Chapter Twenty-Five
Conrad
“I’ve been thinking.” I sat at the weekly beta meeting, no longer wondering if I’d made the right choice. When the offer was initially made, I’d jumped at it, knowing it was the right thing to do. But now? Now I knew it was right, not just because it would keep me both close and worthy of my omega, but because the job was a perfect fit.
As much as I tried to make my former job more than just sales and installation, that was it at its core even if I did help the environment along the way. This, however, was so much more.
“Dangerous thing if you ask me,” Jamison teased. He probably wasn’t wrong.
“True story,” Cal jibed along like we were brothers.
In many ways, we were brothers, the ceremony to join the pack hadn’t been just words.
“Har-har, do you want to hear me out or not? ’Cause I have a pregnant omega at home who promised me something sweet if I got out of here early.” Cookies, he promised me cookies, but I wasn’t telling them that because at least one of them would end up following me home to eat said cookies and when I got home, cookies weren’t the only thing I wanted in my mouth.
“You have the floor.” Travis rolled his eyes. He had relaxed so much since I’d first met him. Not that anyone in the room would question his authority in any way because he had done so. No, he was just as powerful as he ever had been, only now with a smidgeon of fun in the mix.
I stood, taking the floor.
“As I was saying, I was thinking something doesn’t feel right about the theory that Dash and ‘Boss’ had been working alone. I mean, sure, they were or at least had connections to the hate group, Wolf Allegiance, but there had to be someone close helping, and by close, I mean Angus pack.” Which, from what I’d pieced together, was a hot mess of bad leadership.
“Agreed.” Jamison stood as if asking for the floor, and I nodded, giving it to him before taking my seat. “I have been pondering the same thing, but as we all know, the Angus pack is less than cooperative on every single thing. But my guess is that most of the evidence we need is technology based.”
“Explain.” Travis leaned forward, and I just gave a nod of approval. That had been exactly where my brain had been.
“Wolf Allegiance is all dark-web based,” he began. That part I’d been unaware of. I’d assumed it was… I didn’t know what, but I wasn’t a tech guy—even if I could fake it. “I think if we gave him the right equipment, Cal might be able to look into the aspect of it.” Jamison sat down.
I was still getting used to how the meetings went as far as rules of order, but this method worked so much better than any we had done in our billion-dollar corporation—well, I guess it was my brother’s now. Not that I missed it for a second.
Cal stood. “I could, yes, but if we don’t want to chance it coming back to us, I either need to go far from here and buy all new equipment for cash to do my snooping, or we will need to spend a lot of money keeping things safe.”
He was dumbing it down for us. Even so, it made not much sense.
“Guaranteed safety?” Travis asked.
“I’m good. Probably the best, but no, not guaranteed. I have no idea how technologically advanced their system is, never wanting to venture there and lead them to our doorsteps.”
“And you would be willing to travel, to put your life in danger like that.” Travis wasn’t asking, he was acknowledging the sacrifice being offered.
“Wolf Allegiance is going to be looking at us now that we have an alpha mate and a beta with fur not matching ours. They have been known to destroy a pack over less.”
How had I not known this? True, I’d been a city tiger, but I thought I was well-versed in the ways of things shifter. I knew of the Red Dragons and their seedy side a little close to firsthand, but the wolves and their specist terror group—I’d not a clue.
“If I am not willing to take a stand—a risk—who will?” He sat down, giving up the floor. As much as I’d admired Cal before, my admiration grew exponentially upon what I had just witnessed.
“Betas, do we agree to move forward with this plan?” Travis asked as if this was a democracy. It was not, even though he took our input seriously.
I nodded before giving my neck to Cal, and the others followed suit.
“Then we shall follow through with this plan, beta Cal. Let me know what you need, and we will make it happen.”
Cal stood once again, taking the floor. “All I ask is when I am gone, Blake continues to be guarded as he has been.”
Interesting.
“You want us to sleep under his window?” Jamison asked in all seriousness.
Had that been a thing?
“Please.” He bared his neck. Holy cow, was Blake his omega? As far as I knew, they had never spoken. Only omegas and mated alphas provided sustenance for the two, and Cal was neither.
“Consider it done.” Travis stood. “We shall make a rotation. May we include all betas or just the ones in leadership?” Meaning those in the room.
“Any you would trust with your mate, alpha.”
“Done. I declare this meeting dismissed. Cal, please get me list of requirements by nightfall, and, Conrad, I need you to stick around please.”
Everyone but me filed out.
“Alpha?” I asked as the door clicked closed.
“You joined our pack and became a brother wolf in stripes. It puts you in a position of understanding others do not have.”
I nodded because, what other way could I respond?
“Our healer, Samson, longs to be more than an employee, yet he holds himself back.”
I’d seen his struggle firsthand, only I’d assumed it was the pull he felt to Alex, one he had to have sensed wasn’t reciprocated.
“You would like me to help him?” Not that I was sure how it would go.
“Be there if he needs, yes. Hayden tried, but he joined this pack as a mate, which to his kind is a very different thing.”
His smile when he said his mate’s name mirrored my own when I thought of Jasper. We were both so sickeningly sweet when it came to our mates. Lucky alphas to be sure.
“To be honest, alpha, it was a very different thing for me, too. The ceremony meant so much more to me than I’d begun to suspect it would. I shall open the doors of communication with Samson. It would be my honor.”
“Very well. Now, go find your mate. I hear you have something waiting for you.” He raised his eyebrows up and down as he spoke the innuendo.
“Snickerdoodles, sir.”
“Bah.” He chortled. “No wonder you didn’t clarify. You’d have been followed home by a hungry wolf who’d have eaten the entire batch.”
We both laughed as I pushed the seriousness of the meeting into the back of my brain. There was nothing I could do to make things better, so that was the best place for it. After all, there were cookies to eat and a mate to taste, and that would require all of my concentration if I wanted him to scream my name loud enough for the entire world to hear.