False Mate, True Mate

Chapter 20

Xander ate breakfast with his mate in the kitchen again, then went to his office with her. He fired up his computer. "Sorry, but I need to get some work done today." She nodded slightly, then pulled up a chair next to him and watched what he was doing.

"This will probably be fairly boring." She shrugged and watched, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder. He pulled up the business news sites first. He scanned headlines, opening a few items in new tabs to address later.

Next he did a spot check on their investments over the past two days. There were no significant changes, just the usual fluctuations that meant little, but so often panicked the humans. He made a few adjustments, nothing significant, but it would make the difference of an additional million dollars in twenty years' time.

With that done, he read the more pressing business articles. These informed him of breaking trends in technology and changes in the monetary landscape. Filthy banking nonsense. They're going to ruin everything if they don't stop printing money like this. He adjusted their foreign currency balance a bit more.

Finally, he went through the proxy investment companies. Each one had a human director who managed most of the options. There were far too many small companies vying for investment dollars for him to review all of them. However, there were a few critical choices that needed to be made at times, and he would direct them, as needed, to fund specific startups.

Through all of this, his mate watched, her hand resting on his shoulder, saying nothing, simply watching. He felt a mixture of curiosity, fascination, and confusion from her. As he worked, he found himself muttering to himself his thoughts. He could feel a spike of interest from her each time, encouraging him to think out loud as he worked.

He got occasional emails from other alphas. He allowed his mate to read them over his shoulder, sometimes telling her tidbits about the location of their packs, or previous dealings that were relevant to the contents of their emails.

He told her about Alpha Winthrop, who had lead his pack for over two hundred years. He told her of Alpha Jamison, who had taken leadership of his pack at the end of the last pack wars, thirty years ago. He told her of young Alpha Franklin, who was leading the war against the rogues left over from the last war.

She said nothing, simply absorbing the information he provided to her. He negotiated treaties and made them money, as he had for many, many years. And his mate, she learned. As the day went on, he found himself feeling pride in his young mate, who he'd waited so very, very long to meet.