get more information out of him and that was the last thing I'd do to someone who'd already helped me so much.
I left the pool area and headed to the weight room. Something told me that I was going to need to bulk up if I was going to keep up with Vincent and the rest down on the border.
Chapter 6
Alec Graves
Graves Estate
Sanctuary, Utah
Mallory was waiting for us, for me really, at the airport as the plane landed. I thought about making some kind of wisecrack about there being no need for her to express her thanks quite so profusely, but one look at the expression on her face convinced me to keep my mouth shut. The simple black dress pants and a white blouse she was wearing indicated that she was off to work some kind of 'respectable' business deal for Kaleb, but somehow her attire didn't manage to make her any less menacing.
She wasn't the strongest or toughest hybrid in the pack and it had been ages since she'd been sent down to the border on any kind of active combat op, but Mallory was Kaleb's strong right hand and anyone who really pissed her off seemed to eventually find themselves in dire straits of some kind or another. Sometimes when Kaleb was extremely confident he could win he would challenge the subject of her ire himself, but usually he just paid one or more of the other dominants to beat on the poor soul who'd crossed her.
Ulrich Bishop in the Chicago pack had pretty much written the book on using fiscal incentives to keep a pack in line, but Kaleb had been forced to add a chapter or two of his own in the course of keeping the Sanctuary pack from shattering into half a dozen pieces.
"You're late."
The question wasn't actually directed at anyone in particular, but I was dominant to the other three so I answered.
"The pilot said he encountered stronger than expected winds which slowed us down quite a bit."
Mallory frowned. "I'll have to have a word with him about that. The planes are being scheduled too tightly to allow for this kind of slippage. Between the four of you missing your original transit window and Samantha's little joyride the schedules are all shot to hell."
I nodded and made a non-committal noise as I turned to go, but she pulled me up short by saying my name.
"I told you that you wouldn't be able to continue ducking me forever. Your friends can leave if they want to, but you and I are going to find a quiet room while the crew gets the plane refueled."
I motioned with my head towards the waiting car.
"You three go ahead. Heaven knows we've got little enough time before we've got to ship back out, the last thing you need is to be cooling your heels here waiting for me."
Mallory didn't wait to see if I would follow, she just turned around and headed back into the administrative building that she'd just come out of.
I shrugged at James and the others and followed Mallory inside. The staff inside the building practically fell all over each other in their eagerness to show Mallory to a private conference room. Kaleb was the single biggest patron of the airport. His fuel bill alone probably exceeded the revenues from the next three biggest customers and there were persistent rumors that Kaleb and Mallory were considering increasing the pack's fleet by at least another one or two planes.
It would have been a lot cheaper to fly commercial, but an awful lot of the pack's dominants didn't play very well with civilians. That, combined with the fact that Kaleb frequently needed to move around groups of relatively large people at short notice, meant that most of the pack's travel would probably continue to be via the private planes.
Once everyone else had cleared back out of the conference room, Mallory sat in one of the plush chairs and motioned for me to kneel down in front of her. I could have just as easily sat in a chair while she stood, but she liked to reinforce the fact that I was submissive to her at every turn. Apparently I waited too long to comply because she snapped her fingers
I left the pool area and headed to the weight room. Something told me that I was going to need to bulk up if I was going to keep up with Vincent and the rest down on the border.
Chapter 6
Alec Graves
Graves Estate
Sanctuary, Utah
Mallory was waiting for us, for me really, at the airport as the plane landed. I thought about making some kind of wisecrack about there being no need for her to express her thanks quite so profusely, but one look at the expression on her face convinced me to keep my mouth shut. The simple black dress pants and a white blouse she was wearing indicated that she was off to work some kind of 'respectable' business deal for Kaleb, but somehow her attire didn't manage to make her any less menacing.
She wasn't the strongest or toughest hybrid in the pack and it had been ages since she'd been sent down to the border on any kind of active combat op, but Mallory was Kaleb's strong right hand and anyone who really pissed her off seemed to eventually find themselves in dire straits of some kind or another. Sometimes when Kaleb was extremely confident he could win he would challenge the subject of her ire himself, but usually he just paid one or more of the other dominants to beat on the poor soul who'd crossed her.
Ulrich Bishop in the Chicago pack had pretty much written the book on using fiscal incentives to keep a pack in line, but Kaleb had been forced to add a chapter or two of his own in the course of keeping the Sanctuary pack from shattering into half a dozen pieces.
"You're late."
The question wasn't actually directed at anyone in particular, but I was dominant to the other three so I answered.
"The pilot said he encountered stronger than expected winds which slowed us down quite a bit."
Mallory frowned. "I'll have to have a word with him about that. The planes are being scheduled too tightly to allow for this kind of slippage. Between the four of you missing your original transit window and Samantha's little joyride the schedules are all shot to hell."
I nodded and made a non-committal noise as I turned to go, but she pulled me up short by saying my name.
"I told you that you wouldn't be able to continue ducking me forever. Your friends can leave if they want to, but you and I are going to find a quiet room while the crew gets the plane refueled."
I motioned with my head towards the waiting car.
"You three go ahead. Heaven knows we've got little enough time before we've got to ship back out, the last thing you need is to be cooling your heels here waiting for me."
Mallory didn't wait to see if I would follow, she just turned around and headed back into the administrative building that she'd just come out of.
I shrugged at James and the others and followed Mallory inside. The staff inside the building practically fell all over each other in their eagerness to show Mallory to a private conference room. Kaleb was the single biggest patron of the airport. His fuel bill alone probably exceeded the revenues from the next three biggest customers and there were persistent rumors that Kaleb and Mallory were considering increasing the pack's fleet by at least another one or two planes.
It would have been a lot cheaper to fly commercial, but an awful lot of the pack's dominants didn't play very well with civilians. That, combined with the fact that Kaleb frequently needed to move around groups of relatively large people at short notice, meant that most of the pack's travel would probably continue to be via the private planes.
Once everyone else had cleared back out of the conference room, Mallory sat in one of the plush chairs and motioned for me to kneel down in front of her. I could have just as easily sat in a chair while she stood, but she liked to reinforce the fact that I was submissive to her at every turn. Apparently I waited too long to comply because she snapped her fingers
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