Free Going Under by Lauren Dane

same.
    “I’m just on my way out. I’ve got an interview at the television station.” She held
     up some papers she’d been reading over. “This proposed legislation is abhorrent.”
    “Yeah.” Emotion crossed his features and she knew she wasn’t going to like whatever
     he said next.
    She sat. “All right, I’m sitting. Tell me.”
    “I must be losing my touch if you could tell it was that bad.” He moved and sat beside
     her. “What’s your schedule like later today? I’ve been speaking with the Enforcer
     at Cascadia—the local wolf pack—and they’d like to meet you.”
    “Hang on.” She pulled her calendar from her bag. “They’re not just any old pack right?
     Aren’t they like wolf royalty or whatever? The oldest brother runs the National Pack?”
    “You did your homework.”
    “It’s my job. I can move things around this afternoon and evening if necessary. I’ll
     have to coordinate with Faine as well; I assume I’m supposed to take him to things
     like this? What time did they want to meet? And then you can tell me what gave you
     that look.”
    “The meeting will be with Lex Warden, who is their Alpha and he’s also the representative
     to the Council of Others so he’ll be speaking for not just Cascadia but all wolves.”
    “Good to know.”
    “Four, if you can do it. Faine . . . well, the wolves and Lycians have a tense relationship.
     It’s best if I escort you. They tend to spend lots of time on dominance displays.
     It’s sort of tedious.”
    “Interesting. Shall I have Rita call to confirm then?”
    “Yes, that’s good. I’ll check with her on my way out to be sure she has the contact
     information. As for my look . . .” He heaved a sigh. “Nice piece in the
New York Times
this morning. You work fast.”
    “Part of my charm.” She shrugged. That and the issue was a hot one and she was willing
     to talk about it. She knew who to call and what buttons to push, which also helped.
    A glimmer of a smile and then it was gone. “You got your first death threat. Record
     time. Only two full days of employment.”
    She sat back and swallowed, hard. “I’ve always been an overachiever.”
    “You’re well protected, Molly.”
    Nausea rose, making her skin clammy. “Was it a call? Letter? Is it credible?”
    He reached out and squeezed her hand, more than a little impressed with her ability
     to continue thinking about the big picture. “An email sent via the website. It ran
     through an anonymizer program but we’re working on it. Lark and I have assessed it;
     we don’t believe it’s credible, no. In fact, in the days before . . . well, before
     all this, we wouldn’t have even told you.”
    “This needs to be reported to the police.” She sat up straight and took a deep breath.
    “We don’t involve human police in clan matters.”
    “Yes, well, they know about us now.”
    “They don’t care, Molly. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth of it.”
    She shook her head. “You misunderstand. I don’t care about that part. I’m not surprised.
     But they’re trying to remove our status as citizens just one state over. We will report
     this officially or I will myself. We are citizens and we will expect the same service
     from the government as anyone else.”
    “Why? So they can ignore us and we can waste our time reporting it? You’re overestimating
     how much humans care about our lives, Molly.”
    She narrowed her gaze and he saw fire there. So much that it sent a thrill through
     him. “Listen here, I am many things, including in over my head. But I am
not
stupid. Or naïve. We need to report because we are citizens. We can’t let them allow
     us to feel otherwise or in fact, to legislate otherwise. It’s not that I want a lollipop
     and a teddy bear from them because I’ve been frightened. It’s that I am a fully vested
     citizen of this country and I will be treated as such. Anything else is wholly unacceptable.
     We need to stop acting as