Caroline Peckham And Susanne Valenti Novels & Stories

I promise and simmer down on the power of domination I was projecting onto him. “The same applies to you all! We are no longer in the Era of the ancient war. Times change Alpha’s, it’s about time we catch up,” I snap, for all their ears. Turning, I glide over to my seat at the head of the table and sit down. They all keep their heads low, their knees on the ground. I wait a long, insufferable minute and say, “you may take your seats.” No one wastes their time doing exactly that. “First, I’ll introduce myself. I am Valerie Carson, Alpha Queen. Selene gave me her blessing, and I challenged my father. Now here we are.… if anyone has a problem following a woman, speak freely.

Valerie entered, looking pleased with herself. "You won't believe what Selena found," she announced, striding to Adrian's desk and setting down a stack of papers. "Remember those discrepancies in the Santos account? She traced them back to their source." Adrian glanced at the papers, then at his sister. "You're giving her access to our accounts?" "To the legitimate ones, yes." Valerie's tone was defensive. "She has a head for numbers, always did. And she's good at spotting patterns we might miss."

She is fifty-one, with close-cropped silver hair and the particular quality of someone who has spent three decades listening to people tell her things they haven't told anyone else and has developed a complete lack of surprise as a professional courtesy. "Ethan Cole sent you," she says when Valentina is seated. "He recommended you." "There's a difference." Elena opens a clean notepad. "Tell me what you have." Valentina tells her. All of it — not the rebirth, not the first life, but the documented second life: the four years of the file, the entries, the cross-references, the internship waitlist, the New York redirect, the reputation research, the pitch deck. She speaks for twenty-two minutes