Magical Midlife Shifter Conclave

Chapter 1

Kingsley

His phone vibrated within the center console as he pulled up to his house. He glanced at the screen, finding a number he didn’t recognize. The area code was in Austin’s area.

He grabbed the phone, his bag, and the bundle of flowers he’d bought as he climbed from the car, fatigue dragging at him.

They’d been training hard since Austin had told him about the conclave.

There would be rules similar to a gargoyle meeting, apparently, defining the number of pack members that could be brought inside territory limits, but that didn’t give them any assurances.

The amount of power amassed would make some shifters spiral.

They’d act out, push for dominance, and, possibly, mindlessly rage.

There was no telling. Kingsley wanted his people ready to help Austin at a moment’s notice. They had seven months to do so.

Despite the danger and uncertainty, Austin was on the verge of making a name for himself in a major way.

He wouldn’t be “Black Sheep Barazza” anymore, Kingsley was sure of it.

Austin’s ingenuity in how he planned to structure the conclave was incredible.

He’d opened his mind to the different magical types of the world, and he and Jessie were fusing the best each species had to offer.

With a little smile and warmth in his soul, Kingsley slung his bag over his shoulder, balanced the flowers in the crook of his elbow, and made his way up the walk. He slid the bar on the screen to answer the phone.

“Hello?”

“Kingsley Barazza.”

Kingsley didn’t recognize the deep, growling voice, heavily laced with command.

Caught off guard, his hackles rising, he pulled the phone from his ear to check the screen. Definitely an unknown. Who the hell had his private number?

“Yes,” he replied, the question implied in his tone.

“Hello. I got your number from Austin.” The man paused, then added, “Steele,” as though it were an afterthought.

That was…odd. Usually, Austin would give Kingsley a heads-up if he gave his number out.

If this was a game or joke of some kind, Kingsley was too tired to play.

He silently waited for the unknown caller to go on as he opened the front door. The soft, spicy smell of home greeted him.

He dropped his pack beside the little table by the door, readjusted the flowers in his free hand, and continued on toward the kitchen.

“My name is Aljoe,” the man on the phone said, “given to me by the Ivy House crew. You’d know me by my former name, Yazanth.” Again, he paused. “Golden Fang.”

A jolt of adrenaline made Kingsley freeze just inside the archway of the great room. His hand involuntarily squeezed, crushing the flower stems and crinkling the paper.

Earnessa looked up from the kitchen counter in concern.

A game or joke, indeed. Austin was going to get hell for this. Of all the people to let blindside Kingsley, that bastard.

“Alpha,” Kingsley said, trying to keep his cool.

It was not easy. Yazanth Golden Fang was a legend in the shifter community, only a teen when he was forced to take over his large, powerful, sprawling pack.

The very people who’d worked with his father and had helped raise him turned on him in the name of greed.

He’d fought tooth and nail to keep that pack whole.

To protect it against glory seekers and challengers from outside and within.

Despite all that, he’d made that territory blossom. He had an incredible amount of knowledge and had always demonstrated the exemplary application of it. There was a reason his name was said with reverence.

Then, in his final act as alpha, he’d turned the pack over to his sisters and walked away. He’d sacrificed his own future to protect theirs.

There was no more upstanding alpha in the world. Not in Kingsley’s eyes, anyway.

And that legendary alpha had just called Kingsley on his private line…like a friend.

He forced himself to loosen the hold on the flowers. With a deep breath, he kept walking, shaking his head to ward off Earnessa’s alarm.

“Austin mentioned he told you of my plans to join his and Jessie’s convocation,” the alpha went on.

I didn’t tell a soul outside of my household, I promise, he nearly rushed to say. Loose lips sink ships—I know how it goes.

He tempered his urgency. “He did. The knowledge has been kept in the family.”

This alpha wasn’t much older than Kingsley, but Kingsley still felt like a child being allowed at the holiday party adult table. Most alphas would. A planet being compared to the sun. A Honda parked next to a Ferrari.

“Thank you,” Yazanth said.

Kingsley tried to give his mate a smile as he presented her with the flowers, but his expression was still frozen in shock. Or maybe reverence?

Thank God he was at home. This would be very embarrassing if he’d still been training or walking into the office.

“What can I do for you, Alpha?” Kingsley asked.

“Please, call me Aljoe. My title within the convocation is still being determined.”

“Forgive me…but Austin mentioned you go by the name of John now? Is that not correct?”

Now it was Earnessa’s turn to freeze in shock. She knew whom Kingsley was talking to.

“I chose John, yes. John Smith. A normal member of society.”

Kingsley barely stopped from snorting. “Apologies, Al”—he cut off before he said Alpha—“Aljoe, but a rogue with your power and prestige was never going to blend into society.”

“My power and the scars of my past, you mean,” he growled. “Correct. I’d been forced to inharmoniously live in basajaunak territory. Fighting them for the privilege of staying was preferable to pitchforks and torches.”

“May I ask how the name Aljoe came about?” He sat down on the couch.

Earnessa stopped in front of him. In one hand was a beer, in the other a bottle of wine. She lifted her eyebrows.

He gestured at the beer and mouthed, Thank you.

“Like you nearly did, and your daughter and Sue before you, people kept stopping themselves when calling me Alpha. The vampire got confused, mixed up Joe and John, and here we are. I didn’t choose the name—it chose me.”

“Ah. Ivy House antics. Say no more. I was chased around by a bunch of dolls in that house.”

“Yeah.” The word was once again laced with a growl. “The house thinks messing with me is a fun pastime, it seems. I can’t seem to get on top of it.”

“Just ignore it. The house will lose interest.”

“That’s what Jessie said, except it hasn’t. I woke up this morning with a doll standing at the end of my bed, staring at me in the low light.”

Kingsley barked out laughter. He couldn’t help it. The scene was unexpected, as was the flat way Yazanth, now Aljoe, conveyed it.

“Naturally, I tried to kick the thing off—”

“Naturally.”

“—but it scampered away too fast and then giggled as it ran out of the room. I’ve almost stopped running from the gnomes, though. Small victories.”

Kingsley ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s a wonder you stay.”

“This house will not beat me.”

“Which is exactly why it has kept trying.”

Aljoe grunted. A shifter like him wouldn’t stop trying until he’d won. It was why he’d held on to his pack against insurmountable odds.

“How are you finding the Ivy House crew?” Kingsley asked.

“Surprisingly…pleasant. The basajunk are almost charming when they aren’t trying to kill you. Imagine my surprise.”

Did he just say basa-junk?

Kingsley let it go, not wanting to embarrass him.

Instead, he said, “It is absolutely incredible how Jessie has brought them into the fold.”

“Unheard of. My sisters think I’m messing with them.”

“And the phoenix? Odd as ever?”

“The phoenix is eccentric. It’s the computer person who is odd. Hilariously so. The thunderbird is cooler than I have ever been, or ever will be, and the vampire… Well, I’m just going to be honest. The vampire gives me nightmares.”

Kingsley laughed again, responding to the color he could hear in the alpha’s voice. He’d always heard that Golden Fang was as hard and stoic as they came. Not Aljoe. Clearly the Ivy House crew was rubbing off on him. Or maybe the gargoyles. Or the basajaunak—he could take his pick.

“Amazingly, that vampire is incredibly useful in battle,” Kingsley said. “Out of the blue, he appears exactly where and when you need him, followed by that gal pal of his.”

“Nessa. His shadow, yes. I’ve been told.

I haven’t seen it in action. She’s got some energy thing she’s working on.

I hadn’t heard of that particular magic, but if she can break through whatever blockage she seems to have in her…

power, or efficiency, or whatever is going on—I couldn’t understand it—then she might be a real asset. ”

Kingsley remembered Nessa doing something with energy when Jessie had been hurt in battle. He would’ve asked how she could be an asset, but it didn’t sound like Yaz—Aljoe understood the particulars. He’d need to remember to ask Austin.

“How are you settling into Austin’s territory?”

Aljoe released a breath and paused before answering. “You were here once, I heard?”

“Yes, to help my brother get established. I was there when the phoenix first came in.”

“Right, right. I half want to take that phoenix on to see if I can best her.”

“I didn’t.”

He laughed; definitely looser than Kingsley had ever heard he could be. “Then you won’t have to guess why I haven’t.” He paused again. “Austin has a lot of power in this territory, and a rock-solid strategy and structure to manage it. He’s an incredible alpha.”

Kingsley widened his eyes. Praise like that from Yazanth Golden Fang was few and far between.

“That territory is wound very tightly,” he said, “but Austin has the ability to manage it.”

“He does. His betas help with that, of course. Sue has come into his own here. I’ve heard of him—the meddling puca told me his original name and pack—but he wasn’t someone I cared to learn more about.

He was a middling alpha who adequately managed his pack.

Great fitness reports, but no real aspirations for territory expansion. ”

Kingsley had looked him up, too. “He didn’t have any proper alpha training. He didn’t have anyone to learn from.”