Chapter 0039
A soft knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. Sophia came in with a folder under her arm and a wary smile.
“Is now a good time?”
“It’s perfect, Come on in, and thank you for your notes. They were quite helpful.”
She nodded stiffly and shuffled inside, closing the door behind her.
“Tell me about growing up in Midnight as a woman.”
Her eye widened. I could tell she wasn’t necessarily prepared for that question but I waited for our answer. She sighed.
“In a word, hard.” She sighed. “It’s not that we don’t want to contribute more. It’s just that opportunities for women here are really limited. Most of the older pack traditions still see women as caretakers primarily, and there’s no need to really educate us much.”
“How did Dahlia become beta?”
She frowned. “I think Dahlia is from a fallen pack, actually. She’s not a native.”
I nodded and slid a page of my plan for the telecommunication and internet systems toward
her.
“What do you think of this?” I sat back. “It would require some road work and minor infrastructure updates, but Theodore said that some of it was already underway.”
“Could you really do this to Midnight?” Sofia’s eyes sparkled as she read. “We only have cell service because of the military base in the territory, and only internet there… making it more accessible would be…”
She paused, and I smiled. “Great? More convenient for a lot of reasons?”
I gestured to all the paper. “Imagine being able to access all this from a computer.”
She let out a deep sigh. “I would have a lot less paper cuts…
I laughed and so did she. She made a few notes on the map, cluing me in to some of the terrain oddities of Midnight, but I could see the hope kindling in her as we ended the meeting.
“Thank you, Luna,” Sofia said softly and scurried out.
I was touched and smiled. My mom did used to say that you cut more flies with honey than you did with vinegar…. Or honeyed vinegar, in this case. After Sofia left, I gathered the notes and went to find Theodore. I found him in his office, reviewing reports from the patrols with Dahlia and a few others I hadn’t been introduced to. He looked up when I entered, and a small smile curved his lips.
“Busy day?” he asked.
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Chapter 0039
+25 BONUS
“Busier than I expected,” I replied, setting the plans on his desk. “I need to talk to you about a few things.”
He raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair. “Go on.”
I gave him a general overview of what the documents entailed, including the changes I wanted to make to Midnight’s laws. Some of the men looked damn uncomfortable.
“You just got here, and you want to change the laws?” Theodore asked, his tone amused.
“Update them,” I said. “In anticipation of other changes. Younger pack members, especially female pack members, should have more self–governance and the ability to pursue their own paths. We aren’t in an age where it makes sense not to. To be honest, we were never in an age where it made sense not to.
“What are you trying to say?” One of the men asked. “That we can’t take care of our daughters?”
I looked at the man. “Are your daughters married?”
“Not yet.”
“And if you dropped dead before they were married, how would they survive?”
He bared his teeth. “I have brothers.”
“And do they have daughters? Do they have the means to take care of their daughters, their wives, your wife and children, too?”
He flushed and just glared at me. Theodore barely glanced at the pages before sliding them back across the table to me.
“I don’t think those sorts of changes are ones we need to worry about right now.”
I cocked an eyebrow and picked up the pages. “And what should I be focusing on, hm?” “Organizing a mating ball would be helpful,” he said. “We haven’t had one in the territory since it was formed.”
I tilted my head, thinking about the pack registration information.
“For the thousands of men and… handful of women who are actually of age?”
He flushed. I scoffed, and took the pages and turned to leave as my phone. “Sure, but I’m shortening the invitation list. I’m not setting those women up to be mauled.”
I turned and left as my phone started to ring. I answered it.
“Mrs. Donovan, this is Mr. Alexander from Alpha Lucas‘ legal team.”
