Drinks kept appearing, and neither of us complained. I loved knowing my pack wasn’t far away.
“Look at that,” she said, glancing at the clock. “Interview just went live.”
I swallowed hard. All I could do now was hope it helped clear the air and wait for the aftermath.
Tomorrow, we could gather the statements, find statistics, and ask deltas to come speak.
Tonight, I just hoped my exes didn’t come banging on my door, furious that I’d finally let the world see the truth.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Lana
“Let’s get started,” Roxie said as she sat down at the dining room table. She had a laptop and notepad in front of her. “Since my new bestie asked for my help, here I am. I’ve got several contacts that I can call on because I’ve done interviews for other teams in the AHA. I’ve sent out messages already, now I’m just waiting to hear back from them.”
“I’m not going to, but you could absolutely reach out to my ex pack. Maybe see if Sutton would be willing to speak out. He will lose his job like every other delta if this goes into effect. It’d be in his best interest to hear us out.”
She scribbled down a note. “Do you have his number?”
I rattled it off. It was one of those things you didn’t forget easily, even after severing ties.
Kieran chimed in next with his own findings. “We’ve reached out to a few of our buddies as well. Hopefully between us, we’ll have enough people to stand up. There’s been rumors of a hockey-wide strike we should keep an eye out for.”
“Good,” I said. “The more people that speak up, the better.”
“Now for the not-so-fun news,” Roxie said. “I’ve done a bit of research into the original picture you sent me.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked. “Did you find whoever was behind it?”
“I’ve linked it to a rival gossip site. My best guess is it was just a right-place, right-time kind of thing. They just happened to see you, whipped out their phone, and took the photos. If they were waiting for you, it would be a clear shot, not this mess. In other words, I don’t think you’re in danger from them specifically, but I think they’re trying to milk the story for all it’s worth.”
“Fucking vultures,” Lennon growled. “It’s not the first time these lowlifes have tried to spread shit to gain traction.”
“They really are,” Roxie confirmed. “I’ve had my share of run-ins with them. They’re led by this really creepy dude who thinks he’s a genius. Regardless, at the end of the day, they’ve done what they wanted and created a storm. Their site has blown up with traction and earned them plenty of money. You should be left alone by them now that it’s spun out of control. We just have to clean up the mess now. That’s what people like them do, they stir the pot and then slink back into the shadows to watch it unfold.”
“I did a little research of my own,” Cade said. He pulled out a stack of papers he had clipped together in a giant binder clip. Flipping through it, he snagged a highlighter off the center of the table. “I went for statistics. They said the facts would help.”
“Did you find anything useful?” she asked.
“I think so. I discovered that in the last twenty years of deltas being involved in the AHA, fighting has actually gone down by ten percent. They’ve realized that mixing in betas and deltas into the team helps stabilize the alphas more. Kind of like in a pack that has multiple designations. There’s a balance to it.”
“That actually makes sense,” I said, excited that our work was paying off. This was exactly the kind of ammunition we needed.
“There’s even an article from several years ago by one of the leading news channels. They were talking about the profitability of having more variety on teams, how it’s brought in new viewers. There’s a whole list of different revenue streams. I highlighted the relevant ones. I truly think we’ve got a case. It would be insane for them to ignore this.”
“Anyone else?” I asked, looking at the others.
Wilder nodded. “I’ve been scouring mixed-designation team success rates versus the all-alpha teams,” he said. “And the all-alpha ones have consistently fallen behind in terms of AHA Cups and accolades.”
“Hell yeah, this is the exact kind of stuff we need,” Roxie said.
“This is reassuring,” Kieran agreed. “It’s also reassuring to hear that you think this will be helpful.”
“I found the original interview with the AHA officials on why they allowed the deltas and betas in. I’m still looking through it, but a lot of it goes along with the stuff you guys found,” I said, adding my own article to the growing pile.
Needing to move for a little bit, I got up from the table and started on some snacks. It was going to be a long night so we may as well make the most of it.
