Page 119 of Bonds of Fate

But as the saying goes, fame is a double-edged sword. There are always eyes on them and obligations that interfere with their real-life family life and, more and more often, troublesome people to wrangle.

Jay isn’t a hypocrite; he has always felt the price they paid was worth it so they can do what they love, but more and more, Ripley Records is making it a challenge to navigate a polyamorous lifestyle, let alone one in the LGBTQIA+ community in a country still grappling with its rampant homophobic views.

Were record companies have contingencies in place for public relations issues, but recently, Ripley Records has been focusing on a more restrictive approach than Jay and his mates are comfortable with. They are diverting public relations budgets to save a few bucks or to line the pockets of company execs. It made it look and feel like they were working against LRH rather thanwiththem, and it made working with their manager especially tricky.

Unfortunately, this call to their company manager is one of those times.

Long Road Home has always let the company choose its manager. It didn’t feel like a big deal since LRH had the last word on their music—the rest hadn’t mattered as much. Their manager handled their day-to-day schedules and smoothed over any fan interaction they might encounter in the wild. It’s a straightforward job, even though it requires a great deal of skill and finesse.

Until recently, Jay and his mates have always treated their manager as family. Their original manager, Gene, had been with them since the beginning but had recently followed his wife to New York last year. They were sad to see him go but happy they had this opportunity because they, too, believe family is everything.

Gene’s replacement, Jason Price, had come highly recommended by a friend of an executive at Black Vinyl Records. Ripley had fast-tracked his hire when the Rhodes pack had been out of the country for Grayson’s birthday at the end of last year, and Jay has always felt that it had been on purpose.

Luca hadn’t taken to the middle-aged beta at all—said he was too charming, always a little bit too familiar, and a “company man”.

Jay couldn’t disagree, but despite that, Jason had handled the details of his job competently, and they had managed to get along fine—not as well as Gene, but fine.

Right now, though, Jason is not doing fine—and soon, he’s going to be looking for another job.

Leo and Jay had reluctantly left their mates after dinner to make the call to Jason from the solitude of Finn’s library, eager to get what they thought would be an easy call out of the way before tackling the more difficult task of hashing out a plan for Nix’s coming out.

But easy, this was not.

“Jay, you can’t just go on emergency hiatus and then announce you’re in a gay polyamorous relationship with seven other people.” His nasal tone is condescending, and the obvious implication is that Jay is being unreasonable. It’s ridiculous because that wasn’t at all what Jay had said they wanted to do.

So he tries again, forced patience and the tiniest bit of disrespect in his voice. “Jason, we haven’t any plans to do that,but we will be engaged in a very public trial involving a former Ripley Records employee–”

Jay and Leo could not have expected what Jason said next. “Mr. Hayes is not‌ considered a former employee.”

“I beg your pardon?” Not fired?

Ripley Records is still putting morality clauses into contracts, and Jay had always assumed all employees were subjected to them when they signed on the dotted line. That Hayes still has his fucking key card and employee discount—after trying to kill Jay’s Nix is horrific.

“Mr. Hayes is still technically employed. He has not yet been found guilty, nor is he permanently incarcerated. The company doesn’t want to risk a lawsuit should he be exonerated.”

Exonerated. Hell, no.

This isn’t a personal vendetta where Jay is asking the company to mete out punishment, not some minor workplace dispute. No—these are high-level, federal crimes.

This is assault and rape.

This is torture and attempted murder.

That those crimes were perpetrated against the love of Jay’s life only makes it worse.

Just hearing how blasé Jason is about it makes his blood fucking boil.

The company is worried about fucking optics when they should be worried about his extremely pissed-off enigma wolf instead. Ripley Records must have a short memory. Perhaps Jay has let them think he’s a trained puppy rather than the predator that hides under all that civilized Were education.

Jay has an overwhelming desire to hang up and then throw his phone through the windows in Finn’s library. The only things stopping him are Leo’s restraining hand on his arm and the potential for the disappointed puppy dog eyes he’d get from Finn about exposing his books to the elements.

It had started to rain, after all, and rain isn’t good for books.

But it is a near thing, and his mate must know it.

Leo speaks up in an icy voice. “Jason, this is not up for discussion. We are calling simply to let you know how things are going to go. There will be a trial, and we will publicly support our mate. We expect that Ripley Records will do the same.”

Fucking right, they do. Leo continues through gritted teeth, and Jay fears for his rockstar-worthy dental work. “Long Road Home has been part of the Ripley Records family for years, and, given Dawson Hayes has assaulted and almost killed our mate, PR should already be in the works to handle the fallout.

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