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Buster stared at him. “I’ll send over all the reports,” he promised. “Send them here?”
“Works for now,” Ryder agreed. “So. What challenges are you facing that need to be on my priority list?”
Twenty minutes later, Buster was excused to go to the mill. He looked a bit dazed, Jessie thought. This could be entertaining. Her mate was a smart man.
You’re surprised?Ryder teased. Jessie hastily shut down her mate bond. At least she thought she did. Maybe she needed to get more lessons from Benny.
“Is the rest of the pack the same?” Ryder asked the two McKenzies. “Self-sufficient businesses, doing their own thing with little input from the Alpha?”
“Pretty much,” Dennis McKenzie said. “Dad wanted to play regional politics. So he got himself out of the day-to-day operations. The feed store — which isn’t your old-fashioned store — is without a manager. Hansen was doing that. They’ll probably be relieved over there. He thought he was too good for that. And he made all the mistakes a newbie manager makes. Micromanages, condescending to old-time workers who could have helped him make fewer mistakes, alienating some of our biggest clients.”
Ryder nodded. “Who do we have that can step in and get things back on an even keel?”
Dennis grimaced and sighed. “Me, I guess,” he said. “It’s where I got my start, eons ago, when itwasjust a typical feed store —with plank floors, and sawdust, because damned farmers wouldn’t stop spitting on it.”
Jessie grinned at him, giving him an A for effort.
“Good,” Ryder said. “Assess how big a disaster Hansen made of things and make recommendations for new management. Speaking of him, do we have fixers? Someone has to make him disappear, close out his affairs. And neither of us want anything to do with it.”
“Got a nice house,” Dennis began, and then noticed Ryder’s closed expression. Jessie just tried to keep the horror off her own. She didn’t want to even see it. “Fine,” he said. “Yes, I’ll let Carl know. Should have had him here.”
“For supper?” Ryder suggested.
Dennis shook his head. “You need.... If you would, Alpha, I’d like you to come out and have dinner with me and mine at the pack house. It would ease my mother if you did.”
“She knows I’m not dispossessing her, right?” Ryder asked sharply. “I meant what I said.”
“And we’re grateful,” Dennis said. “But.... well, it would be easier if you met the family, and then we can talk more.”
Duncan sighed and rolled his eyes. “What he’s trying not to say is that John had three women in his household. The youngest is probably your age, and she’s pregnant. There are four other children too young to shift, and we’ve got a bunch of other kids in the pack. Is the rumor true about some serum that will allow girls to survive first shift?”
Ryder raised his eyebrow at Benny.
“It’s true,” Benny said. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that that old bastard didn’t tell you? How many girls are past first menses but haven’t shifted yet?”
The two men looked at each other. “My wife would know — she runs the pack school,” Dennis said. “But maybe a dozen?”
“We’ll get someone up here with the serum,” Benny promised. He pulled out his phone and made a call.
“How much is it going to cost us?” Dennis asked with some worry.
“Nothing,” Jessie answered since Benny was talking with one finger in his ear. “Hat Island is making it free to every girl child — and that includes those who aren’t in packs, by the way. So if you know family and independents who might have girls who are ready to shift, we need to schedule them for a field trip to Penticton.”
“Free,” Duncan said with no inflection. “Nothing is free.”
“The price has already been paid,” Jessie said quietly. “We’ll tell you, but not now. Now you just need to know that there will be a medic on his way up here with serum. Do you have a medic or a healer in the pack?”
“A board-certified doctor,” Dennis said. “Me. So I’m very interested in this serum.”
“Good,” Benny said, getting off the phone. “A medic will bring up serum and walk you through the protocol. And then we’d like you to become a hub for the girls in this region. So far we’ve not lost a girl, although the serum’s creator has predicted a 80 percent survival rate — the same as our boys. And that’s the other thing. It doesn’t work for boys. Do not, and I repeat, do not give it to them. We learned the hard way. It’s a ticket to a failed shift — a very messy one.”
Benny looked grim. Jessie had heard about some of that. Apparently something had happened in Portland.
“Got it, sex-linked, then?” Dennis asked with interest.
“Michel is bringing up the serum himself,” Benny said. “He’s the assistant director of the research labs —and much easier to deal with than the director, so count your blessings. But you two can talk the science of it to your heart’s content. He’ll be up here tomorrow. He apologizes for not being able to come up today, but his schedule is packed.”
Dennis’s eyes brightened. “I look forward to the discussion,” he said seriously.
