Page 84 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
Taking the robe he threw at me, I shifted and tied it around myself. “Who is it today?”
“Ulrian Darkglade in the flesh. He and his assistant will be here to check everything is on the up and up.” Chase rolled his eyes.
This was a pointless exercise for the mayor. He’d already been given the information multiple times. This was his first official visit to the compound. Therehad been one very brief appearance on pack lands where he made it clear his mission was to take us down.
“Well, fuck.”
“Yeah, so you need to be on your A game.”
I went to the closet and found a pale purple shirt which set off the hazel in my eyes nicely. There was a matching tie and slim cut dark gray pants. There was a bump band, made of a skin tone colored fabric I put on under the shirt. It gave me support, which was desperately needed with four babies doing a wriggly dance inside me.
Last, I added a gray vest which matched the pants perfectly. There was an illusion woven into the fabric so I looked slimmer. I knew it probably wouldn’t work on the mayor, but on his human assistant it should. Besides, I loved the cut of it and it gave me somewhere to store my phone more easily.
Suitably dressed, I fussed with my hair, styling it the way I liked before I went to gather all our recent reports. Our tax statements were up to date, or permits all recently refreshed. Goddess, had that been a battle. I wondered what the mayor had up his sleeve for us.
His motivations made little sense to me. Was it just because of our ties to the elves? The fae and elves were in an uneasy truce following centuries at war,after they left us to form their own realm, Abrocaelum. Surely there couldn’t be more enmity there.
Was it just the aviary? We had thwarted most of their attacks on us. The alliance with the Greenbriar pack was helping us keep supply lines open. We were still having issues delivering locally, which caused a lot of problems with law enforcement. They were very quick to victim blame. We had taken to recording all interactions with the other pack and just leaving if we could, rather than getting into an altercation.
Or was there another angle I didn’t know about yet? Whatever it was, I would get to the bottom of it, hopefully before I went off on parental leave in a few weeks. Then once the babies arrived, I was going to try working from home for a little while with Ingal’s help.
I was training up Rudi, Mateo’s father, to be my replacement. The older shifter remained unable to fly after his ordeal with the aviary but still wanted to be of service to his new pack. We had offered them the chance to leave Sweetwater and the Northarbor area, they could go to Greenbriar, for example. Rudi had wanted to stay with the pack who took his family in without expecting anything in return. I really liked the older man.
The man was sharp as a tack. I would have feared for my job had I not been sort of promoted. I wasn’t “just” Chase’s assistant now, I was pack treasurer. Astheir accountant, I dealt with the money side of things anyway. This was only a new title and pay raise.
Larken would be stepping back a bit from enforcer duties, no outside missions, so he could help Ingal while I worked. Lark working part-time made more sense than me doing it. With working half my week at home, I’d still get plenty of time with the babies.
“You ready?” Chase pulled me out of my musings.
“Yeah,” I gathered up the papers and followed him to the library.
Waiting for us were the usual suspects, Blake, Kade, Roan, Dakota and Deke. We had additional enforcers, Melody, Sam and Sebastian covering the corners of the library.
There were refreshments laid out on a low coffee table, looking particularly appetizing. Damn Winter and his love of baking. My stomach growled as I took my seat. The others laughed, breaking the tension.
Minutes later, Larken led in the fae mayor, his human assistant, and a bird shifter. I heard Sebastian’s muffled gasp. He knew this person then, had to be from his time in the aviary.
The bird shifter locked eyes with Sebastian. A multitude of emotions flitted over his face before briefly landing on devastation.
That’s my father.Seb used the pack link to tell us all.He’s the aviary’s Second, last I heard.
One by one we all schooled our features into a mask of indifference while Sebastian must have been fighting a war within himself. Seeing his father years after fleeing the aviary over his mixed mating to Jake must have been hard for him. How he kept a straight face, I didn’t know.
There was tension in the room as Blake made the introductions, and the mayor’s assistant, a woman called Theresa, did the same for her party.
We lapsed into silence while Chase gave out refreshments. A tactical move on our part. We didn’t want an omega serving the aviary as they didn’t treat their omegas well and it would place us in a vulnerable position. An alpha serving them would give them the impression we deemed them as important guests, equals. The same went for asking Melody because she was the only female beta. We knew the aviary had no place for female betas. Chase was the perfect choice.
A knock came at the door, Larken went to answer it, admitting Jasper and Teárlach into the room. Jasper immediately went to his mate’s side.
We want the voice of The Luna, Blake explained as he took a sip of his coffee.
Ulrian, the mayor, broke first. “Shall we get to business?”
“Let’s,” Blake agreed.
Over the next hour, there were more drinks, and I caved and ate some of the cakes Winter had made as our paperwork was scrutinized carefully.
Eventually, even my Alpha’s limitless patience wore thin. “Why are you doing this? Why partner with them?” He glanced at Sebastian’s father, a look of fury in his eyes. “Do you understand the level of disrespect you’ve shown by bringing the Second in command of the aviary here? A clan who have done nothing but attack us? They tried to take my infant daughter!”
