a research company, but I need the ownership hidden. I need to lease some office space near here, with room for a dozen or so employees and a conference room.”
He looked at me, a little concerned. “Why?”
“Don’t think I’m going to let my pregnancy or my love life stop me from getting my revenge. I want to bleed them dry, weaken them and isolate them from other Packs. I want them to get sloppy and desperate before I move in to take out the Alphas. This company is going to help me find and exploit their weaknesses, in business, finance, even legal and government affairs. I want to make their lives miserable.”
He sat back, thinking. “So this office space, is it going to be for humans or werewolves?”
“Humans primarily. I plan to hire some recent graduates and those still looking, backgrounds in business, finance, even social media and government. I will be hiring some werewolves for things that require this knowledge, but the humans will be ignorant. I’ll tell them I’m thinking of buying these privately held companies, but I need to do so without them knowing I’m interested. Once they understand the companies and their weak points, I’ll find ways to exploit them.” I leaned forward. “Don’t worry, anything this company does will be perfectly legal. I won’t discuss anything beyond that with you.”