Page 7 of Ayden (House of Frazier #3)

The school was a mess. Not only had they been slacking on teaching the kids, but it also looked like the place hadn’t been cleaned in all the years that it had been there. And he was just sick about the library.

There were books on the shelves, but they were more to do with smut, as Summer called it, than anything to do with the kids. The entire preschool section had been removed and put into boxes that were so covered with dust that it made him sad. Ayden looked at the expensive coffee machine and wondered how they would justify that if asked. The entire school looked like it had been closed for years rather than just over the weekend. Then they went into the yard.

The playground equipment was rusty and had nails hanging out of some of the pieces. The swing, long since broken, and the seats looked dangerous, like something that one might find in a war zone. Not only was the equipment in ill repair, but he didn’t think that the parking lot, other than the teachers’ lot, looked like it had been repaved in years.

“I know that I just signed a work order for the lot to be repaired. Other than where the teachers park, it looks like they used the money for something else. There isn’t any way that they used all that money for the little bit of lot that they have.” Ayden asked his brother when the last time he was here. “I’m sorry to say that I don’t know that I’ve ever made a trip here. I was getting good reports, and that’s all I cared about. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing.”

“No wonder the girls wanted to talk to you about it. It really does look like no one has cared long before you took over the job of alpha. I’m betting right now that if Brandy knew about this, heads would be rolling. She’d be all kinds of pissed off about all this.” He said that he was going to tell her before they left. “I think that’s a good idea, but I don’t want her coming down on me about it. I don’t work here.”

The two of them laughed, and Ayden told him to give him a heads-up about telling her. When his brother told him that he was talking to her now, he decided that he was ever so glad that his daughters had been the ones to mention it rather than him. Hell was going to be paid, and he was thrilled that he wasn’t going to have a thing to do with it.

Entering the barn that was to hold the mowers and other outdoor equipment, he was dismayed to find a single mower that looked like it might have been about fifty years old and nothing more. There wasn’t even a shovel there to use to get the snow off the sidewalks. Yes, he thought a lot of people were going to lose their jobs over this.

Brandy showed up just as they were looking into the kitchen. There was equipment there, a newer microwave, and nothing but old, broken-down things like desks and chairs. Even a desk had been put in the room that only had three legs, and most of the vinyl had been pulled off to make it look like it would be better served in the trash dump. He couldn’t believe that his daughters had been going here all this time, and he’d not had any idea. Brandy caught up with him when he was in the rooms that his daughters were in.

“Your daughters are going to be paid for bringing this to our attention.” He said that they would be thrilled to have it cleaned up more than anything. “I think we’re going to have to start over is all I can think about. From the buildings to the teachers. I just can’t stand the thought that I was excited to have my children going someplace so nice.”

He pointed out the big pile of books that was still in boxes. There were boxes everywhere in the buildings, and he didn’t even have a clue what they were holding. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to know what was in them. For all he knew, it could be more items for the teachers.

“Will you be here when the teachers start showing up?” Brandy looked around and then at him as he waited for an answer. “They’re going to take it out on the kids, mine, I’m thinking, since you two are here with me.”

She asked him if he wanted to go home. Before he could answer, even if he knew what he was going to say, he saw the first car pull into the lot. It was one of the janitors coming in to presumably shovel off the walkways. He just then remembered that he’d not seen any salt around.

“He’ll be able to call school. I didn’t think that he was the one to do that, but I’m guessing since he’s out there with a ruler measuring the depth, that’s his job.” He, too, was driving a brand-new truck. He’d bet anything that it wasn’t any more than a few months old. “Brandy, he’s leaving if you wanted to talk to him.”

“I don’t. Not yet. We should be getting the call here in a few minutes that the school is closed. That’s a good thing. It’ll be easier for us to have a thorough inventory of what needs to be taken care of. And what has to go. I was serious when I said that the entire place needed to be taken to the ground and all the teachers fired. I believe, too, this is why we’ve had such a high turnover of teachers this last couple of years.” He asked her if she thought it was because they’d been so disappointed. “Either that or run off. They have the ones in place that they have here that are going to play ball with them. All others would be run off I think. Did you notice too that there are newer buses? I believe that it’s to make it look good for the parents. Like your daughter said, no one is going to believe a bunch of kids complaining about the school they go to.”

They were there for another three hours. School was canceled, but it had more to do with the weather than the things they were finding. Calling the police at eight, they also could gather up the teachers. They were all brought to the school to be ‘talked’ to about what they had found. The first teacher that was brought in was the one who seemed to be in charge.

“What do you care if a bunch of kids are complaining about classes. I mean, that’s what kids are…how long have you been here?” Lica told Mrs. Holly Branch—even he thought it was a stupid name how long he’d been there. “Look, we have things under control, and you don’t need to worry about things. I have it under control.”

“You said that, but it looks to me that we’re running a spa here for teachers who are getting paid to teach. None of that seems to be going on.” She asked Lica if he’d gotten her reports. “Yes, but it doesn’t really show the whole picture, does it?”

“Why are you bothering with all this? The kids are learning. You have a good group of teachers. You shouldn’t be bothering yourself on something like this.” She eyed him hard. “Those nieces of yours talked, didn’t they? “I don’t know why you’d care about them. You do know that they’re only human, right? I mean, what do they expect? For us to cater to their every need simply because they’re sort of related to you? Get real. Just tell them that I’ll have a talk with them when they return tomorrow, and that will be the end of you coming around. We don’t need someone sticking their noses into what we have going on here.”

“They’re my nieces, no matter what they are.” She actually patted him on the shoulder and told him to go on believing that. “What’s that supposed to mean? I do believe that they’re my relatives. They’re my brother’s daughters.”

“Whatever. Look, you just let me talk to them, and you’ll have no more trouble from them. I knew they were going to be trouble in the first place. Always having their noses into—did you know that they’ve been bringing in food for the ones that don’t have it? That’s only going to cause us more trouble than we need. You nip that in the bud right now, or I’ll have to. As I’ve said, you don’t need to be worrying over something that you have no control over in the first place. We’ve been doing this my way for a while now, and there isn’t any reason for it to change now. What are you going to do, fire us all? We both know that’s not going to happen.”

“It’s exactly what’s going to happen. You and everyone that works here—” She told him to shut up, and Ayden took a step back when he felt his brother’s wolf run along his skin. When she smacked him on the face, both he and Brandy took another step back. Things were getting out of hand, and he didn’t want to have to kill someone over this. But it was surely looking like that was going to happen. “Do you have any idea who I am? I’m your alpha. You’ll do what you’re told, or so help me, I’ll take pack action against you.”

“Like I’m supposed to be afraid of you. Look. You’ve been alpha for all of what? Eight months? I’ve been running this for the last ten years. You have no say over me and what I do here. None of the teachers are going to listen to either of you.” The shift from man to beast was quick, and the woman smacked him again. It was over almost as soon as her hand was back at her side.

At some point, other teachers had entered the room. As the police, pack police, were handcuffing them, Holly lay on the floor between them, bleeding out. Ripping her throat out had been all on Brandy. When Holly had hit Lica for the second time, she didn’t even shift but morphed her hand into a great claw and tore her throat completely out, beheading her in the process.

No one else had anything to say as they were being cuffed and put into a room to be fired. Lica didn’t say another word, and neither did Brandy. But if the anger rolling off of the two of them was any indication, the remaining teachers would be lucky if they lived to the end of the day.

By six o’clock that evening, the school was slated to be torn to the ground. Nothing would be saved, not even the nice coffee machine that was in the place. All the desks, chalkboards, and anything else that had suffered from neglect from the staff was left to be taken to the ground as well. Lica had a crew starting on the new school the next morning. It would not only be a new place with much better learning, but there was going to be a great deal of new in the new place as well.

“There will be large trailers needed for teaching brought in to work out until the end of the school year. After that, they’ll be used for other projects in the pack, such as housing for some of the things we have going on. It’ll be watched over as well until we can get the cameras up and running.” Brandy was barking orders at everyone, and no one dared to second-guess her. When someone had a question about what was going on, they were sent to him. He seemed to be in charge of the entire project, and he was all right with that. Lica and Brandy left about the time the bulldozers showed up, and he was delighted to have them starting the work even as he stood there watching.

Going home to his family at eight that night, not only was he glad to see them, but he needed hugs all the way around. It had been a productive day, but it had also been a very stressful one. There was a call out to other packs for temporary teachers as well as other staff to start in the fall when the new buildings were slated to be up and running. Telling his daughters what had happened. He’d never been as proud of his brother and sister as he was in that moment. They had made his little girls happy by not disbelieving them when they were talking about what had been happening at the school. They were more than a little thrilled, too, to know that Mrs. Branch was no longer going to be a part of the new system.

He was going over the ledgers that they’d been able to unearth about the spending. All the teachers had been getting bonuses from the money that had been coming in from the pack. It didn’t matter what your job was, either. If you taught there, cleaned, or were supposed to cook, they were bringing in bonuses that paid not just for new trucks but vacations and holiday homes for everyone who worked there.

“Brandy just called. She wants to meet the girls at her house in the morning. I had to ask her what she wanted, and she promised me that they’d be just fine. I really was worried about it after what you told me happened today.” He told her again how Branch had hit Lica. “Yes, so you said. I’d like to think that I’d be that protective of you, but you’re more a wolf than I am. So I don’t know how that would work with me saving your ass all the time.”

“You’d have ripped her throat out even not being a wolf. And you know that Brandy wasn’t either when she met Lica. Maybe we should try things out about you shifting. I smell wolf on you, but that could be just me and us making love all the time.” They had been, too. Every time they were alone, they were naked and having sex. He loved it. “Did Brandy tell you what she wanted with the girls? I mean, she mentioned that they’d be paid for helping them out, but I don’t know what that would entail.”

“I think that they’re a little overwhelmed about things right now. I know that Harley has been asking questions about what happens to them. I think they’re a little worried, too, after talking to you about Branch. What made her think that she could just hit their alpha and get away with it.” He told her what he thought. “I suppose she’s been in charge for so long she didn’t figure that anyone would challenge her anymore. I was thinking about her family.”

“She didn’t have one. I looked. No children either.” Summer asked him if she was even a wolf. “Yes, she was at that. As were the other teachers. All of the staff have been arrested for misappropriation of funds. They’ll all face jail time and will have to pay it all back. All the new cars and vacation homes will need to be sold off, and the money will be returned to the pack house. It’ll be a lot of money if we can get it all back.”

“You don’t think that we will?” Ayden said that he didn’t know, but as it had been going on for a while now, it was hard to tell. But he was going to be doing the work on the new place, the hiring as well as the other things that are going on. “It’ll be hard to get teachers to come here, don’t you think? After killing one of them.”

“More than likely, it’ll be easier. It’ll show that Brandy and Lica aren’t going to take any shit from people, and it’ll be a safe place to work too. The teachers will be given a bonus if they stay for the first year and after that, they’ll have contracts to work with. Calling the others to make sure that we have enough teachers will have them sending their best. There is no telling how far reaching the information has gone about what was going on around here.”

“I was thinking that as well.” She gathered up the girls and took them to the pack house. Summer was going to stay to make sure that they were all right, and Brandy was all right with that. It took them nearly four hours, a long time, he thought, to go over what had happened and assure that the girls were going to be all right now that things were taken care of. He hoped so. It would cost him his life, but he wasn’t going to allow anyone to harm his family. No matter if it was his brother and his alpha bitch or not.

~*~

Guy was enjoying the girls. They did pamper him to a point, but they didn’t overdo it. They were great at fetching him drinks and handing over the remote when he was in the living room, but he was ready to go home. He’d had enough of people, and now that he didn’t have any more headaches, it was time for him to find himself a place to hole up and heal from being around too many people again. He really didn’t care for people all that much.

While going over the houses that he had worked on, he heard his front doorbell ring. It wasn’t anyone that he knew, so he opened the door quickly, hoping to scare the person away. She grinned at him, and he didn’t have any idea why, but he was charmed by her.

“My name is Lily March. I know it’s a stupid name but when my parent named me, they didn’t ask for my opinion. Anyway, I’ve heard that you’re looking for a new house. Or a house, I guess. I have one for sale.” He asked her where she’d heard about it. “I was at the realtor when you called. I was going to put my house on the market, but if you buy it, I won’t have to go through all that. It’s a great house, and it’s about a hundred feet from the downtown area. Not really that close, but you could walk there. Can I come in?”

“No. Give me the address, and I’ll go and see it.” She told him that her car was all warmed up and that she’d take him there. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re pushy?”

“All the time. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just wanting to sell my parent’s home and go back to LA, where I live. Everyone is pushy out there. Or not. I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s a great house and needs very little work. I’m willing to give you a good discount if you don’t make me have to go through a realtor. Now, those are a pushy bunch of people. Anyway. It’s got five bedrooms with baths. Mom and Dad did that when they started having kids, thinking that we’d not fight over the bathrooms so much. But me being the only child, it didn’t work that way.” She laughed. “I like to fight with them all the time.”

“They’re not dead then?” She told him that they were in LA, living the dream. “I have no idea what that means. But I have things to do today, and looking at houses wasn’t on my list.”

“I can pencil it in for you. Your brother Edmond sent me over. Now, there is a nice guy.” He asked her if she was calling him rude. “You are rude. But, like I said, I’m willing to overlook a lot of things if you buy the house. It’s really nice.”

“You’re not going to go away, are you?” Again, she grinned at him. “All right. Let me get my coat. And so you know, I just got home from too many people, so if you feel the need to empty your head all the time, I’m not in the mood to listen to you.”

“Yep, you’re rude. All right. I’ll only answer your questions when you have them. I’ll be in my car.” As she was turning to leave, she stopped suddenly and turned back. “The land surrounding the house is about fifty acres. I’m thinking that it will be perfect for you since you seem to have it against people coming to visit you. Also, you have toothpaste on your chin, so you should maybe wipe that off before someone makes fun of you. You don’t seem to me to have any sense of humor.”

True to her word, she never said another word that he didn’t ask about on the way there. He’d seen the house, of course. It was sitting atop a large hill in the town and seemed to have a view of the entire city. As he was walking through the house, he did take note of the things that he liked and disliked. Guy was dismayed to figure out that he didn’t have as many things on his dislike list as he might well have liked. But he wasn’t going to tell her that. She might just be the type of person that said she told you so, and he hated that almost as much as he hated to be around people.

The house was nice. There were things about it that he’d never thought of in a place that he owned. There were built-in cabinets in every part of the place. The room that he loved the most was the dining room.

The floor-to-ceiling windows made him want it to be summer so that he could open up the large patio doors and bring the warmth into the house. It had hardwood floors and beautiful stained glass windows in the upper part of the large windows. As he was making his way from the dining room to the kitchen, he found a large room that held things like serving platters and extra plates.

“I forgot to mention that everything that is in the house is going to go with it. I know it’s a lot but if you don’t want it, my parents are going to ask more because they have to rid themselves of it. Also, the kitchen has been remodeled in the last year, so that’s all up to date.” He asked what the house heated with. “Another thing that I wasn’t allowed to tell you is that the house sits on its own gas wells. All the heat and cooling in the house is free. So long as the wells don’t dry up. They’ve been running since before my parents were born, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue either.”

He loved the kitchen and its breakfast nook, which was just off the main part. The walk-in freezer had him thinking that the previous owners had entertained a great deal and that they did it up well. While he was in the kitchen, Lily pointed out that there were gardens to the house as well as a fully functioning wine cellar. There were wines there that her parents left behind as well.

He’d not asked what the house was going to cost, but he also didn’t see a problem with the things that they’d left behind. Most of it was kitchen things, like the things in the pantry. Serving platters and the like, chafing dishes as well as serving items. Ending up in the living room again, he finally asked her what they wanted for it.

“You’re a wolf.” He told her that he was and what did that have to do with anything. “Nothing to you. But there is pack land that butts up against the land here. Some of this land has rent past due that the pack owes. It’s a good sum of money. You can check your records or whatever, but it’s nearly a hundred grand. I wanted to tell you that so that if you buy the place, you know that the dues haven’t been paid, and they might think they can still rent it. My parent didn’t want to deal with it while they were moving. And the other alpha didn’t want to talk to them about it either. I don’t know who you might know that can get that caught up on, but my parents are hoping to get that money paid to them so that they can buy them a summer home in Florida. Like I said, it’s a great deal of money.”

“I’ll talk to my brother if that helps. Is that why you came to me?” She told him that it was part of it but she’d told Edmond as well just the other day. “I see. Covering your ass, I guess.”

“You might say that.” She told him the price, which was considerably less than he’d thought it would be. Then she handed over the contract that had been with the other leader that she said that Edmond had asked for. “You can give it to your brother or not, but Edmond asked for it. Like I said, I like him.”

He could well afford the house with the money that Brandy had given him. Also, any renovations that he wanted done had there been any. The house as it set was perfect for him. When he asked her how they were to do this, she suggested that they go to the bank and finish up there.

“I have power of attorney for the house and land for my parents. The house is as is, as I said, because you’re going to be taking the things that they left behind. You didn’t ask, but there is a large garage that stores lawnmowers and such that they were renting from the people who worked on it, as well as a pond out back that they had stocked every year. It’s a lovely spot but too much for them anymore.” He told her that he’d go right now. “Good. Edmond said that you weren’t the type of person to second guess yourself. If you wanted the house, you’d do it now. Good for me. I can get home in a good time and only have to return when the loan goes through to sign the paperwork.”

“I have the cash.” She nodded as if she knew he might say that and told him that it was even better. As soon as they arrived at the bank, the paperwork was all filled out, but for his name, he was finished in an hour, and he was the new owner of a house. Not that he had that much to move, but he decided that he was going to move in as soon as tomorrow. If he could get his bed taken over. The rest of the house could sit empty for all he cared about so long as he didn’t have to deal with people.

Ordering a pizza to be delivered, he was going to celebrate having a home. He’d have to tell the others sooner or later, but for now, he was going to bask in the quiet. Telling Lica that he had the contract that hadn’t been covered brought up questions, but since he wasn’t in the mood to answer them, he didn’t. At midnight, after packing up his few things, he made his way to bed and decided that he was going to sleep in. Which to him, meant that he would be getting up at six instead of around five. He might not like people all that much, but he knew they were necessary to run a business. And since he worked for Lica and Brandy, he knew too that if he worked or not, he’d still get paid. They took care of family.