Chapter Thirteen #2
“Yes, but what’s important is what she finds irresistible in a man. She never notices any of the team and barely acknowledges her dates except in these intense conversations she seems to have with them. The only male I’ve ever seen her pay special attention to is you.”
Liam snapped out of his preoccupation like a lightning strike. He shook his head and had the grace to look chagrined.
“I’m sorry, Inez. This has been totally inappropriate. I’m all right now.” He frowned. “Remember never to get personally involved with your clients, Flores. I know I’ve been saying it for years, but it’s the best advice I ever gave.”
“Shame you didn’t follow it yourself,” Inez chided gently. “Mind if I ask what—?”
“Yes, I mind. I also mind gossip, okay?”
Inez laughed. “Please, tell me you know me better than that.”
“Well, yes, but it needed saying. Bad enough I broke the number one rule already. I don’t need it becoming a running goddamn joke in the ranks for the next ten years.”
“Wouldn’t think of it, Liam.” Inez hid a grin behind a piece of bread before popping it into her mouth.
She also wouldn’t tell him that she thought there was far more trouble ahead of him than a few jokes among his men, not if he was already this tied up in knots.
It was funny, but Inez had always thought Liam would go for the tough, athletic type.
Devon clearly had the brains he would require, and more than enough beauty and sex drive.
She had a certain bravery, that was for certain, but she seemed a little too pampered.
Liam needed a feisty woman, a sparring partner as well as a companion.
He thrived too much in his work for it not to come home with him.
If Liam would even consider settling down at all.
There were advantages to remaining single in this line of work.
Liam didn’t strike her as the type to answer to anyone but himself. Then again, men like her commander never did go looking for love on purpose. It usually came up behind them and bit them on the ass.
“Devona, I think it’s time you came home,” Nick said softly to her, reaching across the table with his palm facing upward …
warm and welcoming and oh so very tempting.
Nick Gregory was a beautiful man. When he had been human, he had been very much like Liam.
A Federated cop, he’d been all about doing the right thing, no matter what it cost him.
In the end it had come close to costing him his life.
It had most certainly cost him his humanity.
He had stumbled on Dr. Eric Paulson and his unethical ways long before others had, and he’d been caught, captured, and thrown into the lab with the rest of the rats for his trouble.
Now he was Alpha of Dark Manhattan and the leader of the Alpha Council.
He had been and still was Devona’s Alpha.
She had been devoted to him and his Alpha mate, Amara, since the very start of things.
She had believed Nick and Amara would lead the Morphates to a better standing in the human world.
They had most certainly led them to carve out a piece of it.
“You’ve finally finished what you and my brother set out to do five decades ago,” Nick said with a soft modulation of his voice.
He had learned and grown so much in the five decades since becoming Morphate.
Proof positive of what a person could become if only they had enough time to learn the lessons life could teach.
He’d once been bullish and hotheaded. Now he was the quintessential leader, and the quintessential friend.
“You’ve learned how to kill our own kind.
You’ve developed the weapons to curb what would otherwise be uncontrollable creatures. ”
“Much to Ambrose’s displeasure. And I don’t doubt that Paulson is still out there somewhere, steaming that I got to it first.”
Nick flicked sharp, assessing eyes over her.
“I know you went undercover all those years ago to avoid detection from the fractious Morphates, but making this a contest of wills between you and the man that made us was never my intention. I would never have had you give up a normal Morphate life for that. Paulson is a ghost. You can’t find him.
No one can unless he wants to be found. Surely you’ve learned that by now? ”
Devona reached up with her free hand to massage the growing tension in her temple.
“Of course I realize that,” she lied to her Alpha.
She believed with all of her heart that Paulson would be the first to hear of her successes.
Especially once she was through leaking the information to the right people.
Secrecy had served its purpose; now breaking that secrecy would serve an entirely different purpose.
Unfortunately, it would also put innocent people in the line of fire, she thought as she slid a tense glance over to the bodyguard at the next table who was trying with all his might not to glare at her.
She could sense he didn’t care for her physical contact with another handsome male.
He might be human, but he had powerful Alpha tendencies.
Had he been Morphate, he most certainly would have ruled a clan.
As it was, he was ruling the clan of humans intent on protecting her life; they followed his every command and trusted his every executive decision.
Just as all the Morphates in Dark Manhattan trusted Nick’s proven leadership abilities.
“I am not doing this in an attempt to ferret out Paulson,” she lied smoothly.
“I am doing this so Ambrose and the others who think to defect from the Alpha Council will know there are permanent consequences for crossing the line.” That, at least, was truthful.
“I am doing this to force them to reconsider their lawless positions. Humans and Morphates alike will now have the ability to call them into check. Their days of invulnerability and anarchy are at an end. You put me to this task. You and your brother Kincaid. Fifty years ago you both knew the fractiousness and mayhem of some Morphates would only worsen over time. You had incredible foresight.”
“As did you. I believe you were the one to advise me on this point all those years ago.”
“It was collaborative,” she said dismissively.
It no longer mattered who had come to the understanding first. What mattered was what they were going to do with the power they had acquired.
And all because one human had accidentally stumbled on a solution they had sought for decades.
Her human, she thought with no little sense of pride and respect as she glanced from under her lashes at Liam.
She took a breath and leaned closer to Nick, increasing the intimacy of their conversation.
“Nick. A word from you and I will destroy them all. Every last weapon. If you think this is a mistake …”
“I don’t. My mind has not changed on the matter.
And anyway, it would be rather like trying to put the genie back in the bottle, don’t you think?
The power is out, unleashed on the world.
If not you, someone else will come up with weapons.
No doubt less sophisticated ones.” As was proven by the dangerous and volatile bullets Liam’s team had designed and now were armed with.
Devona realized it was very much time to arm them with her more graceful weapons.
Especially since they were going to be in so much danger in the coming days.
Morphates were gunning for her, trying to wrest the power of her inventions for themselves.
They had proven as much with their previous attacks on her.
Nick closed his fingers around her palm, drawing her hand closer to his side of the table. It was a gesture of insistence. It made her look into his intent eyes.
“Come home. Come be with your people again. You’ve done well. Sacrificed much. Hidden what you are. Come home and embrace life as a Morphate once more.”
“Not yet,” she said softly.
“We can protect you in Dark Manhattan. While I respect the reputation and power of these humans you’ve hired from NHK, they can’t protect you like we can. And when this goes public, as it promises to do any moment now, you are going to need Morphates to protect you from Morphates.”
“I disagree. I think the whole point of this was to level the playing field. To give humans a fighting chance against Morphates. I think my guard detail is a perfect way to prove that.”
Nick frowned and she could tell he was tempted to argue further.
She could tell he was tempted to throw his weight around and command her as her Alpha to return to the fold.
He knew very well that she would be hard pressed to countermand a direct order from him.
But Nick was a great believer in personal freedom.
It was what made him so good at what he did.
He knew when it was appropriate to pull rank and when it was just being dictatorial.
True, an Alpha driven society was very dictatorial in nature, but Nick did his level best to hold on to the fairness and ideals of his past humanity.
“I think you are putting them in needless danger. Risking their fragile mortality.”
“I have considered that,” she agreed a bit stiffly. The idea of Liam coming to harm …
She couldn’t resist cutting her eyes toward him, though she knew it was a mistake.
She knew she couldn’t hide the distress of her thoughts in that moment.
She saw his entire body go rigid with suspicion and hyper-focused attention, saw the way he was already glaring at Nick as though he would put a mercury riddled hole in his head any second.
This wasn’t likely to go unnoticed by Nick, who could still access his cop instincts.
He did not disappoint.
“Your watchdog looks like he’d like to bite a chunk out of my ass,” Nick mused without repressing a rascally smile.