Jax let out a low growl of displeasure. “We need to take a firm line with the panthers. They’re making us look weak.”
“Following the law, and the boundaries of their nation, isn’t weakness.” The sheriff stood up straight, his eyes taking on a warning glow. “It’s respect.”
“The species that deserves respect is the one that proves its strength,” Jax snapped, his shoulders hunching up defensively. “The only way to earn respect is by establishing who’s top dog. You’re letting the panthers-“
“Enough!” Loch roared, and everyone in the room fell silent. “I am the Alpha. You do not argue with me. If you want to hold a Challenge, we can do it right here, right now. Otherwise, you’re on desk duty. Permanently. And if I hear of you challenging the panthers, or my word, again, you face expulsion from the pack.”
Jax’s eyes blazed with fury, and his body shook with the effort of restraining his inner wolf. His muscles swelled and rippled, and Ginger held her breath for what seemed like forever, before Jax finally nodded his ascent.
Clearly furious, he walked stiffly back to his desk, sat down, and turned his computer on.
“Do you want me to come with you to meet Montgomery?” Ginger asked.
Loch shook his head.
“No, it’s best if I go alone. I know how to handle him.”
The sheriff came back an hour later, his face was creased in a frown.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into Montgomery,” he said to Ginger. “He really wasn’t himself today. He says we absolutely can not come on to panther nation territory. And he’s still claiming that there’s no sign of the professor on their land. That’s got to be a lie. By now, with all the hoopla around the professor’s disappearance, they would have searched the land thoroughly. They would have followed the professor’s tracks to wherever they ended.”
“So what now?”
“We’re working on figuring out who the professor’s inside man was. We’ve got some leads, but I can’t discuss them yet.”
The Panther Shifter council were still considering the matter, and hadn’t given the sheriff an answer yet. Loch confided to Ginger that he suspected they were going to stall for as long as they could. They were being placed in a difficult and politically uncomfortable position. They were supposed to do what was best for the panthers, but what was best in this case?
Over-ruling Montgomery’s decision would be perceived as an attack on his authority – but the refusal of the Panther Nation to allow anyone to look for the professor was hurting the reputation of all the panthers.
Towards the end of the day, Ginger’s phone rang. Her father was calling.
Worried, she quickly answered. These days, phone calls from home never seemed to bring good news.
“Ginger, what is happening down there?” he asked, his voice shaking. “Reynaldo is talking about laying me off. Saying he can’t afford to have me associated with his firm, with the way my daughter’s behaving. What is going on?”
“What? Oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Her heart sank. She could just picture her father, pacing in the living room. He was a small, perpetually anxious man, with thinning red hair and worried little eyes peering out behind gold-rimmed spectacles. He was the kind of man who lived for his family, who worried about their safety all the time, who tortured himself by calculating the statistical probability of every possible disaster that could happen to them, from getting salmonella from a bad tomato, to getting hit by a meteor. He worked overtime so his daughters could do to private school and college. The desk at his office was crowded with pictures of him, Ginger’s mother, and his four daughters.
She looked across the room, at Loch sitting in his office. He was so handsome, so perfect, so right for her…and she was going to have to say goodbye to him.
“Dad, I’ll fix this,” she promised. Her eyes burned with tears as she hung up the phone and walked over to Loch’s office. Her stomach churning, she opened the door.
“Loch, we need to talk,” she said.
Chapter Twelve
“You’ve got to stop her!” Tallulah said, grabbing Ginger by the arm.
Ginger cursed under her breath. After what had happened yesterday, she was not in the best of moods. She was trying to make her way to the dining room, but clearly she wasn’t going to get a chance to eat breakfast.
Tallulah was standing there blocking her way.
“What? Who am I stopping?”
“I mean, she’s a bitch and a whore, but I don’t want her to get herself killed,” Tallulah added.
“Oh. Brenda. What is she going to do?”
“She said she’s going on to the Panther Nation territory to find him herself!”
Ginger rushed into the dining room to find Brenda in a heated argument with one of the other students. Brenda swung towards Ginger. “You said that he’s still alive, right?”
“Yes. Most definitely.”