“Leave Uncle Eric alone, guys,” Oliver’s voice, laced with the amusement I was trying to contain, interrupted the moment. He and I shared a look over Eric’s shoulder that spoke volumes about our mutual assessment of the moment, though, before he smiled down at his kids warmly. “Daddy and Eric have to work right now. But maybe we can go visit with Cam and Day. Does that sound fun?”
“You’re getting a raise,” Eric murmured towards Ollie as the kids cheered, his relief more than palpable now that the little people were distracted.
Ollie snorted and waved him off. “Beck’s already in the meeting room. Rex is there, too, in case you needed another alpha for whatever reason.”
“Thanks, Ollie,” Eric smiled and then led the way through the living room and down the hallway to the soundproofed meeting room converted from an old formal dining room. Sure enough, Beckett and Rex were both sitting at the large table, waiting for us.
“What’s this all about?” Beck asked after we exchanged polite greetings for the day. Eric turned to me expectantly.
I held up my phone, frowning as I realized that Sage’s was still sitting on the coffee table. Despite being a four-hundred-year-old dragon, I didn’t like him being uncontactable. My own dragon whined inside me, and I decided the tremor of discomfort and mild dread I felt was misplaced, and probably only existed because of our history.
“Sergio wanted me to get you all together on a conference call,” I said, shaking off the weird feeling. “He needs your help.”
Eric’s brows furrowed. “Why did he involve you? He has my number. And Beck’s, too.”
“We were discussing something else and this,” I waved my hand around the room, “was a byproduct of that.”
“A byproduct?” Eric drawled.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, but Beckett intervened before I could say something that would certainly ruin the whole ‘turning over a new leaf’ thing I was trying to maintain.
“Well, we’re all here now, so let’s see what Sergio needs,” he said. “Can you link your phone up to the projector?” A large screen had been installed on the far wall, which, I gathered, made conference calls with multiple participants a lot easier.
I passed my device over to Beck. While I considered myself tech-savvy enough, I knew when to admit I needed help, too. He played with some settings, plugged in a cord from the little black box in the middle of the table, and then suddenly my phone screen was being duplicated on the big screen on the wall, and the sound was directed through the speakers also connected to the system.
Modern magic at its finest.
I brought up Sergio’s number, glad that I hadn’t changed his contact name to something ridiculous like ‘My Alpha’ with a loveheart like Sage had done, and pressed the button to initiate a video call. Serge answered within seconds of the first dial tone.
Seeing him on the bigger screen momentarily took my breath away. He felt so much closer, so much more real than he did on the tiny phone screen, and my throat tightened up. I missed himterribly. Missed his touch and his scent. Missed his warmth and the sparkle in his eyes.
“Hello,” he greeted in his mellow, professional ‘wise shaman’ tone, “thank you for meeting with me at such short notice.”
I wanted to tease him for how very different he seemed when he was alone with me and Sage. This savant schtick he had going was really quite funny when I knew what he was like without the pretense. When I knew what he sounded like when he came.
Focus…I reminded myself, tuning back into the conversation around me.
Jamie was on the screen now, being introduced as a fixer for many of the European packs. On the larger screen, he seemed even prettier than before, with a nearly artful dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks, and a dimple that appeared when he smiled. He came across as instantly charming. Knowing that he was in the proximity of my alpha set my teeth on edge. Though I trusted Sergio completely, I wasn’t entirely sure I trusted Jamie Bartlett.
Surprisingly, Rex didn’t seem completely sold on the twink on the screen, either. The Texan leaned forward in his seat, scratching at his bearded jaw as he asked, “And you just want us” —he gestured vaguely, intimating our pack as a whole— “to hand over all of our research just like that? How are we s’posed to know you’re not workin’ for the Moonmusic types so you can build yourselves up an army of alphas and then try to get global power, or whatever.”
Instead of being offended or defensive, Jamie nodded. “That’s a reasonable fear to have, given what you’ve been going through,” he acknowledged. “But that kind of radicalism never really spread to the packs over here. Thereisa power dividebetween betas and omegas,” he sighed ruefully, “but I wouldn’t say that we omegas are as mistreated over here as over there. We just generally feel overlooked and undervalued. Underestimated, even.” His lips curling slightly, he finished, “But to answer your question: you can’t know for sure that I’m not working for the people who are trying to bring you down. I have no way of proving that I’m not.”
“However,” my alpha cut in slowly, “while I can’t physically prove it, The Magic is in favor of this plan.”
Seated beside me, Eric had opened his laptop and was typing away at his keyboard. He looked up at the screen on the wall and mused, “Well, it isn’t as though we thought it would all stay localized. Though, if The Magic is suddenly all for alphas appearing all over the world…why haven’t they yet?” He splayed a palm upwards and stretched his arm across the table, loosely pointing at the two alphas sitting across from us. “It happened naturally for them. Why haven’t we heard of similar things happening in Europe? Or Australia? Or Asia? Or anywhere else? I know,” he held up an index finger, “nobody has those answers. I’m just thinking out loud.”
“They’re fair questions,” Sergio responded anyway, “and it is possible those situations have happened in secret. A lot of shifter communities over here are isolated, with shifters still living in fear of being hunted by humans again.”
Eric and I both squirmed a little in our seats. The dragon slayings which had taken place in Europe had definitely been far more brutal and terrifying than the more quiet eradication which had happened in the United States.
“That does make sense,” Eric admitted softly. “And it would be nice to compare notes with other scientists and researchers,too. Brandt and I have been working blind here.” He turned to Beck, who had been mostly quiet throughout the discussion. “What are your thoughts?”
“I think that if Ollie and I hadn’t had you, we would have been screwed,” he shuddered. “So if this helps other surprise alphas and their omegas, or even educates the communities over there before situations like mine—”
“Or mine,” Rex added, and Beck nodded before he continued speaking.
“—stress people out and make them feel scared and alone, then I’m all for it. Plus,” he tilted his chin at Eric, “like you said, cooperating and sharing notes might help find answers faster. Like seeing if the researchers over there have any ways to pinpoint who carries the potential alpha gene or whatever theory it is you’re working on this month.”
