“Better,” Josh Maxwell said.
“Does this mean you aren’t going to kick Monte out of the Pack?” I blurted out.
“Hell, no. I’m proud of you, Monte. Anyone willing to stand up and fight for his mate like that is okay in my book. That was never a question. I came to hear the evidence for myself and to be an advocate for you. I can’t control what the board decides about your fate here, but if it goes negatively and you want to challenge it, I will be right here fighting by your side.”
I was pretty sure I heard the Dean groan in frustration. But Monte embraced his Alpha and thanked him.
I hadn’t realized just how much the idea of being kicked out of his Pack was bothering him. It gave me relief knowing it wouldn’t come to that, and the fact that his Alpha had stood up for me, too, made me like him immensely.
He quietly escorted the both of us out of the office.
None of us spoke until we were outside.
“Thank you,” I finally told him.
“Josh, this is Zoey, my mate.”
“It’s really nice to meet you, Zoey. But you,” he said to Monte, “why am I just hearing about this now? You should have called me the second it happened.”
“It’s been a crazy week. I was getting around to it.”
“A week? That’s it?”
“A little over, like ten or so days now,” I said.
“Damn. Your bond is very strong for being so new.”
“You can tell that?” I asked.
He nodded. “I would have guessed you’d been together weeks, if not months.”
I liked knowing the bond was healthy and strong despite everything we’d been through. It made me feel like we were going to be okay despite everything.
Monte
Chapter 23
“I call this meeting to order,” Denny said. “And I have a special request from the pledges. Please let them in, Kevin.”
He did as asked. It wasn’t normal for the pledges to attend official meetings unless invited, but that was a rare occurrence.
“Go on. You’ve got this,” Jett told Oscar, giving him a little nudge.
“Hey guys. So, it would appear I have an unusual talent of sorts. I think you all know what I’m talking about.”
His Alpha powers. None of us had ever heard of a tiger shifter having Alpha powers strong enough to command a wolf, but he’d done it to me on more than one occasion now.
“I don’t know if it’s a genetics thing through my mom or if it’s some sort of witch power, but either way, I’d really appreciate it if we kept this between us. I don’t want people finding out about this.”
He looked so vulnerable standing before us. I wanted to protect him.
“The Grand Council is tracking witches and high threats to them like my Aunt Kelsey are being put on a kill list. I know she’s safe and I trust she can protect herself, but my family also has Westin Force fully behind us. They aren’t dumb enough to go after her. But they could easily get me here if I’m seen as athreat, and if my family finds out, they’ll force me to drop out of college and move back home. I don’t want to do that. And I know I’m not officially a brother or anything. Hell, I’m not even a dog, but I’d like to ask you all to please keep this within the brotherhood.”
Without hesitation, I stood up.
“Oscar likely saved me on more than one occasion by using his Alpha powers.” The room chuckled, knowing it was true. “I call on the brothers to invoke the code of silence. While he is not a full brother—yet—we all know as a legacy that he will be as long as he is willing to accept us. And even if he doesn’t, we’ve honored the sanctity of the code for others outside the brotherhood before. Some of you may be too young to remember Kaitlyn, but our brother Damon called upon the code of brothers to keep her secrets and protect her. I vote we do the same for Oscar, our brother, now and forever.”
“Dammit, Monte. He still has to go through his pledge period,” Denny said. “You can’t just tell him he’s already in.”
