The Maverick Pride Tales - Chapter 139: Chapter 139

Prologue 1
“What is this? Are you getting fancy on me now, Uzzi? I swear, Betty would have a field day teasing you,” Richard grunted as he hefted the large package onto the kitchen counter.
“Ah, my liebling would love that I am taking care of my health, Richard. Come now, open,” he instructed the ornery man.
“Look at all this. Perfectly portioned my foot. They must not know how you pack it away,” he muttered loud enough for Uzzi to hear him.
Richard loved to complain, but since his beloved late wife had hired him to help take care of things for Uzzi while he worked, he could not see to getting rid of the man. Besides, Richard was a wonderful chef, and he was not wrong. Uzzi loved to eat.
“Fantastic,” Uzzi enthused, despite his housekeeper’s grumblings.
He waited impatiently for the other man to finish opening the package, clapping his hands in anticipation.
“Eat Well Live Proud,” Richard read the card aloud, handing it to Uzzi as he began removing the contents of the cooler box.
Uzzi wondered if the container was recyclable—probably considering who it came from. Eat Well Live Proud was the preeminent import/export company owned by the Blue Valley Lion Pride. To humans, they were just another internationally known business, famous for their farm to table services—a trend that was very popular these days.
Along with being a Witch and matchmaker extraordinaire, Uzzi was a foodie and loved to indulge his appetites with fresh, delicious, and sometimes healthy morsels. Eat Well Live Proud had just launched this smaller branch of their business, having only dealt with restaurants, hotels, cruise lines, and that sort of thing for years,
They mainly worked with ranches to deliver the best organically raised beef, pork, poultry, lamb and other meats like bison and ostrich, too. But Uzzi had heard wonderful things about their new conscientious and sustainable seafood line. He could not wait to sample it for himself.
“King Salmon? Hmm,” Richard mumbled, and Uzzi saw the wheels working in the man’s head.
“Yes, and some bass, too. And did you know they just signed a deal with some strictly organic, non-GMO farmers to deliver produce now?” Uzzi said.
“Uzzi, we live in the Garden State. Non-GMO organic produce is everywhere, for Pete’s sake.”
“Yes, well, still. This is certified by Lions, Richard. How could it be anything other than wunderbar?”
“So, will you be traveling this week? I am going to plan the menu now,” Richard informed him as he put away the various packages of fish and meat in the freezer, taking two portions of salmon out to thaw for dinner.
Yum.
“Yes, I am planning to be here. But, Richard, take another piece of salmon out. We are having company tonight.”
“Yes, boss.”
Uzzi picked up his cell phone, his fingertips tingled with anticipation as he scrolled through his contacts. Something very important was happening in the universe, something leading him to this moment.
Part of Uzzi’s talents lied in his ability to trust in the Fates to guide him. Right now, everything inside of him was screaming at him to make a call. His magic hummed and buzzed excitedly, blue sparks crackled at his fingertips.
Wonderful inventions, cellular phones, but they could be so temperamental. On and on, he perused the thousands of names saved inside the little gizmo. He’d met so many people over the years, helped scores of them to find their fated mates, too.
It was his burden and his gift, to bring together couples the universe had selected to be together. A worthy vocation, indeed. Suddenly, his magic heated, the buzzing grew louder, and then—zap!
Uzzi stopped scrolling and read the name of the contact that popped open on the small screen of his smart phone. Ah ha! He grinned widely.
Of course.
It was about damned time, too, in his not so humble opinion. Beneath the business, Falcon Limousine Service, was the name Hank Garrett. He was the owner of the car service, Uzzi’s own trusted driver, and his honorary nephew.
The Shifter was the son of a man whom Uzzi had owed a favor to, once upon a time. Though he’d drifted from the parents, Hank had remained a favorite of his. The young Falcon had worked hard to build up his company, and Uzzi was proud to hire him whenever he needed.
Time and again, he’d offered his own services to the younger man, but Hank insisted he needed no help to find his mate.
Well, we shall see about that, dear boy.
“Hello, Hank? Yes, it’s Uzzi. I wanted to invite you to dinner… Tonight… Yes. You’re free, then? … How wonderful!”
Wunderbar, indeed.
Annabeth gritted her teeth and waited impatiently for her boss to finish with the weekly meeting at the offices of Eat Well Live Proud.
The Blue Valley Lion Pride’s corporation was responsible for procuring and delivering quality, organic, sustainably harvested, and eco-friendly meats and fish to restaurants, hotels, and just recently, private homes the world over.
With the launch of their new EWLP Direct Line, as in direct to your door, every Lion and Lioness in the company was working overtime. Not ideal for the thirty-something female who was days away from going into her heat cycle.
Speaking of heat, what the heck was the thermostat on, anyway? Annabeth was practically melting.
Pant. Purr. Gasp.
She rolled her eyes at her melodramatic Lioness. Her inner kitty could be a bit extra at times. Like now.
Grrrr.
Oh sure. Now she was pissed. Whatever. Annabeth flicked her gaze from one corner of the room to the other. She felt stifled in the crowded space. The walls were closing in on her.
How did no one else feel cramped? She bit back her sigh as Maggie Pierce, the big boss lady, rambled on about some convention she was sending some lucky—ew, make that unlucky—feline to represent EWLP. As if dressing up for another corporate bash was anyone’s idea of a good time.
Who the hell wanted to go to another boondock town down the shore, anyway? Not Annabeth. Blue Valley was just under central Jersey, and she hated everything below it. At least here, she could still get to Manhattan once every couple of months for a Broadway show or to get some really delicious pizza, or dirty water dogs.
Grrrr.
Okay, so her inner kitty had a thing for questionable cuisine. She was surrounded by the good stuff 24/7. It was natural she’d crave junk food constantly, right?
Looking at her plus size curves, she frowned. Okay, fine, so maybe she should cut it out with the hot dog binge eating sessions in NYC so she could fit into one of her formal gowns and maybe go on trips like the one Maggie was talking about.
Whatever.
It didn’t matter, anyway. She hated traveling. Especially flying. But she also did not do well driving long distances. Buses were too crowded for her Lioness. And trains were just unnatural.
Like, who was really driving those things, anyway? She’d never seen a conductor or train engineer in person. Just people who played them on children’s TV shows. So yeah, travel by train? No thanks.
Traveling just wasn’t her thing. No sane Lioness wanted to put her life in the hands of some over-caffeinated pilot or driver—who she wouldn’t trust to make her a sandwich—to operate a couple of tons of heavy metal with her in tow.
Hard. Pass.
Hell to the no, her she-Cat agreed.
This Lioness was not leaving the safety of the hard ground beneath her feet or paws. She sighed, openly relieved when Cornelia’s name came up in the conversation. That Lioness deserved to be stuck traveling to East Bubblefuck, New Jersey, for some boring ass conference.
She was a rude bitch who had it out for all the Golden sisters. But being the gracious female her mother raised her to be, Annabeth was sure their nemesis had some good qualities too.
Not, sniffed her inner pussy cat.
Okay, seriously though, if Cornelia was willing to run all over the world at the beck and call of Eat Well Live Proud—which is a heck of a lot more than Annabeth was willing to do—the female was okay in her book.
“Ms. Higgins,” Maggie said to Cornelia, who was grinning like the stuck-up little brown noser she was, casting shade at the other people sitting there. Annabeth supposed she just could not help herself. Once a prat, always a prat.
“I want you to remain here. I have an assignment for you⁠—”
“But Ms. Pierce, I’m already packed—” Cornelia began, practically choking on her shock.
Annabeth winced, embarrassed for the usually haughty little miss. How dreadful! She hated being the center of attention herself, but Annabeth could not even imagine being so publicly deflated.
Served her right for thinking she was better than all the others. The Blue Valley Pride was close knit as fuck. Almost everyone she’d grown up with worked for the company. In that way, EWLP was sort of an extension of high school—and every bit as awful from a social standpoint.
Ugh.
Her sister, Ariella, elbowed her in the ribs, and Annabeth turned her attention to Cornelia. Holy cow. The woman was completely losing her shit.
“This is the best thing I’ve seen in days,” her sister whispered as Cornelia ran to Ms. Pierce and grabbed her arm with her claws almost extended.
“I always represent EWLP at the annual convention. I’m already packed. My dress was dry cleaned. I got my car detailed. Uh, everything is ready⁠—”
“And yet, you aren’t going,” Ms. Pierce said with a slight growl in her voice. “In light of some recent contradictions in your quarterly reports, Ms. Higgins, you have been grounded. Your task this week is to perform an audit of all of your accounts.”
The entire room gasped, shocked at the insinuation. If perfect Cornelia had to perform an audit, what would that mean for everyone else? Annabeth bit her lip. She would stand by her numbers, but this was truly worrisome. The entire Pride had a stake in the company. If things were not done properly, that could mean a lot of money for a lot of people.
“Well, that was not the way I wanted to announce this, but yes. Audits are happening this week. You will each receive an email with your tasks while this is going on. The company has decided to do small sections at a time, Cornelia just happened to be first. Now, I have made promises to the CEO, and the entire board, for that matter, and I will make sure that everything going on in this company is on the up and up. So, remember, while you are making your reports that I will be watching you.”
“But about the convention⁠—”
“It will go to someone else. Cornelia, I need you to meet with the liaison from the EWLP auditing team coming in from Florida today. They will start going over your accounts first.”
“What? But why?” screeched Cornelia, clearly the female was not thrilled with her new assignment.
“Is there a problem, Ms. Higgins?” the boss lady asked.
“Um, no,” she mumbled.
“Does anyone here have an issue with how I run things here?” MS. Pierce asked louder.
Every feline eye in the room is tuned and focused somewhere else. From windows, to dust motes, to lint on the carpet—gazes flicked around trying to find anywhere to land other than on the angry she-Cat.
Snort.
All eyes flicked to Annabeth. Uh oh. Did she just snort out loud?
“You are in trouble now,” whispered Ariella unhelpfully.
“Ms. Golden?”
“No. Um. Present? Uh—I mean, yes, Ms. Pierce? Can I help you?”
Could you be more awkward?
No. Probably not, sighed her inner kitty.