Abusing the Alpha (Seraphine Thomas Book 4)

by Erin R Flynn

  “I’m glad you have this crisis of conscious. It makes me worry less about your power, as you have an astounding amount for one so new.”

  “I’m going to ignore how much that sounds like you’re going to keep an eye on me in case you need to smack me down or something.” I took a long drink of my milkshake and kept her gaze, not really doing well at looking badass in my state while chugging strawberry milkshake.

  “Don’t worry, we keep eyes on everyone. It’s our job as the ruling body.” I opened my mouth to say something, and Hagan about shoved the straw back in my mouth to take the hint to shut up. “No, no, let her speak. I challenged her in a way. I’d like to hear her response.”

  “No one’s perfect, so I get everyone checking in with each other, but if you guys were so perfect or the best judges, you wouldn’t have let the situation with Engle get so bad. I raise red flags? For fuck’s sake, someone put a footnote on one of your reports commending him on how many women he had in the pack and to find out how he was drawing them to Chicago. He was making them, and weak so he could keep them all victims.”

  “Yes, that idiot observer has since been reprimanded,” she drawled, rolling her eyes. “And we would be stupid not to worry about you, Seraphine. You are new. You are powerful. You’re now Alpha of one of the largest packs in the best organized country that doesn’t outright hunt us, and you work for the federal government. There were those who said you should be taken out immediately the moment you tried to mess with the system.”

  “You’re not making me like the council any more than a moment ago,” I growled. “Everyone tells me you guys are the boogeymen. Ruthless and arrogant, not checking your facts or taking the time to do things right, always setting examples so no one ever misbehaves again. Well, all that’s done is make it so no one wants to tell you guys shit or ever get involved, hiding their heads in the sand. There’s a better way.”

  “And you know this better way?” she taunted, smirking at me.

  “Shit, a five-year-old knows a better way than wiping out whole packs because some of it was rotten,” I snapped. “I’m not saying I know the best way, but what we’ve done has worked. People are getting involved and reporting crimes against paranormals in Chicago, demanding equal treatment for paranormals. Isn’t that what we want?”

  “It is. I agree with you.” There was a pause, and Hagan put the straw back, clearly saying let it go, so I did and slurped my milkshake. “For the record, I adamantly fought for you not to be killed. I believe there’s a better way too. We simply needed people on both sides of the wall to work with each other better. You’re even better because you ride two sides of the triangle, which is what might be the true answer none of us ever saw.”

  “You mean she’s law enforcement and one of our leaders?” Simone checked, waiting until the councilwoman nodded. “Working with you who’s in our ruling body.”

  “Yes, and not just me. She has now made friends with the International Vampire Council, one of which cannot stop singing her praises for keeping a lid on their embarrassing situation of having one of their members go crazy as fuck.”

  “Yeah, that’s one way to refer to Igor.” Without thinking, I went to pull my body closer into myself, but cried out in pain as my leg bitched and my shoulder didn’t work. “Shit, forgot.”

  “Yes, as did I at how fresh your wounds are from the councilman’s visit,” she apologized. “Back to the matter at hand, with you having your own territory, it would be customary for you to sell or name someone local to manage your investment, which is why you’re so popular. However, if you object to such an arrangement as being bequeathed the Tropicana owner’s holdings, you still handled and resolved the theft ring, the monies being returned to the banks already, so the allocation of his properties is up to you.”

  “You don’t have to have an answer now,” Reagan reminded me, holding up a bite of steak. “It’s going to get cold, and I don’t know if it goes with milkshake.”

  “Everything goes with milkshakes, silly.” I took the bite and chewed it before focusing on the councilwoman again. “I’ll get you an answer before I leave. I don’t want to make any major decisions while there is pain clouding my head.”

  “If I might make a suggestion?”

  “Sure. Always up for suggestions when I stumble into new territory.”

  “You and your boss are petitioning for the allocation of funds your government doesn’t have for training facilities that your normal FBI does. There have been whispers about our kind starting issues over paying taxes to police forces that police humans when we don’t have ones that help us. This might be the time for certain funds to be donated to such a cause, making the pledge that if the government won’t allocate the funds for more than humans when more than humans pay those taxes, we’re willing to make it happen for our safety.”

  “Underhanded but well, we’re not getting traction, so I’ll think about it,” I admitted, taking another bite.

  “I think hospitals and other institutions that kept us from the poor, poor humans, was one thing, one they fought for right away, and we were just grateful to have places to go,” Simone muttered as we all mulled the issue. “But to help make the system fairer for us non-humans would scare those who don’t think it should be and we should be kept as second class citizens or hassled without anyone being able to stop them.”

  Unfortunately, Simone wasn’t wrong, and while I understood a lot of humans came from a place of fear, it didn’t make it right. The rest came from hate.

  And hate spread. Especially amongst those born paranormals who had to fight all their lives to be accepted in a world that was made to be shared.

  15

  “What are you thinking about so hard over there?” Hagan asked gently as he washed me just as tenderly.

  I blinked at him a moment and changed the topic instead of answering. He didn’t need to know the depressing thoughts still stuck in my head from the last conversation we’d all had. “You think Reagan’s still mad at me?”

  It was his turn to blink at me. “I don’t think he’s mad at you at all, Sera. I think he’s pissed you got hurt.” I opened my mouth to ask what the difference was but then closed it. “Yeah, not the same thing.”

  “No, no it’s not. It’s just hard to read him or know what I should do. React, I guess.”

  “How do you want to react?”

  “What do you mean?” I tried not to flinch as he washed my toes. God, that tickled.

  “I mean, are you mad that he’s acting mad in your eyes, or is there something about his attitude that upset you?” he pushed, glancing at me a moment before working the wash cloth over my foot and up my ankle.

  “No, I think I’m bracing for impact.” When he gave me a confused look, I sighed and sank further into the water. “He gets that look Havers has where I know the lecture or blow up is coming, the one tons of guys I’ve worked for or worked with have. Or dated. Normally before they end things because I’m not worth it or everything’s gotta be my way and they don’t like that way.”

  “I think you’re letting your past leak all over my twin, and I’m not much of a fan of that, Sera,” Hagan murmured, moving up to my injured leg, treating it as if it and I were made of glass.

  “Maybe. I’m not trying to, but everyone does to some extent, Hagan. It’s how we learn and survive. It’s how we know when to read the signs of everything from a hug to a fight to danger. And I’m not saying he’s going to or he’s done something to upset me.

  “You asked if I was pissed because he’s making me feel like I’m in trouble. I’m not. I’m trying to do better, Hagan. I want to know how to read him so I don’t make the same mistakes of the past, not assume he’ll be a jerk as some of those guys were or a person I can’t get along with. One who won’t put up with me.”

  “Okay, that makes more sense.” We were quiet a few moments, and then he sighed. “I think we’re learning our place at your side, Sera. We’re your Betas, but we don’t work for yo
u at the FBI. I think he’s upset at his limits, as I know I am.”

  “Then let’s talk about that,” I offered with a nod. “I get finding your place, I am too, but I don’t understand exactly what you mean by the rest.”

  The door opened fast, and I jumped in response, groaning in pain as my leg didn’t move with me since it was in Hagan’s arms. Worry washed over Reagan’s face. “Are you okay? Sorry. I couldn’t take any more listening from the bedroom, and it didn’t seem right with you not knowing I could hear.”

  “Of course you could hear,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at myself, remembering I was an idiot at times. Hell, I was a shifter and forgot how good our hearing was too. “So, are you mad at me?”

  “No, no, Sera,” he sighed as he knelt next to the tub, not sounding all that convincing. “There’s no blow up coming, I’m not going to yell or lecture. I have no lecture to even give.”

  “But?”

  “No but,” he chuckled, taking my hand in his and kissing it. “This is our lives. Your job is dangerous. Being Alpha is dangerous. It comes with risks. There’s no way to always prevent that.”

  “But?”

  “But Hagan’s not wrong, and the lines are a bit blurry. I think—and I’m not saying it’s anyone’s fault or we did anything wrong—that’s something we should work on.”

  “I agree.” They both blinked at me as if shocked I would say such a thing, and I laughed. “Guys, we can always do better. I also agree that things have been a bit muddled because of my job and taking over as Alpha, getting the boys, and fuck, all of it. I think we need to assess where things are at and figure out what to do moving forward. What that is, I don’t know, but there’s got to be a way to do it better. I’m open to suggestions.”

  “I think when we’re stand-in as backup for FBI stuff, we stop waiting for orders and act like it’s our op,” Reagan suggested, laying his head on the edge of the tub. “You do your thing, we do ours, and there will be overlap, sure, and we’ll be there to jump in the fight if we know one is taking place. Or if there’s something specific you need us to do, then of course we will handle that.”

  The true reason for his anger hit me like a ton of bricks. “You would have checked every inch of that pool and found that other door, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t have relied only on Gearmo’s intel.”

  “Yes,” Reagan sighed, his shoulders relaxing as if knowing that without having to be the one to say “we wouldn’t have made that mistake” weighed on him. “We’re Marines, Sera. We learn that we live and die by knowing every ingress and egress point.”

  “Not to say that we would have automatically checked the pool or that anyone did anything wrong,” Hagan clarified, and I knew then it bothered him as well. “But if we weren’t waiting for orders on what to do next in a holding pattern like we normally are instead of clear on our role, we might have.”

  “I thought you guys were doing that, and if I wasn’t clear enough on your role, then I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes and pulled my hand out of Reagan’s, finding his soft hair to play with instead. “I was undercover work. I always knew there would be uncontrolled variables. You just had to learn to roll with it or you switched jobs.”

  “Yes, but you had an inside team that should have limited those variables,” Hagan debated, moving to my other leg to wash. “We have some of both worlds and know how to move as a team. You flew solo, blindly trusting your backup if you had any. You can work a crime scene, or hell, you and Harris talked to that shark shifter in a way we never could. But laying out a play or surveillance is like our bread and butter.”

  “Okay, then by all means. If you guys are in on something, show us, tell us what you know, what you’d do, just as Noah does.”

  “Noah does that?” Reagan checked, and I smiled. Good, it wasn’t my screw up but more a comedy of missteps.

  “Yup. When he helped us catch the assassin Bob—”

  “You mean Black Vengeance,” Hagan chuckled.

  “I refuse to call an assassin that. Makes him sound like a damn superhero,” I growled quietly. “Anyways, Noah jumped right in about the ballistic glass and what he knew about one of us breaking it. When Harris and I raced after the guy, Noah was the one who took the shot. If you guys are our backup, you’re on the team for the day or case or whatever, so be on the team. Yes, if it’s ‘round people up’ kind of help, wait for orders, but if you know ways to get things done as only you can…”

  “Sera? Sera?” Hagan worried, and my gaze darted to meet his eyes. “Where did you go?”

  “No, sorry, was thinking about that shifter killer. Something’s been bothering me about it that none of us have even an inkling on what kind from the wounds. Sure, we can’t smell it, but even the wounds—my team was able to point me in the right direction when we dealt with Bob, and that was before they were trained. So why can’t they tell me anything this time?”

  “Because it’s too nondescript,” Reagan murmured. He stood, and I watched as he pulled off his clothes. “Sorry, I need to help. There’s no lecture, and I’m not mad, but we could have lost you, so deal with some extra clinging and attention.”

  “I’m okay with that. I just need a heads up or something as to what to expect.” He got in the tub behind me, exceedingly careful of my injuries. “I can deal with extra spoiling.” He grabbed another wash cloth and took care of my back. “Repeat what you said about the case.”

  “It’s too nondescript. Like basic as if I was to point to something that said that’s what a shifter kill looks like, it would be one of those murders. A textbook example even.”

  “Right, but nothing to lean towards which shifter, as if not wanting to point one way or the other or they didn’t know how to make it like one species over another.”

  Hagan raised an eyebrow at me as he washed between my legs, making it as clinical and unseductive as possible, which I appreciated at the moment since I was hurt. “You think someone made the kill look like it was a shifter to cover it up?”

  “Yes, but claws and knives make different cuts, unless the medical examiner just assumed claws and didn’t look at the cuts really well. I mean, some claws can cut as clean as thin blades and others as serrated axes. It all depends on the size, speed of the attack, force behind the swing—all of it.”

  “How deep they go, how much movement there is after the cut,” Reagan added, and I sighed as he finished my back and leaned me against him.

  “Exactly.”

  “You should feed,” Hagan announced, changing the topic. “She’s probably hungry given the injury and drain on all fronts. I mean, you’re extra hungry to heal for the wolf.”

  “Makes sense,” I admitted, kind of wondering why I’d healed so much so fast but really stayed almost the same since I’d woken up.

  Because you’ve been ignoring me again, she breathed in my head. Whoops! Hagan leaned in, and I drank some of him down, taking a bigger gulp than normal because I knew he could handle it. My siren practically sighed, and I felt my neck burn with healing again.

  “Yeah, I did need that. Smart men are sexy,” I murmured, leaning against Reagan. “Now if someone would just bring me gobs of real food that I didn’t feel like I should eat with my pinky sticking up—”

  “I fed you,” Reagan chuckled, kissing my hair.

  “Okay, I’m back,” Harris called through the door. “I’ve got four Jimmy Johns subs, two pickles, a few Cokes, and a couple of blizzards for you, Chief.”

  “Harris, I love you,” I called out, ready to weep with excitement. Yeah, the Bellagio’s food was awesome, but when starving, hurt, and needing boatloads of it for recovery, their sixty dollar tiny steak made me want to cry no matter how fabulous the cut or sauce on it.

  They practically had to hold me down to finish the bath after that. I got some more energy from Reagan, and he muttered that he wasn’t sure if me feeling better was good or a bad thing considering I needed to heal. I simply kissed him as he carried me out to the bed in the bathrobe, the boy
s promising to dry my hair so I didn’t get sick with the air conditioning on so high.

  Apparently we could still catch colds, simply abbreviated versions of them. Bacteria was bacteria, but viruses our bodies kicked out. Live and learn.

  And find out that there wasn’t any way to hold a Jimmy John’s Gargantuan sub with one hand and not make a mess. Hagan teased me the entire time as he cleaned up after me, crumbs and veggies littering the bedding.

  Noah finally showed his face, explaining he’d been handling potential backlash from the owners of the Tropicana and studying the Bellagio’s security and surveillance measures now that we were such buddies with Gearmo. Reagan and Hagan wore shared expressions that they’d wanted to do the same, so I had Noah outline to them how he worked with us when he jumped into the mix.

  Granted, Noah hadn’t been doing it all that long, but some experience was better than none. And Noah had been brought in before on other teams, training others as well so he had a wide variety of knowledge. Hagan and Reagan’s differed from mine, but theirs was Marine specific.

  There was a knock at the suite’s outer door, and Shaw announced she’d answer it while we all kept talking and working. Just when I thought we were done with surprises for the day, hell, maybe even the visit, she came walking back into my bedroom pale as a ghost.

  “Shaw, you okay?” I asked, repeating myself a few times, everyone now noticing what I did. “Luna Shaw, snap out of it.”

  “Sorry, Chief,” she whispered, her voice distant and shaky. So was the hand that extended with a postcard in it. “You’ve been summoned to Caesar’s Palace.”

  “Um, someone explain because right now, that statement makes no sense to me,” I worried as I took it from her. The penmanship was gorgeous, a calligraphy I doubted any human could achieve without a computer given the level of vision needed to see all the nuances of it.

  Seraphine Thomas, you are to arrive alone at nine in the morning for your audience with Her Majesty.