Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 523

Chapter 523

ARIA

"Look," I said, and I used the anchor the way I'd been learning to use it — not to command, just to get to the front of a conversation. "I understand that the book situation is important—"

"More important than the root," Nina said.

"It's not more important than the root," I said.

"The root," Nina said, "is Kael being in wolf form, which we have all had extensive experience with and have processed into our nervous systems as a known quantity. The books are new information. The books are a first. Books purchased with pack funds while refusing the book club while everyone was secretly reading them anyway — that's a novel situation." She paused, recognizing the word. "Pun acknowledged."

"We need to actually discuss the root," I said.

"The root," Ivory said, "is a problem we can address with specific solutions that I've been working on for the past two days. The solutions require Kael's cooperation and a specific set of compound applications timed to the next lunar cycle. It's on the agenda." She looked at Kael. "It's item three."

"What's item one," I said.

"The book audit," Nina said.

"And item two," I said.

"The bat," Jordan said. "Official record. The retirement of the bat deserves documentation."

"The bat," Elite said, from the corner, "was a three year emergency measure that served its function."

"It broke on a wolf," Kael said.

"It served its function," Elite said. "The function was contributing to a headache. It succeeded. We retire it with honor."

"With honor," Jordan said.

Kael looked at the ceiling.

"You used pack funds," Ivory said, returning to the core issue with the focus of someone who'd let a conversational detour run its course and was coming back. "For personal enrichment."

"The books enriched the office," Kael said. "The office is a pack resource. Therefore—"

"That logic," Ivory said, "would allow you to put literally anything in the office and call it pack expenditure."

"Within reason," Kael said.

"Books about—" Ivory started.

"Educational content," Kael said.

"Kael," Ivory said.

"I'll pay you back," Kael said. "Personal funds. With interest. And I'll share the new volumes."

"And the book club," Ivory said.

"The book club," Kael said, with the resignation of someone accepting a condition they'd known was coming.

"Once," Ivory said. "One session. One chapter. We discuss it."

"Which chapter," Kael said.

Ivory looked at him.

"Not fourteen," Kael said.

"We'll see," Ivory said.

"Ivory—"

"We'll see," Ivory said again, with the serenity of someone who'd already decided and was enjoying the uncertainty.

"Jordan," Kael said.

"I'm not in this," Jordan said.

"You're reading the same books," Kael said.

"I'm a supporter of literary discussion," Jordan said. "I'll attend the book club."

"And your intelligence officer," Killian said, "hit your Alpha with a bat on purpose to give him a headache."

"Preemptively," Jordan said. "I hadn't confirmed the reason yet. The reason confirmed itself later."

Killian looked at Kael.

"You're the Alpha," Killian said.

"Among the circle," Kael said, with the resignation of someone who'd had this distinction explained to them twice already this morning and had accepted it, "I'm Kael."

"That's a very specific arrangement," Killian said.

"It works," Kael said.

The bat," Kael said, which was either a subject change or a return to the batting situation he'd been building toward since he'd sat down. "Jordan."

"Yes," Jordan said.

"The bat," Kael said.

"The bat was a valid emergency response," Jordan said.

"The bat broke on my head," Kael said. "On. My. Head. Which means the bat was less useful than nothing because nothing doesn't generate pieces of wood."

"The bat generated a headache," Jordan said. "Which was the goal."

Kael looked at him.

"My goal," Jordan said, "was not to stop you. You're a full Alpha in the cursed wolf form. I am a human man holding a cricket bat. The bat was not going to stop you. I understood that before I swung it."

"Then why," Kael said.

"Because you were going to wake up with a very bad time regardless," Jordan said, "and I wanted you to have a headache on top of it. So that the morning after would be slightly worse and you would think about it."

"Think about what," Kael said.

"Everything," Jordan said. "The root. The clinic. The wolf situation. All of it." He met Kael's gaze steadily. "You deserved the headache."