“Whatever you make is fine, I’m sure. Like most wolves, I like a lot of meat in my diet, but it looks like you have a wide variety of beef, chicken, pork, and fish on the menu.”
“Yes, we try to maintain a variety of dishes so our pack doesn’t get bored with their food. Our omegas are exceptional cooks, if you haven‘ t noticed,” I say, smiling at them. I can feel their happiness that I not only recognized them but complimented them. It’s important as an Alpha and a Luna to make sure your omegas are respected and kept safe. But keeping them happy is just as important in my opinion.
Christian asks specific questions, but Shane and Braden are pretty quiet, absorbing everything I’m telling them. When I take them back to the small office where my mother and now I maintain the records for bookkeeping, Christian steps up, looking over the logs.
“This is very detailed,” he says, glancing up at me.
“My mother said it was important to ensure that everything was accounted for. You don’t want unexpected expenses that might cause problems in the pack.”
“A couple of missed food items wouldn’t cause that much of a problem, would it?” Shane asks.
“Not once or twice,” Christian says distractedly, still looking at the ledger. In this small space, he’s standing very close to me and I can once again feel the heat of his body. It’s making my head spin and it’s very distracting.
“But if it happens every week,” Christian says, looking up at Shane.
“Say fifty dollars this week, a hundred next week, and so on, it could begin to cause problems financially and believe me, finding the problem after it becomes a problem is a lot harder than avoiding one to begin with.”
“May I?” Shane asks, and Christian pushes the ledger closer to him so he can look it over.
“Damn, sis. I had no idea you did all of this,” he says, smiling proudly
at me.
I shrug. “As I said, it’s how Mom taught me.”
The thought of never walking into this room and seeing my mother bent over this ledger again suddenly sends a wave of sadness through me. I feel a large, warm hand take mine and I look up to see Christian watching me. He squeezes my hand, just enough to let me know I’m not alone, then releases it. I’m not sure how I know that’s what he was trying to impart to me, but it makes me feel better even if his touch caused me to blush horribly.
Shane steps back and lets Braden see the ledger as well. I turn, grabbing this week’s invoice and I hand it to Christian.
“Perfect timing, Shane, are you ready to start looking over your pack’s finances?” Christian asks him.
“Now that we have the code to the safe, we should be able to access everything we need,” he says.
Christian turns back to me. “When do you submit these? And can you send them electronically?” he says, holding up the invoice.
“We usually submit them on Sundays since Saturday is the meal planning day and Sunday is the food buying day. And I used to send them electronically, but Beta Dorian requested them to be handwritten.
Sending electronically is much easier and faster.”
“Perfect. Let’s go back to electronic submissions. Is there a system that you use that your father would go into to view the invoices?”
“Yes, I can show you later if you need me to. I know the site, his username and password.”
“That would be very helpful. Why don’t you give Shane and I a couple of hours to get into the finances and then come join us,” he says.
“I can bring you lunch, and we can eat while we go through it, unless you want to eat with the pack,” I tell him.
“No, let’s do that. We can eat with the pack tonight. Oh, and did you keep a record of the paper invoices in case I can’t find them from the last couple of weeks?” he asks.
“They’re all in the system. I figured that eventually Shane would want things back the way they were, so I was doing them in both places,” I tell him.
“Beautiful and intelligent. We’ll see you in a couple of hours,” he says, thankfully turning away as my cheeks heat from his praise.
–་
Why does this man have such a profound effect on me? He can calm me with a touch and send flames burning through my body with a look.
After they leave, I settle myself and get back to work. Before I know it, it’s time for lunch.
