n

n

n

"They're leaving,

" Damon said the next morning when Graeme came to meet him in his office.

n

"Eliade?

" Graeme's eyebrows pinched together in a severe scowl.

nDamon nodded.

n

"Are we sending anyone to keep an eye on them?

" Graeme asked.

n

"Just one scout in case they decide to return. We'll probably keep one on rotation in the Grimm near Eliade for the foreseeable future,

" he responded, fixing Graeme with a glare that indicated how much he blamed him for the situation they had to deal with now. Damon crossed his thick arms, the cords of veins there becoming more visible.

n

"I approve,

" Graeme replied, his voice coming out deeper than usual as he glared back.

nDamon was a large guy, but Graeme was larger, and the physical size of both men became apparent as they stared each other down—Graeme from his position standing in front of Damon's desk and Damon sitting behind it. Eventually Damon diverted his eyes to the window.

n

"You ran the perimeter yesterday?

" he asked.

"Find anything unusual?

"

n

"No. Everything is secure. The runners do well,

" Graeme said.

n

"They are young. They enjoy it,

" Damon answered.

"Andreas mentioned having an office arranged for you, so I had the guys make room for you across the hall. Do you approve of that?

"

nGraeme smirked at the sarcasm.

"It will do.

"

nAll of the revelations at Sylvia's the night before, specifically his conversation with Sam about taking back the pack, the news of his sister's pregnancy, and the realization about how many issues the pack had been dealing with while he had been gone, had given Graeme the determination to own his dominance in the pack going forward.

nIt wouldn't be an easy path, and he wasn't sure exactly what it would entail just yet—there were so many factors currently at play with Eliade, the elders, the alyko, and Goddess knows what else—but he was going to walk it one step at a time. There was a vision now to focus on in the distance as he did, one that included his mate and honored his parents and Maggie.

nOnce Graeme had lingered long enough to fill Damon's office with that very resolution of dominance, he sauntered over to the office that they had arranged for him. It had a large window overlooking the front of the pack house where he could see the pond with morning light glittering on its surface.

nThere was no apparent excuse at the moment to follow the scout off land and find Penelope. He was going to have to wait for the opportunity to present itself, but something told him he wouldn't have to wait too long. The problem was that he was eager to get her reaction to the alyko map and find out exactly what her motivation was for working with Eliade.

nAfter staring at the desk in the middle of the room thinking of all of the ways speaking with Penelope could uncover vital information he did not have, he walked out to go find Zosime. Maybe, with as fast as that girl talked, she would let something important slip.

n

"Graeme,

" Damon called after him from the door of his office.

"How would you like to make sure the mother gets home without any detours?

"

nGraeme stared at Damon who was leaning back on the doorframe. Seeing that August's mother went back to the midwest would take more time than what he had hoped, but it would give him the opportunity he was after.

n

"I'll do it,

" he replied. Damon waved him in to go over the details.

n———

nAugust spent the morning researching art project ideas for the pups to do on her laptop and trying to arrange plans for each lesson. The problem was that there was just so much she wanted to do with them right away.

nYoung Alexander mentioned that he was interested in graffiti, and August had started thinking about other examples of urban intervention art that would likely interest more of the pups as well. What was exciting and fun about urban interventions was that they were always surprises for onlookers—whether they were googly eyes affixed to everyday objects or flash mobs in a busy public setting or some kind of whimsical structural design. They were sometimes also activist in nature, using clever visual elements to comment on things happening in the community.

nThe inherent challenge behind creating urban intervention projects for the pups was that they weren't in an urban environment. They were surrounded by dense woods in most places, and it probably wasn't a good idea to bring something like what she had in mind to the more public spaces on pack land just yet. It would take time to gauge how anything like that would be received by pack members, which was one of the most important considerations.

nWith these challenges in mind, she turned to what could be done with the wilderness that surrounded them. There was an article she recalled reading about an artist who had spent an entire year in the woods somewhere creating what were essentially large, whimsical designs using nothing but branches and other natural elements from his surroundings.

nAfter a little bit of searching, August found the artwork she had been thinking of. According to the write up on the project, the large woodland sculptures were made using only cables and things like twined branches and other surrounding organic material. This was something she and the pups could do.

nWhile doing something like drawing would be more practical as an art introduction for the pups, she doubted it was something that would get them all excited the way this would. It might even bring more pups in to join than had originally planned on participating. And since the weather was going to get cold soon and less easy to work in, now was really the most opportune time until spring came.

nAll that she needed was a little bit of material and a lot of imagination. She grabbed her phone with a huge smile on her face and texted Greta her idea along with the link to the woodland intervention article. The pups were going to love this.. She couldn't wait to get started.

n