“Damn fucking straight we do,” Haze said.
“And I think you’ll find us amenable to removing any obstacles to your happiness.”
It was Ryan’s somewhat sinister comment that had my head jerking around. I could see it then, the five of them approaching Evan, making the weaselly little fuck pee his fucking pants as they—
I stopped then and took a shuddering breath in.
“We need to get showered and dressed. Evan saw me shift in the office carpark yesterday. I saw him film it, but…” My eyes went to the floor, but I forced them back up again. “I didn’t care because I was coming to you. He’s trying to discredit me. He’ll reveal that the study is about me, not this anonymous omega, and that will derail the whole thing. The symposium, the keynote presentation…” I blinked, seeing everything I’d thought I gained through this going out the window. “He’ll try and take the study from me, like he always fucking does.”
Colt took my hands, and when I looked down, I saw they shook, halfway between claws and fingers. He rubbed his thumbs across my palm, and suddenly, I felt a little better.
“So we know who the enemy is,” he said in quiet voice. “We know the objective, and all we need to do is work out a way to get what you need, together.”
Just like that, my breath came rushing out again.
“Yeah, I guess that’s how it needs to go.”
So we got ready, then piled into two pack SUVs and drove back to the city.
We stopped at my place,swapping my borrowed clothes for something more corporate friendly, but by the time we stalked into that meeting, I was about to take fur. There, playing up on the screen in front of every damn department head of Crowe Corp, was a shaking video of me stripping naked, then shifting.
“So you can see that Ms Taylor has been lying to all of us—she’s been the subject of the study she initiated.” A small rumble across the boardroom at that. “She’s the one who’s been using company resources to try and resolve her own genetic issues. No doubt, if left unchecked, we would have been footing the bill for any gene therapy she might need, or reproductive assistance, all in the name of these precious studies.”
I wasn’t sure how this was going to go for me as I stepped inside the room, but I did feel like I could see Evan’s future clear enough. Everything he’d said about me was damning, but he’d managed to deliver it in a way that made him look like this petty, grasping, sad little man, who could see his colleague was going through something serious and just tried to use it as a means to ensure his own success. There were some amoral fucks out there who would’ve done the same, but the ones that succeeded were often intimidating as fuck or charismatic enough that you didn’t care, and he was neither. My eyes went to Gideon, because everyone else could quietly get fucked, it was his reaction that mattered the most, and when they did, I saw that Gideon had already noticed my arrival.
“Riley,” he said, his tone carefully neutral. “Thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure you could make it.”
And didn’t Evan turn pale as milk at that? The little fuck seemed to sink into himself then, arms like a praying mantis, curling towards his chest.
“Dad, I—”
“You’ve had your say, and without the accused present,” Gideon said in that same even tone. “You can sit down now.”
The order left Evan no room to do anything else but, so he obeyed then, sitting down all by himself in an empty group of chairs.
“I apologise for my lateness,” I said, but even I could hear the growl in my voice. “I didn’t have my phone with me, as is probably evident by that video.” Gideon frowned slightly, then reached for the projector remote and switched it off. “You want to know if it’s true? If I was the omega at the centre of the study?”
“But you’re a beta…” someone said, then seemed to realise that outburst was entirely inappropriate.
“I like to know what’s happening, always,” Gideon replied smoothly.
“I’ve known I was a latent for a long time,” I said. “I didn’t think too much of it. I felt my wolf, but she wasn’t pressing me to go to fur like some latents experience. She was just…there. She didn’t interfere with my work, until they came back into my life.”
The guys stepped forward, and it felt like every eye in the room went to all the places they touched me. We had just declared ourselves as a pack to the entire room.
“The Vanguards came here for me. The institute wouldn’t have seen hide nor hair of them without me. Alphas and omegas are not coming forward to be studied.” I glanced up at the blank screen. “And why would we? You want to know what’s going on with us? So the fuck do I, but I knew if I let everyone know it was me, all my rights and privileges would be revoked. I’d be a helpless subject, a footnote in your papers, and I didn’t want that because I can tell you with all confidence, I wanted to know what the hell was going on with me more than any of you do. For you, it’s an academic interest, but for me?”
I hated that my voice choked then, tears pricking at my eyes, but I would not let them fall, especially as those warm hands clasped my shoulders, my hands. Their power, our power, flowed through me, and as a result, I straightened up and faced the room down.
“I put in fail-safes. Candy was going to be the lead researcher. She’d announce my role in the study once it was complete, and my conflict of interest would be declared in the process.” I searched for my friend’s face and found it, her eyes shining so bright as she stared at me. “She’d be the one presenting in New York, and the institute would have everything it wanted—the first institution to map out the process of a latent becoming an omega. You would lose nothing and gain everything.”
“Better to ask forgiveness than permission?” Gideon said, then snorted, his smile wry. “I understand that, but I understand this more.” His gaze held mine for some time, until Fen and the boys got restless, letting out little growls in response. “You were going through something terrifying, life altering, something that completely rewrote who and what you are as a person, and while you did that, you did it with integrity. You meticulously recorded what your pack was going through. You were willing to work with other departments to share your findings. You were prepared to do whatever it took to ensure we understood the process better, so that we might help others in the future.”
He sat back then, hands forming a steeple on his chest before he slowly nodded at me.
“Well done.”
I let out a little gasp of breath, but it was lost amongst all the others.