Page 20 of His to Mate

“I agree with Meg,” Ann said as soon as Meg finished. “You’re just as valuable. You can learn the hands-on stuff as you go along. It’s not exactly the best practice, I guess, but we have to take what we can get, don’t we?”

“Yes, it sounds like you’re well ahead of us, anyway,” another woman in her 30s with blond hair and happy green eyes said. She was a tall woman and competent looking. “I worked as a paralegal, but that’s not going to do us much good now, is it?”

“It might, one day,” Ann said quickly, more to reassure the woman than anything. The aliens had their own rules and laws and none of the Earthlings knew for sure what all of them were.

She made a few more mental notes and walked around the other groups until she’d spoken with everyone. Except Penelope and her little group.

“Hello, Penelope,” Ann said quietly as she walked up behind the other woman.

“Ann… I…” Penelope looked uncertainly around the room, anywhere but at Ann. “We’re, um, we’ve decided we’re going to work on daycare and providing nannies to the other wives.”

“Have you now?” Ann asked without inflection. She wanted to see how Penelope responded.

Ann stood there and waited, her head tilted back a little, her body straight. She didn’t want to be intimidating, she wanted to be in control. And from the way Penelope dipped her head down, Ann knew she was. She breathed in softly, and let it out, while she waited.

“Yes, you see, well, Mary here was a daycare worker before, well, you know. So, we thought it might be good to take your suggestion. You know.” She ended with a firm nod of her head before she looked at the other women for backup. The others nodded and smiled at Ann with hopeful little nods.

“That sounds excellent. I’ve got a notebook on the table over there. If you’d be so kind as to fill out a sheet with your basic information, who is in your group, what you’ll be doing, things you might need, stuff like that, I’d appreciate it.”

“Of course, Ann,” Penelope said without any hint of huffiness.

Maybe she’d be alright, after all, Ann decided. This leadership role wasn’t something she’d ever planned to take. In high school, she and her friends had all encouraged each other, and had sometimes urged each other into a dare, but there hadn’t exactly been a leader. She did her thing, they did theirs, and that’s how it worked. Now, she’d been thrown in, feet first, and somehow, she’d learned to stand up.

She’d been worried she’d made an enemy out of Penelope, but it didn’t seem she had. Maybe her mate had had a talk with her. Word probably got around about what happened. Ann wasn’t sure who the woman was mated to, but whoever it was ranked lower than Rager, which meant he ranked below her too. Ann didn’t really care, so long as the woman chilled out with her lady of the manor bullshit.

With a tired smile, Ann shuffled out the last of the women 15 minutes later. She went up to her room and sprawled on the bed. She’d been terrified, as always, but speaking at the podium like that had been the scariest thing she’d done in her life so far. Even the mating ceremony with Rager hadn’t been that bad compared to public speaking. She’d managed it though, and everyone seemed content enough when they left. That was all that mattered really.

She wanted to build inroads with the wives, and she had plans. Plans like making sure Amanda had a role in the education of future children. Ann knew some of the revulsion over the wolves was simply that the humans didn’t understand that they weren’t in danger. They expected the wolves to turn into raving maniacal killers with huge teeth and claws at any minute. That wasn’t how it happened.

After five years in the bunker with a wolf family, Ann knew first-hand what happened, and what needed to happen. It was all very silly, she thought, as she stuck her earbuds in and hit play. They didn’t mind having the wolves in their homes during the day, but not at night? That was one of the reasons the wolves were housed away from the homes. People seemed to think dark-time meant murder-time to the wolves. It didn’t.

She wanted to change those misconceptions, stamp out prejudice, and if that meant doing it one step at a time, that’s what she’d do. She wanted Amanda and Stephan, and Rex even, to be able to do whatever they wanted to with their lives, and if that meant she had to stick her neck out for them, then so be it.