Gumbo slipped into the water behind me like a shadow, his massive body disappearing beneath the surface with barely a ripple. He'd follow at a distance—he always did—keeping watch in his own prehistoric way.
I paddled the familiar route around my property, checking the lines I'd set yesterday for crawfish, noting which cypress knees were getting too close to the waterways and would need trimming. This land had been in my family for generations, though I was the first Omega to hold the deed. Another thing my parents had hated—Marguerite leaving everything to me instead of some distant Alpha cousin who "could actually manage it."
I managed it just fine, thanks.
It was on the far edge of my property that I saw them.
I stopped paddling, the pirogue drifting to a halt. My hands went white-knuckled on the paddle.
New stakes. Fresh ones. Bright orange flags snapping in the morning breeze, driven into the exact same spots I'd ripped them from yesterday.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." The words came out low and dangerous, more growl than speech. I guided the pirogue to the bank and stepped out, my bare feet sinking into the moss. They'd replaced them. Every single one. While I slept, while I tried to figure out what to do, Crescent Holdings had sent someone onto my land and put the stakes right back.
Like my pulling them meant nothing. Like I meant nothing. The tag on the nearest stake had something new printed on it. I crouched down to read it, my blood already starting to boil.
CRESCENT HOLDINGS LLC - SURVEY MARKER - DO NOT REMOVE. And underneath, in smaller print: TAMPERING WITH SURVEY MARKERS IS A MISDEMEANOR UNDER LOUISIANA REVISED STATUTE 14:59.
"They're threatening me." I said it out loud, my voice flat with disbelief. "They put stakes on my land, and they're threatening me." I ripped the stake out of the ground and hurled it into the water. It splashed about twenty feet out, and Gumbo surfaced nearby to investigate before letting it sink.
I pulled the next one. And the next. Each one came free with a wet sucking sound, leaving holes in the earth like wounds.
"MY LAND." The words ripped out of me in a growl, loud enough to send a flock of egrets bursting from a nearby tree in a flurry of white wings. "This is MY land, you corporate bastards!" I whirled to face Gumbo, who was watching with what looked like reptilian concern. "Did you see anyone last night? Anyone at all?" I demanded, pointing a stake at him.
He blinked slowly.
"Useless." I threw the stake into the pile I was building on the bank. "Absolutely useless as a guard dog." I pulled another stake, my fury building with each one.
Seven stakes. Again. I gathered them all and stood there, breathing hard, mud on my hands and rage in my heart. They weren't going to stop. That much was clear now. CrescentHoldings wasn't making offers anymore—they were making claims. They expected me to just roll over and take it.
The Tower card. Sudden upheaval. Lightning striking everything I'd built.
Yeah. No kidding.
Underneath the anger, something else stirred. Something calculating, cold and sharp as a blade. Because I wasn't naive—I knew what happened to single Omegas who tried to fight corporations alone. I knew how these things went. The lawyers, the paperwork, the pressure. The way powerful people could crush you just by making everything too expensive and too exhausting to fight.
I wasn't alone though, was I?
I had three Alphas circling. Three Alphas who'd already found these stakes and kept it from me. Three Alphas who'd been waiting for an invitation. For permission.
Maybe it was time to give them something better: a chance to prove themselves. A smile spread across my face—slow, predatory, sharp enough to cut. My earlier fury transformed into something else entirely. Something that felt a lot like anticipation.
"Alright, Crescent Holdings." I loaded the stakes into my pirogue like trophies of war, orange flags fluttering in the breeze. "You want to play? Let's play." I pushed off from the bank.
Gumbo fell into formation beside me, his massive body cutting through the water without effort.
"And as for you three—" I dipped my paddle and pulled, sending us surging forward toward home. Toward the phone calls I needed to make. Toward the Alphas I was about to summon. "Time to stop circling and start talking." I paddled harder.
They wanted to protect me without my permission? Fine. They could do it properly. Out in the open. Where I could see them.
If they didn't like it, they could watch someone else's property. Something told me they'd come running. All three of them. Time to see which of them was worth keeping.
Chapter Six
Harper
The day she walked into my distillery, I wasn't expecting anything.
I'd been in the back, checking the still, when I heard the cowbell clang. I wiped my hands on a rag and moved toward the shop, expecting old Mrs. Thibodaux or one of the regulars. Instead, I heard a voice I didn't recognize.
