Chapter Sixteen
Mac’s father pulled him aside just before they went into the city council chambers for the forum. “I heard some new rumors floating around town about Katie Faith.”
Mac stared and then shook his head. “No.”
“Everyone in town should know what she got up to down in the city. She comes back here pretending to be pure as the driven snow, paints Darrell as a monster when she was opening up her legs to anyone who offered. Maybe that’s why Darrell left her. She was doing the dirty to him before the wedding.”
Jace was going to freak the fuck out when these rumors—ones Mac was sure his father had planted—got to him. And that made everything so much harder than it had to be.
“You know that’s a lie. As does everyone in this town. You pulled this right after Darrell ran off and left Katie Faith. Remember how that turned out? This isn’t going to get you reelected. It’s only going to get the Dooleys all worked up and pissed off in defense of their Patron. And they’d be right to do so. You gain absolutely nothing from this so stop it now. Do you hear me? No more rumormongering. This is going to blow up in your face and I’m not going to be able to save you. No one will.”
Dwayne sighed. “Why are you always trying to argue me out of doing what I need to?’
“Because you think you need to do stupid crap like start rumors about the Patron of another pack. You asked me for help with this campaign. You promised to take my advice. Play your strengths. You have the experience to get Diablo Lake back on track.” Mac had only been running this campaign for his father for a week and it felt like five years. He was past hoping that if he just repeated it enough times his dad would finally hear it and listen. All he could hope was that his dad’s loss wasn’t so crushing it affected the pack negatively.
His dad’s gaze narrowed a moment as he leaned in and sniffed at Mac. “You’re still going with that Benton girl. You got Nan all in a lather over it.”
Mac said, “Nan likes Aimee. She’s just a little overenthusiastic about the speed of the relationship. Back to the forum—”
“What’s her strategy tonight then?” his dad demanded.
Mac gave him a hard, incredulous look. “Really? It’s a question-and-answer format with people you know and have worked with for decades. You’ve done this many times before. There’s no strategy other than being prepared. And,” he added, “she and I don’t talk about the campaign, especially anything about strategy.” He was damned if he was going to let his father question his loyalty again.
Which he did nearly immediately. “You’re choosing this witch over this pack.”
Mac’s mother sighed. “Don’t be an idiot, Dwayne. That girl can bring a lot of power into this pack. Lord knows I hate to agree with your mother, but in this thing I surely do. Them Dooleys have Katie Faith, why shouldn’t we be encouraging Mac and Aimee?”
Mac held his hands up. “Nope. We’re not discussing this.” He faced his dad. “Don’t question my allegiance again.” He turned his back and stalked away.
A long table sat in the middle of the room, down where the chairs for the audience normally were. The only spectators invited that night were the candidates, two guests and the city council members, along with the editor of the town paper.
It sounded pretty grand, but really it was a dozen people. If his dad couldn’t manage this, he didn’t deserve to be mayor. Which, naturally, was becoming apparent to pretty much everyone.
But before Mac could think about that any further, a ruckus caught his attention.
Darrell stood at the side of the room, arguing with Carl about why he should be allowed inside.
With an annoyed grunt, he headed over before Darrell could cause an even bigger scene.
“Go on home, Darrell,” he told his brother. “I told you we’d call you when this was over.”
“You’re in here! I should be in here too. Carl gets to be in here!”
Carl’s magic rose, steely and more menacing than Mac usually saw from the man. He pointed a finger at Darrell. “I will haul your ass out this door myself if you don’t get out of here.”
“Sheriff, please allow me to handle this. I apologize for the delay.” Mac picked his brother up bodily and hauled him through the door back out into the small grassy area out front.
“Get the fuck out of here. Dad needs calm right now if he’s going to be effective. You’re acting like an asshole,” Mac told him. “I’m inside because I’m Prime of this pack. Because he named me as one of his two guests and because I’m not prone to acting like a tantruming toddler in front of the newspaper whose endorsement we want.”
Darrell’s face reddened with fury. “He didn’t announce you Prime. That’s my place, not yours! You abandoned this pack when you left.”
Mac had known this would come and probably that it would come at the least opportune time.
“He didn’t have to announce me. I’m Prime and every wolf in this pack knew it without anyone having to say a word. That’s why it’s always been my place and never yours.” Brutal words designed to bring his brother to heel. “I was sent away to be trained to run this pack. You’re not capable of this job. You’re out of shape. You’re close-minded. You’re envious and petty and lazy. Dad gets up at five every single day to get ahead of any potential issue the pack might need him to handle. Since I’ve been back, it’s been me who provides him with daily reports about everything going on in Diablo Lake. You have no curiosity. No ambition. Running this pack would be a job every single minute of every single day. It doesn’t make you weak to admit you don’t have the desire, or the skill set to do it.”
“He’s been training me since we was kids.” But his yelling had subsided. Sadly, his shitty attitude remained.
It hurt to have to deliver the blow to his brother’s pride. But he needed to get a clue so he could turn himself around and enjoy who and what he was without trying to tear the pack apart.
And Mac wasn’t going to allow that.
“You’re old enough to know the difference between a wistful fucking fantasy and real life. If not, consider this your lesson. Go home to your family.”
Mac turned and went back inside, closing the door behind himself.
Aimee had settled at the table so he angled his chair to watch her and his father better. She’d changed into a pretty blue suit and looked smart and able and adorable. Though he wouldn’t tell her the last bit because she’d punch his nuts.
Katie Faith sat with Carl, Aimee’s plus-two apparently, and waved at him with a goofy smile.
Mac tipped his chin at her.
Beside him, his mother shifted, the annoyance and anxiety coming off her in waves. Becoming Prime had amped up his emotional connection with all the wolves in the pack.
She’d just essentially thrown her lot behind Mac dating Aimee, so it couldn’t be that. He’d asked her several times, but she continued to insist nothing was wrong but the same usual, tired attacks on Katie Faith.
At the table, the rules were being explained and the first question was asked. His father turned on the genial-mayor bit, laying on the condescension a bit thick. If he thought he could get to Aimee that way, his dad was mistaken.
She never lost her cool. She wasn’t a shark—or a werewolf—but she wasn’t a doormat either. An alpha in her own right, Aimee never let him shake her as she answered the questions in a thoughtful manner. She didn’t let his father talk over her—though he tried repeatedly—and held her own. On the issues she was informed and forward thinking. But she managed to speak in terms even the older folks could hear and not be offended or threatened by.
She was, he realized, perfect.
His father was used to being in charge and he’d gotten lazy. His grasp of the issues was borne of holding the job, which was a big point in his favor. But it was outdated in many ways and when that was brought up he got defensive and closed-off to the point of being rude to the person who’d asked the question.
Not a winning strategy.
Worse, his father was a complete patronizing asshole to Aimee, and through her, all the witches, including the ones who’d married into the Pembry pack. They didn’t have to be there to hear about this. In a town like Diablo Lake, the gossip tree was far more efficient than the emergency broadcast system.
He was dismissive of her magic. Of magic in general, but especially nurturing magic. He had no idea the kind of power Aimee could wield and Mac feared it would be his father’s undoing in the end.
Thank heavens Dwayne didn’t bring up the rumors about Katie Faith. Mac had thought a lot about how to get out in front of the situation. He sent texts to Huston, having him poke around to see how far the rumors had gotten and who’d been passing them along.
Hopefully it was something they could clean up quickly. Then Mac would deal with that person himself. And he’d let Jace know it had happened. Otherwise there’d be another bloody, gaping wound between Dooley and Pembry that’d take a lot more than a bit of pack discipline to fix.
At the table, the forum was winding down. His dad’s vanity and ego would be the death knell of his career as mayor of Diablo Lake. And Mac wanted it to go that way. Though he had a soft spot for the woman challenging his dad, Mac thought of the pack and the town as well. She’d win anyway.
Dwayne shouldn’t be mayor, but if he had a way to leave that allowed him some pride, it’d be better for the town and the Pembry pack.
At the end of the ninety minutes the forum broke up. He smiled Aimee’s way before following his parents back to his dad’s office.
“She kept interrupting me,” his dad snarled as they got the door closed.
Already looking for excuses.
“No, she didn’t. “ He held up the pad of paper he’d been using. “I timed each of you to see if they were being fair. You actually got two and a half minutes more than she did.” He’d also interrupted Aimee twelve times while she’d interrupted him three. “You got plenty of time to answer the questions.” Mac phrased it like a positive, not wanting to trip down some lane where all he did was complain.
“Sure felt like it.”
Well, feelings weren’t reality and he wasn’t sure why his father needed that said.
“Let’s look forward to the town hall next week and not get worked up over nothing.”
“That girl can’t be perfect,” his father said.
“Surely not,” Mac said, suppressing his snort. “Everyone has their weak spots. Hers is her inexperience. Which is great, because your strength is your years of experience.”
“We need to find out what those weaknesses of hers are so we can take her out.”
Sharp, cold anger slid down Mac’s spine.
“She’s too cozy with those Dooleys. Mac, you need to talk to her about that,” his mother told him.
“You don’t need to take her out, for God’s sake. I wouldn’t take kindly to something like that, Dad. Are we clear?”
His father sneered but didn’t argue.
“Take this as an opportunity to show all the people in town that you support them. Not just Pembry wolves, but witches too. And Dooleys.”
“Dooley or not, I expect the wolves to stick with their own on this,” his dad said. “Some of ’em will go with that Katie Faith, of course, and I wager she’ll stick with her friend. The cats, well they’re tricky, but I’ll talk with the Ruizes next week. They’re shifters too, after all.”
“Except you’ve been dropping rumors about the Patron of the Dooley pack, potentially throwing away any support you might get from them. Even if they do vote for you, you can’t just play the numbers. You need to convince the witches you’re not going to let the magic here die off. They’re worried and if you don’t allay their fears they’ll only redouble their efforts to take your seat.”
“I’ve done this a time or two before, you know.” His father shot him a look.
“I’m aware. And it bit you in the ass a time or two before as well. Attacking her will be your weakness and something I will not tolerate—professionally or personally. Don’t do it. People like her. She takes care of a lot of folks in town. You go in on her and you’ll lose even more support.”
“Not if I expose whatever she’s hiding. Let me do what I do best, boy.” His father gathered his things and headed out the door, his mother right behind him.
She cast a look over her shoulder at Mac and he wanted to hug her and demand she just tell him what the hell was going on with her.
“Being a jerk isn’t doing what you do best, Dad,” he called out.
“You’re Prime now, act like it,” his father replied before he got into the car and left.
“Okay then. You asked for it,” Mac said.