Page 50 of Legally Mated
Holland came out of the apartment’s hallway with the baby on his hip. Quin strolled over to tuck the baby into the crook of his arm and kissed Holland’s temple. “He smells a lotbetternow.”
“Our bedroom can’t say the same. I need to figure out what I’m eating that’s causing that stink.” He tickled the baby’s cheek and glanced over at us. “Sit down. Would you like coffee or tea? There might be a couple of cans ofsodaleft.”
“Coffee is fine, thank you,” Mutch said and took a seat on one of the chairs. “Lovelyapartment.”
Abel took a spot at the end of the couch and reached for a cookie. “It was decided when we built the place that the Alpha had to be able to entertain. Make the pack look profitable.” He grimaced. “I don’t know how much a nice place for the Alpha helps when we’re nailing plastic overwindows.”
“That’s something I hope to fix.” Mutch accepted his cup of coffee from Holland with a soft “thank you” and took a sip, before turning toward Abel. “I know you’re Abel, Quin’s brother and the former Alpha. That would make this Bax?” He nodded at Abel’s mate, coming back from the kitchen with a mug of teaforAbel.
Bax handed the mug to Abel and sat down with a hand on his mate’s shoulder. “Yes. I’m Bax,” he said, in his usual softvoice.
Quin came back with the baby and a handful of spoons that he dropped awkwardly onto the table while trying to keep the baby from flopping away on him. Right behind him, Holland carried in a tray of mugs, honey, and milk for the coffee. He set it down on the table, then wedged himself into the space left between QuinandBax.
“So, let’s start.” Holland smiled brilliantly around our group. “I think I’ll go first, if no one minds?” We all shook our heads. “Good. Mr. Mutch, when we met in Washington, you were full of promises. Not just for the well-being of the pack, but for the future of all omegas as well.” He leaned forward slightly, his eyes locked on Mutch’s. “Was that a tease, Mr. Mutch? Am I going to bedisappointed?”
“Absolutely not,” Mutch replied. His eyes gleamed sharply and he followed every movement of Holland’s body as Holland bent to fix mugs of coffee for himself and Quin. “This is entirely different from the funding for the pack.” He nodded to Eva and we all watched as she pulled another thick sheaf of papers out of herbriefcase.
“The real trust documents, created by my brother who does actually specialize in this area of the law,” she said quietly. “You’ll find they’re complete, setting up a board of five members consisting of three Mercy Hills packmembers and two human advisers recommended by us and accepted by you. We are well aware that the choice of humans to work with will require some thought. We can put out feelers and bring you a short list of suitable candidates and let you make a decision on which ones you feel you can best work with. You are also welcome to find your own, but we would expect to interview them to be certain they have the necessary understanding of the issues involved. You can use the same five people for all the trusts, but we’d recommend not, as we expect the workload to be heavy at thebeginning.”
I reached out for the trust documents and set them aside to look through later. The pile was smaller than the original one. By about the size of one trust document. I raised my eyebrows at Eva andwaited.
She grinned and pulled out another stack of paper. “This is the one that’s near and dear to Uncle Jesse’s heart.” She handed it over, then patted Mutch’s knee. “This one, we do require more oversight, in asense.”
“It’s for the omegas,” Mutch said and leaned forward, his gaze flicking back and forth between Bax and Holland. I held my breath, but Holland never said a wordaboutme.
“How is it for the omegas?” I asked, flipping the document open to scan thefirstpage.
“It’s…funding, for whatever they need. To fix whatevertheyneed.”
I heard Holland draw in a sharp breath. “What, exactly, do you mean by that?” he said in a tightvoice.
Mutch took a deep breath and let it out slowly, very obviously choosing his words with care. “In the days before the Enclosure, omegas were important. Powerful. Needed. I don’t think it’s that way now,isit?”
“No,” Quin said, his attention focused on Mutch in a way that would have made me uneasy, but seemed only to make Mutch moreconfident.
“You’ve read the original Jesse’sjournal?”
Holland nodded, Bax only a half-second behind him. All I could do was sit there and watch dumbly as I felt my stable world begin to shift and turn under my feet. The original Jesse’s journal had given ample evidence that before we were shoved back behind these walls, the omegas had been on equal footing with the alphas. Different responsibilities, but no major decision was made in the pack without the input of the OmegaCouncil.
The other packs are going to love us after this.And yet, I couldn’t argue with what I could see coming. Maybe it was what I secretly liked to call ‘the Mercy Hills Effect’, but it did seem ridiculous to ignore the potential of a whole section of our population, simply because of biology. All anyone needed to do was look at what the omegas we had now were doing to see what a difference it was making to MercyHills.
But, boy, was this going to set tempers flaring amongst theAlphas.
“This trust,” Mutch said, reaching out to tap his fingers authoritatively against the papers in my hand. “I will set this up to be administered by the Omega Council of Mercy Hills. The money is theirs, to be used on behalf of any needs that the Council determines should bedealtwith.”
We waited in silence. Certainly, I expected him tocontinue.
“That’s it?” Bax asked in a softly puzzled voice. “That’s the only restrictiononit?”
Mutch nodded. “You read the journal, you know that the chaos that followed on the Enclosure destabilized the packs and allowed a serious and permanent shift in the power structure to occur. You saw how fast it happened, how badly it changed the packs, what it has led to.” He leaned forward again, his eyes intent on the two omegas. “What do you need to re-establish yourselves? With this money, you can hire experts, you can buy whatever you need. There’s enough there to build yourselves a building—the omegas used to keep the pack’s records and run the judicialsystem.”
Quin raised a hand. “We’ll have to discuss this amongstourselves—”
“No!” Mutch spoke with such vehemence it made me and Bax jump, and stopped Quin in his tracks. “The omegas decide what happens with this money. It’s theirs to use as they see fit, as my ancestor instructed. If I hear that their independence has been interfered with, the rest of the trusts will be collapsed and the Mutch family goes back to waiting and watching.” He glanced over at me. “That also includes the support for the constitutional challenge.” He leaned back again and crossed his arms over his chest. “This is not open fordiscussion.”
Quin’s and Abel’s faces went blank, but even without scenting I could smell the anger and frustration and, from Quin, fear. Bax and Holland looked at each other, their expressions sober, but it felt to me as if some silent communication passed between them before Hollandstoodup.
“Thank you. We’ll take that under advisement. However, we will need some time to discuss this, with the other omegas, and with our mates.” He stared at Mutch and Eva with cold eyes and flung up a hand of his own when they both opened their mouths in protest. “No. It appears to me, Mr. Mutch, that you have completely misunderstood the situation here. You are right, that Mercy Hills treats its omegas differently than other packs. We went to court to get one of our omegas the mate he wanted, we played politics and Abel gave up his position as Alpha to allow another to stay here as he wished. A third is currently in university with the full support of the pack. And I myself have gone from being the lowest of the low in my natal pack, to having a family and a mate who loves me enough to give up his Alpha’s power to secure the future of our omega son. We are not ruled by our mates, but work in concert with them for the health of the pack. So, no, I will not have you divide me from my mate or from the rest of my pack. They are mine, as much as I am theirs.” He moved to stand by the door. “I’ll have Security come take you back to your car. You’re going to be nearby for a coupleofdays?”
