10. CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 10
Aban had already noticed the tension that locked just about everyone of Kirill’s muscles. “Look, I appreciate that you want me to lead another town, but I can’t and won’t do it,” Kirill told them with no doubts about his decision.
“I don’t remember giving you a choice,” Saber told him matter-of-factly. “If it’s necessary, we can kick you out of Miracle.”
“Wait a fucking minute,” Edrick turned on Saber. “I understand the stakes better than most, but this is my town and there is no fucking way I’m going to force anyone out unless they are banned for a transgression. Kirill not agreeing to your plan isn’t one of those. So, fuck off, Saber. If you don’t like it, feel free to leave with your inner circle.”
Saber tried to stare Edrick down, but there was one thing Aban knew about Miracle’s Alpha. The man never backed down from a fight, especially when standing up for what he believed was the right thing to do. When it was obvious Saber wasn’t going to easily win this one, he glanced over at his mate, who grinned knowingly at him with a shrug. “I tried to tell you it wouldn’t work.”
“You know, you’re supposed to be on my side, mate ,” Saber reminded Chadwick.
But trust someone as strong-willed as Saber would have an equally stubborn mate. “If you want me to agree with you, try suggesting something that might actually be plausible.”
“I’m with Chadwick on this one,” Yosi said from the screen. “We all know Harper’s best friends live in Miracle. Not to mention Harper’s bakery is there. How in the world were you thinking that Kirill would just uproot his mate and move? For that matter, since you are an even stronger Alpha as well as already have an inner circle, why don’t you become the head of this new town?”
It was a good point. But just like Harper would never leave, the odds were against Chadwick doing so. To prove that the mountain lion shifter glared at the screen with knife poised to throw. “You know you’re really lucky you aren’t here right now or you’d have a knife embedded in your body.”
“Actually,” Saber said almost excitedly.
Good thing his reflexes were on point and could catch the knife Chadwick threw before it landed in his thigh. “Don’t even think about it, mister,” Chadwick told his mate. “Unless, of course, you plan on moving there without me.”
“But kitten…”
“Don’t ‘kitten’ me,” Chadwick cut him off before Saber could say another word. Then he turned to Nole, Edrick’s mate. “That spare room still ready for visitors?”
Nole pressed his lips together as if trying not to laugh, but he nodded. Then he added, “I just put fresh sheets on the bed this morning when I got word you were all arriving today, just in case we needed the room.”
Chadwick gave him a small dip of his head in thanks, then he turned on his heel and strode right out of the room. All that could be heard was Saber’s sigh.
That was until Saber glared at Nole. “Thanks for that. You could have lied and told him you didn’t have any rooms available.”
Edrick laughed hysterically, even bending over and slapping his thigh as if was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Knowing Chadwick, it kind of was. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked Saber, as if their Chief Council had seriously lost his damn mind.
“If there was no one who would have taken him in, Chadwick would have just shifted and slept far away from town.” Edrick and his inner circle—which included Chadwick—had grown up together since they were little kids. If anyone knew Chadwick, it was Edrick.
Saber stuck the knife in one of the special slots on the outside of his pants. “I have some apologizing to do.” But before he left, he pinned everyone in the room with his gaze. “Find a solution. I hold little stock in the possibility of the humans bombing us, but the fact is there is no way we’ve amassed as many shifters as we have in the past couple of years. They’ve noticed. They are definitely up to something.”
No one said anything for several long minutes after Saber left. The fact was, they had no suitable solution. He really should have known better when it came to Yosi and Edrick. Their contingencies had contingencies.
“I’ve found property that is well hidden,” Yosi announced. His face was replaced with a map on the screen. “There is an old mining town in the Elk Mountains in western Colorado. It is fairly secure as it is remote. There are mountains that have to be traversed with no proper roads.”
Yosi came back on the screen. “Don’t get me wrong, obviously we’ll have to put in roads to get building materials and supplies, but we can limit access and have them watched at all times. The biggest question is the matter of who will be the Alpha?”
“Actually, I have someone who would be perfect, but he’s been kind of a recluse for the past twenty years, so I’m uncertain he’d want to come out of hiding.” Aban wasn’t judging as he had been the same way for far too long. Still, it wasn’t exactly a confidence builder when suggesting him for Alpha of town being built by the Council.
“Would we know him?” Edrick asked.
He had no clue. But Aban glanced at Yosi. “Not certain, but I have zero doubt that even with him living off the grid for as long as he has, Yosi could find all the information you need to know he is one of the good guys.”
“Just give me a name.” Yosi stared back at him.
“Terrence Kayode. He’s a hippo shifter from a very powerful family.” Aban knew Terrence well as he was one of the few people Terrence agreed to spend any time with, even if it wasn’t more than once or twice a year. “He was in line to become the Alpha of their bloat. He was so committed, that despite being gay, he’d been willing to marry the daughter of one of the elders.”
“Ouch,” Yosi said as he was clearly reading about Terrence faster than Aban had been talking. “It says that the bride-to-be fell for Terrence’s younger brother, and they’d tried to kill him.”
“What about any of that speaks to him being a suitable candidate for Alpha of a town that might come under attack?” Lucca, Edrick’s second, asked.
“Well, they had tricked him by having a private dinner with that bitch Teleri. They had poisoned Terrence’s food.” Talk about the chicken’s way out of a fight. “Not only did he not die from the poison—which was a miracle—but he killed them both, and his next youngest brother, who had not only known about the plan but helped their brother and Teleri.”
“His mother went insane having two of her children killed, but insisted Terrence’s father kill him.” The more he talked about it, Aban was questioning whether Terrence would ever leave his seclusion after everything that had happened. “Despite the poison making it difficult for him even to stand, Terrence fought his father, killing him and then his mother, who came after him with a knife.”
“Fuck me,” several of those in the room muttered.
“But then he left,” Nole stated. “So what happened to his bloat?”
“There was one more brother and a sister. The brother had no desire to run things, but since their sister was an Omega, Terrence’s brother, Lautaro, stayed to ‘take over,’ even though their sister, Aminata, makes all decisions.”
“I don’t get it. Why didn’t Terrence stay?” Lucca asked. “I mean, it was his birthright, and clearly, he was strong enough to lead them.”
It was Edrick who answered. “If I had to guess, the guilt of killing four of his family broke him. That or he didn’t have it in him to trust anyone ever again. I know it would have been difficult for me after my father tried to kill me. If it hadn’t been for you and the others, I don’t think I would have bothered with Miracle. I most likely would have shifted and hid in the mountains.”
“Which is basically what Terrence has done, except he chose a river where he could swim at night so no one would see him.” His location was so remote that Aban was fairly certain there was no chance of catching him in his shifted form, but Aban also couldn’t blame him for not taking any chances.
“Can you get in touch with him?” Edrick asked Aban.
“I’ll have to fly to him, as he has no phone or computer. Hell, he doesn’t even have electricity. When I said he lived off the grid, I meant it.” Aban had no clue how the man did it, but then again, Aban lived fairly minimally also. But he did have electricity and running water. He wasn’t about to take nothing but cold showers.
He felt his mate’s fingers tighten on the arm wrapped around his lithe form. “It will only take a day to get there and back.”
“We can always send you in a helicopter,” Yosi suggested.
Aban snorted. “Please, I can fly a lot faster. Plus, Terrence would hear the helicopter and go into hiding. It’s better if I fly. If he agrees to come, you can send a helicopter for him.”
They were all in agreement that Aban would leave in the morning. It wasn’t ideal to leave so quickly, but Aban would do everything in his power to get back as soon as possible. That would give him the night wrapped around his mate. Sounded like heaven to him.