Page 31 of The Omega's Alpha
Then Mac said, “Quin, you invited a photographer?”
Oh, hell. “No, I did not. Who let him in?”
“Look, I think I see the guilty party.” Mac pointed at the hurrying form of a shifter, carrying a sheaf of papers and a huge canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
“Garrick.” Quin gritted his teeth and smoothed his anger out under the stolid mask he usually wore. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Garrick knew before he even got there that he was in trouble. Quin could see it in the way his shoulders hunched and he worked to keep from tipping his head back and to the side in submission. Not many alphas could stand up to Quin, for damn sure a gamma wolf couldn’t. So as soon as Quin got close enough to pin Garrick with a hard stare and separate him from his companions, the other shifter began babbling.
“They want to help. No one’s reporting on it, just a quick thing on a couple of channels.” He stepped close and whispered, “Laine thinks this might be our break to bring down the walls. This guy’s won awards for his reporting.”
“Is this what working so closely with the humans does to you? Do you really think we can trust them not to use us for their own benefit?”
“That’s exactly what I’m trusting them to do. I talked to Jason a couple of nights ago. This is exactly what we need to do.”
“Why?”
Garrick rubbed a hand over his face and looked down at the ground for a moment, but when he looked back up again, he wasn’t the worried gamma anymore, but whatever it was that had driven him to spend all those years in law school to learn the skills that the humans would never let him use. “Donations pour in from all across the country for hurricanes and floods and tornadoes. People come to volunteer, people send money when it happens outside the country. You’ve seen it. The media is how you make your point now, not in government or board rooms. Win their hearts, make them cry, and they’re yours. That’s what we have to do. This is a preventable tragedy, and we have to show just how preventable it was, and how they are all, in some small way, responsible for it. And then we really start working on them.”
Damn, I’m going to end up with that stupid book by the time this is all done.At the same time, Quin couldn’t argue that Garrick was wrong. “It’s not my tragedy to say. You have to get this past Gonzalo. If he’s okay with it, if his pack agrees, I’ll support it. But Garrick—” The other shifter tensed. “Don’t ever set something like this up without asking me again.” Quin leaned on Garrick with his power, and the other shifter went white and backed away a couple of steps.
“I won’t.” Garrick waited tensely until Quin eased off, and then he practically bolted back toward the humans.
Quin followed at a more sedate pace to give himself some time to think. As he got closer, he caught a good whiff of anger from the lawyer, and curiosity from the photographer and the other man. He slowed his pace even more and approached them the way he’d been taught an alpha approached an unknown shifter, shoulders back, body loose, and ready for attack. “Gentlemen,” he said quietly once he’d reached them.
“Alpha,” the lawyer replied, anger vibrating in the tone of his voice.
“Laine,” Garrick murmured. “Don’t. This is my territory. Trust me to know how to negotiate it.”
The human breathed out hard through his nose, but nodded. “Garrick told me about what happened here. We’ve discussed the issues around the enclaves before, extensively. If you and Abel are on the same page, then we can’t risk passing on this opportunity.”
“So you want to make an opportunity of my people’s tragedy?” He glanced at Garrick. “Garrick doesn’t have the right to make this deal.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Laine agreed, surprising Quin. “And if we can’t come to an agreement, then we’ll turn around and go. But Alpha,” Laine stepped forward and lowered his voice so only Quin and Garrick would be able to hear it. “There’s a point in every trial, a turning point that means success or failure. Navigate that moment correctly, and the world is yours. Every instinct I have screams that this is your moment. I want that for you. For you, and for every single member of your pack.” He cast a glance at Garrick and something about it made Quin wonder if there was more going on between the shifter and the human than he’d suspected. Something to investigate further, and the look he sent Garrick made that entirely plain.
“All right. I’ll bring you over to the Green Moon Alpha. Keep in mind that he’s lost a third of his pack to this fire. Over four thousand shifters, and most of the buildings, all of their supplies. I’ll throw you out myself, with prejudice, if you put even a toe out of line.”
“Of course,” Laine said coolly and Quin suspected he’d offended the man.
He didn’t care. They were four days into the aftermath of hell, he just been politely told to fuck off by his old chain of command when he’d asked for help, and his endurance was wearing thin. “Follow me.” He’d seen Gonzalo earlier near the temporary kitchen, counting supplies and trying to figure out the cheapest way to provide shelter for his pack into the coming winter.
The smell of soup filled the air, the cheapest thing they could make that would fill bellies and let them make use of every bit of food that still existed in the enclave. Lunch was beginning in stages, the puppies being fed first. Quin spotted Holland in the midst of a small pack of three and four-year-olds. He had them lined up, one little tow-headed boy on his hip, what looked like might be his sister hanging off Holland’s free hand.
“Everyone take a bowl. That’s it.” Holland turned his head and gave the little boy a kiss on the cheek. “You need to get down so you can get your bowl and have your lunch.” He put the little boy down and urged him and his sister into line with gentle hands. “You can come eat with me once everyone has their lunch, but I need to help.”
“Don’t go, Holland,” the little girl whined.
“I won’t be far,” he soothed. He eased her back into the line and, when he looked up, his eyes caught Quin’s and he grinned. “Maybe Alpha Mercy Hills will come eat with us. But everyone has to have their lunch before I’ll ask him.”
The little girl’s eyes widened. “Alpha?” One of her fingers crept into her mouth.
Quin raised his eyebrows, but walked over to crouch next to the line of children. “Yes, I’m starving. And I brought some friends. Can they eat with us too?” Maybe this would teach the humans a lesson in humanity.
The little girl looked up at Holland, who nodded. “Okay.” But she clung to him like a burr.
“I need Gonzalo,” Quin told Holland. “Where is he?”
“Over in the big tent, trying to make a dollar buy two dollars’ worth of food.” He glanced over at Garrick and the humans. “Why are they here?”
