The hall was quiet when he arrived, so he went to his office and did some paperwork while he waited. When Rafael and Michael arrived laughing, his wolf growled. What were they so happy about?
Joshua pushed from his desk and headed to the hallway. Upon seeing him, Rafael grinned. “Josh! Lianne shifted last night. She’s got a big, strong wolf. She took a chunk of my arm out, see?” He proudly showed off the bandage on his arm.
“That’s great,” Joshua replied. It came out sounding sullen. He winced. “No, it is great. I’m just… having a bad day.”
Michael snorted but waved them both into Rafael’s office. “Let’s get to business, then. We’ve got quite a bit of stuff to go through. There were some issues with the last payments to the special ops in our training program.”
“Of course there were,” Joshua groaned. “Can’t anything go right for once?”
Rafael frowned at him. “Having a bad day doesn’t excuse you for acting like an asshole.”
Michael nudged his brother. He ushered them into the office, and as Rafael studied Joshua and Joshua glared out the window, he pulled out some fruit from the minifridge. “Here. You sound hangry.”
“I’m not—” Joshua started, but his stomach rumbled. Huh. Maybe he was hangry. He unpeeled the banana, grunting out a, “Sorry.”
“You better be,” Rafael replied, frowning. “Anything you want to talk about?”
Joshua grimaced. “No.”
“It’s Kira, isn’t it?” Michael asked, his voice lowering. “Please don’t tell me that you’re taking it out on her for not wanting to be married to you.”
“Of course not! It’s just… complicated. In ways I don’t want to talk about,” Joshua said shortly.
He turned back, struggling to get his expression in check. Michael and Rafael shared a look. They might as well have broken out into the Macarena, changing to the words to some variation of, ‘he’s being an idiot, right?’ Joshua ground his teeth as his wolf snarled.
“Have we had any more updates on the demon sightings?” he demanded.
Rafael opened his mouth, a deep furrow between his eyebrows, but Michael spoke instead. “No. There’s been no sign of further activity, either. It’s possible that the recent sightings were someone’s mistake.”
“We can’t even entertain that thought,” Rafael interrupted, shaking his head.
“I agree.” Joshua folded his arms. “I thought I would take some of the special ops on a more thorough… what?”
He narrowed his eyes at the brothers as they shared yet another look.
At his demand, Rafael grimaced. “I received a call from Alpha Bael. Apparently, a couple of the special ops team wandered into his territory on patrol. He’s not taking it well and doesn’t believe that it was an accident. I need you and Michael to meet up with him and calm the situation down.”
Joshua closed his eyes and dropped his head. Michael was far better at being diplomatic than he was, but his birth father had been a member of Bael’s pack, and Bael knew that. It meant that Bael trusted him more than the Buchanan brothers, even if Joshua never lived with Bael’s pack.
“Today is a terrible day for that,” he muttered.
“Yeah. But it’s necessary,” Rafael said. His tone was hard, brooking no argument.
Joshua nodded reluctantly. It was for the good of the pack. And it would give Kira some extra space, he supposed. After a bit more discussion, he and Michael headed out. They met Alpha Bael on the border of the pack territory. Bael leanedagainst the side of his pickup, wearing a red flannel shirt tucked into a pair of ripped jeans.
“You’re late,” he said crossly.
“Our apologies,” Michael said smoothly as he dipped his head toward Bael. “There were some pack issues that we needed to take care of.”
Bael pushed away from the truck. “You’re still late. I don’t want any of your special ops boys in my territory. I’m not going to let demons be your excuse to invade.”
“We’ve spoken to the wolves in question, and I assure you, it was an accident,” Michael said.
Bael didn’t even look at him, instead leveling his gaze at Joshua.
“It was an accident,” Joshua said, then added, “but we have had some demon activity recently, and would like permission to have our teams come into your territory. We can arrange it ahead of time and start training your people to track and fight the demons. But the demons are a threat to all of us.”
Bael grunted as his dark eyes darted toward Michael. “Your friend here doesn’t look happy that you said that.”
