— Kaden —

I walked into my drawing room, with Jean-Philippe on my heels.

I had decided to do as much business from home as I could while Elaeya was getting back on her feet. I had hired nurses who stayed in shift twenty-four hours here, and I hired help for Mrs. Raynolds, to make everything as simple as possible.

Elaeya was spending more time up, but she still slept sixteen hours throughout the night and day.

I waved at the other winged chair for Jean-Philippe to sit. Mrs. Raynolds brought us coffee.

“How are things with Jasmine?” I asked sipping from my cup, sitting comfortably.

The days were not that cold yet, but Mrs. Raynolds had taken it upon herself to make sure the fireplaces in a few of the rooms were kept burning joyfully for Elaeya’s comfort and health. It was still day outside, but it was a grey one and the fire gave more life to the room.

Jean-Philippe smiled, bessotted. “It’s going well.”

“Have you spend some time talking or are you just trying for lingual root canals.”

He blushed.

Kids.

He coughed uncomfortably and shifted in his chair. “N-no… Erm, no, we talked,” he stammered.

I sipped at my coffee, and kept my eyes on him.

He shifted again.

“You know that Jasmine is a minor, right?”

“Erm, yes, erm, until next month.” He grabbed his coffee, looked at it, then put it back on the side table.

“She’s not leaving here until she’s eighteen, you understand that?”

“I understand,” he said looking at his fingers.

“If she ever goes with you, it will be her choice.”

He nodded.

“I don’t think she’s ready to be a Luna,” I said.

He bit his lip but said nothing.

“She has a lot to learn. If she wants to, and you want her to, she will need a lot of help to get there. She’s young, both of you are.”

“I can give her help and resources. I can hire coaches to train her, and my mother is there too, she could help her,” he said looking up, rushing the words out.

I nodded. “Here, I’ll let my mother handle the situation.”

He nodded.

“I won’t stop you from seeing her, but there are things that need to be taken care of. I let the two of you have a little time off together, but now I need for the Alpha of Boisclair to get his head out of his ass,” I said. “You came here for finalizing the contracts for the joint resort. It still hasn’t been done and it’s been days.” I looked at him sideways.

He looked a little guilty.

“Granted, I have been busy myself, but despite my mate nearly dying, things are still moving forwards on my side,” I continued. “How many businesses do you own outside of Boisclair proper?” I knew that everything outside of his pack and pack-related business, all there was were investments, hedge funds, and trust funds, everything managed by a firm, in little risk, safe portfolios. And most businesses he had invested in were owned by pack members and he had little to do with them, other than signing checks. Giving the size and wealth of Boisclair, he’s had it fairly easy.

“You told me you wanted to do things differently, that you wanted to expand, be more involved than your father and the other Alphas before him,” I said. “I agreed to help you in that, but don’t expect me to do all the work for you.”

“No, no, I would not—,” he stammered.

“Here’s the situation,” I said putting my coffee cup down on the table. “Firstly, if you start businesses outside of Boisclair, it will require time, expertise, and work, a lot of work. Secondly, if you end up with a young inexperienced Luna, it will require a lot of time and investments there too. You can’t just throw money at the problem for it to go away, and it will require both of you to work for it.” I let that sink in.

He nodded.

“Thirdly, the Moonhunter Brotherhood, they don’t have as many resources as they used too. They are spread thin and are struggling more and more. You and I have been mostly spared from the consequences of this as our packs are pretty hard to ignore, but the feedback I’m getting from other packs is getting worse with years. I’ve had more packs ask for my help in the last two years than in the previous five, and more in those five than the previous ten.” I crossed my fingers together. “You’ve stayed away from most of the politics, you can keep doing that if you want, but I’m not. If someone comes to me for help and I’m given no reason to refuse, then I won’t.”

I bent to grab the coffee pot to make myself a second cup.

“The thing is, I was helping you out until you grew of age, and settled in your position. But you’re the one who approached me for this resort. And now, my little sister is your mate. Some would see this as involvement. Depending on how you handle the situation, you could either stay mostly on the sideline, or you could be dragged in the fray.” I put milk and sugar in the cup too. “A mate can change a lot of things including how you are seen as Alpha. If you walk back home one day with a Devon on your arm, it could change things, and not always in predictable ways.”

I took a sip, perfect.

“Fourthly, I might be heading for more trouble ahead. Right now, the Brotherhood doesn’t like me, and I might have to involve myself in another war, which they will like me for even less. And there is Elaeya, I’ve come to know that there are a lot of people who might want to gun for her, and having her here could change how Blakemore is seen.

I could really take a strong ally right now. It could change things, it could limit the amount of shit the Brotherhood would be motivated to throw my way.” I took another sip. “I don’t want to exploit Jasmine in all this, so this relationship you have, I won’t use this as leverage in any of this. I’m not going to ask anything. I just want you to know that it’s not as simple as it may feel. It’s probably tempting to act like teenagers in love right now, but you know that this is not a luxury you can even indulge in, not mindlessly so. You’re an Alpha. Your pack needs you, and don’t expect to be able to fallback on the Brotherhood when in need. Maybe they’ll be able to do more for you, make an exception for you—given your financial backing—but they won’t be a reliable resource.

As for me, I’m most probably going to get pretty busy. I’m gonna do my best for you and Jasmine, but it could get very limited in what I can do soon. Furthermore, if things don’t go too well for me, I could as well become persona non grata with the Brotherhood, which could mean that any further involvement between us could stain your reputation along the way.

I know we worked for months on the resort, but I want you to really think about this, all of it, before you sign anything. And if you bring Jasmine with you home, to later resent her because of who she is, I’m going to destroy you for it. You get me?”

He swallowed, but nodded.

“When you make your decision, do it right, take the time that you need, but fucking get it right. And don’t fucking give her false hopes.”

He nodded again shakily.

“You said you’d be here for a week, you have two days left. I won’t kick you out if you want to stay longer, and can. You can also return as often as you want. But know the consequences before you act,” I told him. “Also, you should know that a distance relationship for mates will cost you a lot more than I’m sure you’re ready to pay. It can only be a short-term option, for your own good, you and Jasmine.”

He was looking at his hands.

“Don’t give me answers now, go back to the packhouse, and I highly suggest that you start having conversations with my sister.”

“I will,” he said, his voice more solid.

I nodded. “It’ll be dinner soon,” I said.

He got the message and got up.

“Talk,” I told him.

“I will,” he promised.

I nodded again and he left.

Mrs. Raynolds came to clear his cup of coffee.

“Is Elaeya up?” I asked her.

“Not yet Alpha.”

I nodded.

I picked my phone and sent a message.

I finished my coffee slowly looking at the flames, thinking.

It took mostly ten minutes for the wizard to come in.

Mrs. Raynolds ushered him in, and he took place in the vacant chair next to mine.

After his altercation with the Other and all the work he did in Elaeya’s hospital room, he slept for twenty hours straight, ate, took a shower, and went back to sleep for another ten hours. So today had been the first day he’d been actually vertical since then. But we hadn’t had time to meet up yet.

“First off,” I said. “Thank you. Elaeya is doing much better, she’s going through recovery just like both you and the doctor have anticipated.”

“Good to know,” he said.

I nodded. “I’m not sure what deal you made with Mishka.”

“Settling a debt, mostly.”

I nodded. “Well, I’m not the type to let good work be unpaid. Name your price.”

His eyebrows went way up.

“Before you settle for an amount, there are a few things I’d like to cover. Firstly, I heard you could ward the place against Others?”

“Yes, to an extent.”

“Explain.”

“There is always a limit to what can be done. I mean if an army of them show up and tries to push their way through, with enough force, with enough time, they will get through.”

I nodded. “But with wards, it would be hard for your common Other to pass through?”

“They won’t stroll casually in, if that is your question, no.”

I nodded again. “Are there other things that can be blocked by wards?”

“Plenty of things. Nearly anything, at least temporarily. But some of those wards would require pretty extensive works, weeks, months, years, it depends against what I’d have to work with, if I have other practitioners helping me out, what tools I have, ingredients, the size of what is to be warded, and what it is. It can also depend on how impermeable you want this to be. Some wards can be pretty dense and would not allow you or your people to pass through either, without a wizard to usher you in or out. And it also depends on what you want the ward to do, or how long you want it to last. Do you want it to block intrusions like a solid wall of air? Do you just want to work on the immaterial? Do you want it to zap any assailant to oblivion?”

“It could do that?”

“It can do all sorts of things, man.”

I thought furiously about it.

“Now, before you ask, I’m not warding your entire territory.”

“Why?”

“I’m one wizard, not an army. There are limits to everything.”

“What if it was more of a warning system.”

“That would be a lot easier to setup. But it would take me a while, and it’s not built with scrap paper, if you get my meaning.”

I nodded. “What if I pay you, whatever wage you ask for, and get you tools and ingredients, whatever you need.”

It was his turn to think it through.

I let him.

“It would not be cheap,” he said finally.

“I’m good for it.”

He snorted. “I bet you are.”

He thought about it some more. “Would take weeks, maybe more.”

I nodded. “You could still ward the main property against Others?”

“I’d focus on buildings, it’s easier to use walls to build their spiritual counterpart.”

I nodded. “All the building on packhouse land.”

“That’s a tall order man.”

“I’m sure. But you would be given time, resources, and money for it.”

He thought some more.

“Actually, there are a few other things I could be interested in hiring your services for,” I said.

“Man, how long do you want me to stay here?” he said a little bewildered.

That made me think.

“As long as necessary,” I said.

I will have to think it through some more, but an idea had just been planted.