Page 46 of Wild Wolf

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Omegas tend to be what everyone around them needs at any given point in time. So, when Sanders needs his ass kicked, his Omega mate kicks his ass. When Sanders needs someone who is purely submissive, she can be that, too. Omegas have a knack for reading the room, so to speak. You probably have that, because in the military, you were the glue that would keep teams working together. Alphas do that as well, but they do so in a different fashion.” Amber stretched. “I really thought the nausea would last longer.”

“You were excessively ill last night, and what you threw up was not at all pleasant or normal. Maybe your wolf wanted to get it over as quickly as possible? If she can do that?”

“We don’t know. It’s usually three days of misery, sometimes a little longer. But my health has been so bad.”

“I’ve never experienced it, so I’m not sure. I will hope it’s over, or maybe your wolf understands you need to be able to function somewhat during the day?”

“I could live with really bad nights and tolerable days through the sickness period. We’ve had new Fenerec in Yellowknife who had really bad runs. But sometimes somebody gets off lightly. Maybe I just got lucky.”

“You could use a little luck. What do you think Richard’s talking to his Chinese contacts about?”

“He’ll try to get a representative from Heihe to come and join the party, possibly with a few other negotiators. The wild wolf situation will warrant it, and Moscow will back it. Moscow and Beijing share a lot of similarities in terms of how they handle the supernatural. While their Normal governments clash often enough, they will join forces on things like this. Richard and Desmond have strong relationships with Moscow and Beijing right now, too. But Richard? He has pretty strong relationships with just about everybody.”

“Is that because he’s submissive?”

“It is. As long as Richard keeps his negotiations on the right side of the line, his general nature makes people more likely to cooperate with him. Richard’s done a lot of general background work preventing conflicts between governments, too. He has to be exceptionally careful with his businesses because of it. He’s ethical, so he won’t invest in projects he found out about through his government connections; he does not want an insider trading accusation pointed his way. Richard ultimately works the hotel circuits because that’s a safe investment for him. He’s good at it, too. He loves the challenge of having the best hotels. He does it all, from luxury hotels to cheaper places. The problem he has? He can’t seem to figure out he doesn’t have to make every room a luxury room. But he wants to do chain hotels with reasonable rates. So, he bought out companies that make furniture and bathrooms, and he operates them to build his hotels, and he sells extra stock to help fund his hotel projects, so he opens luxury hotels at a fraction of the price. He’s pretty upset his tub business is becoming so popular he has more demand than he can supply.”

“How is that a problem?”

“I really don’t know. It’s a lot of work, but he has good people managing the companies he owns. He likes being involved, and the company is expanding faster than he planned for. Before you called, he was wandering his fortress while howling over the unfairness of it all. How dare his tub business be five years ahead of schedule?”

“Is he insane?”

“Quite possibly.”

“Think they’d notice if we ran away? I’m starting to feel running away is reasonable. You can come with me, but we’ll have to steal Petra back from Desmond. I’m pretty fond of her. She’s a very good wolf. Maybe it took me over a year to actually name her, but she’s a good wolf. She did not trust me at all to begin with. She’d gotten shot with a silver bullet, so I’d been worried she was like us.”

“Oh, she’s not. But a silver bullet can do a lot of damage even to mundane animals. They don’t penetrate all that far, but they can make a mess of circulation, cause muscle damage, and break bones. And some people—and animals—have silver allergies. But it was probably shock and blood loss that gave you that impression. Fenerec tend to die very quickly when shot with a silver bullet if the bullet isn’t removed immediately. It essentially prevents their blood from becoming oxygenated.”

I grimaced. “Do other Fenerec have trouble with iron?”

“No. You do?”

I nodded. “I wondered why no one seemed bothered by it. Like, I can handle my cast iron pots, but it’s tiring even when I go near them.”

“Just so you are aware, that’s going to make it so Richard freaks out any time you go near a cast iron pot.”

“And silver turning my hands black is normal?”

“Yes, that’s normal for us. Maybe you just react to iron, too. That’s a rough metal to react to, though. There’s iron everywhere.”

“Alloys don’t bother me. Raw, unworked iron is the worst. Cast iron is better than raw iron. If the iron has been mixed with anything, I don’t have nearly as much trouble with it.”

“I’m pretty sure cast iron pots aren’t pure iron. I think there is up to seven percent of other materials in it. I remember reading something about that, because I used to think it was just raw iron, but it’s not. Maybe that’s why you can handle it?”

“I never thought about it, because my cast iron pots aren’t that bad.”

“If you don’t mind, we’ll experiment with that when we’re back in the States. We try to know as much about everybody as possible, in case of emergency.”

“I don’t mind.”

Amber yawned again, and she snuggled into my blanket, closed her eyes, and relaxed. While I waited, I kept a close eye on her. Her breathing remained steady. After half an hour, Richard came my way, and I rolled down my window and leaned out of my truck.

After hanging up his phone and pocketing it, Richard’s attention focused on Amber. “How is she doing?”

“She’s fine. She woke up when we stopped, but she went back to sleep. How’d the call go?”