“It’s my excuse for being here, and…” That smile faded. “There’s a bunch of grumpy, old, white dudes in there. One of their daughters tried to cage you and…”
She couldn’t say it, and neither could I. I hadn’t really dealt with the whole Miranda thing, not knowing where to start with processing it since it felt so fucking crazy. Not many people knew about the whole thing. The employees at Dacian had been told Miranda had taken a leave of absence, and that was it.
Now that was going to change.
“But with this” —Joey tapped my shirt just below the lapel mic— “no one’s going to shout you down or silence you. You’ll have a voice, whether they want you to have one or not. That’s a powerful thing, and Max and I agreed we needed to do whatever it takes to make sure you have it.”
“Ready?” Tobias asked, joining us by the door. “You smell nervous, omega.” He rubbed a hand up and down my spine. “Don’t be. These men might think themselves captains of industry, but they’re just a group of old pricks, if I’m being blunt.”
“Imagine them naked,” Beau suggested as he joined us, but then his nose wrinkled at that. “Actually, shit, don’t do that.”
“You’ll be fine,” Lucien insisted, full of confidence and good humour. Getting what he wanted seemed to have…settled him somewhat. Everything and everyone was fine. I guessed that was what happened when you were getting your knot milked on the regular. Whatever penis poison was lurking in his balls, turning him into a pushy prick, had been drained away.
“Don’t worry about them.” I turned to see Max had joined me, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze. “They don’t matter, you do—your story, your experiences. Just get that out and let the chips fall where they may.”
“Everyone ready?” Joey asked.
All eyes went to me then. I nodded, not feeling it but willing to fake it. The heavy wooden door was swung open, and in we walked.
“Ah, Tobias,” said a man sitting at the head of the table, then he stopped when he saw all of the other people with the alpha. “I didn’t realise we were convening a meeting with the entire board today.”
“What’s this all about?” another man asked with a grumble. “I was supposed to be on the golf course today when you called an extraordinary meeting.”
“It is an extraordinary meeting,” Tobias confirmed, placing his hand on my back, something the board members noted, some with a bored expression, some with a keen one. “We have an extraordinary tale to share with all of you today. No need to follow the usual procedures, Clive.” He nodded to the man at the head of the table. “We only have one item of business today, and that’s Sage…” I watched John’s face pale as Tobias turned to face him. “And John.”
“Who is Sage?” Clive asked, a faint look of irritation on his face.
“She was employed by Miranda to become our PA,” Beau said, stepping forward. He stared the board down and then looked at me. “But as soon as we saw her, we knew she was ours.”
“Ours?” The board member’s head jerked back at that. “What do you mean ‘ours’?”
“Sage is our true mate,” Tobias replied. “Miranda didn’t know that at the time, obviously.”
“Congratulations,” golf guy said with a grumpy look. “Now is that all?”
“No.” I spoke then, feeling like I needed to now or I just wouldn’t. Everyone jumped as they heard my voice echoing around the room, not blaringly loud, but it came from each of the speakers set up in the room, as well as from my mouth.
“We’re recording this session,” Max said in a low growl. “Why will quickly become evident.”
Then everyone turned expectantly to me, forcing me to suck in a breath and speak.
“Miranda employed me as the new executive PA. I don’t know why. Actually, I do, but it had nothing to do with my CV. She didn’t look at it once. She just looked at me, then she asked me how much I weighed—”
“Weighed?” Golf guy shot John a sidelong look at that. “How is that relevant?”
“It’s really relevant if you know the whole story,” I said. “I wasn’t employed for my skills, and neither was the previous PA, Crystal. She was hired because she was beautiful enough to lure the CEOs of Dacian into a relationship, as Miranda and John planned.”
Yeah, I had all their attention right now. The air in the room grew charged, John’s jaw tightening.
“When she didn’t get far with that, she focussed on Max to further the divisions between the pack, to sideline him so another omega could rekindle her relationship with the three other brothers, to provide John evidence that the CEOs were not following their own fraternisation rules.”
“Which they weren’t,” John said with a huffed. “I have considerable evidence of that.”
“To create chaos and destabilise the Lockwoods further, creating an environment where it would be easy to cast doubt over the Lockwoods’ running of the company, allowing for a change in leadership.”
Everyone’s eyes went to John then, which told me something. Some of these people knew about this, if only just from him whispering rumours in their ears he thought would shift their support away from my pack. Still others might have been in on the plan I was about to describe.
“I was brought in against John’s orders. Crystal had failed, so obviously, he needed someone else, someone better-looking, more tempting, to try and get John the evidence he needed. Miranda employed me solely because she thought I was far too unattractive…” I paused then, and Tobias’ hand went out and took mine, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles. “Far too fat to be of interest to the Lockwoods.” I laughed then, just a short, desperate little bark. “If anyone was going to provide evidence of sexual wrongdoing with the pack, why not her? Miranda seemed to think she was the perfect mate for the pack, if she could just get them to see it. Next to me, how could they not see how beautiful and accomplished she was?”