Chapter Twenty-Three

Harley

He roamed the apartment, his skin feeling too tight for his bones. His senses were screaming at him and for the first time in his life, Harley was at a loss with what to do about it. Yesterday had caused a crack to develop in his heart when he'd picked up all of Cosmo's distress. They'd had to pause the meeting with Gabai and Bree to feed and take care of Cosmo when his distress became too much.

When they'd continued on with Gabai and Bree, they had all sat going through the owl's eyes. Gruesome, but a necessity. What they'd found had sickened them all. The original plan for the next day to take out the two lead council members they'd assigned themselves was on temporary hold. They needed to regroup after what they'd discovered. He wasn't sure if now their original plan would solve anything anymore, thus why he was up early unable to sleep. The corruption ran deeper than what they originally thought when they'd seen the experimentations and creation of abominations. To witness what the council was truly capable of. They exhibited no feelings. No emotions. The video evidence had proven that. Discarded shifters were left to die in the most horrible of ways.

The things they'd done to them…

Fuck it to all hell!

He ran a hand through his messed-up hair and he continued to roam, feeling caged. The sky outside the window changed color, the dark fading to an array of pale oranges and pinks as the sun rose slowly. Wisps of clouds made a pattern that normally he'd enjoy watching as they changed while the day broke. The joy he usually found easily… was gone.

Bree was having a pack—town—meeting to discuss how to move forward. In Harley's mind, there was only one solution that made sense. Out the fuckers. Show the world what they'd secretly been doing. Death was too simple. It was over far too quickly, Harley wanted them to suffer. What Cosmo had gone through, the effect it was having on Nomad, yeah, he wanted out too.

Managing a bar, setting up home and creating the perfect playroom for Cosmo they all could play in, that would suit him down to the ground. What had kept him awake was how to go about it.

They needed someone with enough clout that would air this nationally without hiding the truth. Then let the fuckers try to act like they'd done fuck all wrong.

He went into the kitchen and laid out the ingredients for pancakes. He needed to do something, to help his brain settle, and maybe it would help him find the damn answer before the others woke .

Nomad

There on the edges of his mind he felt Harley's distress, he stirred and squinted in the early morning light to check the time. Cosmo lay in a ball in the middle of the bed, softly snoring. Being careful not to wake him after the last twelve to twenty-four hours, he rolled out of bed and padded quietly from the room. The scent of pancakes made his stomach growl as he walked naked into the kitchen. He didn't speak, but he knew Harley was aware of his presence.

As he watched, his mate continued flipping pancakes, pilling them on the warming plate he had in the oven. When he finally looked over at Nomad where he'd rested his shoulder against the doorjamb, silently waiting, Harley gave him the full dose of his worry. His thoughts ran through Nomad's mind, and he processed them, seeing and feeling why Harley was here, being productive instead in bed with Cosmo.

He slowly moved off the doorjamb and walked to his mate, cupping his bristly cheeks and holding his gaze. "You're right, it is a fucking mess and yes, killing them doesn't hold them accountable for what they'd done. Absolutely, we need to quit, all of us and do normal shit like other families. It's time." He released his own sigh of frustration. "We need to achieve that without having a target on our backs for the rest of our lives."

"You don't think I know that after yesterday? Fuck Nomad, he was so distraught and there was fuck all I could do to make it better. I feel so fucking helpless," he said, his voice breaking as he pressed into Nomad's body.

He dropped his hands and brought Harley in closer, inhaling the scent of shampoo and his own unique smell that allowed Nomad to pinpoint exactly where his mate was within a two-mile radius .

"What are we going to do?" Harley asked quietly.

"We're going to find someone who isn't corrupt and blast the national stations with all the evidence and out every shithead that traded in shifters to use them to experiment on or sell to raise money for their scientists."

"But how do we do that? How?"

The edge of desperation in his voice left Nomad at a loss when he didn't have the answers that Harley wanted or needed to hear to help him settle. Not a situation they'd ever been in before, but then they'd never had to deal with this level of crappiness ever. He squeezed Harley's waist, struggling to give him false assurances.

"Bash, he has contacts in all sorts of places," Cosmo said, yawning as he came in dragging a blanket with him. His curls a complete mess and he had lines down one side of his face from where he'd lain. He'd never looked more beautiful— awake . Awake and looking more like himself, thank fuck.

Last night was still a little too fresh in Nomad's mind, so he lifted his arm and encouraged Cosmo to come and cuddle with them. He grinned and increased his pace, snuggling right between them, not letting go of his fleece blanket.

"Can I smell pancakes," Cosmo muttered, after a few seconds, against Nomad's chest.

He laughed, remembering exactly what Cosmo had eaten the night before. "You can't be hungry," he said, putting as much disbelief as he could into his question and holding back his amusement when Cosmo's head popped up and he pouted.

"Daddy, it's pancakes, everyone has room for pancakes," he said earnestly.

Harley didn't laugh, but his lips curved up. "Then pancakes you shall have. What do you want with them? "

"Chocolate…" he tapped his chin, "fruit."

"Is that it?" Harley kissed his curls, then strolled to the refrigerator.

"Yes please, Daddy."

Nomad continued to hold on to Cosmo, unwilling quite yet to let go when he caught his blond brows drawing together as he followed Harley's movement.

He'll be fine.

Daddy… I'm not so sure. He's sad… he's never sad.

Cosmo

The only way his mates were going to be happy again was if they didn't have to worry about looking over their shoulders, and his, for the rest of their lives. When he'd begun investigating the council, the first person he'd trusted with the mission he'd undertaken was Bash. They'd met before Gabai's club, each on different assignments, ones that merged, making for a tenuous partnership, at least in the beginning. By the time they'd achieved their objectives, Bash had revealed himself to be a man Cosmo could believe in, and one he could trust to take over and spearhead the next step in what was proving to be a long, arduous process.

Before he'd met his mates—his Daddies—he'd have been willing to out the council himself and see the fallout through to whatever bitter, bloody end awaited. Now he didn't want to be anywhere near the blast point, and he didn't want his Daddies near it either.

Pulling out his phone, Cosmo sent a text to Bash in the coded language they'd developed. It had made it easy to meet and exchange information right there in the playroom, especially when all anyone would hear, if they managed to inch close enough to listen in on their conversation, was Little speak and a Daddy encouraging or praising his boy. Now, Cosmo typed out what he needed in that same speak and leaned against the counter to await Bash's response.

His mates were staring at one another, probably speaking mind to mind again and thinking he wouldn't know. Narrowing his eyes and reaching out, quick as the kitty cat he was, he snagged one of the pancakes off the warming plate. He rolled it up and took a big bite, chewing happily, and with contented little hums too, all while pretending he didn't recognize what his Daddies were up to.

They were still at it when he finished the first pancake, so he snagged a second one, giggling at the image that popped in his head. That of Daddy Harley turning to add the next pancake to the stack, only to find that a number of them were missing.

How many could he snag before they noticed?

Would he be full by the time they did?

His phone buzzed, when he glanced at it, Bash's answer brought a small-fanged smile to his face. If he was asking about specifics, he was already half on board.

Cosmo typed back the information Bash requested, keeping his mind as blank as he could so as to not give his mates false hope that they'd be free of this burden soon. It was a long message, so he snagged a third pancake when he was through, deciding that the chocolate and fruit he'd initially wanted on the pancakes would be better as desert.

Daddy Harley was working on the next one, while Daddy Nomad continued to watch Harley from across the room. They needed that personal playroom as much as Cosmo did. The sooner they could get started on it, the closer they'd be to settling their nerves and beginning to enjoy the new home they'd be moving into.

Too bad they couldn't get started now.

Wait …

The moment the idea popped into his head, Cosmo hurried across the kitchen to yank open what was rapidly becoming their junk drawer. There was a notepad there, and several pencils, two of which he grabbed before closing the drawer again. He grabbed Daddy Nomad's hand and tugged him over to the table, dragging one chair over so that the two of them sat side by side.

"I need you to help me, Daddy," Cosmo declared as he slid the notepad and pencil towards him.

"Okay, with what?"

"Drawing."

Daddy Nomad glanced from the pad back to Cosmo and raised an eyebrow. "I hope you like stick figures."

"We're not drawin' people, Daddy, we're gonna draw our playroom with a maze on the wall."

"A maze on the…" Daddy Harley muttered from across the room.

"For my cat, and so you can watch me play."

Daddy Nomad rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful. "So, perches you can climb or run up, but in a maze design, so it isn't too easy to maneuver through."

Cosmo nodded enthusiastically. "Uh-huh."

"Hmmmm…" Daddy Nomad hummed as he started making tick marks on the paper, occasionally pausing to erase one and reconsider its placement before drawing it again.

When Cosmo glanced over, he noticed Daddy Harley watching them and smiled at him, getting a small smile out of him too. It warmed his belly as he returned his attention to Daddy Nomad.

"We need a big ledge to sun on, too," Cosmo suggested, "Big enough for Daddy to sprawl and not knock someone off the bed."

He flicked his tongue out at Daddy Harley then, reminding him of a few nights before, when his nose had nudged Cosmo until he was clinging to the comforter with his claws until Daddy Nomad lifted him up and cuddled him, eventually falling asleep with Cosmo curled in a ball on his chest.

Daddy Nomad chuckled at that, more lines beginning to take on the shape of a maze that led diagonally across the wall, with a sunny window spot right at the heart of the maze. He was still drawing when Daddy Harley turned to flip a pancake, and Cosmo's phone buzzed again.

This time the message contained just one word.

Yes.