Page 52 of Thrown into the Mob

Ranger was waiting at the gate when we pulled up.

He didn't look thrilled. He’d been told to expect the arrival of someone who was about to criticize everything he and his team had built. His arms were folded and his eyes went straight to Conrad.

“Welcome back.” He made it sound like someone was dragging the words out of him, and I imagined how the conversation with Flint went when Alpha told him what to expect.

“Ranger.” Conrad got out of the car and looked at the gate. He tilted his head at the camera mounted above it before checking out the fence line stretching in both directions. “The camera angle is too narrow. You're losing coverage on the left side.”

“Conrad.” I gripped my mate’s arm. “We've been here thirty seconds. Maybe slow your roll a little.”

Ranger said he’d meet us inside and stomped toward the main building.

Conrad had tempered his words when he spoke to me, but it’d taken weeks of us bumping up against one another.

“You know people often respond better to criticism when you point out something positive first.”

I didn’t want to lecture him and maybe that was how it sounded but he’d been brought up in an environment where everything was black and white.

My mate side-eyed me and sighed. “Okay, I’ll try.”

The compound looked different from three weeks ago. Not physically because the buildings were the same and the layout unchanged. But people's eyes darted around as if expecting trouble.

There were guards at positions I didn't remember being manned before. Two wolf shifters I recognized were stationed at the main door, with more inside. I recalled the story Matt, Ranger’s mate, told of him and his brother arriving at the former headquarters where guards were only visible inside the entrance.

Despite being a criminal organization, the La Luna Noir newish compound had a family feel to it. Grandpa had given up his food truck and supervised in the kitchen. Mates and kids would drop in unannounced, but now, even with the fortified fence, there were no signs of human mates or any of the children. They were here because Grandpa had told us they were living in one of the smaller buildings.

I witnessed what Conrad and me mating had cost the pack. The playground behind the east building was empty. There was a row of bikes against the wall covered in dust.

Through a second-floor window I caught movement. Two small faces pressed against the glass looking down at us. One was Lottie, Flint’s eldest. I waved and she waved back before a hand appeared on her arm and she vanished. The other might have been Storm, Ranger's son.

Those kids should have been outside playing before heading home, and instead, they were watching the world through glass because a dragon shifter had put them in danger.

My wolf growled at what Evander had done to this place and its occupants.

Conrad raised his head and studied Storm who grinned and held up a toy plane. They’d never met but had probably been told I had a mate. Conrad didn't say anything but his stride faltered. He knew how important my extended family was. Later I’d meet up with Treyton whose family had also been forced into the compound against his protests.

Inside the main building, pack members nodded at me, but their attention was on Conrad. We’d have to get used to the gawking. He was a dragon walking through their headquarters while he was checking out the security arrangements.

Flint met us in the lobby, and Ranger hovered nearby, always Alpha’s right-hand man. The lines around Flint’s eyes were more defined than when I’d last seen him. Sleepless nights and running on too much caffeine while worrying about his family and the pack would do that.

He clasped my shoulder, but there was no need for words. What would we say? “How are you?” or “This is bad.”

Alpha glanced at Conrad. “You wanted authority over our defenses, so let's talk about what that involves.” He pointed down the corridor. “Ranger, you're in this meeting.”

Ranger grunted and ignoring us, followed Alpha.

The meeting room was the same one we'd used before the bolthole. Flint sat at the head. Ranger took his usual spot against the far wall. Conrad stood because he’d explained that when he met with his Father, the person with authority in his previous life, he always stood. It was only that last day when he was informed that the mating ceremony had been brought forward, his father told him to sit.

“Show me what you have,” Conrad said.

I expected Conrad to tear Ranger's work apart, but they spent thirty minutes going through the security layout, and I sat in the corner and watched because this wasn't my area of expertise and I knew when to stay out of the way. Conrad asked questions and Ranger answered.

I tensed, thinking about my mate’s response when we arrived earlier and how understandably prickly Ranger had been. But Conrad didn’t interrupt.

When Ranger explained the patrol routes, my mate nodded and said the ground-level defense was solid. When he pointed out the gaps—and there were gaps, mostly to do with an aerial approach because wolves didn't think about threats from above—he framed each one as an addition to what was already working.

The tension released from Ranger's shoulders around the fifteen-minute mark. As the meeting progressed, he was leaning forward. And by the end, he was asking questions about dragon flight patterns and thermal signatures and how to detect an approach from the air.

My mate answered every one of them, and I watched a dragon earn a wolf's respect without raising his voice or pulling rank. Conrad was being exactly who he was, someone who understood the threat because he'd been the threat.