Dancing with the Shadows // #wattys2019

Chapter 2

To say Caia was freaking out was an understatement.

And the worst part of it was, it was her own damn fault.

She had known that they were putting the proposal together for a company that had a headquarters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Cedric Lincoln's pack controlled territory that covered Luzerne County, where Wilkes-Barre was located. If she'd actually paid attention to these details, she'd have probably realized what that meant. But, with everything going on, her focus had been entirely on the proposal, and not the client.

The client that was now unashamedly staring at her as Teleri went through the details of her work. Caia was focusing on her notes, on Teleri's face, anything but the man making her senses go haywire.

Caia couldn't understand why. After she'd rejected him, she'd felt...awful seemed so tame a word. It was the most painful thing she could possibly imagine. She couldn't get out of bed the first day, hadn't wanted to see her friends before she left. Her former group, Jason, Isla, Valerie, Dylan, and Henry had all been weres, so she had been able to text them what happened, and they understood why there was no send-off. Her mom had helped her pack, and her grandmother had left her alone as she recovered. By the time school started, she'd almost felt normal. She'd thrown herself into classes, a training regimen the Gamma of Midnight Star, Dover, had given her, and finding a part-time job. She hadn't felt anything for Cedric, hadn't sensed him, hadn't missed him. He was no longer connected to her, and that process had almost killed her.

But she had never regretted it. She hadn't wanted to be a part of his damn breeder porn then, and she didn't want it now. All the more power to people who wanted that life, but she didn't. Even if he hadn't been such a jackass about it, if he had pressed the point about an heir, a rejection still might have happened.

She pushed the thoughts aside as Teleri said, "You have a substantial amount of natural resources that are not coal-based, but Luzerne County has seen substantial population loss and urban decay because of the economic decline of coal, which is where a good amount of your investment has been. Your mission has been to solely support local economic activity, and that's great, but your current model has room for improvement. You can achieve greater results by moving that investment elsewhere and reinvesting the profits back into your economy. For example, local solar or wind initiatives could—"

"We're not fucking California, what's solar going to do for us?" The man who had looked at Caia oddly before snapped at Teleri. Caia recognized him now, he was Roman, Cedric's Beta. They'd 'met,' for lack of a better word, a couple of times before. He looked a different now; older, more muscular, grown up. He'd been 21 when she'd left, so it made sense. But, the way he was currently scowling at Teleri made Caia remember just how much of an immature child he had been, and maybe it was this, more than anything else, that made her open her mouth.

"Wilkes-Barre has 51% sunny days, annually. Besides the fact that solar panels can still produce 10–25% of their typical output on a cloudy day, and that Teleri was merely providing an example of how to reinvest in your pack's labor force. We have created three different versions of a portfolio and multiple different projections on how you could reinvest your earnings."

All eyes turned to her, and she waited, holding her breath, but kept her gaze locked on Roman. He let out a 'tut' like sound and turned back to his binder, and she cast a half glance at Teleri, before turning back to her notes.

"Kimber, was it?" Cedric's voice made her grip her tablet tighter. She inhaled and looked up at him. His piercing blue eyes seemed to cut right through her, but she would not let herself be intimidated by him. She nodded, slowly. "What were some of these other investment examples you had come up with?"