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"You're really going to like Elias."

Addie had been talking about her baby brother for the better part of ten minutes. Astrid had been ignoring her for most of them.

"I mean, obviously, I'm biased. But he's always been such a good guy. Even when we were kids. Never got into trouble. Never broke curfew. Never snuck out. He always did what he was supposed to do."

"Except for when he stole six million dollars from my family," said Astrid.

I felt the shift in the air, indicating Addie was waving that minor point away like smoke. "That showed his initiative and his ingenuity. He almost didn't get caught. But my Vidar is hard to slip one past."

Astrid made a noncommittal sound.

I bit the inside of my cheek.

The soup was well on its way to being done. I took some pride in that. I'd never made anything for others to partake in. Each woman had taken a taste test and proclaimed it delicious. Yes, I know I had only put the ingredients in the pot. But I still felt a hint of pride. I couldn't wait to learn what Gunnar thought of my efforts.

The men were still somewhere else in the house while the women fixed the meal. My mother would've had a coronary at the notion. Her cleaning staff were males. Our cook was a male. I had lived entirely in a female-dominated queendom, absent other females. Being surrounded by strong women in this kitchen, doing domestic chores didn't feel like an attack on any of that. If anything, I had to keep my wits about me with this bunch.

"I was the difficult one," Addie said cheerfully. "Elias was always the good boy."

Astrid leaned closer to me. Her voice dropped low enough that a human wouldn't have heard it. "He's not even a mama's boy. He's a sister's boy."

"He's smart." Addie's voice was tight and defensive. "Really smart. You two actually have that in common."

I smiled and continued shredding the lettuce Mei Ling had put on the counter. But I was listening. I had been listening to everything since I'd entered this house. Sometimes intelligence came while four women stood around a kitchen island waiting for soup to simmer and bread to rise.

"He's completely reorganized everything since he took over," Addie continued. There was pride in her voice. Genuine admiration. "My father was terrible at actually running the hotels. Elias has already restructured the management side. He's consolidating some of the properties. Selling off the ones that aren't performing and putting the money into expansion."

"Expansion where?" I asked.

"Mostly upstate right now, but he's been looking at properties outside Vane territory too. Elias thinks the hotels can be legitimate businesses instead of just fronts for pack business."

"Sounds ambitious." My smile was innocent as I filed this information away.

"He is. You should see him when he gets going. He'll stay up all night with spreadsheets and projections."

Astrid groaned. "You're making him sound worse."

Elias wasn't a Blackwood, but he was tied to them through Addie and soon through Astrid. One tug on the right financial thread could ripple his expansion plans. I didn't yet know which thread I would pull.

Nell's phone rang. "Excuse me." She wiped her hands before answering. "Odhiambo."

Not hello. Not hi. The woman's entire personality was a business card.

She listened for several seconds. Her posture changed. It was subtle, but I'd become very good at recognizing shifts people assumed required sight to notice. Her breathing slowed. Her weight settled. The easy warmth disappeared from her voice when she spoke again.

"No, Darius, absolutely not. Because that's not the deal we agreed to. The Omondi control the Kenyan side. Blackwood handles distribution here."

I continued tearing lettuce, looked down at what my hands were doing without seeing, and listened intently.

"Then renegotiate the percentage, not the territory." A pause. "No, I'm not asking Magnus. It's my clan. I'm the fucking panther princess."

Nell was an anomaly. Not many people knew much about her or her royal background. I only did so because my mother had been there when her Kenyan panther family found and reclaimed her.

"Twenty-eight percent," Nell said. "That's my ceiling. If they want thirty, they can absorb the additional transportation costs themselves."

Another pause. "Good. Send me the revised terms."

She ended the call.