Leo raked a hand through his hair. “Why are you here?”
“Jude?” Gale passed responsibility by encouraging him to accept his place in this.
Jude blanched but cleared his throat. “There’s a new Alpha.”
Leo snorted, folding his arms over his chest. “Simeon Linwood. Who did he kill to manage that?”
“Grier.”
Leo blinked and backed onto the sofa. Isaac sat beside him, as Janet perched on the other end, looking bored and disinterested.
Drew crouched by Leo’s side. “How did you hear about the change of leadership? Does gossip make it this far?”
“Sure. Gossip is as bad in this world as a village. Foame have a network online where we share information.” Leo scrubbed his face as the shock of Simeon’s actions sank home. “If someone visits Vihaan, they share what they’ve found out in a group chat. We check on our families, our loved ones. I saw the notice that Simeon took over but no one explained how. The specifics get lost in what matters: family, friends.”
Gale filed that information for later. “There’s a group chat?” He thought he knew what that meant but Drew’s sharp glance confirmed it. If they had an insider, they could share the message of Keon’s leadership, the message of what he was doing, and what he offered.
Always quick to acknowledge a strategy, Jude regained Leo’s attention. “Simeon died a year ago,” he explained, and Leo’s eyes widened. “He left the Alphaship to his brother, Keon.”
“Yeah, a weedy kid, but sweet,” Leo recalled, exactly how Gale would have described Keon. A boy had left the pack, but a man had returned.
“He’s Alpha, and he’s changed everything,” Jude said around the cigarette still dangling from his lips, while letting Leo come to terms with what he was told.
Which was fine, except they were running out of time and had a new lead to follow. Gale slipped the cigarette from Jude’s lips, took another drag and exhaled. “We’ve been sent to bring you home,” he cut in, intrigued when Leo frowned and shook his head. “You have a Beta waiting to mate with you.”
Leo stood and took the cigarette from Gale’s hand to take a long drag. “What do you know about my Beta?” he asked, proving the mate bond remained strong. In this world or Vihaan, Leo had the confidence to step toe-to-toe with Gale over his true mate, Beta Weston.
Grinning approval, he retrieved his cigarette and dropped it to the floor, never breaking eye contact. Letting Leo know he wouldn’t be swapping saliva, letting him know Gale wasn’t scared. Letting Jude see he wasn’t about to put another man’s spit in his mouth.
“I know he’s waiting,” Gale replied, answering the question. “I know Keon rejected his true mate, a male—”
“Vega.”
Drew slid onto the sofa, sending Gale a concerned glance.
Leo must have seen Gale’s caution because he shrugged. “Keon’s known from when he was young. Everyone could scent it, and we’re not far in age.”
Gale was happy to tell the rest. “He plans to take a chosen mate soon, but it’ll be another male. He’s set new laws.” He pulled the papers from his pocket. “If you look them over and decide to go home to your Beta, you can find us at the address on the back. We’re gathering as many exiled or banished foame as we can find,” he explained, warning Leo he didn’t have time to hesitate. “If you can live by the rules, you’re welcome to take sanctuary in our pack.”
Leo raised an eyebrow and shifted his attention to the papers.
“Don’t wait too long.” Gale nodded to Isaac, who stood and followed Jude out the door. Janet huffed and followed.
Drew was last to leave, following them outside, only to stop a few steps from the guard. “Why are we leaving?”
Gale nodded to where Jude waited at the end of the building, nearer the main street. “Give him three minutes to get to the part about same-sex matings, and he’ll come running,” he promised, giving Drew a nudge towards the others.
They would wait and give Leo time to read the laws. If he didn’t appear within twenty minutes, they would return to the fraternity.
Janet lamented the ‘waste’ of beautiful clothes as Jude lit a fresh smoke. He took one puff, then handed it to Gale, the twinkle in his eye seeming to approve of his display with the last smoke.
Gale managed one deep inhale and handed it back, before a door slammed and footsteps emerged. He tried not to gloat when Drew shook his head and extracted the car keys from his pocket.
By the time Leo approached, they were ready to leave. “You waited?” Dressed in jeans and a hoodie, he stopped to shrug a bag over his shoulder.
Gale admitted the stark, if rude, truth. “If my mate was at home, free to be claimed, I wouldn’t waste time.”
“I left because he was safe and I wasn’t,” Leo said without anger or judgement. “He always knew I’d claim him. One way or another, our mating was inevitable.”
