Page 9 of Frayed Owner (Morrigan University #4)

To say Clare was a wreck before the hearing was an understatement. I checked several times that she still wanted to go through with being disowned and offered to just have Jasmine do it in her place.

I was impressed that she pulled it together right before we had to go in and had her armor up like a boss. If nothing else, the Shaws knew how to act cold and impenetrable well.

We were a mess otherwise, but we could fake it.

A few minutes before the hearing was to start, Jean, Mother, and Grandmother came in… Without Father—Charles. I rubbed the back of my neck. I really needed to stop referring to them as my family.

I needed to. For my own mental health.

But I also needed to be more understanding with myself. It had only been a few months, and even if I’d legally severed our bond, I couldn’t change who I was born of.

The six councilmen who were hearing the case came in. They had already adapted certain changes even if the construction of the addition was going on. A few different hearing types were being held in meeting rooms now, and people were responding well to the changes and things being expedited.

But given who was involved, I wasn’t surprised the big guns were coming out for this one… Nor the anger I immediately saw.

“I apologize for speaking out of turn, but Charles Shaw is no longer the head of the Shaw family,” Jean informed them. “That is why he is missing from this hearing, not that the Shaw family is disrespecting our governing body. That foolishness will cease.”

“Forgive me for doubting that, Ms. Shaw,” Councilman Reid hedged. “But it would be a welcome change. And yes, the summons is for the head of the Shaw family. Technically.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m here,” Jean said firmly. She nodded when just about every mouth in the courtroom fell open. “Yes, I am the new head of the Shaw family. It was decided yesterday. It will be announced and celebrated tomorrow.”

“I can confirm that as the previous head of the family,” Grandmother echoed.

Holy. Shit. Jean pulled off a miracle.

“I understand,” Councilman Reid accepted. “Let’s start the hearing.” He went through the normal procedures and then turned to Jasmine to start, but Jean took over.

“Given the changes in the head of the family, we’re asking for a dismissal of the hearing and the matter be handled internally, Councilman,” Jean said with confidence.

“Well, you’re already acting like Charles Shaw and as if your opinion is the only one that matters,” I drawled. “You can’t just dismiss Clare’s wishes and say you’ll work it out now that you have all the power and once you’ll hold all the cards again.”

I shut my mouth when Jasmine moved her hand to my arm, adjusting my neck and trying to keep my cool. I did a double take when Clare looked at me with shock and seemed touched.

“Agreed, but it is an option for you, Clare Shaw,” Councilman Oliveria said gently. “Or you can ask for a continuance to discuss this now that your father is out of the picture. No one would be upset by that. We’ve read the report and—family is never an easy issue. You need to make the best decision for you.”

Clare swallowed loudly and then looked over at Mother, Grandmother, and Jean. She let out a slow breath before focusing on Jean. “No, I won’t dismiss it. I still want to be disowned. Too much has happened, and I want out of that—it wasn’t the life I wanted. You have a fight ahead of you to keep that position—Alex—”

“Alex will be admitting to the charges and accepting his punishment,” Jean told her.

She was less than thrilled when both Clare and I snorted in disbelief.

“You have a fight to keep the position. I won’t be a pawn or collateral. I want out,” Clare told her, her voice shaky. “I wish you the best, and there is no contention or ill wishes here.” She looked at Grandmother. “Maybe when the dust settles, we can have Saturday lunches again. There is no reason we can’t just because I take the name Millen.

“It is still a family name. It’s silly this would make me dead to you all, and it would be your choice. I just need off the crazy Shaw ride. Alex—Father—it was too much. Uncles have made other comments and—I cannot be a woman in this family anymore and I don’t want to be in the spotlight as I have been. I just want to be happy.

“I don’t know that I ever have been, and as my family, I would think you would wish that for me. I would think you should thank Bevin for coming in like a sister should and saving me that day after what Father ordered and what Alex did—wanted to do.” She sniffled and wiped under her eyes, clearing her throat. “But too much went wrong.

“Too many promises broken, and nothing was done until the situation went way, way too far. Plus, you now have someone dirty in your camp killing familiars. I’m safe where I am, and you don’t have to worry about me while you handle what you need to. So please don’t fight this and we can spin it as amicable. Please.”

Grandmother shocked me by giving a quick nod and wiping her own eyes. Her gaze met mine for a second and then she looked at the councilmen. “Charles outed the property Bevin inherited. You oversaw all of that. As Henry’s widow, I’m not contesting it. I knew he had some of the Millen holdings in a trust—it was part of what was done. It’s history.”

“It is and ironclad,” Councilman Oliveria said firmly. “I’m glad you feel that way, and I suggest it be the stance of your other children and family. You’re going to have enough trouble coming your way and don’t need my family being upset over this when Henry was our friend and now Bevin is.”

Jean adjusted her neck, pissed he said it publicly. “There is no issue with her inheritance. I would ask the council delay this hearing then if they won’t dismiss it. My sister is emotional and—”

“And you have an agenda, Ms. Shaw. Everyone here can smell it,” Councilman Moon said firmly. “Disownment is a formality. A person belongs to themselves, not a family like property. If Clare Shaw—to become Clare Millen—ever wants to change back and rejoin your family, it’s as simple as a few forms, not forming a new continent.”

“Your fighting so hard showed your hand is what we’re saying,” Councilman Reid said with amusement. “Let’s rule.”

They did and it was done. Clare leaned on the table and then seemed to gather herself, ready to brace herself for what came next.

But Jean barely waited for the councilmen to bang the gavel before she was breezing towards the exit with Mother hurrying after her.

Grandmother was a bit slower and the last out the door. She paused at the door and partially glanced back. “All my love, Clare. Be well.”

“Thank you, Grandmother,” she breathed, but Grandmother was already gone. She took in a long breath and let it out before looking at me. “Thank you for this. I don’t know I could have done it on my own. I don’t know how you did when we were all standing on that side.”

I shrugged. “I had to. I wanted to. I was never one of you.”

What else was there really to say? Nothing.

We had the second hearing real quick where Clare was named a Millen and then they headed out. I gave two quick sessions to councilmen since their familiars were there and they had a break in their hearings. I was glad to see they were taking the matter seriously. Then I walked some of the council lands with Councilman Oliveria while glamoured as his daughter.

With her permission of course.

I felt the energy of the area and told him where he needed to start bringing in worms and birds. It would seem wasteful financially to buy birds just to release, but… Nature loved that. Same with mice. They had a huge forest surrounding the council estate.

They already had mice.

Of course they did.

“This is good news,” he comforted me as he set a circle for me and my security.

I glanced around and nodded. “Yeah, I’m glad people are taking it seriously and the goal is for this place to become a haven and beacon instead of only where people are punished.”

“Well, yes, that too, but I meant about Jean taking over for Charles.” He flinched when I gave him a horrified look. “What is wrong with what I said and—”

“Jean is no better than Charles,” I told him firmly, nodding when he seemed hesitant. I grabbed his arm and made sure he saw how serious I was. “I know we called Father and my family psychos, but Father and Alex are sociopaths. They’re reactive, volatile, and all over the place. Also, lazy and idiots.”

“And your sister?” he asked, understanding he’d missed something.

“She’s a psychopath ,” I told him firmly. “Jean is smart . She waited until the perfect time to act and had Grandmother—whatever she did or however she pulled this off to make the aunts and uncles agree, Grandmother was scared. She wanted Clare out of range. Why would that be if she never did that when Father was in charge?”

“You’re right. You are very right. I will warn the others.” He sighed when I nodded. “But at least for now , it’s better for you. She will be so busy fighting to keep her position she won’t be much of a threat to you. And when she might try, you will have so much more in place for yourself. This is still better even if she’s a scarier adversary.”

He wasn’t wrong, but he was being dismissive again. I let it go and moved on with my day since I had a lot to do.

But Taylor was just as dismissive when I spoke with him. It pissed me off since the contract was with me , not Tracey or the council to protect me.

Seriously, I was seconds from telling Cheese to bite his ass.

I worked my ass off to get everything handled at the factory. Both treat trucks were going now, and we had our dog and cat familiar pop-up stand to help out. We needed to hire more people and fast but also not let snakes slither in. Tracey and I agreed that prospective hires—and even people who worked for us—were all going to be interviewed under truth magic.

It was the only way to be sure. If they didn’t like it—too bad. They could work somewhere else and for criminals. I wasn’t taking the risk. Not when so much was at stake and I was being hassled almost every day on campus for one recipe or another.

Too much was out of control, but this we could control.

And we had to. We just put out another ad that we were expanding and hiring. We needed people but trusted ones.

Plus, the people who immediately applied wanted to leave their jobs with top-tier families. Those would be the ones most likely to spy on us using that excuse. We had to check.

The ones who were clean understood that and had no problems.

So what would we assume with the ones who threw a fit and stormed out?

Yeah, of course, we thought the worst. Duh.

I was wiped when I was done at the factory. I hadn’t even noticed Kelton had been working with me and he seemed less than thrilled about that. It wasn’t even the tension or weirdness between us. I was just overloaded.

I was probably always going to be overloaded.

I answered my phone when Jasmine called, frowning at what she told me. “Could you repeat that?”

“Your sister ordered all the ice cream in the state practically,” she drawled. “We don’t even have the freezer space for it all plus toppings. It seems she wants to celebrate with ice cream but says she’s drowning herself in it.”

“She’s giving you a warning about the change,” I said cryptically since others were around. “If she’s not drunk, listen to her. Things did not get better for us today.”

She was quiet a moment. “Understood. I’ll see what I can get out of her. She’s not drunk, but I doubt she’s sober either.”

Probably not. I really wished I had that option.

When someone else was dismissive a bit later, I got fed up and called the one person I knew would really hear me and take things seriously. I asked him to please drop everything and meet me—begging him to believe me as he had before or something bad could really happen.

He promised he heard me and would absolutely believe me but he couldn’t meet right now. That he was already involved with something and it could wait—that nothing would happen so fast.

Ahhh silly man. Bad people didn’t react well to being told no or being made fools of.

That was apparent when I received a summons to the headmaster’s office the next morning. Luckily, I had seen this coming as well and Mrs. Reid was ready too.

We walked into the lunch meeting and Coach Dunham did a double take when he saw her, steam about coming out of his ears.

“I’m filing a formal harassment complaint with the school, and if there is a third time that Coach Dunham involves me in rumors or slander, I will take legal action,” I told Headmaster Kerwynn as I handed over the official paperwork.

“Is that so? I was informed you targeted him as retribution for the ‘misunderstanding’ before and used the Wicked Challenges as the excuse,” he said, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“Well, after that ‘misunderstanding,’ there were cameras put into the rec center and his office. So we don’t have to wonder,” Mrs. Reid said sweetly before Coach could say anything. She handed the tablet over to the headmaster with the video we’d already gotten from security.

“You can’t just get that video without my permission or—” Coach started to bitch, but the headmaster cut him off.

“ All classes are handled this way which I reminded the board and that I was annoyed you were left off for so long. All our teachers are held to this standard, and it was a joke that you were left untouched when I have piles of issues with your classes, people accusing you and your aides of basically being a pack of werewolves, you are so ill-behaved.”

Whoa. This was getting serious.

I was glad to help in any way I could.

I thought the headmaster’s head was going to explode as he listened to the bile Coach said, the cameras picking it up perfectly. His face got red so fast that—it was actually scary.

“You not only—you implicated another teacher in your crap?” Kerwynn blasted. “There is no relationship between Professor Wyatt and Ms. Millen. They are advisor and student. Both have formally said that to me and the council.” The shock on Dunham’s face was disgusting. He’d never considered otherwise after Wyatt had stood up for me.

“But since you attacked Professor Wyatt, others have as well because too many here don’t use their own brains,” Mrs. Reid added. “As such, he asked me to review all of Ms. Millen’s assignments and instruction for her independent study. He didn’t want it being his first one being used against both of them and tarnishing her any further.”

“You’re too amused to not have found something good,” Kerwynn muttered, studying her.

“Yes, apparently, Professor Wyatt is a bit of a sadist if not given parameters by the university.” Her lips twitched when I snorted. “Ms. Millen has done enough work to complete the full semester already and he has more planned. I’m going to submit everything requesting that she receive more class credit for that workload.”

“Really?” all three of us asked.

Mrs. Reid nodded, shooting me an amused look. “You’ve done full papers on over twelve witches and warlocks who are recorded as being able to speak to animals. Clearly, we understand better why you wanted that project given you have rare magic focused on animals and familiars. It’s not unreasonable to hope you might develop the talent as your magic grows.”

“That was where my head was and also why I didn’t have a familiar,” I mumbled, shocked we were saying this in front of Coach.

Right, he was a huge gossip. It would be all over school by end of day.

“The papers are fantastic and I’m only halfway through them. With your permission, I would like to work with Ms. Millen and Professor Wyatt on how to get her published.”

Kerwynn’s eyes flashed shock. “As a freshman?”

“She is extremely gifted in extrapolating data and cross-referencing materials. She found gaping holes in some of the stories of the ones she researched. I believe three will be losing their perch of being able to hear animals once her study is published.”

“Well done, Ms. Millen.” He nodded and let out a slow breath. “I’ll read over your notes and full assessment when done. Any help with Professor Wyatt is welcome. He’s very talented as well but, you’re right, has no experience getting people to publish, only his own papers. It’s a different ballgame.”

“It is at that,” she agreed.

Kerwynn turned on Coach while pointing at me. “This is why we’re here. This is the point of a damn college , Dunham. It is to learn and push the students harder and higher. Enough of your bull and drama. You are not the boss here. The rec center isn’t your domain that you’re Alpha of. The only Alpha at this damn place is me, and I find using that term ridiculous.

“I’m not a damn werewolf, but a person, an educator . You are supposed to be one too, and clearly you didn’t learn that on your suspension. Learn it now and leave Millen alone or you are out. No more of this because I will show this to the board and the piles of ‘misplaced’ reports against you. So you step one toe out of line after today and you’re gone, savvy?”

“Yes, I understand,” he bit out before giving me a look of death.

I sighed after he stormed out and met Kerwynn’s gaze. “I didn’t know it was him and his cliché of Mean Girls when I did it. I just—I keep saying it was a rough day, but I’m just—every day is going to be a rough day.”

“I don’t mean to sound dismissive, but you are not alone in having a life like that, Ms. Millen,” he grumbled.

“Not dismissive. Glad I’m not the only one feeling the pain.” I shrugged.

That wasn’t exactly nice but… Oh well.

I reached into my bag and handed him one of the prototype brushes. “Wyatt promises you’re a good person and should get one of the real ones.”

“Real ones?” he hedged as he accepted it.

“I’m going to have to sabotage the ones I sell to the general public,” I confessed, nodding when he simply blinked at me. “They’re too powerful for just anyone and especially all the evil in our world.”

“You’ll understand when you use it, Andy,” Mrs. Reid sighed. “She made another miracle. Miracles aren’t for everyone. We’re going to work with Nina Koval today or tomorrow on how to make them less powerful.”

The headmaster let out a slow breath. “Yeah, about Koval, I could actually use some advice and maybe help. His families made a move.”

Oh fuck.