Sniffer Update: @newshound – Kate Stillman and Duncan MacDowell to co-author Were organization’s mission statement. WTF? #gridlock

As Howard proposed his plan to Kate, she carefully avoided looking at Duncan. He stood in a far corner chatting with Knox Trevelyan as the council members waited for Howard to finish his conversation with Kate. No one had taken a seat at the rectangular wooden table for eight that dominated the center of the room.

“I realize I’m asking a lot.” Howard sipped black coffee absently, but his gray eyes were trained on Kate and only Kate.

She held a cup of coffee in both hands but didn’t drink it. Her tummy was already churning from this unexpected suggestion. Judging from Howard’s ability to focus so completely on her, she had no trouble imagining him as the successful head of Wallace Enterprises of New York, one of the wealthiest werewolf conglomerates in the world. His personal charisma aside, he was better known than Cameron Gentry, so his election as president probably had been assured from the beginning.

“Time is an issue,” Howard continued. “Not only is the schedule packed with seminars, but we’ve had to eliminate most of the breaks to make up for the late start.”

“Which is because of Duncan and me. I’m sorry we delayed everything.”

“Couldn’t be helped, and there was no point in starting until you were both here. Once we knew when to expect you, we had everything under control. But I don’t think you and Duncan will have any chance to hash this out during the day, and I’d like to have a rough draft by tomorrow. When he agreed to do this, I didn’t think to mention to him that it would have to be after hours.”

“So you’re suggesting we work on it tonight?” She did her level best to make that sound like a sacrifice when inside she was spinning with excitement. They had an excuse to be alone tonight! Yes, they’d have to work on this project, but when they’d finished…She pushed the resulting image out of her mind as she felt her cheeks grow warm.

“I hate to ask it of you, but I think it’s the sensible solution.”

Yes, throw me in that briar patch! “I agree, and I’m sure Duncan will, too.” She hadn’t a doubt in her mind.

“Good, then it’s settled. I want the two of you to get away from the warring factions and just talk to each other about how we can unite this group under one banner. If the two of you can’t come to an understanding, then we have no chance to create something worthwhile this weekend.”

“We’ll do our best.” She clutched her coffee cup and worked to subdue the trembling produced by a sudden adrenaline rush.

Howard lowered his voice. “I realize you each have to play to your base with all the Sniffs and so on, but I have confidence in a more meaningful dialogue.”

“You mean something that can’t be said in a hundred and forty characters or less.”

“Exactly. I’ve known your grandmother for years. She assures me you’re an intelligent and sensible Were. I respect your convictions, Kate, but a stand-off between Woofers and Howlers wouldn’t be constructive for our brand-new organization.”

Her joy dimmed a little. Yes, she was being given a chance to spend time alone with Duncan, but what were Howard’s motives for that? After all, he had two sons who’d mated with human females. One Howler had been elected to the council, Giselle, and one Howler sympathizer, Jake.

Nadia wore no identifying buttons, but she couldn’t be a strong Woofer supporter or she’d have indicated that somehow. Knox was also without campaign buttons. Maybe Howard thought the scales were balanced in the Howlers’ favor and he hoped Duncan could change her thinking.

She cleared her throat. “I hope you’re not suggesting that I go along with the Woofer proposals. I can’t do that. And it’s not only because I lead an organization that opposes the Woofers. My personal belief is that we need to maintain Were secrecy.”

“I know. I don’t expect you to adopt the Woofers’ philosophy. Nor do I expect Duncan to abandon everything he believes and take up the Howler cause. I want each of you to get creative. Think outside the box. Get beyond Howlers and Woofers if you can.”

Kate knew of only one place where she and Duncan had accomplished that—in bed. Tonight’s work session might be more complicated and difficult than she’d thought at first blush. Howard was handing them an important assignment and he wanted it completed by tomorrow morning, and completed with imagination and flair.

“I can tell you’re already considering the possibilities,” Howard said with a smile. “That’s good.” He gave her arm a squeeze. “Let’s get this council meeting underway.” He turned to the group. “Gather round the table, everyone. We have several important items to discuss before we dive back into the conference events.”

Kate chose a seat in the middle of the long side of the rectangular table. She had a feeling Duncan had waited for her to sit down before taking his place opposite and one over from her. That put him across from Jake, who sat on Kate’s right. Giselle pulled out a chair on Kate’s left. With two remaining chairs, Nadia took the one next to Duncan and Knox sat beside her.

Kate didn’t believe for a moment that the seating choices had been random. Her side of the table contained Howler sympathizers, and Duncan sat with the uncommitted members of the council. Howard claimed a chair at the head of the table flanked by Knox on one side and Giselle on the other.

“First order of business,” Howard said, “is to thank all of you for being willing to serve for the next year. We’ll be feeling our way in the beginning because we don’t have any organizational rules in place yet. Nadia, would you agree to be our secretary and take some basic minutes?”

“Of course.”

Howard glanced around the table. “Anyone object to that? I happen to know Nadia pretty well, and she’s capable. She’s also still on the fence regarding the big issue facing us, so I think having a neutral person acting as secretary would be helpful.”

“Works for me,” Duncan said.

Everyone else, including Kate, voiced their agreement.

Nadia reached into her slim briefcase and pulled out a netbook. “I’ll make sure you all see the minutes before they go out to the delegates. Does everyone have a smart phone?”

“Mine’s over in the corner getting charged,” Duncan said.

“Mine’s in the other corner, also getting charged.” Kate’s statement on the heels of Duncan’s made everyone laugh. Apparently they were all thinking about last night’s Sniffer war.

The other four council members brought out phones and held them up for Nadia to see.

She nodded. “Great. Make sure I get everybody’s contact info before we leave here.”

Howard chuckled. “Told you she was efficient. Second big thing is that we have a fledgling organization but no name for it. I’ll take suggestions from this group, and if we need to, we’ll also take suggestions from the delegates. Something short, easy to remember.”

Knox leaned back in his chair. “WOW.”

“I grant you that it’s an intimidating exercise, and we might not come up with it immediately,” Howard said. “We can certainly spend the rest of the day thinking about it, but—”

“No, he means WOW should be the name.” Kate looked at Knox with new respect. “Worldwide Organization of Werewolves. Am I right, Knox? If so, I like it.”

“That’s it.” Knox glanced at Howard. “But somebody might have a better idea. I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday when I realized we had no name yet.”

“I like WOW,” Duncan said. “In fact, I can’t imagine calling it anything else.”

Howard nodded. “It fits the criteria of being simple and easy to remember, and it accurately describes us. Anybody have something else?”

“I think WOW is excellent,” Giselle said. “I say let’s present it to the delegates in the morning. I predict they’ll love it.”

“They will,” Jake said. “It certainly has my vote. Good job, Knox.”

“I’m in favor, too.” Nadia lifted her fingers from the keys of her netbook and glanced around the table. “I think that’s all of us.”

“Good.” Howard sat back in his chair. “We might as well follow parliamentary procedure, so let’s have a motion, a second, and an official vote.”

Nadia typed away as the motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to propose the new name to the delegates in the morning.

“Excellent.” Howard looked pleased. “Next I want to announce that Kate and Duncan will be working together on a mission statement for what we can assume will be called WOW.”

“I already knew that,” Giselle said.

“You did?” Howard frowned. “I suppose you overheard me talking to Kate.”

“No, it was on Sniffer before I came in here. Angela Sapworthy scooped you, I guess. I’ll scroll through and find it again if you’d like to see what she said.”

“Yes, I would. Thanks.” A muscle twitched in Howard’s jaw. “I’m not sure how that was leaked before I’d even talked with Duncan and Kate about it.”

“Here you go.” Giselle handed over her phone.

Howard read the Sniff and sighed. “I’d like to request that all of you use caution when speaking with Ms. Sapworthy. I’m still not sure how this got out, though. Elizabeth Stillman and I were the only ones who…no, wait. I think perhaps Neil might have been in the room, now that I think about it.”

Kate started to say something but then decided to hold her tongue. Let Howard come to his own conclusions about Neil. But she would bet anything he’d sent the information to Angela in his continued attempt to curry favor with the reporter.

Howard returned Giselle’s phone. “Thanks for making me aware of it. If anything else shows up on Sniffer or the Were Web that you think I need to know about, please contact me. I try to keep tabs on it, but Sniffs have been raining down on us like confetti at New Year’s Eve. It’s entertaining as hell, but it makes it tough to keep up and have a life.”

“I take responsibility for some of that Sniffer blitz,” Duncan said.

“Obviously, so do I,” Kate said. “I’ll dial it back.”

Howard gazed at each of them. “I’d appreciate that. In fact, here’s an idea. When you settle down to work on that mission statement, I’d advise both of you to turn off your phones and your Wi-Fi. Block out anything that’s liable to distract you from the job you need to do.”

Turn off their phones and Wi-Fi? Go into total isolation—again—so that nothing and no one could interrupt them? Kate nodded at Howard and hoped that her expression was a total blank. No way was she looking at Duncan.

Duncan coughed. “What if you or some member of the council needs to reach us?”

“We won’t,” Howard said. “Writing that mission statement is job number one. Nothing that comes up, short of the hotel catching on fire, is more important right now. The rest of us will handle things so that you two can concentrate.”

Kate took a deep breath. “Understood.” So maybe she and Duncan wouldn’t be playing bedroom games tonight, at least not until they’d finished the mission statement. No telling how long that would take, if they could manage it at all. Their assignment might work better than an old-fashioned chastity belt.

Duncan hoped that Nadia had taken really good notes for the rest of the council meeting, because he barely remembered what was said. Various projects were suggested, including conducting a Were census and creating a central database from the census results. Jake had been against that because he said the very existence of a database would put Weres at risk.

Duncan recognized that kind of paranoia regarding the safety of Weres. He’d dealt with it in Scotland, too. Many Weres couldn’t believe that they would be in a power position once their presence was known.

Yet why wouldn’t they be? They had economic clout and nearly all Weres were fine physical specimens, as well. They weren’t second-class citizens now and wouldn’t be once their shape-shifting ability became common knowledge.

He was glad that Kate hadn’t joined in Jake’s rant about the database being a security issue. But for all he knew, she agreed with Jake. She’d stayed fairly quiet during the council meeting, but then, he had, too.

At first he’d thought the idea of meeting with Kate privately to draw up a mission statement was great. After despairing of ever being alone with her again, he’d been handed a golden opportunity. But there was a catch, a big one. Howard expected them to come up with a mission statement they could both live with.

Duncan knew himself fairly well, and he was beginning to know Kate. They were both conscientious, and neither of them would feel right jumping into bed until they’d written the mission statement. Duncan would love to believe that they could come to a quick and easy agreement on how to word it. He’d love to believe that, but he didn’t.

At last Howard adjourned the meeting. Nadia keyed everyone’s information into her netbook and all the council members exchanged phone numbers, too. Then they began disbursing to attend one of several seminars taking place in various meeting rooms. Duncan had intended to talk to Kate about plans for tonight, but she was in some deep discussion with Jake.

Oh, well. He could text her later on. Leaving the room, he took out his phone and pulled up the revised conference schedule. He’d promised his brother Colin he’d attend the panel discussion titled Half ‘n Half – The Challenges and Joys of Mixed Blood Offspring. Colin’s mate Luna was a mixed-blood Were and she’d just found out that she was pregnant. Colin and Luna’s offspring could end up being human, Were, or a mixture of both.

Because Were offspring looked and behaved like human offspring until they reached puberty, their parents had to wait until then before they discovered how the genetics had worked out. Duncan thought it was a fascinating prospect ripe for promoting greater understanding between Weres and humans. But Colin wasn’t into the whole grand experiment the way Duncan was. Colin was nervous.

As Duncan consulted a large brass placard on the wall to find out which direction he should go to sit in on that panel discussion, he picked up Kate’s scent. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched her approach. She looked damned good in purple. Even if the logo on the front of her shirt stood for the opposition, he liked the way her breasts showcased that howling wolf.

He hadn’t had a chance to change clothes, so he was grateful she’d washed everything except his wool slacks. The cabin seemed a million miles away now. Yet he only had to glance into her blue eyes to remember what loving her had been like.

“You look good in that color, lass.”

She grinned. “Everyone looks good in this color. That’s why we picked it. You’d look good in it, too, Woofer.”

“I don’t think so.” He gazed down at her and fought the urge to stroke her cheek. “The shirt’s not so bad, but there’s a splotch of something on the front that would clash with my principles.”

“Where’s your T-shirt?”

“As I’m sure you could tell when we were gathered in the grand ballroom, my crowd doesn’t go in for the shirts. They’d rather have the buttons and the signs. The males think T-shirts are too girlie.”

“Beats having a bunch of buttons pinned to your chest or hanging around your neck clanking all the time.”

“Aye, we agree on that.” He gripped his phone to remind him that he must not touch her. He probably shouldn’t even be standing this close, but he couldn’t seem to help it. “So what was the deep discussion with Jake all about?”

“He doesn’t want me to sell the Howlers down the river. He knows you’re a persuasive sort of Were, and he’s worried that you’ll get the better of me.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know you very well.” He could stand here forever looking into her eyes. “You’re as likely to get the better of me.”

“I doubt it. But we need to come up with a plan for tonight.”

“Aye, and don’t we find ourselves in a fine fix? We’ll be together, but—”

“We’ll have one hell of a job to do.”

“Couldn’t have said it better, lass. I foresee tonight being pure torture, unless, of course, you agree to see things my way from the start. Any chance of that?”

“Nope.”

“Didn’t think so. So where shall we conduct this test of wills? Howard suggested we block out all distractions.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like that’s possible.”

“Little does he know the distraction you present to me.”

“Or that you present to me, Woofer. But I suggest we use my suite. It’s more like an apartment than a suite. There’s plenty of room, almost as much square footage as the cabin, actually.”

He lowered his voice. “How big is your bed?”

“It may not matter. We could be locked in battle until dawn.”

“I’d rather be locked in a different way.” He sighed. “But we have to write that bloody mission statement, and I don’t imagine it will be easy.”

“Now there’s an understatement. Tell you what. Let’s say if either of us has spare moments during the day, we’ll start jotting down ideas for the statement. Then we can share what we have. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be thinking along the same lines.”

He laughed. “You’re a dreamer, but I’ll jot down some ideas. What time?”

“Let’s see.” She scrolled through the schedule on her phone. “With the late start, the last session ends at six. Let’s meet at seven.”

“Sure. That’ll give me time to slip into my suit of armor. Where’s your suite?”

“Top floor, end of the hall. Thirty-three hundred. I have a fireplace.”

“Don’t you go making it cozy, Kate. Don’t be pouring wine and lighting candles.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

“You should also put on something bulky and ugly, if you can manage that.”

“Okay.” She chuckled.

“And put your hair up in rollers. Wait, I know what you should do. Do you have any of that green glop that females slather on their faces as a beauty treatment?”

Her chuckle had morphed into outright laughter. “No, I don’t, but even if I did, you’ll show up looking your normal gorgeous self, since I seriously doubt you actually have a suit of armor. And armor would only add to your appeal, anyway. It’s not fair if I make myself ugly and you don’t.”

“I could belch a lot. That should help.”

“Oh, my God.” She laughed harder. “Yes, that would help. See that you do. And chew with your mouth open. That’s especially disgusting.”

“What’s all the hilarity about over here? Inquiring minds want to know.” Angela Sapworthy appeared like an evil queen out of a fairy tale. The snow had been removed from her spiked hair and her makeup was repaired.

Duncan’s mind went blank.

Apparently Kate’s didn’t. “Why, Angela, you’re just the one I wanted to see. You have to hear this. You can put it on Sniffer.”

“Oh?” Angela’s eyes took on an avid gleam.

“I was just telling Duncan the best joke. These three werewolves walk into a bar, and the first one says—”

“Oh, I’ve heard it.” Angela looked disappointed. “That’s the one where the punch line is something about a fuzzy navel.”

“Yes! Isn’t it hilarious?”

“The first time, I suppose. Anyway, never mind. I thought you might be talking about something interesting.”

“Nope.” Kate shrugged. “Sorry. Just telling werewolf jokes.”

“Then I’m off.” Angela strolled away.

Duncan glanced at Kate with admiration. “Nice work.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ve never heard that joke. How does it go?”

“I have no idea. I was making it up as I went along. I figured there had to be a joke that started out like that. If I’d had to keep going, I was going to make up something stupid, but I got lucky.”

He was sure his admiration for her would be obvious for anyone to see, but what the hell. “You’re amazing, Kate.”

“Don’t let Angela hear you say that or we’ll be in big trouble.”

“Bigger than we already are?”

“Good point. So, I’ll see you at seven?”

He nodded. “You will. And God help me, I’m looking forward to it.”

“I know.” She smiled at him. “Me, too.”

After she walked away, he stood staring at his phone as if he had important messages on it, but he didn’t see the phone at all. All he could see was Kate’s smile. The image of it stayed with him for the rest of the day.