He frowned at his computer and then back at us. “You guys don’t have an appointment.” His eyes lingered on Gatlin, because just the appearance of Gatlin meant drama. There was a reason we avoided Maxton like the plague most of the time.
“No.”
“The Alpha General is in a meeting,” Radic said hesitantly.
Gatlin stepped to the side and revealed Naja. “Take a deep breath, Beta.” Radic did as instructed and his jaw dropped. He looked at Naja, then back at me, then back at Naja.
“She’s… and Raiden is…”
Gatlin smiled. Well, less of a smile and more baring his teeth. “They’re going to want to see us, now.”
Radic nodded, and I could see the small grin on his face. “I believe you’re right.” He picked up the phone and pressed some buttons. “Sorry for the interruption, Sir, but there's something you need to see.” He went silent. “I promise this is important. I’m sending them in.”
Then he just hung up. On the Alpha General. Rad had balls of steel, and I grinned. He motioned us toward the door. “Go in.”
The guys formed a tight diamond around us again, with Finlo and his dads bringing up the rear. Gatlin would lead our Pack and Finlo would guard our backs. It was how we’d always worked as a team. In the beginning, it had irked me that they always placed me in the center; I was just as capable of saving our asses as they were. After a while, I realized it was because I was their heart, their nucleus. I was the thing that held them together, and there was honor in that. It was something to be proud of.
The Alpha General’s office was a large room, and there were six Alphas in there—the Legion Generals. They all looked basically the same, all through the different generations. Big, blocky and blond. If they didn’t loosen the reins soon and let in some new blood, we’d be looking down the barrel of extinction sooner rather than later, purely from inbreeding.
The Alpha General stood. I’d forgotten how intimidating he was, even though I jutted out my chin. I caught my own father’s eyes, and he just raised a single brow at me. He wasn’t a bad man. He was just a Legion General through and through. He’d done what he could for his Omega son, given me the freedom I needed, taught me to focus the anger I had. He didn’t treat me any different to my Alpha brothers or my Beta sister. My mother had died in childbirth when I was a cub, so he’d had no idea of what to do otherwise. Even my sister was an expert marksman and could shoot an arrow through a wedding ring.
I gave him an imploring look, as the Alpha General flushed.
“What’s the meaning of this, Gatlin? Just because you are my offspring doesn’t mean you have the right to barge in like you own the damn place,” he growled, which made all the hairs on my body stand up.
Naja threw me a look, and I winced, apologizing silently. We should have told her that Gatlin was the only son of the Alpha General, but Gatlin hated the man with a passion. We never mentioned their connection, and the fact that the Alpha General was insinuating that Gatlin was trading on it was outrageous.
Instead, Gatlin half-stepped to the side, just enough to reveal Naja. The Legion Generals were arguably the strongest of our kind, so it didn’t take them long to decipher her scent. And then even less time to figure out that I was pregnant.
My father jumped to his feet, his shock written all over his face. “How?” he gasped. He looked pale, and I kind of hoped that we hadn’t given him a heart attack. I wasn’t as close to him as Finlo was to his parents, but I didn't wish him dead, that was for sure.
I grinned, ready to give him the birds and the bees talk, but he waved a hand to cut me off. Yeah, he knew me well enough. “Not that. How is she possible?”
Gatlin growled. “She has a name. This is Naja, last of the female Omegas. You want to throw her out because she’s not a pureblood, Father?”
I winced, because the Alpha General deserved it, but damn, we needed him on our side right now. I put my hand out to soothe Gatlin, but Naja got there first. See, I knew she was perfect for us. She gripped his fingers and he squeezed hers back. The movement wasn’t missed by the Alpha either.
“What do you want, Gatlin? I’m assuming this magical reveal has a point?”
“Naja belongs to the Huxley-Grey Pack. She is the mother of our future cubs. She is ours.” The last bit was more Beast than man, the Alpha power in his statement making my skin prickle.
Ah, there was the glaringly unmistakable truth that came up any time Gatlin and the Alpha General were in a room together—the elephant if you will—that no one wanted to mention. That if Gatlin hadn’t been a half-blood, he would have been Alpha General. He would have been the most powerful Alpha Manix to ever live, and his father hated it. Hated that his half-blood son was almost as powerful as him. Gatlin hiding in the hills worked for him too, because it would never be too obvious that he was a strong Manix, despite the ‘watering down’ of his Manix blood.
The Alpha General gritted his teeth as he stared down his son. “You do not get to choose who the Omega female bonds with, Gatlin. And you do not get to make the decisions in this office.”
Naja straightened. “He’s right. You don’t get to choose, Gatlin Huxley. I do.”
30
Finlo
My heart stopped when Naja contradicted Gatlin and agreed with the Alpha General. Fuck, maybe she wanted a different Pack. Hell, maybe she didn’t want any Pack. Had we thought to ask her if she wanted to stay, but not with us? I couldn’t remember.
She cleared her throat. “Gatlin doesn’t get to choose for me, and neither do you, Alpha,” she said with steel in her voice. “I make my own decisions, decide on my own path in life, and no one—not Gatlin, not you, no one—gets to tell me otherwise.”
Gah, she was so fucking hot as she stared down a room of Alphas, this sexy as fuck Omega. Raiden’s father inclined his head. “Of course, Omega. It is one of our oldest traditions that Omegas choose their own Pack. We wouldn’t consider interfering, even if their decision isn’t one we approve of. The Goddess decides.”
She gave him a soft smile, and I was glad we’d warned her that Raiden’s father was a member of the Legion Generals. It was easy to tell he was Raiden’s father too; he was a carbon copy of his son.
