Chapter Twenty-Six
Jax
One Step Forward…
Well, shit.
So much for rebuilding our bond.
I wait a few minutes before I close all the building’s windows while Susan pretends she didn’t hear a damned thing transpire between me and Shawn. Then I head to my office.
“Please hold my calls unless it’s Father, Shawn, or Marchman. Oh—” I lean back out. “Do not say anything about this, please? The vampires. This is pack Alpha business.”
She nods. “Of course not.”
“Thanks.” I close my office door and return to my desk. Susan’s professional, discreet, and I realize I didn’t need to say anything to her, but it makes me feel better that I did.
I don’t need a mass revolt—or panic—among our people when I break this news.
We’ve been blessed that no violence has ever reached us. The occasional troublemaker, sure, but they were easily taken care of.
One way or another.
Being down here in Florida, we’re kind of forgotten about, and that’s the way I prefer it.
But it appears we’ll be dragged into something, like it or not.
For now, I lock Mal’s cellphones and the info in my desk.
I’ll deal with them later. My priority is talking to other pack Alphas and figuring out what they’ve heard, or if they’ve dealt with anything like this.
I imagine Sterling is going after non-shifters first to weed out competition before trying to force packs into line behind him with this stupid election run of his.
The dude’s in for a rude awakening if he thinks he’ll easily take over other packs. He’s built himself a cozy little fiefdom there in Atlanta, where he thinks he’s a big fish, but I have news for him.
He’s a guppy.
Narcissism like that isn’t limited to shifters by any means.
Humans have perfected it over the eons. Sterling rules through fear and bribery, and if that doesn’t work he eliminates people.
Which reinforces the fear, and then he uses bribery to continue bending them to his will, making them less likely to rebel.
Many of his packmates no doubt have financial ties requiring their allegiance to him for them to maintain a comfortable living.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Sterling thinks he’s about to start something big and put shifters of his choosing in power, when all he’s done is weakened himself because every Alpha in his pack is on a leash he holds.
He doesn’t value independent thinking because that would be a threat to his leadership.
Tale as old as time.
There are large packs around the world where humans don’t even know shifters walk among them. Powerful packs, too. But they blend in and don’t start shit and live happy, safe, anonymous lives.
Someone like Sterling could seriously turn the tide of public opinion against shifters and other races and cause us a world of problems.
Literally.
But he’s too short-sighted to understand that. Especially when it contradicts his worldview that he should be in charge and make all the rules and rid it of those who refuse to conform or kiss his ring.
I’ve just finished my third call, to a friend who’s the pack Alpha of the Empire Pack in New York, when Father calls back.
“What did you find out?” I ask.
He sounds…enraged.
To a level I’ve never heard before. “Marchman’s legit.
Dahlia and Morning want blood and don’t care who they have to partner with to get it.
They’ll network with other covens and bands and coordinate with them once you and Marchman make arrangements.
Your dad and I will pack up and pull out of here by tomorrow night. ”
“Uh, what? What do you mean?”
“Heading to Florida. Son, if you think I’ll stand by and let people slaughter innocents and get away with it—regardless of their race—then you weren’t paying attention to a damned thing I ever taught you.”
I’m…conflicted. “Father, I—”
“Don’t worry, Jax. You’re still pack Alpha.
I will do nothing to challenge that or give anyone the impression I don’t have faith in you.
But with that many outsiders staying on our land, you’ll need every Alpha you can get to help guard them.
Plus, I know you. Once an attack plan’s finalized, you’ll want to lead it in person.
Meaning we need someone to stay behind to protect the pack and the refugees.
Also, we’re not heading straight to Florida.
We’ll join Dahlia’s people in Iowa and caravan with them as backup and transport. ”
I slump in my chair. “I cannot argue with your spooky-good logic.”
“Been doing this for a long time, son. Besides, I have no desire to be pack Alpha again. Did it once, and I feel I left it in good hands.” He chuckles. “Except you haven’t given us grandpups yet. And I won’t stop Dad from bugging you and Shawn about that, either.”
I silently groan. “Listen, about that. We have a…problem.”
“What happened? Is something wrong with Shawn?”
“No, not that.” Taking a deep breath, I fill him in about the pup, and he goes quiet for a long moment.
When he finally speaks, it’s low and slow, which I know from past experience is not a sign that he’s happy.
Far from it.
“You’re telling me… you have Randolph Sterling’s son… his youngest son… under your protection… on our land… and you didn’t think to give me a heads-up about that before now? Especially right after speaking with Marchman?”
Oh. Shit.
“Well, considering I didn’t expect a vampire to walk into my office first thing this morning, I’ve kinda had my day derailed. I planned to call you about it today or tomorrow to ask for advice.”
“He can’t stay, Jax.”
“I can’t send him away,” I counter. “He’s desperate and, with this new information, I’m convinced Sterling will murder him if he finds him.
Frankly, I don’t want to move him to a smaller pack just to have them get attacked if Sterling locates him.
We’re strong enough to deal with a fight if it’s brought to us.
I probably have more well-trained and well-armed Alphas in our compound than Sterling has in the entire state of Georgia.
Don’t forget we have a National Guard barracks less than twenty miles from here, and the commander and a good chunk of its people are from our pack. ”
I hear him blow out a breath and know he’s thinking about my words.
Finally, “I fuckin’ hate it when you’re right, kid.”
I can’t help smiling because while he’d never say that in front of others, it means he’s all-in on my thinking.
“Todd says he’s a hard worker and a good guy,” I continue. “If the pup wasn’t, he couldn’t fool them him long. Todd can smell bullshit a mile away.”
When Father starts laughing, I realize what I said. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I say while he laughs so hard on the other end of the line that he starts coughing.
When he finally composes himself, he continues. “You’re right about Todd. He’s a good kid.” To Father, anyone younger than him is a kid. “But I think you need to seriously consider what I would normally write off as a drastic and untenable option.”
“What?”
“I mean, initiation, sure. But two problems—he’s never had a mating heat, and I honestly think under the circumstances that running him through a normal initiation process with this other shit circling over our heads isn’t the wisest move.
Through initiation, he’ll smell like us, sure, but he’ll still have more than a hint of Sterling’s pack, and that’ll make him—and us—vulnerable.
Because as he merges with the pack, obviously hints of him mix with our people, too.
The stronger the scent of his birth pack at initiation, the stronger it’ll mix with our people. ”
“What do you suggest?”
“Trigger his first mating heat and have someone—or someones—non-canine take him. Imprint their scent on him. That will help further dilute his scent ahead of initiation. Doesn’t even need to be an Alpha as long as they’re not canine.
Then, when he goes through initiation, his scent will already be muted enough, and already smelling enough like pack, that it shouldn’t matter. ”
“But why non-cani—oh.”
He snorts. “Yeah, oh. The kid’s got enough troubles. Let’s try not to get him knocked up right out of the gate.”
“Good point.”
“A non-canine imprinted scent from our pack, overlaid with everyone else from initiation, that should adequately mask his scent. I mean, even better would be if someone non-canine pinged on him as their mate, but that’s still potentially problematic.”
“Because of the other complications,” I say.
“Exactly.” He paused. “You said Todd really likes him, huh?”
“I mean, he’s Todd. He’s always down to fuck a cute new pup.”
“I’d ask him first to see if he wants to do it.” He laughs. “Considering that buck’s stamina, there’s no way that pup wouldn’t smell nearly 100% elk by the time Todd lets him loose after a day or so.”
My turn to laugh. “True. That would be convenient.”
“I mean, obviously, if the kid wants to do that. If he doesn’t then we need to quickly figure out what the hell to do with him, because he absolutely cannot stay with our pack.”
“We’re back to I don’t want to send him away and have him get killed.”
“Someone, likely Sterling’s hired guns, has wiped out vampires, fae, and witches.
If you think any of those three races will think twice before killing that kid if they get a whiff of him, even while being granted sanctuary on our land?
Think again. After everything I’ve heard today, after only two phone calls, I guarantee you several of them would happily die at our hands just to know they took out one of Sterling’s sons first.”
“But he hasn’t done anything!”
“Yeah,” Father grimly says. “Well, neither did the innocents Sterling’s people slaughtered.”
My turn to grumble. “I fuckin’ hate it when you’re right, old man.”
He snorts. “Love ya, kid. I’ll make more calls and loop people in I think need to be involved, if you’re okay with me taking that initiative?”
“I’m totally okay with that.”
We agree on a code phrase for them to use with me after they’ve talked with Father to reduce the chances of any information leaks, and then I end the call.
Fuck.
This day just keeps getting shittier and shittier.