Page 7 of My Solemn Vow

I shuffle in my seat, not liking his tone. But my father stays relaxed, unbothered. Neil, however, is clenching his fist like he’s holding something back.

Movement in the front row draws my eye. My younger brother, Royal, had shuffled in his seat and is now leaning back in his chair. With his phone in his hand, his thumb flies across the bottom. I know before I feel the vibration in my pocket that he’s sending me texts.

There’s no point in hiding it. Everyone in the room heard it go off. Wolf hearing.

I open the message quickly and look at it.

Royal:

Fix your face you look like an axe murderer.

Unless that’s the vibe you want to go for, make everyone think you’re unhinged.

I really don’t want to be Alpha though, and as younger sibling... it was never my job. That’s why I learned IT like we discussed. Look less unhinged or unhinged enough that someone challenges you. K thanks.

And I told Mom and Dad I wanted a little brother why?Regardless, I relax my jaw, unclench my fist, and try not to ‘look like anaxe murderer.’ I try for my usually cool and unaffected interrogator facade and put my phone away.

Because he’s a good uncle to our pup.My wolf tries to offer support for Royal.

But it’s not needed. As much as he gets on my nerves, we’re brothers. We always have each other’s backs.

“Let’s go over what we know.” My father tries to be diplomatic, and I’m ready for him to disclose the edited version of what Mick told me about ‘Greg and Ed’ D’Medici after I put Kerrianne back to bed in the wee hours of the morning. “I don’t want to put too much information out there and be wrong about it.”

“Ian. I want to hear it from Valor direct.” The older man from the pack, Thomas O’Halloran, coughs. The years of cigars are catching up to him.

Neil scoffs from the other side of my father.

My wolf growls, but I suppress it. Civility is best suited right now. For the longest time I only handled the non-pack part of our business, but recently, my dad has requested my involvement more and more with the pack operations. I understand his reasoning, but it can be disruptive to the established hierarchy. Three dominant wolves at one table trying to lead isn’t easy.

“Fair enough.” My father looks over at me with a silent warning to keep it to the basics.

Heat warms my collar with that glare. Dad’s usually more forgiving when the pack wants to hear something from me.

Did I fail to silence that growl?I check with my wolf, but he plays dumb to the question.Fuckin’ hell.

I straighten in my chair, raising my gaze to look more pointedly across the room, and start with the important pieces. “We know the D’Medicis are looking to branch out. Drugs and information aren’t enough for them to sell. They’re trying to fill the gaps with the special kinds of shipments we refuse to touch.”

“Fuckers,” a man toward the back of the room barks, a thickIrish accent giving away that it’s one of our more recent transplants. “Traffickin’. Disgusting.”

“What are we doing about it?” Thomas raises his voice with a growl, clearly ready to issue a challenge.

“The obvious.” Neil cuts in.

“From Valor,” someone toward the back shouts.

Neil grumbles, but over the murmurs of the pack, I can’t hear what he said. Dad huffs the way he does when he disagrees with something. Like when I used to tell him I was going to a friend’s house, but I was really hooking up with Holly. It wasn’t a lie; she was a friend. He didn’t believe me, but he didn’t stop me either. Disagreement but not an objection.

I clench my fist again but don’t take Thomas’s bait for a challenge. Ready to defer to my father, I give him a sideways glance, but instead of stepping in, Dad remains silent. He gives me a nod of approval.

The huff wasn’t directed toward me.I don’t look down the table because the tension in the air is enough to know a discussion is coming after this meeting.

Taking a second before speaking, I uncurl my fingers and drum them on the table. “The rat I worked last night didn’t have enough answers for me to confidently say we should make a move. If we were to err on the side of caution, we should suspend the fights until we have a better handle on what is or isn’t going on — D’Medicis or otherwise.”

Groans of disappointment fill the air, but no one contradicts me. While we, the ‘Irish Mob’ as the government agencies have dubbed us, make many decisions through votes and open forum discussions, at the end of the day, the pack alpha makes the final call. The pack not disagreeing with me is a good sign that Dad’s silent support of my decision to wait will go uncontested.

“We need to end the war once and for all. The D’Medicis’ numbers keep growing while our pack keeps shrinking,” another man pipes up from the back of the room.

Yes, they have more children than we have pups every year, but I’ve been slowly and diligently wiping out illegal business after business of the D’Medici empire. The end game is to remove them as a threat entirely. But in the process, I also want vengeance for Holly’s death. It’s been seven frustratingly long years of searching for evidence of who killed her, and when I have it, that person will pay for the pain he has put me through and the impact of Kerrianne never getting to know her mother.