by C. M. Cevis
“You should probably try and find out a bit more about what you are and what you can do. In my experience, unknown or misunderstood abilities are a big problem,” Noah said with a sideways smile.
“Right,” Chloe replied. “Can… we keep this quiet?” she asked. Noah wasn’t sure who he’d tell or why, but he nodded.
“Sure. I don’t see how people knowing would change anything though.”
“The Org isn’t as wonderful or benevolent as they want people to think. I’d rather they not find out that I’m different until I know what that means.”
That made sense. “I won’t breathe a word,” Noah said with a smile.
Chloe smiled and got to her feet. “They’re almost done, which means you’re probably about to be the center of attention. I probably shouldn’t be here for that.”
“Probably not,” Noah said, standing and stretching a bit.
“I’m glad you won,” Chloe said. She let her hand run down his forearm and brush against his fingers, and Noah could have sworn that her fingertips left a faint glowing trail behind on his skin. A sudden tug from inside of his body made him gasp, and he looked down at himself, the pain from the cracked ribs suddenly gone. He lifted his shirt, confused as he watched several of the larger bruises disappear from his skin.
He turned back towards the woods, confused, but Chloe was gone.
34
ROGER WAS IN A BIT of a panic. People much more powerful than he was wanted to know what was going on with the Owen, and why they hadn’t seen Max making a public statement about his death. Roger had tried going up to Max’s office and to his condo several times the day before and hadn’t been able to get into either. Samson had stopped him at the office saying that Max wasn’t in the mood for visitors, and that included him. Roger’s key to Max’s condo no longer worked and no one had answered when he knocked. He hadn’t told anyone that he’d effectively been shut out, but he couldn’t hide it forever.
Then there was the situation with the shifters and Owen. He hadn’t heard much about that since the girl from the Org had shut him out. He’d tried calling the guy that he’d done the deal with, but he had stopped answering his phone days ago and now it was giving a disconnected message when he called. Since he didn’t know where the guy lived or where they’d taken Owen, he had no idea what the hell was going on. He didn’t like not knowing what was going on.
In a spectacular display of desperation, he’d gone to the office again this evening with the intention of forcing his way inside. Instead, he’d gotten a fist full of Samson to the face that had almost caved his head in and been sent on his way. His method of coping, for now, was sitting in the dark in his apartment, rocking slowly. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he needed to come up with something good, quickly.
His phone flashed with an incoming call, and he glanced down at where it sat beside his feet but didn’t answer it. That was going to piss someone off eventually, and they’d come looking for him. Why in the world had he gotten himself involved in this stupidity anyway? Max and Owen had always been good to him and his family, to the point of having to defend themselves about it. Owen had made sure that he had a place in the Directorate, but he hadn’t been satisfied. And when he’d been given a way to become the next in line, he’d ignored the fact that he’d have to betray his oldest and closest friend to get it. It would be worth it in the end, that had been the lie that he’d told himself.
And now, he was sitting in a dark apartment, terrified of the wheels that he’d put into motion, and not sure if his best friend was dead or not.
“See. I told you he’d be here, being a little bitch.” A female voice said.
“Only a little bitch would do what he did to me.” Roger looked up at that. That was Owen’s voice, he’d know it anywhere. So either he was hallucinating, or he was in deep shit.
Two figures stood in the shadows on the other side of the room, and neither moved when it was clear that Roger was aware of their presence in his apartment. They looked to be standing by the entryway, leaning against the small table that he had there.
“Did you know that your girlfriend, the ditzy one, she felt bad about what was going on and spilled what she knew about him to a friend one night at a bar?” the female voice asked.
“She knew?”
“She was screwing him. I thought you could smell it or something when that happened.”
The taller, male figured shrugged, the first movement that Roger had been able to make out. “He lived in my apartment, it wasn’t odd for her to smell like him.
“Hm. I get the feeling that she’s no real loss though. She wasn’t that swift.” The woman chuckled.
“Mia… and no, she wasn’t. To be fair, I wasn’t dating her for her stimulating conversation. I’m a bit shallow from time to time.”
The female figure laughed hard enough for her to double over, and Roger shifted his weight towards the side table and the lamp on it. He had to know if he was hallucinating or not.
“I do wonder what made him do this. Part of me wants to find out before you rip him a new one.” The female said.
“I get to rip him a new one? You really do love me, don’t you?” Owen’s voice laughed as Roger’s trembling hand finally reached the lamp. The click as he turned it on seemed deafening, and the light seemed like it took its own sweet time reaching the other side of the room.
There, completely not a figment of his imagination, stood Chloe and Owen.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill him right away,” Owen said.
Roger had just enough time to put up his hands in a futile defense before Owen came roaring across the room for him.
35
“YOU DIDN’T KILL HIM? I’M shocked,” Samson said.
Owen smirked and settled himself on the couch in his father’s office for the meeting that was about to happen. “Hey now, I can show restraint. I just don’t often choose to.”
“I doubt anyone would have blamed you for that one. Least of all your father or me.”
Owen shrugged. “I know. But that’s not how dad wants things to run. And he’s right, there needs to be order. Me completely ignoring that desire of his would undermine him, and I don’t want to do that.”
Samson gave Owen a surprised look. “I never took you for the type who would think about things so maturely.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment, instead of thinking about the fact that previously, you thought I was an immature dolt.”
“Probably for the best,” Samson said with a chuckle as Max and a few others walked into the room.
“So, the initial crisis seems to have been averted for now,” Max boomed as he walked into the room, giving his son a proud look.
“There is still a bit of digging around that I want to get done in order to be certain, but at first glance yes,” Owen replied. He didn’t stand as those around him took their seats as there was no need to. They were there to talk strategy, and in meetings such as these, formalities were out of place.
“I noticed that your girlfriend, Mia, wasn’t at your release party. I’d thought it odd at the time, but there were more pressing matters to attend to, so I didn’t bring it up.” Samson said.
Owen frowned. Samson was right, that was super odd considering what happened to him there. He pushed himself to his feet, phone already in hand. “Please excuse me a moment.”
The hallway outside of the office was often abandoned. Max had paid for seclusion in his office space, not wanting anyone to have the opportunity to overhear anything that wasn’t their business and the like. Owen took a few steps further down the hallway and dialed Mia’s number.
“Well holy shit, I didn’t expect to hear from you again,” Mia said in lieu of a greeting. She chuckled as if him being kidnapped was nothing and he’d just been across town for a few days.
“Why is that?” Owen asked leaning back against the wall and preparing himself for something that was probably going to irritate him.
Owen had heard enough of her initial answer to get it. She’d known something about what Roger had done, though he didn’t know how much. That was enough for him to want to rip her apart already, but he wouldn’t. That wouldn’t help anything.
“Oh. Interesting. Do you think we could get together tonight? It’s been a while and I haven’t seen you. I missed you,” he said, laying it on thick.
“Well, this is a change of pace for you,” Mia giggled.
“I was always busy, but I’ve been given a bit of a break to get my shit together now that I’m back, you know? So how about it?”
“Sure, do you want me to wait for you at your place?” Owen made a note to change his locks. Or maybe just move.
“I’ll come to you. I’ve got to finish this short meeting, and I’ll be over there around six, alright?”
“I’ll have wine waiting.” Mia did that silly, squeaky laugh that she did when she was really happy about something, and Owen ended the call before walking back into the office. Every eye in the room turned to face him as the door closed.
“Mia knows something about what Roger was planning. She’ll be at her apartment tonight at six, and I have an extra key to the place. She needs to be detained.”
Max smiled at his son from where he sat and nodded. “Give the key to Samson and he can make the arrangements.”
~*~
“MAY I ASK A QUESTION?” Noah asked. He was currently sitting in a room with several of the other elders from other packs, being taught what it meant for him to be taking over as alpha of his own.
“Anything,” Samantha said. Sam was the physical embodiment of the phrase “sweet old woman,” and Noah loved her.
“Do I have to do things a certain way? For example, if I feel that those in my pack ought to be able to choose where they live instead of living in a dormitory, for all intents and purposes, can I tell them to all go be adults and set up some sort of monthly meeting or something?”
The elders around him all exchange looks that made him wonder if he’d asked a really stupid question, and it was Bo, an elder with muscular arms, full sleeve tattoos and a total gray fox thing going on with his beard and hair, who answered.
“The dorm thing that your pack was doing was not something that anyone else does, and it wasn’t something that we told Leo that he had to do. It was something that he chose in order to better be able to control you all.”
Noah frowned and sighed deeply, rubbing his temples. “So, he forced all of us to live together just so that he could have the freedom to be an ass to everyone, whenever he wanted to be?”
“Pretty much,” Bo said with a shrug.
“So what do your packs do?”
“Mine meets weekly for those who want to, monthly is mandatory for full moons. That way I know that everyone who has control issues during that time is somewhere safe, instead of out murdering someone by accident.”
“Our weekly meetings are mandatory, but usually short, more of a check-in,” Samantha chimed in.
Others spoke up stating that their packs did something similar, all of them saying that the monthly full moon meetings were essential, but that none of them lived together.
“I’m telling the others to find their own places. I don’t need to be around all of them that much. I’d rather be alone anyway,” Noah said. The room seemed to give a collective nod of approval.
“You are free to have your girlfriend live with you if you’d like,” Bo said. Noah almost winced.
“She wasn’t mine for the right reasons. Breaking that off will be step two.”
“As you wish. But she won’t be happy about it,” Sam said.
“I won’t be happy if I stay, and I haven’t been happy for a long time. I feel like I need to change that, especially if there are a bunch of people who are now looking to me to make some decisions for them. I need to be in a good place to do that.”
“You are correct,” Bo agreed. “Beak it off with the bouncy blonde. She’ll be fine.”
Noah smirked. “I’m sure that she will.”
Noah left the final meeting with the elders and finally, after several days gone, returned to the pack that he was now in charge of. Nothing much had changed since the reigns had been handed over to him, mainly because he hadn’t been there to change anything. He’d spent days studying with the elders, learning what it meant to be an alpha and what it meant to be in charge of a pack so that he’d know what to do. People seemed a bit happier to see him when he walked through the front door. He’d even heard from the elders that most if not all of them were glad that Leo was gone.
“Gather everyone in the common room, would you?” Noah asked the closest person to him. And what do you know, he scampered off and did as he was told. Ten minutes flat, and Noah had the entire pack ready and waiting.
“Alright guys, I know this is going to be a big change for all of us, but I don’t intend on making this more difficult than it already is. First question, how many of you don’t like living in this dorm-like situation?” Everyone looked cautiously from one to another, but no one spoke up. “It’s not a trick question guys, I honestly want to know.”
“I don’t like it. I feel like I don’t have any privacy.” One of the females piped up from the back.
“Thank you for telling me that. Anyone else?”
“I’d prefer that I had a bit more say in where I live. This place makes my commute to work three times longer than it needs to be,” one of the guys said.
Samson nodded. “Good, who else?”
The room erupted with opinions about the current living situation, and everyone seemed to agree that it wasn’t ideal. That was going to make Noah’s first rule as an alpha super easy to hand down.
“Alright guys, thank you for that. Thank you for your honest opinions about our current situation and thank you for letting me know that I’m not the only one who hates this arrangement that we were pushed into.” The room fell into a hushed silence as if everyone was surprised to hear him say that.
“Here’s what I propose: We keep the lease on this place until everyone has had the change to apartment shop and find a place that they actually like. Once everyone has their own, that’s when I’ll let this place go. I don’t want anyone having to rush or signing a lease that they aren’t sure about because they think that they don’t have time. Will that work for everyone?”
A chorus of affirmative responses traveled the room, and Noah smiled.
“Awesome. Part two of my proposals for us actually comes from what other packs in the area are doing. While I don’t believe that we need to live together, I don’t want us to grow apart as a family. So, I propose weekly meetings that aren’t mandatory, and monthly meetings that are.”
“Meetings about what?” someone called out from the back of the room.
“Well, I’d prefer that the weekly meetings be a bit less formal, something more like us getting together to air any grievances and hang out a bit. Perhaps we’ll rent out a room at one of the restaurants nearby, or meet at a local bar, something like that. The day and time would always stay consistent, so it would be easier to plan around it. But if you can’t make it, or if you don’t want to make it, that’s fine too.”
“And the monthly mandatory? Is that on the full moon?” someone else asked.
“Smart dude. It would be on the full moon. The idea is that if there are any newly turned in the pack, they are with us, with people who can help them stay in control or keep them from making a mistake that costs someone their life. And if it’s just us for whom this is old hat, it’s the one night a month where literally all of us get together and burn off some steam.”
The room began to bubble with murmurs of agreement and excitement.
“I take it everyone is alright with this?” Noah called out.
“Oh yeah!” came the return as others co-signed.
“
Good. Take your time on the apartments, I’ll start looking into local places for our meetings that won’t mind us taking up some space. If you need anything, you all know where I am and how to reach me. I won’t move out without telling you all where I’m going, don’t worry.” Noah said with a grin to the room before he dismissed them.
“I think that went well, hm?” Amber purred sliding up beside him and pressing herself against the side of his body. He almost rolled his eyes.
“That reminds me. You and I need to talk.”
Epilogue
Owen, Max, and Samson had just finished a rather tense meeting via video call with the Directorate. They had Roger and had found out more about the plan that he’d put into place to take them down. To say that the information was shocking was a vast understatement, but they’d wanted to know.
Roger had been sentenced to die truly within the next week, and neither Max nor Owen wanted to be there. That had been the last ask of the call, and neither of them had hesitated on that. Max shared that Roger’s father had called and asked for him to intervene, and he’d declined stating that Roger had attempted to kill Owen and bring everything that Max had built down and that there was no way that he was going to intervene in that situation. Roger’s father had apparently reacted by saying some rather inappropriate things about Owen’s deceased mother and then hanging up rather abruptly. Max had blocked him from contacting either of them ever again.
After the call, all three of the men agreed that they needed some air and decided that the best way to get some was to leave the office and perhaps go to that fancy bar that Samson seemed to like so much. They hadn’t counted on the large media presence outside, and they weren’t sure why they were there either.
The cameras and microphones started going as soon as they stepped through onto the street, but the questions shouted were jumbled together as everyone tried to be the one person being heard. Max held up his hands and parted his lips to call for order.
