Warming The Cold One - 20. Money is an Object

“No, I am not going to let this go. How can you feel that it is fair for all the burden be put on my clan just because we are small?” Bjorn turned toward Ulrik as he continues to rant. “There is a budget item for your clan’s office staff and food costs, but you think I should be asking for Tala to pay for it all.”

“Sit down Bjorn.” Rolf pleads with Bjorn. “Just talk to Tala and see what he can kick in until we can create a revised budget. It was due to be redone right before the shake-up.”

“Rolf is right. We have been at each other’s throats for a week now.” Ulrik turn to the rest of the people in the room. “Let’s break and see if we can get the general council to convene again. We will open talks about the budget as an item of reordering everything and try to make it more even for all.”

“I agree with Ulrik.” Vukasin stated. “We will send out the alert that we will all return to the council chambers in 8 days. That will give everyone time to get here as well give you the time you need at home. It’s not everyday that you get to welcome your wife to our way of life.”

Bjorn sighed. “Okay. You are right, we need the whole council to fix the issues once and for all. As well as I do need to get going if I’m going to make it on time. I move we adjourn until the full council meets again.”

Rolf raised his hand. “I second the motion. How say ye?”

The five men all in the room spoke at once. “Aye.”

“Toby, are you filing a petition to the council or writing a book?” Tala flipped though the thick stack of paperwork he was proofreading while they waited for Bjorn’s flight to arrive. “I think the combined script for all of my movies together is not that thick.”

Toby laughed. “I wanted to make sure I had every little thing covered. I want this to be iron clad. There is a lot of money at stake and some of it is yours as well. I have heard from a good source that Bjorn has been fighting the last week because they want you to pay for all the clan’s stuff while it’s all basically free for them. Hell, even Rolf has been bugging me for some upgrades to their offices. I have been trying to stall him until I can get this filed.”

Tala sighed. “You know I want this to work as I am running out of stretch. I’m starting to think I might have to take out construction loans just to finish what has been started and that means I have to halt all the new work until I can find some more cash.”

Toby walked over and squeezed Tala shoulder. “Have you talked to your mate about any of this?”

“How do I even start? I have tried in my mind to figure out what to say.” Tala looked down at the ground. “I’ve never really been in this position before. I’m tempted to see if I can get a quick gig doing another ad campaign. At least those pay about a million and then I might be able to afford to put up a far amount of money to the council fund and secure the rest of the materials for the main buildings.”

“Tala, stop. Look at me.” Toby lifted Tala’s head up to look him in the eyes. “Talk to your mate! This is something both of you need to work together on. He’s over at the ceremony building next door. Talk to him. I’ll go and pick up Bjorn when he lands.”

“Okay, okay.” Tala gets up and heads toward the door. “I’ll see you soon.”

Jay looks up as Tala walks in the door to the small vestibule at the front of the ceremony building. “What’s got you looking down? Problem with the filing?”

Tala sits down next to Jay. “No, the novel is fine.” Tala sighs. “I got scolded by Toby because he thinks I haven’t been talking to you enough about some of the financial issues.”

“I thought everything was okay. What happened?” Jay looks concerned.

“Well, I might have forgotten to mention that I got billed about 500k for the movie I dumped on and another 750k bill from the council. They are still not clearing the costs of the renovations, staff, and overtime.” The shame Tala felt was starting to show on his face. “I’m about a week from being totally tapped out on the investments. I told Toby I might have to get loans to finish the buildings already started so I can still fund the clan until all the financial stuff is cleared up.”

Jay looked hurt. “Why didn’t you say anything? I could have taken care of some of the balancing with you. We are in this together.”

Tala starts to sob. “I was scared. This is still so new to me and wanted to be strong for everyone.”

Jay grabs Tala’s hand. “You are strong, and we will work this out. Now when does Bjorn get back?”

“Toby said he would go pick him up so that we could talk.” Tala sniffled as he was trying to stop crying.

“Okay, good.” Jay jumps up. “I have an idea and you cannot say no. Tonight, after we are done, I am taking you in to the mountains and we are going to camp under the stars. Just you and me. No phones, no computers, just us and nature for at least a few days.”

Tala started to protest. “But...”

Jay hushed him. “No buts. I’m going to call Sean right and let him know that tonight he is charge until we are back.” Jay pulled out his cell phone. “Hi Sean? This is Jay. Tala and I are going on a camping trip for a least a few days after we are done this evening. I know you can. We will do our best to keep it down you perv. See you in a few days.”

Tala looked over to Jay. “What was that about?”

Jay snickered. “He told me to make sure we kept the noise down while we were gone.” Jay shook his head.

Tala crooked his head. “I hear the cars. Time to get the party started.”

Toby made sure everyone was in the right places. “Let’s start by having Lisbeth sit in this chair. Jay, here is the small knife to cut her palm.” Toby looked around. “Is Tala ready?”

Tala walked into the room in his wolf form and barked. He walked over and stood next to Jay. Jay took the small knife and made a deep cut just to the left of center on Lisbeth’s right palm. He held it up while Tala walked closer and started pushing his very wet tongue over the wound. He tasted the coopery blood coat his mouth as he focused on making sure he got the venom flowing enough to really get deep in the wound. After about 30 seconds he finished up by making sure her hand was super clean and all the blood was gone.

Lisbeth looked down at her hand and was surprised to see she wasn’t bleeding at all. The wound had a bizarre black color to it and really stung. A wave of nausea hit her all of a sudden. “Whoa, I’m a little dizzy now.”

“I got you.” Bjorn ran over and picked her up is his arms. “I’m going to take her downstairs to rest. Thank you, Tala. That was a very expertly performed turning.” He turned and walked to the stairs that lead down to the recovery room set up for his wife.

Jay patted Tala on the head. “I told you that you would do fine.”

Toby turned to Karla. “Your turn Karla. Please kneel down on this mat next to your chair.” He turned to Tala. “That was the easy one. This one will be a lot harder for you. She will most likely scream but you cannot lose focus. You can do this.”

Karla kneeled down on the mat and opened the shoulder of her shirt. Ann had loaned her one of the ceremonial shirts she kept around for this very reason. “She looked over at Tala. “I am ready. Remember that I love you and I always will.”

Tala walked slowly over to his mother and focused his mind. When he was close enough, he counted to three in his mind and in a flash struck. His mouth bit down deep into her shoulder. She screamed but his mind didn’t even hear it as he pushed himself to move that venom in to the bite quickly. She whimpered as the venom pulsed in. Ten seconds after it started Tala released and licked the bite clean. He backed up and simply walked away back toward where his clothes were.

“Hank, she looks faint already. Please take her down to her room.” Toby helped hank pick her up into his arms. “Jay, go tend to your mate. Make sure he knows he did perfect. I mean perfect.”

Jay beamed. “I will. Thank you.” Jay run to catch up with Tala who was now in the anteroom laid on the floor. He kneeled down next to him and scratched his head. “You did so good. We are all so proud of you.”

Tala looked up and half barked, and half sighed. He let himself change back and slowly started getting dressed. “That was so intense. I didn’t know it was going to feel like that. It almost felt too good. But I am worn out.”

Jay hugged him. “I know, but you did so good. You added two new wolves to our pack tonight. Real Cathlamet Pack wolves through and through.

Tala’s mood lightened. “I did, didn’t I? Maybe soon I can add thousands of wolves to my, I mean our, clan.”

Tala walked over to Lisbeth’s room first. “Bjorn, how is she doing?”

Bjorn, looked up at Tala from the chair next to Lisbeth’s bed. “She is doing really well. Her hand as already starting to lose some of the black around the wound.” He noticed Lisbeth was getting a little agitated from the talking. “Her hearing is also getting better already too. I don’t want to sound rude, but she needs her rest and a lot of quiet.”

Tala spoke very quietly. “It is not rude. You are taking care of your wife and I am just causing noise. I’ll see you in a few days. Jay is dragging me out to the mountains tonight.” Tala turned and slipped out of the room.

Tala next went over to Karla’s room. Jay and Toby were outside talking to Hank. They saw him and ushered him over a space next to the door. “How is she doing Hank,” Tala asked.

Hank smiled a bit. “She is doing really well. We are out here because she was agitated by the sound already.”

Tala nodded. “Bjorn said the same thing about Lisbeth.”

Toby also nodded. “You are an enormously powerful wolf Tala. They will also be very strong wolves from the look of it. Congratulations Tala.”

Tala smiled. “Thank you, Toby. It’s tiring though. I think that Jay and I should head out if we are going to make the mountains tonight.”

Jay wrapped his arm around Tala. “I have it all planned out already. Sean had one of the patrols drop off the tent and supplies at my favorite camping spot.”

Toby perked up at that. “That sounds wonderful. You two go and have fun. You deserve it.

Jay and Tala get outside. “So where is the jeep?”

Jay laughs and hands Tala small backpack with a weird harness on it. He Then pulls his shirt and shorts off and puts them in the bag as Tala looks confused. “Get your clothes off so we can go.” He grabs the bag back and waits while Tala takes his pants and shirt off. He puts them in the bag and jay zips it and places it on the ground. He then transforms into his wolf and slides into the harness and starts to walk away. Tala transforms again and runs to catch up to Jay. They start to run towards the mountains.

Toby walks into his office and calls up Rolf. “Did it arrive?”

Rolf opens his email. “Yes, it got here. That is quite the filling.”

“I know the full council is being convened. Can you get me put on the schedule to present this in person?” Toby makes sure to sound insistent. “I want to make sure there is no question to my resolve and seriousness.”

“I will make sure you are on the schedule.” Rolf sighs. “I wish you had told me about this beforehand. It’s not going to go over easy.”

The next morning Tala stands up and walks over to the container of water. He laps at it to try to clear the dry mouth of sleeping outside. He hears Jay come over to drink as well. The pair spent the night under the bright waxing gibbous moon and sky full of stars. Jay licks Tala’s snout and they walk over to the tree line. Jay hears a rustle in the brush. He walks slowly towards it and slams his muzzle into a bush and comes out with a mountain beaver in his mouth. He walks back to the clearing and drops the now dead animal on the ground. They take turns pulling at the carcass until it is picked clean.

Two hours later, they are laying naked in the sun on a blanket back in their human forms. Tala turns to Jay. “I didn’t know how that was going to taste but I’m glad we had a nice breakfast.” He kisses Jay. “Thank you for forcing me to come out here.”

“I knew you needed some time to relax and let our wolves have some fun.” Jay turns on his side and wraps his arms around Tala. They kiss deeply. “Now for some human fun.” He gets up and grabs a small bag from the supplies he had brought up. We comes back and opens the bag. He pulls out a small bottle and lays back down next to Tala. “This is just to make sure it goes smoothly.”

Tala sees the bottle and knows what it is immediately. “Who is going first?”

In answer, Jay rubs the lube on to Tala’s growing member. “I want you to go first. That way you’ll last longer when it is my turn.” As soon as Tala was well lubed and super hard, Jay straddled him and guided himself down until Tala was buried deep inside. He felt Tala slowly working him up and down as the mass pulsed. It only took a few minutes until Tala started moaning. As he climaxed, Tala started to howl.

They kissed as Tala recovered. “That felt amazing. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. Even when we mated it wasn’t like that.” Tala kissed Jay. “Do you think they heard it in town?”

Jay laughed. “We’ll find out I guess, but now it’s my turn.” He flipped them over and Tala grabbed the bottle. He slowly went up and down on Jay’s ridiculously hard rod until it was well covered. “Be gentle on me.” Tala made sure things were lined up and pushed back.

“I will give to the ride of your life.” Jay started moving slowly and rocked up and down while keeping his hands on Tala’s waist. He moved in and out more quickly as he got a rhythm going and at once Tala started to moan. Things went that way for almost ten minutes. Jay speeding up and then slowing down to prolong the experience. Suddenly Jay went rigid, and Tala felt him explode deep inside him. Jay pulled Tala down as his climax rolled over him. Tala couldn’t help but start to explode again as the pleasure overtook him as well. When it was over, Tala rolled off and on to his side of the blanket.

Hawk’s intercom buzzed. “Come in.” In walked a young wolf named Kade with a few packs of paper. “What do we have this morning?”

Kade walked over to the desk and put down five stapled letters slipped back inside their envelopes. “That is five more requests to join the clan. I think that makes a total of ten since yesterday.”

Hawk looked amazed. “We only put up the announcement that we were able to accept requests a few days ago. I’ll send a message to my brother later. He is going to need to really fuel up the jet to meet all these alphas.” Hawk glanced at some of the areas. “A lot of packs in the Southwest and in the Rockies. In this group.”

“Do you want me to get the IT requests generated?” Kade queried.

“No, we already sent the first five last night and I want to space them out a bit.” Hawk looked back up at Kade. “Thank you for bringing these in. Can you look to see where they will fit best in the placement chart?”

Kade smiled. “Of course. Just let me know if you need anything.” Kade walked out of the office.

Hawk shook his head. Kade was so obvious when he was trying to flirt. Hawk just didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was a bit too young for him. Hawk started to read the requests again. One of the requests stands out as it is from a really small pack in North Carolina. “It shows this is only like twenty members. Why would they be so eager to join us?”

“Jay, do you think we should head back to town now?” Tala looks over at Jay who is getting dressed. “We have been out here three days. I love sleeping under the stars with you in our wolf forms, but my back really needs a normal bed again.”

“Yeah, we should go back. I have some stuff to do before Bjorn needs to head back.” Jay starts to gather the items around him and packs them back in the boxes they came from. “I need to call out my accountant and see what I can do to get those loans going so Lisbeth doesn’t even have to know that we were having issues.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Tala protested.

“Yes, I do! We are a team and I know it will go a long way to ease your mind.” Jay pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey Sean. Yeah, we decided to come back to civilization. Okay see you soon.” Jay put the phone away. “Sean said he’ll be here in about a half hour with the truck.”

Tala walked over and kissed Jay. They grabbed the rest of the stuff that needed packing. Tala gathered up all the carcasses and moved them to the edge of the clearing so that other animals in the area could finish cleaning them and not let anything go to waste.