Epilogue
Ciaro looked around him at the five hundred acres his people would be settling on. It was nice land, just not nearly enough. Had he known about this at the time the alliance had begun, he’d have ten times that much land. He didn’t care that Sebastian was the group leader or that Titus was his second. There was enough work in leading his group even though he doubted there were ten thousand black panther shifters left on the planet.
It was their way to live in secluded inaccessible areas, but it was time for some of them to come out and live among other shifters. If they didn’t make some changes, his kind would die out completely. Money was no problem, Ciaro was a financial genius who had millions invested in the smartest stocks. He owned major corporations and ran them from his laptop. Now it was time to use some of his money to bring his people together.
That would be hard without a mate, but he had no time for such foolishness. Right now it was time to get some building started and to find a temporary place to live. Not easy when the lions and tigers had bought up everything nearby. No use in crying over spilled milk. The white wolf had given him two names, Beth and Mairi, with phone numbers to reach each lady. They could tell him when work on his party house would start and what other properties were available.
“Hello?”
“Is this Beth?”
“Yes.”
“This is Ciaro. I just got in town and need to get my party house started.”
“Alright. We can have a meeting to get a contract setup. I can get the foundation started within a week. Would you like first available date?”
“Yes and we can set the contract up tomorrow.”
“I’ll get with the foundation company.”
The line went dead, but that was okay because something was finally started. Ciaro was an impatient panther. Next he called Mairi who didn’t answer. He tried two more times before he finally got her. “Mairi here.”
“This is Ciaro. I needed to talk to you about available housing.”
“I think you need to talk to Beth. I just run the construction crew that will be assigned to it.”
Ciaro wondered why Ariel gave him Mairi’s number. “I must have misunderstood. The foundation work will start soon. I look forward to having your crew begin.”
“Thank you. We look forward to the job also.”
The phone went dead again. She’d been polite, but didn’t these females ever say good bye? He’d enjoyed hearing her voice. The feeling of standing on the edge of a great change rolled all over him. Ciaro prayed to the goddess this change would be a good one.
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Titus was happy. His personal life was perfect with his amazing mate at his side. Tez had gotten the job as police officer for the town. Bob had tried to be a problem, but Tez had handled him perfectly.
While they would never be friends, Bob had learned respect for the law.
Lyon had gotten the job he’d applied for and would start in a month. The tiger, Radic, had finally been accepted for the state patrol. Beth had performed some magic with his qualifications. He would work out of Springfield which wasn’t far. His mate wanted to introduce him to Matt in case their paths crossed. Not a bad idea. He’d already met Mac and Ariel.
She’d found Ricardo a job supervising in the local office that handled driver’s licenses and car registration. Titus was thrilled as was Seb. Someone in that office could be an enormous help. A recent arrival, Kim, was going to help teach, but Beth got her a job as a professor at a nearby college. It was also a helpful position, with so many young that would go on to higher education. Many cat shifters had degrees.
Things were definitely working out well, especially with Beth having two construction teams of her own filled with a few wolves and lions, but loaded with tigers. She was finding a lot of places in Lampe and Oak Grove AR for the tigers arriving by the truckload. Beth even helped Andi find a few places for lions when things got desperate.
Her new manager had started and at first he’d been irritated to find it was his sister Callie. She’d admitted she’d asked Beth not to tell him and said she’d just wanted to surprise him with what a great job she’d gotten. He’d forgiven her, what choice did he have?
Life was good and even the panthers arriving hadn’t interfered too much with their plans for finding jobs and homes for his people. Moving to this little speck on the map had been the best decision he’d ever made.