An older version of myself stares back at me, torn between his memories and what’s standing before him. Eventually, he blinks several times as if pulling himself back to the present. “They should stay; it’s not worth the risk of losing Hawk with everything he does for us.”
The other four share looks as they come to their own decisions before the atmosphere in the room shifts and they give varying versions of the same approval. Whether it’s because they know it would change my stance irrevocably and the ensuing damage that would do to their plans, or because they actually think I’m right, doesn’t really matter.
It’s a hill I’ll gladly die on, because yeah, my loyalties have shifted. If the people who I’ve given everything to refuse to respect my mate and my pack, then they don’t actually respect me.
“A massive slaughter would be suspicious,” Charlotte declares. “As much as we need to stop them, we don’t want to have the humans digging into why. If they were to discover that the company was hoarding power, they’d be on red alert and crack down everywhere, making things ten times worse for us. We need discretion if we want to pull this off.”
Her twin picks up where she left off. “And before you ask, no. We don’t think it’s worth the risk seeing if we can sway them to our side. They might be desperate for change and going about it the worst way possible, but we can’t see any possible outcome of trying to show them there’s another way without it resulting in them betraying us. If they’re willing to imprison shifters and torture them for power, they don’t see us as people any more than the humans do.”
“We’re going to have to kill them before they level up much more, or it will be impossible.” Ben doesn’t look nearly as upset about slaughtering his brethren as he probably should be.
Sure, part of that could be how mages are raised; Ian and Rel seem to have a disconnect getting close to anyone, even if they’re trying to do better. Mages are taught from the time that they can talk that life is a competition, that people will betray you for power in a heartbeat, that success is measured by their skillset instead of acknowledging their value as actualpeople.
But another part is simply the fact that Ben is the most powerful mage I’ve ever met, and like Noah, he’s practical. If he says that we have a small window before we’re fucked and he recommends killing them, we’d be stupid not to listen.
My dad shakes himself out of his funk, clasping his hands together on the table and clearing his throat. “We’ve caught wind of a business meeting going down at the company this weekend.”
My heart picks up with hope. “We’ve never been able to get a man on the inside before. How can we slip someone into the meeting? The visiting group would obviously know who they work with?”
Charlotte grins. “Not if the boss was sending his nephew to oversee that such an important meeting goes without a hitch.”
Eyes widening, I clap my hands before lowering myself back into my chair, threading my fingers through Rel’s beneath the table and leaning on my free elbow.
“Malcolm said yes?”
My dad’s matching grin helps fuel the hope rising in my chest. “Even sent over a donation.”
Eyes closing briefly in relief, I turn to my pack to give them the spark notes version to bring them up to speed. “That company after your pretty little neck is in biotech. We reached out to a competing enterprise out on the coast a while back, but didn’t really expect anything to come from it. Things aren’t quite as bad out there, but since this will be a massive shift across the entire country, the more people we have on board, the better things will flow.” Turning back to my father, I ask, “What finally won him over?”
His eyes flit to Rel and the others before settling back on me. “He finally came to visit the area. Spent all of twenty minutes walking around the city before getting right back in his car in disgust. Drove through a few fringe towns, but never made it as far as the wilds before turning around to hop back on a plane to return to the coast.”
“I’ll do it.” We all turn to Ian with a range of confusion or shock. “I’ve had some experience fixing shifters when mages fuck up the draining process.”
“Really?” Rel asks, surprised. “I thought you avoided all of this stuff.”
He exhales a long breath. “Yeah, because it’s asking for trouble to get involved. It’s how I met Rin; Osiris was trapped in his other form, and they were trying to find a cure for a sick kid.”
Rheyas’ chair creaks as he twists to face Ian. “We don’t know how much they looked into you. Even if they just thought she was staying with you and killed you along with the others, they’ll likely have at least seen a picture of you.”
Ian shrugs. “Yeah, but they won’t have studied me as closely as they have her, writing me off as a lead that turned into a dead end. So it’s not like my picture will have been spread around to the higher ups in the company; you know people like that just command some people to do their bidding and expect random reports , but don’t delve into the details themselves. I’ll cut my hair, slip on a suit, and embody my inner, rich-asshole persona.”
“I don’t know about this,” Ava worries, lips pursed.
“Look.” Ian’s face turns hard with determination. “I fucked up and almost lost everything. Now I have a chance to make things right instead of just sitting around and hoping things work out. I can handle it; let me do this.”
My gut is a mixture of mine and Rel’s worry, but I don’t protest. I get where he’s coming from, why he feels like he has to do this. It’s his way of making sure our mate is safe, of making up for his mistakes. Yet it’s a hell of a risk, especially when we have other people that could be assigned to this.
“Ian,” Rel whispers, “there’s no reason for you to be the one to do this.
Noah leans back in his chair. “It’s recon only. We don’t want to throw Malcolm’s company under the bus and tip off their involvement. You go, it’s just to gather information so we can create a plan. Names, schedules, who all is involved, and who’s innocent. The best way we can destroy them without getting on the human’s radar, if that’s even possible.”
“As soon as it’s noted several mages all wind up dead back-to-back, they’re going to see the connection of them all working in the same building. It’s impossible not to have the humans suspicious on this one.”
Nervously, Rel raises her hand partway before suggesting, “Unless it’s written off as a tragic accident; car crash, gas leak, a fired employee that snapped and shot the place up, that sort of thing.”
Noah and Ben exchange a look, minds whirring as they run through various possibilities silently via their pack link. While they mentally run projections and disregard ideas before wasting time bringing every suggestion up, Charlotte takes over the conversation, eyeing Ian sternly.
“That also means that if you come across anyone imprisoned there, you can’t do anything to help. Not even tip them off that help is coming in case they break while being tortured, trying to bargain the information for a reprieve. Would you be able to do that? See those people crying for help and walk away without a word to give them hope?”
