by Nora Phoenix
"I would love for all of you to stop by today to have some more blood drawn," Sando said, seemingly unaware of the dynamics, which was so like him. The omega was smart as a whip, but oblivious to relationships and undercurrents most of the time. “I want to compare the protein levels again from the blood work I have before you shifted, to see if anything has changed. This is an amazing breakthrough in my research, and I can't wait to work on this."
"Since the clinic is closed today, I'd be happy to help you," Maz said. "If you want, that is," he added, making Palani feel much better about that relationship as well.
Maybe he should stop being such a worrywart, he thought with amusement. It seemed people were working out their shit just fine without him intervening.
"You heard the man," Lidon said. "Make sure to stop by at your earliest convenience so Sando can continue his groundbreaking research."
If Palani hadn't loved Lidon beyond words already, he would've fallen for him all over again at the way he just embraced the omega's work. More than anything else, that made Palani proud—that they had created a pack where everyone was seen as the sum of their character and talents, not their physical appearance or identity.
"We wanted to ask something," Ruari said, as if proving Palani's point by speaking up himself rather than having one of his mates speak for him. "Would it be okay with everyone if Kean and Bray officially moved in with me in Omega One for now? It's the easiest place for us to be, since we have enough room for the four of us, with all the convenience for Jax as well."
Palani looked at Lidon. His first instinct was to say yes, but something held him back. First of all, that wasn’t what the omega buildings were created for, but more importantly, it was far from ideal. That room was way too small for three adults and baby. Plus, he really preferred to have the children in the main house—Jawon's House, he corrected himself. Not just for safety reasons, since it had now proven to be the safest place for them, but also for convenience of babysitting. With Sven’s baby on the way making three, it made way more sense to create a place where they could all be together so only one person would have to watch them at a time.
"What if we give them the ballroom?" he asked Lidon, not even worrying about having this discussion in public. "We could create a master bedroom there, with an en suite bathroom and a baby room for Jax. It adjoins the second kitchen we have there, which we never use, and we could update that a little for them. We’re kind of maxed out on capacity in this one anyway. And we can break down a wall between Grayson’s room and the guest room next door and create a bigger room for them as well for when the baby comes.”
Lidon nodded instantly. "I like that idea much better." He turned toward Ruari. "Discuss it with the three of you if that would work as well. We'd love to have you here in the…in Jawon's House."
Nope, Palani decided. It really wasn't possible for him to love his alpha even more.
Bray was finishing breakfast, processing the generous offer of clearing that massive ballroom and creating a place for the four of them in the main house—Jawon's House—when his phone rang. He checked the caller ID and saw it was the front gate.
"Boss, we have visitors," Farran, one of his men, said when he picked up.
Bray frowned. They weren't expecting guests, and he doubted Lidon would want to see anyone considering what had happened. "Ask them to identify themselves."
"I don't need to. It's the prime minister."
Bray exhaled slowly. "Give me one minute."
He ended the call and turned to Lidon and Palani. "We have a problem. York just showed up at the gate."
A heavy silence descended upon the room, because they all realized the potential consequences of this visit. They had fourteen bodies in a cooled storage room in the basement, still awaiting burial or whatever they'd decide to do with them. They also still had Wyndham locked in a room in that same basement, looking a little worse for wear after Bray had gone a few interrogation rounds with him, so far without the desired results.
"He's here to make good on his threats," Palani said. "He knows what happened, and he'll use it to force us to do his will."
"I think you're right, but let's meet with him and see what he says," Lidon said. "Outside the gates. He is not coming inside the gates at any time, under any circumstances, Bray."
"Crystal clear, alpha," Bray said.
"Let's go meet him," Lidon said, and he got up first, followed by Palani and Bray.
Kean grabbed his hand just as Bray wanted to leave. "Be careful," he said with an edge to his voice.
At first, Bray wanted to wave it off as him being overconcerned, but then it hit him. It would take a while for Kean to get his sense of safety back, not just for himself, but for others as well. And so he leaned in for a quick kiss. "I promise."
And because he'd kissed Kean, he figured he couldn't leave Ruari out, so he gave him a kiss as well. When he rose, his father looked at him with more pride than he'd seen in his eyes for a long time. Maybe he was finally getting the hang of not being an alpha-asshole.
He hurried after Lidon and Palani, and the three of them walked toward the main gate where a shiny, black limo stood waiting, the engine running. Bray nodded at Farran and opened the small side gate with his phone. They waited next to the limo, and it only took a few seconds before the window zoomed down.
"You're not even going to extend me the courtesy of inviting me in?" York said.
Lidon crossed his arms. "Whatever you have to say, you'll have to do it here."
York shot him a dark look, but of course, that didn't impress Lidon at all. After a few more seconds, the prime minister opened the door and got out of the car. He was sharply dressed, as usual, and it was hard to deny the man had charisma.
He and Lidon stared at each other for a while, and it gave Bray a strange satisfaction to see Lidon was not only taller than the prime minister, but bigger as well. Sure, in theory size didn't matter, but in situations like this, it didn't hurt to have physical superiority.
"I heard you ran into some trouble," York finally said.
"You would know," Palani spoke up, and man, you had to admire his balls.
York dragged his gaze from Lidon to Palani, showing thinly veiled annoyance. "Mr. Hightower, back to your passive-aggressive barbs, I see?"
Palani stepped closer, bumping shoulders with Lidon, while Bray hung back a bit to observe. "There's nothing passive about it. You knew what they had planned, and you did nothing to stop it."
"Tsk, tsk, you have bad memory there, Mr. Hightower. Or can I call you Palani?"
Palani shrugged. "Quite frankly, I don't really give a flying fuck what you call me. And there's nothing wrong with my memory, for the record."
"I offered you my assistance, and you refused," York said.
"Your assistance came with a thousand strings attached. That's not offering help. That's blackmail."
Bray had wondered before why Lidon seemed content to let Palani fight his battles, but he was understanding it more and more. It wasn't that Lidon couldn't do it himself, it was that Palani was so damn good at it. The man had a way with words, and his genuine anger was a sight to behold.
York waved his words off, or at least, tried to. "That's all water under the bridge now."
Then his eyes sharpened, and Bray mentally braced himself because the man was about to go for the kill. "What's not in the past is the carnage of what happened here and the dead bodies you have. I have no other choice but to start an official investigation into the massacre that happened at this place. We'll go over every inch of this ranch with a fine-tooth comb, and you can be damn sure we will have our best investigators on the case, including medical examiners to check the bodies. Let's hope for all your sakes that the investigation won't turn up anything suspicious…like proof of the presence of a wolf.”
And there it was, the expected threat. It was some measure of comfort that the man had proved to be completely predictable, but they still hadn't figured out a foolproof
way out of it.
York looked at Lidon and Palani expectantly, but neither responded." Well, what you have to say to that?" the prime minister said impatiently.
Palani shrugged. "I was waiting for you to add the rest of your proposal, which I'm sure is another charitable word for blackmail."
Anger once again flashed in York's eyes, and his jaw ticked. "I'm not sure how you can use that word when all I'm saying is that I need to order an investigation."
"Cut out the games," Lidon said, annoyance dripping from his voice. "We both know you have an agenda here, so why don't you just share it with us? You don't want this investigation any more than we do, so what do you need us to do to make it go away?"
York didn't last longer than maybe five, six seconds before he answered. "I want full access to all the information you have on the Melloni gene, on shifting, on how you made it work. I want to see your pack with my own eyes. It's either that, or I will alert the authorities and have you fully investigated, which, I'm sure, could lead to multiple murder charges."
Lidon nodded. "Good."
York frowned in confusion. "Good? Does that mean you accept my proposal?"
Lidon stepped back and shared a look with Palani that Bray couldn't interpret. "Hell no, but at least now we know what it is you want."
York's face tightened, anger burning in his eyes. "Don't underestimate me, Hayes. Bigger men than you have tried and came up short. You have twenty-four hours before I order a full-blown investigation."
Bray knew what Lidon was about to do before he felt his strength waning for a second, followed by that now-familiar blast of power. Instead of facing a man, the prime minister was now facing a massive wolf who growled low in the back of its throat.
York scrambled backward, his ass pressed against the car. "Call him back," he shouted out at Palani.
Palani shrugged. "You wanted to see a wolf? You wanted to see us shift? I thought this was what you wanted. He's not some pet I can control."
He stepped back and turned around, clearly intending on walking away. Then he looked over his shoulder and said, "And I call bullshit on your bigger men remark. That's Lidon Hayes, pack alpha of the Hayes pack and the one True Alpha of this generation. There are no bigger men than him."
As exit lines went, Bray thought that one was as perfect as they got.
8
They had another pack meeting that night, using the living room rather than the barn. Kean wasn't sure why, maybe because they all needed to feel a little safer, but he for one was happier it took place in Jawon's House. They piled on the couch, on chairs, and all over the floor. They were shoulder to shoulder and butt to butt, but the sense of community it created was a welcome feeling that nourished his soul.
Palani briefly explained what the conversation with the prime minister had entailed, and an angry murmur traveled through the group. "He gave us a twenty-four-hour ultimatum, so the question is how we should respond. Obviously, we're not intending to give him any access, but his threat of a full investigation isn't an empty one."
"How will an investigation like that help him?" Grayson asked, and it was the same thing Kean had wondered. "Let's say he orders one and they uncover the truth, how will that help him?"
"That's a good question, and I don't have a good answer for you," Palani said. "It's what Lidon, Bray, and I have discussed as well. We don't see what's in it for him. Assuming he hasn't changed his mind and his agenda is still to bring the shifters back, any information about how violent wolves can be would be counter-productive."
"He could suppress any information he doesn't like," Kean suggested. "We've already seen he's less than forthcoming when it comes to the truth. He could use the results of the investigation in as far as they further his cause and suppress the rest."
Palani and Lidon shared a look. "That's not out of the realm of possibilities," Lidon said. "His reach is certainly far enough to make that happen."
"But no matter what he does with the results, we still don't want the investigation in the first place," Rhene said. "The problem with investigations like that is once they have a warrant, they can use it to search anything and everything, talk to everyone. Uncover anything even remotely related to the ranch. We don't want that to happen."
Kean loved how his youngest brother talked about we, even though he'd only officially joined the pack days before the attack. Plus, he made some excellent points.
"Agreed," Palani said.
Lidon laughed, elbowing Palani. "We could just ask everyone but the three Hightower brothers to shut up, so you guys can figure out a solution."
A ripple of laughter traveled through the group, but it was good-natured, and secretly, Kean didn't mind they had that reputation at all. "Not to play into your hands, but I do have an idea," he said.
Lidon laughed again. "Of course you do. Let us hear it."
"First, let me ask this: do we have any indication whatsoever that the prime minister's agenda has changed? Are we one hundred percent certain that the return of the shifters is still his goal?" Kean asked.
Everyone looked at each other with frowns and questioning faces. "I think that answers your question as best as we can," Lidon said. "It's impossible to look inside the man's head, but we've seen no signs he's changed course. Why?"
"In that case, I suggest we blackmail him right back," Kean said.
"With what?" Grayson asked. "What do we have on him that he doesn't want us to reveal?"
"We have the information about his election fraud," Vieno brought up. "He may already be in power, but I don't think that's something he wants to become public knowledge, right?"
Kean nodded. "Exactly. I think we can use that, but we have a few more tricks up our sleeve. Instead of asking ourselves what he could possibly gain by making the results of the investigation public, let's ask ourselves what he's after. The investigation is a means to an end, so what is his endgame? What is the information he's after?"
Palani's head turned toward him with a sharp jerk. "Oh my god, you're right. Of course. It's what he's been after all along. He wants to know how we did it, how it's possible that we can shift."
"I realized something else," Bray said, who was seated behind Kean and Ruari. They were both on the floor, leaning against his legs. "In our conversation with York, he alluded to the presence of a wolf. Not wolves as in multiple wolves. He doesn't know Vieno shifted as well, and he sure as hell doesn't know more of us can shift now. He thinks it's still just Lidon."
That earned him a look of approval from both Lidon and Palani. "Good catch, Bray. I hadn't picked up on that, but you're right. That means he only has partial information."
"He also didn't mention Wyndham, so I'm not sure if York knows he's still alive," Bray said. "But he is quite a notorious crime lord after all, so maybe we can even use him to some advantage."
He didn't seem to realize the connection to Ruari until he was done speaking, and Kean heard his sharp intake of breath. Before Bray could say anything, Ruari turned his head toward him. "It's okay," he said, his voice steady. "You should use him in any way you can. He doesn't deserve any consideration or mercy."
Kean still reached for his hand, grateful when Ruari accepted it, then gave it a little squeeze. As calm as the omega sounded, he couldn't imagine him not having conflicted emotions about this. The man was a criminal, and bad to the bone, but he was still his father.
"Okay, we'll take this into consideration and see if we can figure out a way to put pressure on him in return," Palani said.
"We also wanted to talk to you guys about adding to the pack," Lidon said. "We have eighteen official pack members now, plus a rotating crew of Bray's men, but we need reinforcements. Not just because safety is in numbers, though I won't deny that's a big consideration as well, but also because the pack needs fresh blood to thrive."
"We all saw who shifted last night," Palani said. "The difference was being mated, either officially and in the form of an alpha claim, or fated mates. In order fo
r the rest of the pack to shift as well, they'd need to find suitable mates, and since we hardly ever leave the ranch, we’ll have to bring in some new people."
"Oh my god," Rhene said, bursting out in a laugh. "You've turned into a pimp."
Kean grinned. "Well, I'd take advantage of the opportunity and hand him a list of requirements. Maybe he can even find someone that meets your high standards."
"If by high standards you mean someone willing to take his dick, then yes, that's certainly within the realm of possibilities. Anything else, I'm not making any guarantees," Palani said dryly.
"But seriously, what are you talking about when you say you want to bring in new people?" Lucan said. "How will you find anyone we can trust?"
It was a reasonable question, but the answer was pretty simple, Kean realized. "We ask people we know,” he said, and Palani gave him an encouraging nod. “Between the eighteen of us, I'm sure we can find at least eighteen more people we know who are honorable and would do well within the pack."
Lidon nodded. "Exactly. Right now, we don't care if they’re alphas, betas, or omegas. We are hoping to find people with skills that benefit the pack. Specifically, we would love to add a pediatrician, a psychologist, a whole bunch of people willing to work either in construction or on the land, and Kean definitely needs a right-hand man to take care of all the animals. Some extra security personnel would be awesome as well. Bray's men are doing the best they can, but he hasn't found anyone else willing to officially join the pack aside from Isam and Adar, so they're all on rotational shifts and focus on patrolling the borders and guarding the main gate."
"If you have any people that you think would fit the bill, please submit their names to me. We’ll run a background check to make sure nothing weird pops up, and then we can invite them over for a tour and a talk,” Palani said.
Murmurs exploded throughout the room, people mentioning names to others, comparing ideas.
