Conrad
TWENTY-NINE
Both of you. Meeting room, now.
The text was in Flint’s blunt style, and Madd and I wasted no time in getting there. Ranger and Hunter were inside when we arrived, along with a few senior pack members.
Flint was holding a large envelope, and he tossed it on the table. “This just came.”
We all stared at it, and Madd gasped and grabbed my arm. “What is that?” He leaned over and inspected the handwriting. “Did you write this?”
“No, but there is someone on this earth who has almost identical handwriting.”
“Evander.”
My twin and I had learned from the same tutors and practiced the same drills.
Even our signatures were near identical, which had been useful.
I’d never admitted to Madd that the day in the garden when I asked Evander to sign the papers, I could have signed on my twin’s behalf.
Evander was not aware I’d ever done this, so he wasn’t suspicious.
“A local delivery driver was paid cash to bring the envelope to the gate,” Flint explained. It didn’t trigger any alert because we accept deliveries every day, and the guards signed for it.”
I was unsettled by a letter from my brother, not just because of his handwriting but also because of the message it sent. Not the actual words which I had yet to read. But the underlying one that spoke louder.
I know how to reach you without detection and violate your privacy.
And there was no digital footprint, so we couldn’t track it. It may have had his fingerprints, but his handwriting had already ID-ed him.
“I’ll let you read it.” Flint shoved the envelope across the varnished table, and it slithered over the slippery surface. I caught it with one hand and ripped the envelope.
Oh gods. There was no way to hide what it said, and I reached out to Madd with my free hand.
Congratulations, brother. I hear you're expecting.
There were no demands. He hadn’t mentioned the meeting request that was still unanswered. But somehow, he had knowledge of our private lives and he’d delivered that in the most intimate way possible, in a personal note that bypassed every sensor, guard, and security measure I'd built.
There was a collective gasp in the room, and Madd squeezed my hand.
“How does he know?” Ranger was pacing. “This is bad. Someone in the compound let slip about the baby.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions.” Hunter was less likely to pick the most dramatic reason and run with it than his older brother.
I didn’t need to speculate. Evander had someone who’d not only do his dirty work but who was good at it, partly because I’d trained him.
The sensors were designed for an approach from the air. But he had done exactly what I would have done. Stay on the ground in human form and be patient.
“Vasik never left.”
“What? No, the sensors would have picked up on him overhead,” Ranger protested.
“No scales or fire or anything that would give us pause. He's been here the whole time and watching from a distance.” I crushed the note. “He wouldn't have needed to get close. A pregnant omega's scent changes, and any dragon within half a mile would pick it up.”
“A dragon can scent that far away?” Hunter asked.
I nodded.
“Good. I’ll make sure not to shower or brush my teeth for the next week so he can smell my stink.” Ranger slammed a fist on the table.
“No!” everyone shouted at once, and Flint forbade his brother from altering his normal hygiene routine.
“The scent compounds over time. After a week, the change would be detectable from farther away. Vasik has been patient enough to wait for confirmation before reporting back.”
Madd was gripping my hand so hard, as though he was anchoring himself to me.
“So what does Evander want?” Flint asked.
“Much the same as his initial demand. He thinks Madd is his.” I tossed the crumpled letter into the middle of the table. “That note is about control. Father taught him well. He's telling me he can reach us whenever he chooses. The note is a demonstration of his ability to terrorize us.”
Madd spat out, “Everything your brother does is a threat.”
Even though I’d memorized the few words in the message, I smoothed out the paper and read them again.
Congratulations, brother.
The warmth of the language was deliberate. Evander had always understood that kindness could be wielded more effectively than cruelty. He'd learned it from our father, refined it during the days when he was getting to know Madd, and was now deploying it against me.
“There's something else.” I wished I could take Madd away and tell him first, but he had to hear it with everyone else. “A pregnant omega in a dragon flight is protected. It's a centuries-old tradition. Even in wartime, you don't harm an omega carrying their young.”
“So you're safe.” Ranger gave three slow claps.
This was the hard part. “Yes, and so is the baby for now.” I glanced at my mate, and I could see it in his eyes and his expression. He understood the unspoken part.
“But I’m not.”
“I’m so sorry, Madd.” I brought both his hands to my lips and kissed them.
Dragon tradition protected the omega and the yet to be born or hatched but said nothing about the alpha who sired the child.
Flint leaned back in his chair. He looked at Ranger and Hunter. “So he's not coming to separate you.”
No, my brother had his eye on the prize. That hadn’t changed.
“If Evander is operating under flight law, he could justify keeping me alive until I give birth. Then he’d get rid of me, mate Madd, and claim the baby as his.”
“He’d get everything he wanted, which is me, you out of the way, and a baby as a bonus.” Madd’s eyes had clouded with tears.
I wanted to take that pain from him and bury it somewhere he couldn’t find it. But I only had words, and they soothed but they couldn’t remove trauma. I was the perfect example of that.
And here we were sitting in this room with people who were only just understanding what we were up against.
“So what do we do?” Hunter asked. “We’re not going to let that happen, so let’s come up with solutions.”
“We stop waiting,” Flint and I said at the same time.
He put his hands on the table. “We agree to that meeting Evander wants. But with both families present and witnesses. If Evander wants to talk, he does it in the open.”
Evander didn’t have any family except me.
“He won't agree to witnesses.” That was Ranger.
“He will if the alternative is no meeting at all.” I looked around the table. “My brother wants to negotiate. That's leverage because he isn't ready for a war.”
"And if it's a trap?" Hunter asked.
“Then we prepare for that too.”
Flint nodded. He looked at Madd whose tears hadn't fallen because my mate was too stubborn to cry in a room full of wolves. “Are you okay with this?”
“I want this to end. We can’t live our lives walking on this tightrope with no safety net.” Madd cleared his throat and sniffed. “I’m tired of him dictating the terms of our lives.”
Madd and I were the last to leave the meeting. He was still holding my hand and neither of us seemed able to let go.
“We have to tell the family about the baby.” We were walking back to our room. “Before Evander broadcasts it on network TV.”
That was a slight exaggeration, but I agreed.
Madd had spoken to his folks last night, and they were overjoyed at the news. We hadn’t shared what was going on here though because their family was not part of the pack. They didn’t want to know who was being threatened or if Arnie had put a bullet in a man’s head.
Madd’s eyes were red, and I loved his loyalty, stubbornness, and his ability to love without limits.
“He doesn't get our baby or you. And he doesn't get me.” He put his hand on my stomach with his palm flat against my skin and spread his fingers. “This life is ours and the baby you’re carrying is ours too.”
“You’re right, and we get to savor every tiny morsel of it.” We kissed in the corridor, and my hope was that my brother would see reason and not destroy us, though his behavior since we left was the opposite of that.
We told Arnie, and he flung his arms around both of us. Treyton and his mate and little girl joined us, and we toasted with sparkling water. Lua was excited about the baby, thinking she’d have a new playmate.
“I’d better start knitting,” Arnie said.