Chapter Thirteen

Nomad

It took real effort to contain his thoughts and feelings about what the council had done to Cosmo. Nomad and Harley had chosen to work for the council, clearly Cosmo had not been given the same curtesy.

He answered questions and added in his thoughts to the conversation going on around him about how they could get to the members of the council under threat of extermination for not giving in, but his attention wasn't one hundred percent focused like it normally would be.

It was easy to feel Harley nudging at the barrier he'd erected to keep his thoughts hidden from Cosmo and what he planned to do to those who'd stolen Cosmo's family and life from him .

"Do you have a list of all those not involved and their addresses?" Bree's question tugged him from his thoughts.

"Yes," Cosmo tapped the side of his head, "all in here. I didn't add that to the box, it didn't feel right to lump the good guys in with the bad."

"Possibly another reason they want you dead," Gabai murmured. His bushy brows formed one straight line as he stroked at his jaw, eyes burning with anger. "They surely know what an excellent memory you have, judging by how well they trained you."

It wasn't said as a compliment the way he spat it out, and Nomad had to bite his lip to refrain from snapping back angrily when it wasn't aimed at Cosmo but the council for their behavior.

"Does it matter why? They want me gone and all those other councilmen, too. We need to form a line of attack, protect those on our side, and do what we did to Asher's pack."

Nomad scented Harley's arousal at Cosmo's show of aggression, and he suspected he wasn't the only one with the way Bree eyed the couple. "If that's what we are going to do, it's going to need careful planning, because we'll have to take out all the enforcers, too. It's going to be a bloodbath. And then there will be the issue of who will fill their shoes and how the council will continue, along with how this will get portrayed to the wider community of shifters who believe the council is there for them. If not handled correctly, we will sign all our own death warrants."

"Are you going to help?" Nomad wanted to clarify because they didn't have time to waste.

Bree's enigmatic gaze clashed with his. "I'm in. My pack, I've already put out the call for the pack to meet here in two hours. It's their choice. I won't force anyone to join a fight." Her attention returned to Cosmo. "Do you have the proof to share? "

At his nod, Cosmo wriggled off Harley's lap and skipped off out the door without a backward look.

Follow him. Nomad had barely projected his command and Harley was getting up to go after Cosmo.

Gabai came forward, the chair he sat on creaking as he reached into his pocket. "You okay if I get Rocco to gather the club members together to come here? It seems like the easiest way to get everyone in the same space." He glanced about. "The grounds are big enough to house everyone and stop anyone from spying."

"Good call, do that. Ask Rocco to tell them to come to the property via the back entrance. It has better parking and will draw less attention."

Things moved swiftly after this, Cosmo sat with Bree and talked her through everything he had with Harley right there. Nomad went out and sniffed around, his cat hunting for anything that didn't feel right as he scoured the grounds.

When the first lot of wolves arrived, Nomad's cat wanted to shift to show dominance. It took a little placating when all the other different animals started arriving in their shifted forms.

As he glanced around, he got a reminder that the town was inclusive to all, not like a lot of places who kept mainly to one species of shifter. He just hoped they would work together for the common goal. His experiences of this hadn't seen positive outcomes. He hoped his little mate was right about what he'd shared about Asher's old pack being taken down.

Harle y

Every sense he had was on alert as the grounds became crowded. Harley had gone outside with Cosmo and immediately lifted him to sit on his hip. He'd encouraged Cosmo to wrap his legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Nomad, he watched circle and assess those milling around talking to each other. Nomad had killer instincts for if something was off.

The sound of the crop whistling through the air brought everyone to silence as Bree strode to the top of the stairs leading down from the house. She dominated the space, even outside. "Thank you all for coming at short notice, but what we have to discuss effects all of us. The community we have and the town as a whole. I want you all to listen and keep your questions to the end. Do I make myself clear?"

The alpha power brushed over Harley. He had no inclination to bow to the power, but he felt its strength. Only after there was a unanimous agreement did Bree lay out everything Cosmo had shown and explained.

A deafening silence fell over all those who stood around listening and with it came a tension that made Harley's skin dance with electricity. His heartbeat picked up as he worked to dial down the strongest of feelings he was picking up. Fear being the predominant one. Something Harley thought was healthy. They should fear the council. He'd witnessed firsthand what they were capable of without even batting an eyelid to the impact their actions had on others.

When Bree finally stopped speaking, the silence lasted several more seconds before Bash stepped forward. "I can verify that the council were involved with the stealing of our young."

Other voices came from the crowd, asking questions. Bash answered some questions, as did Bree.

Cosmo wriggled in his hold. I need to speak, Daddy .

How upset he sounded when someone asked about the origin of the information and, trusting the source, got Harley doing as Cosmo requested and turning him loose, but he never let his mate get too far away from him.

"I found the information," Cosmo admitted, his voice carrying over the crowd. "I've worked for the council for years and came across the information by accident."

An enormous wolf with gray eyes stepped to Cosmo, his nose curling as he sniffed. "Cat's like to cause trouble. How do we know you're not doing that now? Maybe trying to entice the council to come and destroy our pack?"

Nomad had the wolf by his throat and dangling a foot from the ground before Cosmo could reply and Harley could draw breath. "He's telling the truth!" He shook the enormous wolf until his teeth snapped together.

"Put him down." Bree's icy command suggested Nomad do as he was told.

Nomad's eyes flashed and Harley readied for what might happen next.

Cosmo, on the other hand, strolled over to Nomad as casual as you like, batted his long eyelashes, and gave Nomad a sweet smile. "Daddy, he's being mean cause I didn't want to play with him. He's harmless."

There were several chuckles that all got cut off when Bree came down the steps and eyeballed the wolf, then Nomad. "I'll deal with him later. Now put him down so we can deal with the actual issue here." The look she gave the wolf made Harley's balls shrink two sizes. It was scarier than Nomad's expression, and that was saying something.

When the wolf landed with a thud, Cosmo immediately lifted his arms up for Nomad to lift him. A pink hue tinged the top of Nomad's ears when Cosmo snuggled right in and bit the side of his neck, causing Nomad to moan inside Harley's head and scent the air with arousal.

You pair stop it. We have to focus! Problem was, Harley wanted to focus, only not on the problem at hand. Let's fix the threat. Then we can all play ‘let's hide the cock in cutie's ass', okay?

Cosmo

It was so hard to keep away from his little space when he was in his Daddy's arms this way. The bond was so new and now that he'd invited it in and accepted it; he longed for the opportunity to revel in it and be wrapped up in a space that smelled like just them. Here, even with his Daddy keeping a tight hold of him, there were just too many scents, and they spread along not only his skin, but his Daddy's. If he wasn't so well trained it would have started to distract him by now and bring out the possessiveness in him. He didn't want his Daddy smelling like anyone else, let alone like a bunch of someone's had rubbed along his sides, but he knew he could do nothing about that right now. They needed the help of everyone, which meant they needed to finish the meeting and get with the planning parts.

More questions were fired, and Cosmo answered where there was a need for him to, but he let Daddy and Bree fill everyone in on the things Cosmo had already shared with them. He was busy scanning and reading the crowd of those who'd gathered, looking, not so much for who was there, but for who wasn't, and one particular flavor of shifter was notably absent from the mix despite Cosmo's knowledge of them lurking in the area. Owls watched everything but tended not to act unless it affected them directly. If every shifter community that had been affected was present here today, then it left Cosmo to wonder if the reason why the owls weren't represented was because they'd managed to remain unphased and undisturbed.

For that to happen, that would mean they had to have some sort of deal in place. Could they be the eyes and ears filling the council in on what the other communities were doing, or were they connected higher, perhaps even with the ones who were pulling council members' strings?

Unwilling to share his speculations publicly, he communicated them to his Daddy, shivering as a flash of old memory streaked through his mind.

He'd been with the council a month, the knives the only possession he was allowed to have. Clothes they gave him each day, along with a toiletry kit when he wished to clean himself, but he had to ask for those things. His bed was a mattress on the floor, no sheets, he'd have to earn those, he'd been told, along with a frame. The window remained mostly obscured. The view was something else he'd been told he'd have to earn too, something about getting him acquainted with the darkness so he could move as fluidly through it as in the light.

The knives that were his birthday present were the only things they permitted him to keep. He'd been told it was so he could bond with them until they were as much a part of him as one of his limbs. Each year, on the same day, they gave him another weapon, but that first set was the one he returned to time and time again. The feel of the blades in his hand like a touchstone, reminding him not to fall too far into the darkness.

Eyes.

At night they'd stare at him through the little window in the door, the one that only offered a view of the empty wall on the other side of it. It never opened unless they wanted it to. None of the other doors did either, and there were no sounds, no way of contacting whoever was in the rooms beside his. The only reason he knew they existed was because he'd seen them escorted past, the same way they escorted him past the rooms of other trainees when they took him from his room.

Speaking in the hallway was against the rules, and following the rules got you rewarded. Proficiency with the weapons got him rewarded, too. The harder he worked, the more comfortable his room became, and eventually, he earned a measure of freedom, but always there were those eyes in the darkness assessing him from beyond the door.

Orange eyes.

Yellow eyes.

Owl's eyes.

Son of a….

The moment the thoughts clicked, he jerked and almost flung himself out of his Daddy's arms. Had Daddy Nomad not been as strong as he was, he surely would have dropped Cosmo. As it was, Cosmo forced Nomad to adjust his hold and press his hand against the small of Cosmo's back, pinning him in place while he demanded to know what was going on.

There are no owls here . Cosmo worked through his thoughts. But there were always owls watching when I was being trained, and I could always feel them lurking whenever I was in the field, especially in the early days when they sent me on my first missions. Don't you think that's odd when there are no owls on the council?

Cosmo felt the moment it clicked with his Daddy, his shoulders tensed, and his grip grew tighter, but that was his only outward response.

I've only ever been sent after an owl once, Cosmo admitted. And he'd put so much distance between himself and the council that he was the toughest of targets I have ever received instructions to track down. They were furious that it took me as long as it did. They punished me for it, despite the eventual success of the mission. He never pleaded. The only thing he said to me was to beware of who I gave my loyalty to, that they might not deserve it.

Cosmo shuddered as he relived that moment right until the bitter end when he'd dispatched the owl and removed his eyes to bring them back to the council as the proof that they demanded. Now that he focused on that memory again, he remembered that the proof wasn't just the eyes, more specifically, the implant that had been within them recording everything the owl had seen. It was a recollection he quickly relayed to his Daddy.