Chapter 3
Jason
Ichecked the time. I was meeting Conri or his beta shortly, but…I glanced at the paperwork on the desk. I wasn’t at all sure about this contract. I was going in there to try to bluff them on a false document, and I had no love for Conri or his pack, but the morals sat uneasily.
Nic had made promises, but I’d be the one left holding the can for this. It was a can I’d happily hold if I knew why, though. I’d hold it regardless for Nic—my sire, my king—but it wouldn’t hurt to get more information. Honestly, the more information I had, the better job I could do.
I grabbed my cell and pulled up a video call with Nic. He answered on the third ring, and his smile suggested he was as pleased to see me as always. I withheld my sigh, knowing I was about to question one of his decisions—and that he wasn’t likely to take that well.
“Morning, Nic.”
“Good morning.” Then he waited but it was to give me room to speak rather than being anything impatient.
“I’m about to go into this meeting with Conri…” I frowned as I heard the doubt in my voice. I needed to be far more confident than this if I was representing Nic in a deal with the wolves.
He nodded. “The one with the land contract?”
“Yeah.” I released my sigh in a noisy exhale and sat in my chair as I glanced at the paperwork again. “Are you sure you want to do it this way? Can’t we just…tell them?” Tell me, for fuck’s sake… Perhaps we needed to start with that.
I needed the whole story so I could go forward with more than the idea that Nic was simply reneging on a contract, because Nic would never do something so dishonest as walk back a deal without good reason.
He raised an eyebrow. “They’re shifters.”
Okay. Yeah, I got that. If vampires like Nic were generally suave and debonaire and influential and rich, then shifters were grubby little criminals, most likely covered in motor oil and running gangs. Of course he didn’t trust them. His lifestyle was completely different.
Nic shied his subjects away from crime, actively kept us law-abiding and hidden from humans, but the shifters seem to run headlong into any shady business deal going.
Hell, it didn’t even need to a business deal.
It just needed to be shady. And in my experience, it didn’t matter the breed of shifter.
They all had the same characteristics. Formed a gang, had few ethics or morals moving forward with their lives. Job done.
Still, Nic must have trusted at least one of them once. He’d made a deal with Conri after all.
“But Conri…” I looked at him. Those two words were enough to get my point across, surely?
“What about him?”
Apparently not. And Nic sounded harsh, like there was definitely no give here. “He helped out with Leia.”
“Mmhmm.” He was really going to make me spell everything out.
I sighed again. I hated getting into it with Nic, but maybe we were due a decent argument.
He was more than just my sire and king—he was my lifelong friend.
Because I’d essentially been sold like a good or service to the Dupont family as a plaything for Nic, he was used to me pushing back more often than his other friends and family.
I’d been challenging him our whole lives.
At least that was what I told myself as I prepared to question his judgment.
“You and Conri had a deal that you forged because he helped keep Leia safe. You were going to give him land here for his pack’s activities.
” I didn’t need to explain those activities any further.
Nic and I both knew they were likely to be something we’d end up turning a blind eye to—gunrunning, the occasional drug deal, and shit like that.
“Yep.” He gave a short agreement. “And Conri has land.”
I almost grinned. Nic deliberately wasn’t making this easy. “But not all the land he’s expecting?” I made it into a question, even though I knew the answer.
“Not all the land he’s expecting,” Nic conceded.
“And you don’t think I should explain this anomaly? That I should know what this fucking anomaly actually is?” And there it was, frustration leaked into my tone. I couldn’t do my job half-blind.
He shook his head. “Not sure if I trust them to know about the wolves we’re protecting on that land. It’s like a wildlife sanctuary up there.”
I laughed. Wolves. Fucking hell. It was just wolves. “But they’re wolves, dude. Why would they endanger wolves already living on the land?”
“This is a different situation—it’s not the same type of wolf, and it’s not a risk I’m willing to take, so until we know more about them and their ethics and their morals around conservation, it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.
I don’t know if I can trust them. And it’s just easier this way. Keeping them out of it entirely.”
“Seriously?” I almost rolled my eyes, but I didn’t go that far. I probably needed my eyes ready to roll at Francois, rather than Nic. “Now we care more about actual wolves than your deal with Conri?” I got that this was about trust rather than simply being a shit.
Nic was very rarely a shit for no reason, but I was the one who looked like shit out here because I was the one supporting Nic’s morals with no explanation for the pack.
This time, Nic sighed. “Look, the red wolves are endangered. They have a long history in this country that I’d like to respect.
They’re currently an outlier, surviving against the odds and they’re wolves but also a distinct species.
” He grinned. “Sounds a hell of a lot like vampires, if you ask me. We have a lot in common.”
I chuckled. “Look, I can’t say I agree about keeping them in the dark like this. I think it looks bad for us, but you know I’ll play it whichever way you want.”
“Just keep this under wraps for now. There’s every chance they won’t notice.
They wanted land, they’ve got land. We get to assure that we’ve played our part in protecting an endangered species.
We’re all good.” He shrugged, but as we signed off our call, I didn’t have his confidence that it would be this easy.
I was also fairly sure that having an advantage over Conri in the negotiations was every bit as important to Nic as his sudden interest in red wolf conservation. Vampire kings didn’t hold their positions without a little bit of ruthlessness, after all.
I grabbed the contract paperwork and left my room, which led directly in the communal sitting area of the apartment.
Francois looked up as I appeared, and I nearly groaned out loud at the grin on his face.
Living in such close quarters with another vampire meant vampire hearing was always a problem.
“Bonjour, Jason,” he greeted me. “I trust all is well?”
I forced a grin that felt more like a grimace at his false concern. “Very well, thank you.”
“Ah, bon. Good, good,” he said, and he appeared to redirect his attention to the magazine he was leafing through, but I didn’t for one second believe he was truly reading some gnarly copy of Parenting magazine he’d found God knows where.
“Oui? Can I help you with something?” He looked up again expectantly at me when I didn’t move through the sitting area toward the door, and I sighed.
I seemed to have spent a lot of my morning sighing because of other vampires, so far. But one was because of my submission under him, and this time was because of my responsibility over this one.
“I think we should run through the rules again.”
“Yes, of course.” But he’d already started looking at the magazine again, and the small shake he gave the pages definitely communicated an air of rules schmules.
“Okay.” I could ignore his body language and pretend he genuinely wanted to know.
“You’re not to leave the apartment. We don’t want anyone to know Francois Ricard is back.
” It was like I couldn’t tell him that enough.
Even though it felt like I was repeating myself.
Maybe this was what fucking fatherhood felt like.
The same sentences on repeat twenty-four hours per day.
“Oui, oui. Don’t leave. I got it the first time.” Francois had clearly perfected his bored face when he was a teenager.
“There will be guards outside the building to make sure.” I’d considered having one inside the building, but that would have meant putting him right inside the apartment because I couldn’t have a guard stationed outside the front door without piquing the interest of the neighbors.
“Bien s?r. Of course. But I’m too tired to venture outside, anyway.
” He let his head flop back and I couldn’t tell if it was genuine fatigue and or if it was a normal level of Francois drama.
“This fucking drug still courses through my veins, and until I find my mate, I only have the treatment rather than a cure.”
Emotion colored his tone, as if he’d spoken the whole truth rather than a carefully cultivated partial one.
“And the neighbors.” I continued like he hadn’t spoken. I didn’t want to dig down into the dead man’s blood issue and his subsequent addiction and madness.
He rolled his eyes, adding to his bored air. “The neighbors.” He laid heavily on his French accent, turned the into zee.
I hardened my tone. “I mean it.” Sweet Jesus.
I actually did sound like his parent. “People are off-limits. That means you don’t so much as wave at a passerby from the window.
Don’t make a phone call, don’t write a postcard, and don’t send smoke signals under the front door. If that woman from the other day—”
“Penelope,” Francis cut in, his voice smooth as silk.
I narrowed my eyes and gritted my teeth. “Yes, Penelope. If she comes back, ignore her. Don’t answer the door. Don’t make a sound that lets her know you’re in here.”
“This is a whole lot of don’ts.” He set his magazine aside and examined his fingernails.
I sighed, already over him and his awkwardness. “Then try this. Do stay in the apartment, do stay quiet, and do avoid the neighbors. Clear enough?”
He nodded but didn’t look at me. “Oui, oui. Yes, Jason. You are always very clear.”