“We’ll be fine,” Jeffrey said, turning over on his other side and yawning. “I won’t let anyone take my mom. I’m really good at protecting her.”
Celeste could have sworn that she saw Grant’s eyes welling up. “Yes, you are, little man. You’re braver than a lot of grown-up wolves.”
“I know.” Jeffrey yawned and pulled the pillow over his head.
The next morning, Grant called in Truman and Mandy to stay with Celeste and Jeffrey.
“Play nice with each other,” Grant said to Mandy as he buttoned his shirt.
“Doesn’t he wish.” Mandy was flipping through the latest copy ofCosmopolitanmagazine.
Truman shrugged. “She’ll never know what she’s missing.”
“No, I won’t,” Mandy agreed.
“What is he missing?” Jeffrey, still wearing pajamas, sat up in bed, yawning.
Mandy shot Truman a look. “Breakfast,” she said. “They have a great breakfast buffet here. Shall we?”
Grant headed off to the meeting room, where a group of Alphas were waiting.
“Nice of you to drop in,” Anthony Craddock growled irritably. He was a tall, muscular man in his sixties, with silvery hair, ice-blue eyes, and a scarred face that spoke to his combative personality. He was also wealthy and powerful, owning most of the timber business in his area, and numerous smaller packs would fall in line with him.
Ford Blackwood sat next to Cliff and Talbot. Cliff glanced at Grant and shook his head. “We haven’t been able to find anything out,” he said.
Anthony fixed his icy gaze on Grant. “Your son has been running around among humans for the last six years. It’s a miracle he didn’t shift at the wrong time and expose us all. And now a whole gang of humans tries to kidnap him, and they know about us? These stupid news articles aren’t the ones endangering us. You are.”
Grant settled in next to Cliff and tried to keep his temper in check.
“I had no idea my son even existed until last week. As soon as I found out, I took him in. And this human attack is perfect proof of why we need better inter-pack cooperation, and communication, and a database.”
“Because it benefits you personally.” Anthony’s lip curled up in a sneer.
“Not just him,” Talbot said calmly. “There was a group of humans there, threatening to expose our secret, from what I was told.”
Grant nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. We really need this. Right now we’re having to contact every single pack individually, to warn them and to see if they have any useful information to share with us. Even the packs that have representatives here – we’ve had to go around and tell every single pack about it. We can’t even send a group text at this point. It’s incredibly inefficient and time-consuming.”
“You two are awfully chummy. And the timing of this attack was pretty convenient,” Anthony said accusingly.
Grant groaned. This was ridiculous. He didn’t even like Talbot, personally. He just wanted to do whatever he could to keep his people safe – and find the bastards who were after his son.
“Someone attempted to kidnap my child,” he gritted out. “Is it hard for you to understand why I’d want as many allies as I can get right now?”
“I was raised to handle my own problems. I don’t even know this man.” Anthony pointed at Talbot. “Why should I let him have access to all of my pack’s information?”
“There would be three different packs jointly maintaining it, to ensure that no one pack monopolizes the database and abuses it in any way.” Talbot’s tone was sharper now. “Cliff, Ford and I will be working together.”
Anthony folded his arms across his chest. “Maybe you’re all conspiring together. You’ll be able to spy and pry and interfere.”
“Get your head out of your ass, old man!” Ford snapped at him.
“You want to see old? I’ll show you old!” Anthony partially shifted, his jaw shooting out, his eyes glowing with fury. His pack members jumped up, growling threateningly.
There was a long, tense stand-off before Anthony finally stormed out of the room with his pack.
Grant slammed his hand down on the table in frustration. “As long as that idiot refuses to listen to reason, we’re at an impasse,” he said. “He’s got too many packs who will follow his lead. We’ve been here for days and we’re getting nowhere.”
“Alternative suggestion,” Cliff said. “Start setting up a database with all the packs who want to cooperate. Anyone who wants to benefit from the database has to be a member. We withdraw support from any pack that doesn’t belong to the database.”
