“Greylen?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
I had been so busy admiring her that I’d forgotten to answer.
“Yes, I’m sorry. Did I pull you away from the clinic?”
She shook her head. “I was finishing up for the day.”
“I’ve been going through the horde’s finances. I was hoping to run some numbers by you. Is that okay?”
“Of course it is.” She walked deeper into the office and sat in the chair opposite my desk. “I like this place,” she said, looking around. “It’s dark but comfortable.”
I preened under her praise, even though I had nothing to do with the design of the space. It was painted a dark green, giving it a subtle, natural feel that was almost homey.
“I can’t take credit, but I do love it.” I glanced around the room, oddly proud that she liked it.
“I can see why. So, what numbers are we going to talk about?” she asked, leaning back with a conspiratorial smile.
Taking a deep breath, I turned my laptop around so she could see the spreadsheet I’d been working on. Technically, I was showing her information that should not have been shown to an outsider, but Rowan was my mate. If she agreed, she would be the Alpha female of our horde.
Fuck, how I wanted that.
“This is how much money we give Jenkins. In your expert opinion, is this okay?”
The smirk fell from her face, and she sat forward, her eyesnarrowing as she quickly looked through the figures. The corner of her lips turned down, and she started muttering as she read.
“This is insane!” she exclaimed. “Does he tell you what he does with all this money?”
“It’s always to go toward new medication, or equipment, or something we wouldn’t understand because we don’t have a medical degree.” He treated us all like we were dumb children, and his knowledge was so superior that there was no way we could understand.
I held a master’s degree, but in the face of his medical training, it was nothing, apparently.
Rowan stared at the screen, horror-struck, her hand covering her mouth. “I could set up an amazing clinic for a tenth of this. If he’s spending this much every few years, that’s extortionate.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Fuck.”
“Well, you see… this is how much we give him per year,” I admitted.
Rowan’s head shot up so fast that she gave me a look of utter shock and disbelief. “One year?” she screeched. “You pay that crotchety old bastard this much every year?”
A grin spread across my face as I nodded. She never minced her words; that was for sure.
“He said it was essential to maintaining the health of the horde.”
Rowan let out a deep, long-suffering sigh. Raising her fingers to her temples, she rubbed gently, as if the notion of what I had just told her had stressed her out so severely, she was getting a migraine.
“What health of the horde? Because I’ve only been here a short while, and I can already tell you that the health ofthishorde is goddamn abysmal,” she shouted, waving her hands around as she ranted.
“I know.” Because Bastian had told me she had shouted at him about this only a few days ago. He hadbeen venting about the situation, but we had both agreed there would be no harm in looking into the numbers.
“There’s no way he’s using all this money on equipment,” Rowan insisted, her eyes scanning the lists again. “Even if he’s buying machinery that is top of the line and brand new from a foreign country, he would still have money left over. Why didn’t you consult with any healers from nearby hordes before dropping several fortunes on this bastard?”
“Because he was a healer with a medical degree, and Bastian’s father had complete faith in him.”
“When did the horde’s health start to decline?”
For a moment, I considered her question. “Maybe twenty years ago, but it’s been getting worse in the last decade.”
It had only been in the last few years that things had gotten really bad.
“When did Jenkins go to medical school? Given how old he is, I assume it was sixty years ago. His knowledge is probably outdated, anyway.”
