Damon woke up to a series of messages from several of his pack mates. They all wanted to know where their alpha was. It appeared things weren’t going well at home with the person Thomas put into power. He should have expected this. It happened every time they both needed to go to a summit or some such event. One of them would need to deal with things at home.
“What’s wrong? Your phone is popping and pinging like a bowl of cereal.”
“Yeah, looks like they don’t like a few changes, and several are begging me to come home to fix it.” Damon watched his screen after he’d responded to the third message of the morning. As soon as he dealt with one message, two more would crop up. What was going on? It wasn’t
Emily couldn’t believe James’ words. Oh, she was sure that he meant them. Currently, she knew all his dirty secrets with women. Yes, they were mated, but did he truly feel the bond finally? She’d felt it soon after she recovered enough to be released from the medical centre. For her, it killed her seeing him go from one meaningless relationship to another. He twisted the knife a little deeper whenever he made her get rid of the annoying and clingy ones. “James, you want this, but I’m hesitant. How do I know I’m not just the next unwanted lover? Remember? I know all your dirty secrets.” Emily kept her expression stern and serious. She didn’t want him to mistake this for anything lighthearted or humorous. This was the conversation she’d always wished to have, but never found the ne
Thomas talked Asia down from immediately leaving and interfering in Alpha DeMarre’s mating. But as the night went on, it forced him to put his phone on silent. It was pinging constantly and none of the messages made sense. They were about to figure out where he’d be sleeping when he finally got a message from Damon to listen to his voice mail. He couldn’t believe what he heard for a moment. “Asia, listen to this and tell me if it sounds like I should be more concerned than I am.” “How concerned are you?” “Extremely concerned. I think someone might attempt to take control of my pack while I’m away.” 
Janine looked everywhere for James and nothing. He wasn’t in any of the places she expected him to be at this time of day. She’d looked from his apartment to Emily’s, the dining room, even the office. Nothing. He must be out with Emily somewhere. She hoped that boded well for their mating. This was such a touchy subject, but one day she’d be able to remind them she’d tried to get them together for a reason. In the end, she could do nothing but leave a message asking him. To confirm, Haden actually had spoken to him about this idea. It didn’t take long for James to get back to her with a yes, and the revised contract was on his desk. It just needed to be signed before the planning stages for the investigation could start. James also mentioned that he hoped she would find it an interesting project t
Eva was quickly tossing things into a couple of bags when Emily found her in her apartment. Eva opened the door for her. “Oh, hi. Perfect timing. I was just going to text you. We’re in a bit of a hurry. Something is wrong over in Damon’s pack and he must go investigate it. We’ve got tickets for a flight just after lunch, so there’s no time to waste.” “Geez. What could happen there?” Emily closed the apartment door behind her and went to sit on the bed beside the open bags. “Well, someone has the idea that they can take over the pack while the Alpha and Beta are away. Now, there are several in the pack that are up in arms over this. Damon wants to go back before things get violent. Emily, what am I goi
James read the note from Damon thanking him for taking such good care of his mate. He hoped James could work things out with Emily. But duty called back home, and he would take Eva with him to deal with that. Duty. That was a heavy word, and it was showing on his desk. The inbox was a good four inches full of files, letters, and other things his mother in her position of Luna couldn’t deal with. How did it add up so quickly? He’d only been away for a few days. When he sat down to deal with it, his mind lingered on Emily and the issues between them. He’d not learned how to block her moods and emotions from him. That is, if he ever did that. From it, though, he’d figured out when the emotions were about him. They contained a sour no
First, they were the only people on a small plane heading back to his home. The silence in the plane caused Thomas to relax far too much and, in his jet-lagged state, he was dozing off in Asia. She tried to ignore his rudeness by keeping herself busy. But neither talked about what happened earlier before he found this out and he wasn’t in any state to deal with it right at this moment. “I think we should mate quickly. Forget all the pomp and ceremony. Just get over it like James and Emily. We can always have a celebration at a later date when this is all over and both packs are comfortable with our new arrangement.” It took Thomas several moments to process what she’d just said. “Uh… I’m not sure this is a good
Janine watched Haden take a call from his daughter into another room. The poor man worked so hard on this all day and now he needed to deal with the disaster that was his daughter. She wasn’t sure what she could say or do to help him navigate fatherhood with a grown daughter who was in crisis. As she wasn’t the girl’s mother, it wasn’t her place to say or do anything, and it was hard. She didn’t understand why the more maternal members step up to help him with their experience. That is, after all, what pack was for. As he dealt with that, Janine laid out charts and graphs of how things would happen, when and in what pattern. They set scopes and needs out so that they would have a gauge of whether this would work. What would they accept and what wouldn’t? It was all so complicated, but logical at t
Damon and Eva walked off the plane and waited to claim their baggage. No one waited for them there because they didn’t want Jason to know that they were there. The last thing they wanted was to walk into a trap of some kind. Eva was tired. She’d found the flight exhausting. So, they were going to meet a few others of his pack at a hotel near the airport so that they could get all the information about what was happening. Damon also didn’t want to go far from the airport, as he wanted to be the one who picked up Thomas and someone else. He wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly, but he thought Thomas said a name he thought Thomas would never say again. Asia. She was with him for some reason, which couldn’t bode well at all. Being mates and separated for so long. The told on their mental and emotional sta