There's a line of people outside the office. It's a semi large wooden barn located at the main road's entrance to the docks. Each side has a second floor loft for storage of records and on the first floor are plenty of desks for the employees who always seem busy. In the middle however, there's a large gap from the entry door to the back desk where our mother is.

We bypass the line outside and go straight in, telling the two guards at the door to wait for us to exit before sending anyone else in. Once inside we wait for the current human to air his grievance. Our mother notes it down and dismisses him with a wave of her hand.

"Hi kids, what did you bring me?"
We hated when she called us kids but she promised that if we passed our judgement she'd finally stop. We shoved the guy to his knees 10 steps in front of her desk.
"We found him trying to smuggle these luxury pelts on the cargo ship Desgagne"
Adrick puts the box of pelts on her desk and she inspects it. Our mother's aura changed and she became Cyrca the HellCat radiating respect and fear.

"Name?"
"Joseph"
"Address of residence?"
He hesitates to answer her question so I poke him a little with my sword.
"23 Dudas Street"
"Is this your first offense?"
"This is my first time doing anything like this ma'am. I swear"
"Who put you up to it?"
He started to mumble and looked like he didn't want to say.
"Joseph. You will answer my questions or you will go to jail until a formal hearing can be had at the town hall at which point we will figure out the truth. Or you can simply save yourself many nights in lockup and save us the headache and give us a name to sort this out ourselves"
He remained silent so she continued.
"What are you getting in return for putting the box onboard the ship?"
"I...I...mmmm...they said that they would forgive part of my dept"
"How did you get in dept"
"I got kicked by a horse and couldn't work for a while and with my three kids and wife I couldn't keep up with the lodging payments so I borrowed money"
"Dundas street makes up most of the east end of town. The Levy brothers work on the east end of town if I'm not mistaken. That who you borrowed from?"

His eyes grew wide. He never meant to give them up but our mother knew just want to ask to get the answers. We kept being impressed at how conniving she was. More than once she'd gotten us with that same cunning. We now knew how to commit to a lie very well or we just went with full honesty.

"So how much do you owe the Levy's?"
The man hung his head in shame.
"300 dollars ma'am"
"Interest?"
"Yes ma'am. It's steep. I can barely keep up"
"Mary"
She waved a girl over.
"Mary, please see that we take over the dept from the Levy's"
Joseph looked at Cyrca with confusion and relief.
"Joseph, you are in debt to us now. Every week we will take 20$ from your paychecks until it is paid. Interest will be at 2.5%. You may choose to make lump sum payments towards your debt at your discretion. Ofcourse, if you work in excess of 20$ you will get to keep it, understood?"
"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am, thank you so much"
"Our agreement will stand as long as you do not perform any more acts against my interest and you tell me about this situation and how you even got to the ship"
"Of course, I'll tell you everything"

My brother and I smiled. She had him now. Poor guy didn't even realize that she had played him and he was about to spill his guts. We both nodded and left him to speak with her.

Cyrca the business woman was terrifying in the iron clad way she settled matters. Joseph didn't know but he'd showed how he could be manipulated and she had now made him her loyal employee potentially for life, even after his debts were paid. He would never forget her "kindness". Truthfully she had done it mostly for the business and to have one more loyal employee at the docks since she was probably going to kill a couple who weren't. Whoever had helped this guy smuggle in the crate and show disloyalty to the Family would probably not see too many more sunrises.

We exited the office to go back to patrolling the docks. On our way out we stopped to chat with the guards. Wolves. Both of them dressed to kill with imposing figures and muscles clearly defined under even the layers of clothing. Why were wolves always so well built!?
"Hey guys. Mom's ganna need another minute before you send in another"
One of the guards, Coco replied
"Giving him a good talking to"
As he chuckled I couldn't help but smile back. He was our moms age but I always thought him very handsome. I'd had a crush on him since I could remember. He was part of Max's pack and they mostly provided personal security for members of the Family. Coco had been protecting our mom at the port since she'd taken over the job here.
"Hey Zivah, you have a big day tomorrow. How are you feeling? You ready?"
The other guard, Blue, replied before I could.
"Come on Coco, don't stress out the girl. She's probably a nervous wreck but won't say a word about it and act tough"
"Bluuuueeee"
I was so embarrassed. He'd hit my feelings exactly. Old wise man that he was even, if he was just barely younger than our mom. My brother, thank goddess, came to my aid.
"We are so ready for tomorrow. It'll be awesome and we will prove that we can join the warrior class and go on missions and stop being treated like kids"
Both wolves chuckled at us as if we were kids. My cheeks turned five more shades of red. Immature Adrick, so much for a save. Coco answered back.
"Alright, well we hope to see you guys kick butt tomorrow. Blue entered in the morning competition to fight Edgar, you guys make sure to check it out. It should be a good show"
"For sure"
My brother beamed at the news. He loved to watch WereWolves fight. Their style was very different from a cats and he seemed particularly interested in it. He was probably influenced by our cousin Edgar who was a werewolf himself. It was only until last year that Adrick had even stood a chance against him but he'd never given up and always searched for new ways to try and have the upper hand.

We all said our goodbyes and started walking the docks again. I looked at Adrick a little happy.
"Guess our fights won't be with Edgar or Blue tomorrow. I guess that's good since those two are the top 5 best wolf fighters right now and the top 10 best warriors"
"Guess your counting yourself lucky Z. You've barely ever gotten the upper hand with Edgar during any type of combat"
"I am excited to see him though. Cyrca, Adams, and Edgar should be arriving just about now at the house. They were gone for a long time this time."
"Let's head home early today to see them. We already caught a smuggler today"
I grinned. I was definitely on board with that plan.