Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,202

me look up at him. "You got him? I need to catch the other one."

"I do," I assured him. "And Michelle said yes to the job."

He grinned. "Good. Pax and Trent are with Mia. She made the shift back. Have Lane carry Jonah to his mom." Then he looked over. "Seth?"

"I'll chase him down," Seth promised. "And if we can't stop him, Vic or Lev can."

Ian bent to kiss the top of my head. "It's a good day for the pack. I'll be done soon, Alpha, but until then, take care of our pack."

"Always," I promised.

EPILOGUE

* * *

Roman dropped me off at the office after school. I headed inside, waved to the new lady at the desk, and kept going toward the back. The office that had formerly been Henry's was now my mom's. It was just past Ashley's, but I paused to stick my tongue out at her as I passed. Then I swung around the door frame and into Mom's space.

"Hey," I said.

"How was school?" she asked.

I nodded and dropped into the chair before her desk. "Jonah's doing good. The story is that he and his mom had a big fight, he went off to hang with some friends, but they punked him and left him high and dry. Took him a bit to suck up and call his mom, but everything's good. How's Michelle working out?"

"She's learning," Mom assured me. "But I'm curious about why you're here."

"Ian texted, saying I was supposed to wait for him." I just shrugged.

And right on time, my Alpha-Dad walked into the office. "Hi, Michelle," he said.

"Afternoon, Alpha," she called back.

Mom and I both listened to his steps as he came closer. "Ash?" He paused. "I need you for this too."

"Of course you do," Ashley groaned, but the sound of her chair squeaking meant she was following.

Then he stepped into the office and took the chair beside me. "Ok," he said, not even waiting for Ashley to get there. "Dad just closed on the abandoned apartments. That means we're going to have construction going on next door. I need both of you to make sure the pack knows to be careful about shifting while they're around. Looks like night hours only for a bit."

"It's done?" Ashley asked.

Ian just held up a finger. "And we got the land behind the trails. Downside, we have to pull down the walls. The upside, however, is that means twenty-five more acres of untouched land to run in."

"How many houses?" Elena asked. "On the apartment side, I mean."

"Fifty," Ian said. "And that's why I needed all of you in here. This is a big decision, but we have two options. First, we can keep leasing like we have been. But the second option is that we can stop blindly leasing to any wolves who apply, and start looking for those who need sanctuary. Doesn't matter what they are. If they can work with us, learn how to accept a pack, and are willing to do their part to help the next, we'll find a way to get them a house."

"How's the budget?" Ashley asked.

Ian slowly bobbed his head. "We're doing ok. Dad's going to make a few outside investments, but most of the houses are paid in full. We're a bit short on capital after that investment, but with the monthly rent we're making, I think we're going to be ok. Not great, and we certainly aren't going to get rich, but we're going to be making a significant profit."

"We'll need criteria for leasing," Mom pointed out. "It's easy to give some kind of sob story, but how do we verify most of this?"

"We use my covenant," I said. "My betas and I worked hard on it. And I know it's not all official and legal yet, but Henry can fix that, right? I mean, we figured out levels of need and how they rank compared to the others. It's a little complicated, but we were kinda going for a blueprint of how to make this work again."

"The one you showed me?" Ian asked.

I nodded. "Yep. We even talked to Vic to see what the bears thought of it, but Nik and Zaria helped, so that's three others besides just wolves."

Ian looked at Mom and then Ashley. "What do you think? No final answers, and I'm not holding your feet to the fire. I just need to know what page we're on."

"I like the sanctuary," Mom told him. "I mean, isn't that what we did with the