“Jonathan.” Frost exited the main doors of the Manitoba Hold. He wasn’t as big as most betas, but the strength radiating from him outdid the two giants standing guard.
“Yeah.” Jonathan met Frost at the bottom of the steps.
“Grey wants you downstairs.”
If his father was in the containment area, it could only mean one thing. “Who’d he tap?”
“Lee, Bennet, and Kim.”
Jonathan liked Kim. He was from one of the few Mah lines in Korea. He was loyal, intelligent, fierce, and honorable.
Bennet and Lee were equal in the first three of those traits. The last one, however?
There were reasons Jonathan didn’t agree with bringing in men with criminal records. Controlling the Sarvari was difficult enough without a host whose personality made them more likely to agree with even the most violent instincts.
But there were too few of Jonathan’s people left, and they needed every man they could find.
Bodies for their packs and sires for offspring were top priorities for Grey Dekker. Everything about rebuilding the Mah empire was a priority for him.
For a very long time, Jonathan had resented the man for raising him like an animal and abusing him like a soldier since he was in diapers. He still didn’t see eye to eye with Grey, but now that he knew all the family's tall tales were true, he’d gained respect for his father’s actions.
With every recruit, Jonathan watched the same doubt, the same hate burn in their eyes until they saw the power of the VrK. Then they understood why no amount of pain or suffering was too much to pay.
Why so many were willing to die for the chance to reclaim their wolf.
Jonathan led the way inside the building and took the elevator on the far side of the main floor. There were few access points to the containment area and only one access into the pit. A hell hole every Mah descended into with only their lineage and emerged as hosts to the Sarvari.
If they survived.
Multiple layers of military-grade ballistics glass separated the observation room from the fifty-by-fifty cell, where three nude men sat in chairs waiting for their injection. Gunmen positioned at the top of each wall stood with weapons armed with sedative-filled darts instead of bullets to take them down. Knocking them out made it easier to cut off their heads rather than fight them with injuries they could heal as fast as inflicted.
Enough bullets could decapitate the wolf but destroyed the brain tissue Grey wanted to collect on every failed manifestation.
Plus, there was always the chance, once knocked out, the transformation finished with no one dying.
“You’re late.” Grey didn’t look away from the scene outside the window.
“I came straight here.”
“It takes thirty-two seconds to reach the elevator from here, another thirty-one to reach the main floor, two minutes if you walk at half-stride to reach the training field. And it can’t possibly take any more than fifteen seconds to inform you that you’re needed. Frost left here seven minutes and fifty-six seconds ago. So, either you didn’t respect my time, or he didn’t.” Green flashed in the stormy color of Grey’s eyes.
Jonathan’s eyes were dark brown but he shared his father’s rich complexion and dark hair. His thick features made him a larger, broader carbon copy of Grey. His brothers took after their different mothers and whatever ethnic origin they’d come from.
Genetic diversity was important, and women capable of bringing Mah life into the world were cherished. They were celebrated when they gave sons and worshiped when they gave daughters, and not one of them would want for anything for the rest of their lives.
But it came with a price.
Male children who showed potential were sent to live in a Manitoba boarding school for evaluation, training, and preparation to take on their blood right.
Lesser males, who were unlikely to be betas, and the females, remained with their mothers to be raised in more hospitable conditions. They all learned from the beginning who they were, who they would become, how humans ran the world but did not deserve it.
Things changed for those lesser males when they hit eighteen. If the culture shock of moving to Manitoba didn’t break them, they could stay, living with their birth ranks and doing the work no beta had the intelligence for.
Omegas had to prove their worth in other ways, either academically or by accepting a place as bait in mock hunts for beta males to expel sexual aggression and flex their dominance.
Those who refused were disowned and returned to their mothers.
If they would take them back.