Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jax
Unexpected Partnership
I wanted to follow Shawn and talk to him, but with everything else happening I realize I have to deal with this growing mountain of shit first. I hate to admit it, but the pack’s problems are far bigger than my mate’s hurt feelings.
This is a serious problem. Problems, plural, although they may all track back to the same source: Randolph Sterling.
That means shipping Mal’s phones to my buddy at the Empire Pack so he can reconnoiter for me. If they’re turned on and Sterling or his people go looking for Mal, that will impact what I do next.
If no one goes looking for Mal, maybe it means we’re in the clear, at least for a little while.
After telling Susan to take messages unless it’s an emergency, I head out with Mal’s phone to the shipping store in a grocery plaza a few miles away and quickly complete that task.
Next, I need face time with our pack’s Alphas, as many of them as I can run down today. This info is best delivered in person if possible, not over the phone. And while at first I had thought about calling a gathering of Alphas, I realized maybe this is safer.
There will be Alphas who absolutely will not want vampires on our land, and I can’t blame them. But it’ll be easier to gauge and deal with resistance one-on-one and not try to quell a vocal uprising at a crowded meeting when everyone thinks they have the tide of public opinion in their favor.
So I pull up the list on my phone and start with the eldest ones.
Some of them are older than me, but they took a knee to Father and took a knee to me when he passed the role of pack Alpha to me.
They’re all loyal, but while some of them are single, most of them have family and loved ones they understandably want kept safe.
Plus, I need to talk to them about the pup.
The first three talks go about as I expected, with reluctant acceptance of the pragmatic kind, both regarding the vampires and regarding Mal.
It’s the fourth where I hit a wall I honestly wasn’t expecting.
Chaz Gillians, Davis’ husband, is a tiger Alpha. I catch up with him at their property, where he’s working on installing a new irrigation system for their garden.
He listens without interruption, but as his brow deeply furrows and his scowl darkens, I know he’s not happy.
At all.
When I finish, he stands there, leaning on the shovel he’d been using, and I seriously wonder if I’ll have to defend myself against him if he decides to take a swing at me with it.
I don’t interrupt. When he finally speaks there’s more than a hint of tiger growl in his tone.
“You’re telling me that fucking sonofabitch’s kid is the new pup Davis is dying to fuck?
“Yeah.”
“And you’re telling me we’re hosting a bunch of those fucking night-crawlers here? On our pack’s land?”
“They agree to remain in the community center, and we’ll have a secure perimeter. We’re talking kids, Chaz. Human mates. Younglings. Human familiars. They’re in danger, and so are all of us if we don’t put an end to this bullshit once and for all.”
“I don’t like it, Jax. I don’t trust vampires. Never have. Shifty fuckers. How do we know they won’t come in here and slit our throats while we’re asleep, huh? You ever see how fast one of those fuckers moves?”
“Chaz, this isn’t only vampires. It’s also witches and fae.
We’ll have them here as well, and they’ll help ensure no one is harmed on either side.
Once we deal with the threat, then they can leave.
Kids, Chaz. Not to mention the people murdered among the witches and fae.
That they are all banding together and out for blood with a common enemy in their sights should tell you something. ”
He spits in the dirt. “Yeah. Tells me shit’s fucked up. An even better reason it’s none of our fucking business.”
“I’m not asking anyone to like this. I’m asking, as pack Alpha, for cooperation and acceptance. If you don’t want to help guard them, I accept that. But if we don’t help them and shit comes to our land next, puts our pups and mates and loved ones in danger, who will we be able to turn to for help?”
He grumbles and spits again, and I don’t speak.
Sometimes, the hardest part of being the pack Alpha is sitting back and listening to my packmates and hearing them out, letting them know I hear them and understand them.
That can go a long way to smoothing things over.
Especially pills this bitter to swallow.
“Davis and I aren’t fucking that pup,” he finally says.
“If shit gets real and you need us to pick up arms, okay, yeah. And if we’re giving them sanctuary, as long as they behave themselves, fine.
Don’t like it, but I won’t raise public objections.
But I draw the line at fucking that pup, now that I know he’s Sterling’s.
I might change my mind by initiation but I doubt it.
I don’t care how nice a pup he is, I don’t want Sterling’s goddamned scent anywhere on me or mine.
That asshole’s a toxic fucker and depending on what shit goes down, the last thing I want is more of his scent mixed with ours than is necessary. ”
I marginally relax. “That’s fair.” Although disappointing, because I was hoping he’d volunteer to help with the process of fucking Mal after triggering his mating heat. A tiger Alpha would be perfect to help mask Mal’s scent.
I hold out my hand to shake. “I appreciate your honesty, Chaz. I know this is difficult, but I wouldn’t be here if it was easy.”
He slowly nods and then reaches out and shakes with me. I feel the tension thrumming through him—the not-good kind—and process exactly how upset he is with all of this.
And that he’s doing a damned good job of holding back as much as he is.
“I won’t require you guys to participate in his initiation,” I add.
Chaz slowly nods. “Might be okay doing the final part. If you ask me to do it today, though, it’s a hard no.”
“Understood.”
My next three stops are met with reluctant acceptance and another refusal by a non-canine to participate in the initial fucking, although they said they’d fully participate in initiation once we get Mal through his mating heat.
By this point it’s nearly four in the afternoon, I realize I’ve worked through lunch, I’m starving, and I have no texts or emails from Shawn.
About anything.
Dammit.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a huge part of my wolf wants me to go home, scruff him, make him submit, then fuck him senseless and tell him how much I love him.
And he’d likely let me do exactly that.
I have dropped a massive ball with him and I feel horrible about it.
Yet I still have at least four more Alphas I need to talk to today. That’s not all of them, but it’s all of them I know are close by right now. Some of them work elsewhere, so I’ll have to either wait until tonight or call them. The ones who don’t live in the compound, I’ll call them tomorrow.
To be clear, I’m not just talking to non-canine Alphas; I’m talking to all our Alphas, about everything.
No one is “happy” about the vampires’ pending arrival, obviously, but I have secured each one’s agreement to either help with guard duties or at least not object to their presence.
Surprisingly, a few of them volunteer to join the attacking party whenever that happens. Each one’s rationale is it’s better to make it safe for the vampires to leave than to try to keep them safe here long-term.
So what do I do?
I text Todd to see if he’s around and can spare some time to talk.
Alone.
It’s an affirmative to both. Ten minutes later, when I pull up to his house he’s sitting on his front porch with a cold beer in hand and offers me one when I walk up.
I don’t even care what time it is. “Thanks.” I twist the cap off the bottle and settle into the chair next to his.
“This sounded like something needing alcohol as a discussion aid.”
I snort. “You ain’t fucking kidding.”
“Is this about Mal?” There’s…something in his tone.
“Yes. I need Todd my friend for a while, and your secrecy.”
He nods and I give him a rundown of the day’s events so far. When I finish, he stares across the yard.
I don’t interrupt.
“Vampires, huh?” he finally asks. “They aren’t my favorite, but I’ve never personally had a bad experience with one.
Crossed paths with them a few times outside of business dealings, but we just gave each other room and went on our respective ways.
I know they get a bad rap. The ones I deal with don’t even feed from humans; they keep cattle. ”
“Ahh. Sold them breeder stock?”
“Yeah.” He chuffs. “I was initially pissed off when the first one approached me, because yeah, I get it, we eat cows, too. But he invited me out, showed me their operation. They manually bleed them, painlessly. Milk them too, and keep that within their”—he waves a hand around—“circles. Anyway. Their cattle are treated even better than mine. Super-clean barns, good pasture, numbers kept low to prevent stress on them. They get an average of eight to ten years out of one of their stock, and then they humanely slaughter and process them once they reach the end. They give the meat to the people in their nests who eat meat, and any leftovers are donated to food banks.”
“No shit?” I had not heard any of that.
Then again, I’ve never stuck my snout into vampire business before.
“Yeah. There are three of those farms around the United States. They don’t supply all the nests, obviously.
They’re connected to specific nests. While I felt like I might crawl out of my skin when I was around them that first time, they were respectful, easy to do business with, and their money spends as well as anyone else’s. I got used to being around them.”
“How’d they first get in touch with you?” I ask.
He smiled. “Mike referred them to me. Marchman made first contact with me via phone. I first met with them in neutral territory, went to visit one of their operations, and then made the deal. I trailer stock to a farm in north Florida, where they pick it up from me. They never come onto our land; not them, or familiars, or others.”
Holy shit. “How long’s this been going on?” I ask.
“Eight years, give or take.”
Well, look at that. This day does have more surprises for me.