Page 64 of Magical Midlife Conclave

Baa, baa, black sheep doesn’t give two shits about beating up the posh prick waving his wealth around in place of his small dick.

Austin put up his hands. “I am not going to beg, Armendale. I’m not going to try to convince you. Any of you. Jess would’ve always been a target, yes, but in doing all this, I’ve put an X on our backs. I’ve increased the danger to us tenfold. That isn’t for my benefit. It’s for yours. All of you, gargoyles included. Because when they are done wiping out the shifters, they’ll need someone new to pound on.”

He put his hands down, smirked, and looked away from Armendale so the other shifter wouldn’t be forced to challenge to save face. In Austin’s loose demeanor, he was showing his lack of concern either way.

That had to rankle.

“There are enough people here with stories to tell,” he continued. “With horrors they’ve lived through. With horrors their friends and family didn’t. No, a big pack and lots of money and all sorts of privileges your family passed down to you won’t help.” That was a not-so-subtle dig. He hadn’t wanted to instigate a fight but…here they were. “A top-heavy team—fighters with lots of power and fighting skill—won’t help you. Drex learned that the hard way. You need magic. We aim to get more of that. What we have now is not enough. I’ll speak more on that as we move through the week. For now⁠—”

“Alpha,” a shifter named Oliver said. He was a squat, burly guy with a bald head and clean-shaven face, and a scar cutting across his right ear. Second generation with a moderate pack. He had room to grow but not necessarily the mental tools to do so. His tone was even and respectful. “We’ve had a run-in with mages. I can attest to a couple of them doing a disproportionate amount of damage. I also know about your past. You have no shortage of power, but I wonder about your leadership. Uniting is a good idea, but the reality, with the wrong leadership, could be just as disastrous, if not more so.”

“You’re exactly right,” Austin said, and more murmurs rose from the crowd. “I was a nightmare in my youth. Kingsley can attest to that. I’m only newly an alpha, by choice. We created this convocation out of necessity. I understand that trust must be earned, and my abilities—and my mate’s abilities—proven. That is why you are all here. I understand your hesitancy, and we’re all prepared to be extremely open. My mate was a Jane—I’m sure you’ve heard. She can’t lie, not if you can read body language. I can, but I have no reason to. I need you as much as you need us. We all need each other.”

“And if we don’t join?” asked a woman, a third-generation alpha who tended to side with Armendale on most things. “That means we’re on our own, I guess, huh? We play by your rules or we fend for ourselves?”

Austin didn’t like her tone. She sounded like an attorney badgering a witness rather than asking a legitimate question. Still, it was relevant.

Before he could answer, Jess cut in, and it was clear she didn’t like the woman’s tone either.

“We’re not the Mafia. We’re not going to ask for money to protect your beat. We’re doing this to help you. All of you. Us. We didn’t demand Kingsley join the convocation. He decided to after the battle. Gerard as well—the gargoyle there. Speaking of, Gerard didn’t even know Kingsley. They certainly aren’t family. He showed up to help. To do the right thing. And that is what the convocation will do—the right thing. If you aren’t in it and you need help, we will help you.

“However”—she put up her finger—“we will help you how we see fit. If you’re too shortsighted to get in early and help mold this thing, then you get no say when we need to show up and kick ass. If we can use your people, great. We’ll tell you how. If not, they need to get out of the way. We’ve been training constantly since day one. We’ve designed a system to integrate new packs and cairns seamlessly so we can work as a team. We have exceptional team leaders, and they have to be because sometimes we need to be effective immediately.

“The worry is Momar hitting us harder. He’s out there, somewhere, planning. Working on magic we don’t know of with ten, twenty, fifty times the staff. We have two mages and a bunch of claws. Big whoop. Right now, we’re not enough to take him on. We won at Kingsley’s only because they underestimated us. Momar didn’t know we’d come to help, or that we had magic. I doubt he’ll make that mistake twice. Mark my words, as we are now, he’ll take down Austin and me, and then he’ll go back to targeting the shifters. If you want to stand around with your dick in your hands, patting yourself on the back for what Daddy gave you and taught you how to use, great. Best of luck. But if you want to actually survive, you’d better shut up and pay attention, because that’s what we’re trying to do here. Fight and win.”

14

Austin

He held his breath to keep from laughing.

His dig hadn’t been very subtle…but Jess had just gone and slapped the generational alphas in the face. What was more, it was clear she wasn’t trying to rile them up. She wasn’t showboating. She was pissed and annoyed and at the end of her tether. All her work with the gargoyles had eaten away her patience, it seemed. At this point, she needed people to get with the times or get out of the way.

If he’d been trying for a traditional way to go about this, she would’ve just blown all that to hell. Good thing he wasn’t.

Judging by the nodding and smiling gargoyles, that had been right in line with what they wanted to hear. She was finally speaking their language.

Austin put out his hands with a smile. “In a nutshell. But please, I’m sure you’re hungry. Let’s finish introductions and head into dinner. Every table has a member of the convocation. You can ask questions. All week you can ask questions. You can get a feel for things. You can see what magic can really do. In the end, if you’re unsure, or simply don’t want to, don’t unite. Simple. And then, yes, if you need us to show up and kick ass, you will need to get out of the way.”

Jess put her hand on Austin’s shoulder and another out to the crowd. “If you can help, and are valuable, of course we want your say and your input. Of course we want your help and expertise and guidance. We want to work together. We have no egos here. We have only the need to get our people out of this alive.”

And just like that, she deflated the bravado from the moment before. She showed her sincerity and the truth in her desire to do this for the good of all. Austin could say it, and maybe Kingsley could sell it, but Jess made them feel it. That was the magic of binding people together. She didn’t just care about all of them surviving—she could make them see it, and believe it, and trust in it.

“Shall we do the introductions?” he asked her.

She clasped her hands and half turned for him to continue. He introduced Tristan and the guardians, many of whom had come from the assembled cairns. There was clapping and waves and razzing from the gargoyles about switching cairns. The shifters were getting a crash course on how expressive they were.

Next was Sue, and he didn’t explain the name. He postured like an alpha, and Austin noticed the surprise from a great many in the crowd. A normal alpha would call Sue down. Austin just moved on in complete confidence. He didn’t bring Aljoe forward yet, looking instead at Jess.

“My crew is excellent in battle,” she began with a sheepish smile, “but we’re still working on a cohesive line for these show-and-tell moments shifters like so much.”

Another dig, and she didn’t seem to know it. Aljoe was probably holding back laughter as well.

She introduced Ulric and Jasper, noting that they were the best at anticipating her in the air, and so they needed a special place on her team. She had many that anticipated her, but this gave them honors, staving off the embarrassment of not being in the guardian line.

She got through the others and then to Hollace and Cyra, whom everyone would be the most curious about.

“If you both wouldn’t mind?” she said.