bChapter /bb267 /b

    bCyra /b

    After breakfast, I notice a couple of my more daring pack memberse over to introduce themselves to Quirin and Kennedyb, /bKennedy draws them in quickly, the packtching on to the love and kindness that the exudes.

    Surprisingly, after the initial nervousness of meeting Quirin, our pack members seem to rx around him. He oozes confidence bwhich /bmakes a pack feel safe and since he’s not being aggressive in any way, more pack members starting over, at least to say hi..

    “We’re going to go warm up and wait for Alpha Quirin toe show us some new moves,” Zach says, practically bouncing on his feet. b“/bbPlus/b, I need toe up with a good code name for him. sher, maybe,” he says, making all of us roll our eyes.

    “I’m pretty sure I’ve made my own name sufficient to put the fear of the Moon Goddess into anyone who thinks of crossing me,” Quirin says as we head to the office.

    “Well, yeah, there’s that. Hmmm, maybe we need to find someone who gets the codename Quirin,” he says to the others as we walk awaybi, /i/bmaking Quirin chuckle.

    When we’re in the office, I have us sit around the table.

    “Warren and I haven’t had a chance to go through our pack’s finances yet, Alpha. But I would definitely be interested in your proposal. Once! have a better understanding of our finances, I’ll be able to review your suggestion and let you know if it’s possible,” I tell him.

    “It’s possible. I’ve made sure it is,” he says, pulling some paperwork out of his back pocket.

    “First, congrattions. This is our gift to you as the iing Alphas of this pack. It’s not done yet, but it should be by the end bof /btoday or tomorrow,” he says, sliding a piece of paper over to us.

    I lean forward to read as Kennedy smiles up at her mate. He wraps an arm around her and kisses the top of her head as he watches us.

    “This is the intent to purchase thend between our pack and your new one,” I say, looking up at him.

    “That’s correct. That is our gift to you, mine and Kennedy’s,” he says, his body jerking slightly and his features softening. I would guess that his mate just sent a wave of love to him through the bond.

    “This is too much, Quirin. You’ve already done so much for us,” Yorick says, echoing my own thoughts.

    “The twenty million was a loan, this is a gift,” he

    says.

    “I don’t even know if we can pay you back for the twenty million, Quirin. I have no idea what my father’s finances look like. I don’t know if we

    can ept this,” I say.

    “It’s a gift, and I’m not taking it back. As for the other part, don’t argue with me until I’m done exining my proposal,” he says, gently but firmly.

    I look at Yorick. I can feel his same resistance to epting such a generous gift when we’re already so indebted to Quirin.

    “What’s your proposal?” Yorick asks.

    He holds up a finger. “Before we get to that, I’d like to take care of that pesky alliance business. As if our families wouldn’t be allied, bbut /bbfor /bthe sake of other pack’s knowing, I’d like to make it official. I’ve also brought a second copy with Connor’s information so you can bsign /bone with him before he returns home. You’ll have to make time to meet up with Henry to sign one with him,” he says.

    I quickly walk to the desk and grab a couple of pens. “This I don’t have to think about,” I say, moving ito /ithest page of the two copies bof /bthe

    bChapter /bb267 /b

    bagreement /bband /bbsigning /bit bquickly/b. bQuitin /bband /bbKennedy /bhave balready /bsigned them.

    bI /bbslide /bbit /bbto /bYorick, and he quickly bsigns /bboth documents. We return one of them to Quirin, bwho /bbfolds /bbit /bband /bbputs /bit in bhis /bbpocket /bbefore looka

    atus.

    b“/bbIn /bthe future, you should read all documents before you sign them,” he says, turning the copy in front of us to the bsecond /bbpage /band bpointing /bbto /bthe spot that says that we ept

    ept our gift of thend between our packs.

    My mouth drops open and I look back up at him. He’s smirking and he shrugs negligently. “It was Kennedy’s idea. She knew byou’d /bbargue /bbhe /bsaysb, /bpulling his mate into a hug again.

    “I see Quirin is rubbing off on you, Ken,” Yorick grumbles to her.

    “This is an important time for you, for both of you. It’s a big deal. I know you never nned to lead a pack, Yorrie, but this gives byou /ball sort bof /boptions. Mom’s going to be here, primarily, for a year. If you wanted to build a new teaching hospital here, under her direction, you bcould /bband /bthen that could help fund your pack. None of the rest of us had to start from scratch like the two of you are. Well, Quirin did, but even bhe /bbhad /bhis father’s investments to help him out. It’s very possible that your father has nearly bankrupted this pack and if that’s the case, you’ll need options for ie. My brilliant mate has some great ideas, but this is too important ifor /ieither of iyou /ito let your pride get in the way,” she says, looking from Yorick to me.

    “Okay, maybe we should talk about your proposal,” I say.

    “Good, because this is exciting,” he says. His grin is so wide it’s practically splitting his face.

    “And in no way was this my idea. Like youb, /bYorrie, I hate the financial stuff,” Kennedy says.

    “And you? Do you hate it too?” Quirin asks me.

    “I love it, I just don’t understand it all yet,” I say.

    “You and I are going to get along great,” he says, leaning forward and walking us through his proposal.

    “The money you borrowed from me is just under twenty million dors. That number is shown here. This line is nk until you and Warren get a handle on your pack’s finances. Once you know how much you can repay me each month, that amount will go in here. And once that number is avable, these other numbers will be filled in, but for now, we’ll talk in general numbers.”

    Yorick is watching, but I already know the look on his face. Now that we’re mated, I can feel it in the bond, too. It’s the miserable feeling of having to look at and understand these numbers.

    I smile and reach out to put my arm around Yorick’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, lover. I’ve got this.”

    “Thank the goddess,” he says, sitting back.

    Quirin chuckles but continues. “When you pay me each month, I’m going to invest that money in one of my ounts. I have multiple investments that I know are profitable. I monitor them constantly and if, at any time, the investment I have your money in is no longer profitable, I’ll move the funds to an investment that is. I’ll make sure you know that I’ve done it, but I’ll be monitoring the money band /bbthe /binvestments on my end. I will send you the statements quarterly when they arrive.”

    Actually, that’s great since I’m inot /isavvy about investments at all.

    “Eventually, I’d like to learn about those investments, how you monitor them, how you determine if they’re good investmentsb, /bball /bbof /bbthat/bb, /bbif /byou’re willing to teach me.”

    “Absolutely,” he says, before turning back to the sheet. “Each quarter, you’ll get a dividend statement. Half of that money will go to bme/bb, /bbto /brepay your loan and the other half will be reinvested into the ount.”

    b“/bCreatingpounding interest?” I ask, starting to gel excited.

    “Exactly,” he says, grinning at me.

    “Each month, you’ll continue to pay the loan, each quarter you’ll pay an additional chunk of the loan out of your dividends, and the rest witt go back into the ount.”

    My mind begins spinning with the possibilities. I have no idea how much money we can afford to pay him each month, but if the investments are profitable, thatpounding interest will earn more and more each time we reinvest it.

    “Cyra?” Yorick asks, leaning forward.

    “This could work, Yorick,” I say, my eyes watching Quirin.

    “Of course it will work. I won’t let you fail. As I said, if one investment begins to falter, I’ll move the money. Over time, you may want to spread your investments out. But, and this is the good part,” he says, pushing another paper in front of me. “I did some quick math.”

    I lean forward excitedly again.

    “I used easy numbers, knowing you don’t know how much you can repay each month. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a thousand dors or ten thousand dors. Obviously the more you can afford, the faster you can pay off the debt. I went with a split of five thousand a month. Based on the current return of investment in the n where I intend to put your money, if you provided five thousand dors a month, your first quarter’s dividend would be this. Fifty percent of thates back to me, and the rest reinvests,” he says, showing me the numbers.

    “The second quarter would be here,” he says, pointing to a number and making Yorick whistle. “Is that really how fast it would umte?”

    “Current market value, five thousand dors a month and the entire fifty percent of your dividend reinvested, yes,” he says, looking at me excitedly.

    “At the end of year one, you could have paid me back, two hundred and fifty thousand dors,” he says, flipping the page.

    “Whoa!” Yorick says, but I’m focused on Quirin. This could really work!

    “At the end of year two, that doubles, so you will have paid me five hundred thousand dors at the end of year two and seven hundred and fifty thousand dors in total. That doubles again in year three, and …”

    “How many years before it’s paid off?” I ask excitedly.

    “Eight. But there’s more. If you continue with the investment, and you know markets shift, so again, these are easy numbers and we still don’t know what you can afford. But if you continue to reinvest your dividends at the end of that eight years, all one hundred percent of your dividends, you could have twenty million dors of your own money before you pass this pack to your Alpha heir,” he says, sitting back with a smug look on his face.

    “Holy mother Moon Goddess!” Yorick says beside me.

    “I told you he was brilliant,” Kennedy says proudly.

    I look at Yorick and then back at Quirin.

    “Where do we sign?”

    “Here. But, and this time I’ll make sure you understand it, this agreement is also the purchase of the Christer’s old pack. So, not only are you paying me back, you’re buying his packnds which will connect nicely to your newly giftednds and this packi,/ii” /ihe says. “It’s too far away for me to manage it, but it bumps up right against your new territory.”