Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
MASON
“It’s too Moons-damned early for this shit," Knox grumbled, staring at me from behind the sunglasses that were hiding his hangover. "I do not know why you volunteered to be here when you didn’t have to be."
A group of us had gone back to my place last night after the dance, where Knox proceeded to get really fucking hammered—likely because he’d finally seen the writing on the wall when it came to Mave.
I’d seen him disappear into a guest room with like three girls, but my guess was that he’d passed out before anything could actually happen.
Thad hadn’t been much better, though he chose to get super stoned and ignore his date instead of getting blackout drunk.
We were currently seated around the small conference table in the Alpha’s meeting room in the Pack clubhouse. It was nine in the morning, and we were waiting for the rest of the Pack Small Council to arrive.
The Alpha held his Small Council meetings once a month on a Saturday morning, with just his highest-ranking betas and lead enforcer instead of the entire fifteen-wolf beta team and all Pack enforcers who all attended the regular mid-week meetings.
My mom was off this week and currently out of town with my other mom, so I volunteered to attend the meeting in her place. It made sense for me to start learning what these were like since I would be Knox’s number two when he finally took over as Alpha.
Knox’s dad had started dragging him to these when he turned eighteen, allegedly for his education, but probably mostly to torture him when he’d been out partying the night before.
"Couldn’t let you suffer alone, man," I said. "Plus, shit’s been quiet around here, so I can’t imagine this will take that long. And it looks good for me to be sitting in for Mom.”
“Whatever, dude. You could sit on your ass and do nothing for the next five years and I’d still make you my number two.”
I knew this, but I’d still take any chance I was offered to get a glimpse of the innermost workings of the Pack.
“Boys, looking sharp this morning,” Alpha Monroe drawled as he entered the conference room at three minutes past nine.
He was followed by the rest of the Small Council—Thad’s dad, Angelo Parker, a stoic female beta named Rhoda, and the head Pack enforcer, who was a big scary motherfucker who just went by “Dunn.”
I’m not sure anyone actually knew his first name.
I could see Knox roll his eyes behind his sunglasses. His dad did love staging these little tests of leadership for him, and forcing him to appear this early on a Saturday after homecoming was a classic move.
“Welcome everyone,” he continued as the group took their seats around the conference table.
“This shouldn’t take too much time out of your morning.
We’ll just run through a quick check-in for the action items from the last Small Council meeting, and then we need to vote on moving to the next phase with the acquisition—”
“Excuse me, Alpha,” Angelo Parker cut in, radiating the haughty vibe that was the hallmark of every Parker. “I have an item to discuss that is somewhat urgent. And also somewhat… delicate.”
He cut Knox a look.
I did not like that at all.
“Sure, Angelo,” the Alpha replied, leaning back in his chair, clenching his bearded jaw in annoyance. “Proceed.”
“Ah… well, this is going to sound a bit crazy,” he began.
“Then why the fuck are you wasting this Council’s time with it?” Alpha Monroe snapped at him.
“Just… I think you need to hear it, and then the Council can determine whether to take it seriously.” He huffed a bit, but pressed on quickly.
“As you’re aware, there was a dance last night at the Academy.
My daughter was there, and she managed to overhear a conversation in the girl’s locker room between the Fortune girl and her… I guess he’s her boyfriend.”
“She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” the Alpha cut in angrily. “She has some human she’s fucking to piss Knox off.”
Knox had removed his sunglasses at this point, and while he’d become a master at keeping an emotionless face around his dad, I could tell by his white knuckles he was on the verge of punching something.
The last thing he wanted to do this morning was talk about Mave and Blake in front of his father.
“Be that as it may,” Angelo continued, “the conversation she overheard, and the things she saw, are concerning, Alpha.”
Oh fuck.
“This concerns the Alpha and this Council why, Angelo?” Thad’s dad cut in with the same direct, bored tone his son affected constantly. He was the Pack lawyer and dressed like he was going to the office, even on a Saturday.
“Because the Fortune girl is Knox’s fated mate, correct?” Angelo replied, getting agitated. “Just fucking listen, all of you. Nikka saw this boy perform… some kind of magic.”
Double fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Rhoda, who rarely spoke, asked.
“She said he produced hundreds of little balls of fire and was able to work some kind of spell to remove punch from the girl’s dress.
But this is the more important part—she heard them talking about their plans to cast some kind of spell tonight that would attempt to break the mate bond between the girl and Knox. ”
Knox reacted then. He jerked forward, leaning on the table, brow furrowed and face even paler than his hangover look from earlier.
“What did you say?” he growled at Angelo.
“I said they are planning to use this boy’s magic to somehow break the mate bond.”
“Impossible.” Knox and I both said at the same time.
Angelo was getting worked up now. “Maybe! But my daughter saw this boy do magic. Should we not take this seriously? Not only do we have some kind of rogue magic user living in our territory, but he’s going to attempt to steal Knox’s mate!”
This was alarming, admittedly, but it was also fishy that he was bringing this to the Council in the first place, as it would only benefit Nikka if Mave was no longer bonded to Knox. I wanted to know what the fuck they were up to.
“He will do no such thing,” the Alpha replied, and he was frighteningly calm. He wasn’t to be messed with when he was in a rage, but this eerie, chill demeanor meant he was plotting.
“Alpha,” Mr. James interjected, “if we truly have an unidentified magic user in our territory, we will be unable to take any sort of action until we inform the National Shifter Council. They may have a policy regarding rogue supernaturals.”
He glanced our way out of the corner of his eye. Thad’s dad was by-the-book, and while I had no idea what kind of trouble the National Council could bring down on Blake, I could tell Mr. James was trying to push the Alpha into some kind of rule-following rather than letting him do something rash.
“Hmm,” the Alpha mused. “I suppose you’re right, Chris. I’ll place a call, but ultimately I think you all know that I will not allow any sort of attempt to mess with Knox’s mate bond. There will be no attacks on the Moon’s divine order.”
“Dad,” Knox said. “Let me handle this. It is my problem, not yours.”
“No,” he snapped. “You have demonstrated that you cannot be trusted to handle your own Moons-damned mate.”
He paused and surveyed the rest of the table.
Rhoda and Mr. James were both looking uncomfortable, while Dunn was cleaning his teeth with a knife with his feet propped on the table, looking excited.
Angelo was sporting a small but noticeably smug smile because the Alpha was taking his news seriously.
“Dad, there is no way they can break the bond.” Knox leaned back in his chair, adopting a flippant air.
“What, Nikka saw Agnon toss some fire in the air? He can play with water? Big fucking whoop. We are talking about overturning the Moon’s will.
This is just Nikka’s dramatics, once again.
She hates Mave and is clearly just trying to get her boyfriend in trouble to fuck with her. ”
I thanked the Moon that Knox was clearly not on board with whatever the Alpha had up his sleeve.
I knew my friend and had faith he wouldn’t want to see anyone seriously hurt, but I couldn’t help having felt an inkling of doubt earlier.
His father removing Blake from the picture would only benefit him, but clinging to this deteriorating mating with Mave was a lost cause, and it looked like Knox finally knew it.
And, as much as he fucking hated that he was with Mave, I didn’t think Knox was the type to let Blake get seriously hurt or killed.
“Listen here, you little asshole…,” Angelo said menacingly to Knox.
“Enough!” Alpha Monroe cut Angelo off before he could lay into Knox for insulting his desperate cow of a daughter.
“Knox, I agree. If this is true, the two of them are deluding themselves. However, it is my duty to at least investigate this issue of… magic use, with the National Council. They may have an idea of what kind of supernatural we are dealing with here, and whether there is such a thing as a spell that could break a mate bond.”
“I’ll set up a call with our Southern representative for later today,” Thad’s dad said.
“That will work, Chris,” Alpha Monroe replied. Then he looked at Knox and me. “You boys know the rules—nothing said at the Small Council meeting leaves the room. We don’t want any unnecessary panic or rumors regarding weird magic in our territory.”
Bullshit. He didn’t want us squealing to Mave about any of this.
He continued, “We’re going to do this by the book, and no one is going to get hurt. So don’t you two be running off to beat the shit out of this freak boy your mate is fucking, Knox.”
“I beat the shit out of him daily at soccer practice,” Knox scoffed. “He’s harmless, dad. He’s talking a big game because he knows he has to compete with me for her attention.”
He was really selling this. I just wasn’t sure the Alpha was buying it.
“Meeting dismissed,” the Alpha clipped out, banging his hand on the table. “Dunn, you’re with me.”
Shit.