Leader of the Pack (44 page)

Unfortunately, Meredith was the first person she ran into that she recognized by name. The woman narrowed her gaze on Aislinn and smiled beautifully. The effect was disturbing. Aislinn rolled her eyes and moved to find a different group of people, but Meredith was having none of that. “Are you afraid to stop in and say hi, Mistress,” came the sarcastic call.

Aislinn stood still for a moment. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to deal with Meredith or not.

There was a good deal of laughter in the room. Aislinn hadn’t caught the comment that initiated the laughter, but there was something about it that wouldn’t let her walk away. “Okay Meredith. You have my attention. What? Are you looking for another thrashing?” At that Meredith looked concerned. This wasn’t the same uninformed and uncertain woman as before. “Or should I formally challenge you this time and shut you up permanently?”

“Why would you want to do that now? You’ve avoided it for so long, I have my doubts that you’re actually capable.” The look in Meredith’s eyes told Aislinn that she didn’t really believe what was coming out of her own mouth. Her arm was still in a cast, and the group surrounding her at the moment was all pregnant women who had been kept out of the fight.

Aislinn smiled knowingly. “Say what you like to impress the others. You know what happened in that fight. You also know that Cullen is done with you and the others. Get over it and move on.”

Meredith growled. The other women were staring on to see who would win the verbal skirmish, and Meredith wasn’t doing well. “How, I wonder, did you talk him into that?”

Aislinn flinched, and Meredith smiled. “I can’t do what you’re implying. Druids have varying abilities. Although I could give you the worst nightmare of your life, that would be the extent of it. I’m sorry to inform you Meredith, but Cullen chose me over you of his own volition. I have to tell you that I don’t think it was a tough choice for him.” Aislinn smiled, confident in the fact that her response seemed to have gotten to Meredith quite badly.

Meredith was furious and the women were chuckling amongst themselves.

“In any case,” Aislinn said off hand. “I don’t have time to banter with you. Cullen told me to report to Sarah for some kind of assignment, so I was wondering if anyone had seen her.” Aislinn looked around at all of them in turn.

The women looked uncertain about that. Talking to Aislinn was totally different from hearing or talking about Aislinn. She was confident and attractive, and she didn’t appear to be doing anything underhanded. One of the women who was more heavily pregnant spoke up. “Sarah is probably in her office. It’s just down from Lord Arnauk’s office and the library. You know where the library is,” she added with a knowing smile.

Aislinn smiled right back. “Yes, I’m very familiar with the library. Thanks.” Then she headed out of the room and down the hall, satisfied that she had made the right decision in dealing with Meredith.

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 joked 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. 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. 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 left 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. However, Jenna had designs on being the sole alpha and didn’t want to share power. For now, Maon would hold his position and see what would happen. 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 brought in. Rafe’s list wasn’t very detailed. There was a column of names with several crossed off and several others with check marks next to them. What Jenna 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 person who could tell her which druids on the list had the same skills as Rafe 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 checks next to their names. A little more investigation revealed that the crossed out names had been killed and the checked 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 check. 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 received word that Rafe had been killed, he was 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 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 Jacob 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 about whether they thought she was cooperating with Rafe or planning against him. Jacob deducted, that if she was hunting down the druids where Rafe left off, that she wanted him to make something. Jenna probably wanted whatever Rafe had been trying to make. He figured 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. There were advantages to being a member of the Senach. It was very difficult to keep information from a group of druids who had talents toward premonition and mind reading.

Jenna was about to begin the questioning process, confident in the fact that she had the right one this time, when an omega came in and notified her that there was a phone call for her.

* * * *

Cullen sat in his office with his phone in hand. The sooner he got through the small pieces of business he had left, the sooner he could get the pack on the road back to the reservation. He had a plan in mind for working with Aislinn on her ability to change. He hoped it would be easier than most, since she could read him so well. He’d start with explaining it, then show her. Smiling to himself, he searched through the numbers on his speed dial and located Brennus Tairneach. With some regret, he changed the number to Jenna’s name. No matter what had happened in the end, Brennus and Cullen had spent too many years as friends to hold a grudge against the dead.

Jenna kept him waiting on the line for some time. He half expected it. Besides, he was in a good mood and not even Jenna’s ego could spoil that now.

Her voice was honey dripping through the line. “Hello love. Calling for me so soon? Have you decided you don’t like used toys and want to trade up already?”

Well he
thought
nothing could spoil his mood. It amazed him how easily Jenna could rub him the wrong way. “I think I liked you better when you were set on winning me over,” he said flatly.

“Mmhmm, that doesn’t surprise me. To what can I attribute the pleasure of this call?”

“I wanted to thank you for returning my people,” he said honestly.

“I may be many things,” she said with a sincere tone that got to him. “But I’m not quite as nasty as that druid was. Not quite,” she added, and Cullen could almost see the plotting smile slide across her face.

“Can I ask what your intent for Arnauk/Tairneach relations is to be in our near future?”

“Oh, Cullen, I was only kidding when I asked if you were looking to trade in your toy.”

“Jenna, you know that’s not what I mean. From what I hear you’re sitting pretty good as alpha over there at the moment. It’s standard policy for me to attempt to figure out where the minds of my borders lie.”

Jenna knew from experience not to underestimate Cullen Arnauk. “At the moment, Lord Arnauk, I have no intention of trying to cause direct trouble on Arnauk territory,” she replied in an official tone.

Cullen read the tone with the exact the intent behind it. He heard the ‘at the moment’ loud and clear. “Understood. We’re having a memorial service for the lives lost, tomorrow at the reservation. I’m inviting you and your men, since our tentative alliance is what saved us from having much larger pyres.”

Jenna was taken aback by that. After all this, he was still trying to be friends. A small voice inside her head suggested that she take his peace offering. “I’m sorry, but we’ve planned a service of our own,” she lied, deciding that it would be a good idea to add it to the agenda as a way to further ingratiate herself to her people.

“Shame,” Cullen answered honestly. “I truly hoped that the bond the Arnauk and Tairneach have shared for all these years would continue.”

“Hmm, it would be a terrible loss, if that were to change,” Jenna replied.

Cullen shook his head. He didn’t need any more of this. He growled inwardly.
I should have called the feds first
, he thought. They wrapped up the conversation, and Cullen added Jenna’s name to the list of people he’d have to keep a close watch on. They could move some of the spies and start getting more frequent reports from their Tairneach contacts.

Cullen paged through his list of contacts again and hit the button to call Stevens. The federal agent answered the phone on the first ring. He was always overly efficient.

“Stevens here,” came the official voice through the phone.