Kate had yet to see her grandmother or any of the other luminaries such as Howard Wallace; his sons, Aidan and Roarke; or Cameron Gentry, the pack alpha from Portland. Howard, whose sons had both mated with humans, was a favorite with the Woofers. Kate assumed Duncan would nominate him. She was scheduled to nominate Cameron, who was friendly to the Howler cause.
Because neither of them was here yet, Kate wondered if some backroom politicking was going on. She wouldn’t put it past her grandmother to engineer something like that.
She was curious to meet the Wallace family. They were all registered with the exception of Fiona, Howard’s mate. She’d stayed in New York to take care of Emma and Aidan’s little girl, Iona.
Kate looked at the crowd of delegates, a few more than two hundred Weres, with a glow of satisfaction. Her grandmother had been the driving force behind this conference, but she’d turned much of the planning over to Kate. Together they’d made it happen, and this room full of colorful accents and excited delegates gave Kate a thrill. By holding the first-ever conference of Weres from around the world, who had gathered to debate the issue of Were-human interaction, they were making history this weekend.
And now it was time to lead her Howler delegates to their seats. Glancing around, she discovered that Duncan and his followers were already heading toward the chairs on the left side of the aisle. By default she led her group over to the right.
She felt strange not being able to go over and talk with Duncan, but she didn’t trust herself. She might say something that would let his followers know how much she actually liked him. She dared not let her followers in on that secret, either.
Seeing both groups together for the first time fascinated her, though. Woofer males outnumbered females nearly two to one, and the opposite was true of her group. Her followers were predominantly female. She’d known that about her organization before, of course, but she hadn’t realized Duncan’s group was the polar opposite.
She noticed other differences, too. Early this summer, her group had adopted a logo and ordered T-shirts, long-sleeved for winter and short-sleeved for summer. Everyone sitting on her side of the room wore a long-sleeved purple shirt with a black howling-wolf logo surrounded by the group’s name—Honoring Our Werewolf Legacy—in white. A few had brought signs to wave, and some wore buttons with a red circle and slash over the WOOF acronym. But for the most part, the shirts made the Howlers’ statement.
The Woofers, on the other hand, had no shirts, but their side of the aisle bristled with homemade signs, which they waved at the slightest provocation. They also had buttons galore. Someone had been busy dreaming up slogans such as Lose the Legacy and Love Your Human Neighbor. A few delegates had created lanyards so they could display a long line of buttons. Those with button-filled lanyards clanked when they moved.
Heidi, sitting on Kate’s right, leaned toward her. “What a bunch, huh?”
“We really are completely different from them.”
“Yeah. We’re classy and they’re not. Oh, look. Here comes your favorite cousin. Wonder which side he’ll sit on?”
“Depends on who he wants to suck up to.” Kate turned to her assistant. “Did I just say that out loud?”
Heidi grinned. “Yep. But I don’t think anybody heard you except me, and I am the soul of discretion.”
“I know, and I appreciate it more than I can say.” Kate gave Heidi an affectionate glance.
Heidi laughed. “Must be time to ask for a raise.” With her short brown hair and a smattering of freckles across her pert nose, Heidi could pass for eighteen instead of her actual age of twenty-eight. Many underestimated her because she looked so young, but a first-class brain was hidden behind her ingenue facade.
“Neil’s not choosing either side.” Kate felt a headache coming on as her cousin proceeded up the aisle, climbed the steps to the dais, and crossed to the lectern. “He’s commandeering the mike. He must have lobbied for that with my grandmother while I was stuck in the cabin. Damn it.”
“Somebody has to run the show,” Heidi said. “It can’t be you, because you’re the leader of one of the factions.”
“No, but it was supposed to be Grandma Elizabeth. She hasn’t declared allegiance to either side, and she—”
“Are you sure about that? I read an interview where Neil said he supports the Woofers and so does his great-aunt.”
Kate’s jaw clenched. “He supported the Howlers a few weeks ago. He flip-flops like a spawning salmon. And I know for a fact that Grandma Elizabeth is not taking sides. She made that very clear when I asked her if she wanted a Howler T-shirt.”
“I’m just reporting what he said. Or rather, Angela was reporting what he said.”
“And of course Angela wouldn’t bother to check it out with my grandmother.” Kate sat there fuming as Neil fiddled with the mike. “Grandma Elizabeth would have been the perfect MC. She’s not going to accept a leadership position in the council and she’s respected by everyone. Somehow Neil talked her out of doing it, the rat.”
“And now it’s a fait accompli, I’m afraid. He’s assumed the position.”
“So he has.” Kate glared at him, hoping he’d look her way, but he studiously avoided doing that. She supposed the delegates would be impressed with him, at least initially. A large Were with broad shoulders and an athletic build, he spent many hours in the gym sculpting his body. He preferred gyms with mirrors.
He tapped on the mike. “May I have your attention? Welcome, delegates! The Stillman Resort and I are proud to host the First Annual Werewolf Conference, known to all by now as WereCon2012. It’s an historic event, and you should all give yourselves a hand for being here!”
Kate grimaced. “Barf.”
“Put a pleasant smile on your face. Angela’s cameramen are prowling around and chances are she’ll leap on any chance to catch you scowling.”
“I hate it when you’re right.” Kate plastered on a silly smile. “Better?”
“That looks fake.”
“Because it is.”
Neil cleared his throat. “Our first order of business this morning is electing a president of what will become the first ever Were Council. Do I have any nominations?”
Duncan stood. “I nominate Howard Wallace, of New York City.”
The Woofers greeted that statement with cheers and cries of woof, woof, woof.
Kate sighed. “They just upstaged us. We don’t have a cheer. We can’t very well howl for our candidate, can we?”
“Why not?”
Kate stared at Heidi. “Because it would sound stupid?”
“Couldn’t sound any more stupid than woof, woof, woof.”
“You have a point. Okay, pass the word around. Are you good at this? Because somebody has to start the howl, and I’ll be making the nomination for Cameron.” Kate also didn’t want to admit that she’d feel ridiculous throwing back her head and howling like an idiot. It was one thing to do it in wolf form, but quite another to do it now.
“Leave it to me.” Heidi leaned toward the person on her right, and whispers circulated quickly through the Howler contingent.
Meanwhile Howard Wallace made his way from the back of the room toward the dais amid wild cheering from the Woofers. A barrel-chested Were in his late fifties, he had high cheekbones, a square jaw, and thick, snow-white hair. Kate could understand why Howard commanded respect.
She wished Cameron Gentry had the same noble bearing. In the search to find someone to carry the Howler standard, Cameron had been the only one of any stature in the Were community who was willing to devote the time and energy necessary to fill the position. She and the Howlers had tried to convince themselves he’d be fine.
Neil shook Howard’s hand before turning back to the mike. “Do we have any other nominations?”
Kate stood. “I nominate Cameron Gentry, of Portland, Oregon.”
Right on cue, her followers began to howl. It made a terrific racket, but an impressive one. Kate fought the urge to laugh as the Woofers, obviously taken by surprise, stared openmouthed at the Howlers, who were…well…howling.
For one precious moment she met Duncan’s gaze and he gave her a wide smile. He also made a small gesture, one that she doubted anyone else saw. He stuck his thumb in the air for about a second. His approval shouldn’t matter to her, but she felt giddy knowing she had it.
Cameron Gentry also walked up the center aisle from the back of the room. As Kate watched him, she swallowed her disappointment and smiled encouragingly before taking her seat. But Cameron Gentry was no Howard Wallace. A slim man who was graying at the temples, he had none of Howard’s air of command.
Instead, Cameron looked like an overbred aristocrat. His glance was haughty instead of warm, as Howard’s had been. He surveyed the Howlers with a superior smile before mounting the steps to the dais. Although he shook hands with Neil, and after that with Howard, neither of the other Weres smiled.
Heidi leaned toward Kate. “Methinks our boy is not very popular.”
“Methinks you’re right.”
“But he supports the Howler position, so we gotta vote for him.”
“Yes, we do.”
Neil called for other nominations, and when there were none, he asked for volunteers to pass out and collect ballots. With only two candidates the voting went quickly. Kate had arranged for one Howler, one Woofer, and one undeclared delegate to be present as a staff member counted the ballots at a table in the back of the room.
Heidi turned to watch the counting. “If this becomes an annual event, you might have to introduce a more sophisticated system.”
“Like voting booths and electronic ballots?”
“Well, no, but something more official than four people and a legal pad.”
Kate laughed. “You’re right, but Grandma Elizabeth said we didn’t have to get fancy this time, so we didn’t. The three watchdogs will keep anyone from challenging the results, and I can promise you the resort staffer doesn’t care who wins. Grandma Elizabeth won’t allow her staff to be political, especially at this conference.”
“I hate to tell you, but I think it’s a foregone conclusion. Even if all the Howlers vote for Cameron, and there’s only about seventy of us, there are quite a few undeclared delegates sitting in the back. The Woofers will give Howard sixty or seventy votes, and I’ll bet the undeclared Weres go for Howard, too. He just looks presidential.”
“When you’re right, you’re right.” Kate wasn’t surprised when Howard was named the first president of the first-ever Were Council. It was a setback for the Howlers, but she’d always heard that Howard Wallace was fair and open-minded. She wasn’t giving up hope for her cause, but she grew very tired of hearing an endless chorus of woof, woof, woof.
Duncan believed in his cause. Hell, he was passionate about his cause. He’d devoted considerable effort toward building a coalition that would bring a new era of openness and cooperation between Weres and humans.
And yet, he hated seeing Kate’s disappointment. He didn’t want her faction to triumph during this conference, but she’d worked hard, too, as hard as he had. She’d just suffered a defeat, and he could see in her expression that she wasn’t happy.
Sometime in the past eighteen hours her happiness had come to matter to him. But he was on the horns of a dilemma, because in order for her to be happy, he had to give up the fight. He wasn’t going to do that, which meant that he was actively working to make her unhappy. Damn.
Once Howard had been declared the president of the fledgling council, which Duncan had thoroughly expected to happen, the delegates had to elect six council members to serve with Howard. Nominations flew furiously, punctuated by a chorus of woofs or howls, depending on the candidate.
Duncan anticipated that he’d be one of them and so would Kate. He wasn’t sure how that would work out, but at least he’d have an excuse to be near her instead of sitting on the opposite side of a large room. That had been no fun at all.
When the dust finally settled and council members had been nominated and voted on, the council consisted of Duncan; Kate; Jake Hunter, from Alaska; Knox Trevelyan, from Seattle; Nadia Henderson, from Chicago; and Giselle Landry, from San Francisco. Duncan was the only international member. He assumed that was because a fair number of the delegates were from the US and would logically vote for US delegates.
Howard had taken over the mike from Neil, thank God. Duncan wasn’t sure he could have stomached much more of Neil’s self-congratulatory style. Interestingly, Elizabeth Stillman had not yet addressed the conference goers. Duncan hadn’t met Kate’s grandmother, and he was becoming curious.
He’d had a short but terrific visit with both Aidan and Roarke Wallace during the break to count the votes for the council members. He’d met Aidan’s mate, Emma, the novelist he’d interviewed online for his book, and Roarke’s mate, Abby, a redhead who was recovering from a bad sunburn after accompanying Roarke on one of his archaeological digs in Africa.
Both Wallace brothers would help Duncan’s cause, and with their father as the new president of the Were Council, Duncan considered his chances of success were good. He doubted that Kate had the same confidence. He longed to talk with her, but that might not be possible. Angela Sapworthy prowled the perimeter of the hall, searching out juicy tidbits. He didn’t want her to find any that involved either him or Kate.
After announcing the names of the new council members, Howard asked for a recess so that the newly elected representatives could meet and decide on a course of action. Duncan’s hopes shot up. He might finally have a chance for a few quiet words with Kate.
Howard motioned his six council members to the front of the dais. “Kate’s informed me that there’s a small meeting room right through that door.” He pointed to his left. “She said the staff has put some coffee, tea, and a few snacks in there. Make yourselves at home and I’ll be right along. Those who don’t know each other, introduce yourselves.”