Page 78 of Omega's Flight

Holland bent to accept it, but the baby started to cry for real and Holland let out an unhappy whine before going back to bouncing the little boy back and forth. "Thank you for coming."

"Who's Quin talking to?" Cas set his laptop on the table in the living room and came back to take Zane from Holland. "Oh, look, it's your favorite uncle!" he told the baby, and began to bounce around on the balls of his feet, just like Holland had.

"You might regret taking him. I've got him all stirred up," Holland told him. "Quin's on the phone with Winter Moon right now, but Bax is out in the office trying to get someone from the Bureau. Not too likely, but you never know when someone will be working late." Holland sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Come on in, you can help me bring the table out to the living room and scrounge a few more chairs." He turned back to Garrick. "I think we might need Laine for this. Or if he knows someone in Wisconsin, we can send you to advise on pack matters and let the human deal with the humans."

"Who else are we waiting for?"

"Bram, Jason, Seosamh. Bax to get off the phone. Quin to get off his." Holland turned this way and that, as if he couldn't decide what to do next.

"The whole council is coming?" Garrick asked in a startled voice.

Holland gave him a look that seemed strange to Cas, but Garrick appeared to understand it. "Right," the other lawyer said. "Well, I guess we can shine up this brand new Bar standing of mine. Not that I'm any use even as a fully licensed lawyer anywhere but Tennessee and a couple of other states, unless they’re okay with me practicing pro hac vice. Let's get the table in place, then I'll give Laine a head's up that I'm going to need his contacts later."

"Thank you." Holland reached out to touch Garrick, then let his hand fall in an uncertain manner that was out of character for Holland.

"I owe you," Garrick told him.

"No you don't." Holland slipped Garrick's laptop out of his hand and set it on the couch. "Let's get the table out, everyone should be here soon."

"As soon as we're set up, I'm going to step out into the hallway and make a couple of calls," Garrick said, suiting actions to words.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone they were expecting had shown up.

Holland shook his head when Bram asked about Cale. "I told him to stay home and study. He's writing his SATs next week and he needs the practice. There's not much he'll be able to do anyway, and I can fill him in later."

"SATs," Bram said, and made a face. "Still better than this."

"This could set the pattern for our future here," Holland said. He turned to Quin. "You've been talking to them. Tell us what happened."

Garrick set his phone out in the middle of the table and hit record. "Just in case," he said in response to the curious glances. "I might need to review it."

Nods followed that announcement, and then Quin cleared his throat. "Araminta Winter Moon took her little brother out over the wall with the intention of bringing him here. Julius is seventeen and promised to be mated. The story gets a little confusing here, but as far as I could tell, he didn't want to be mated as soon as he was an adult and Minnie wanted him to have a chance to go to school or have a job, so they hatched a plan to come here." He glanced around the table. "Keep in mind, we haven't heard their side of it, only the parents and the pack's. They're trying to pass it off as two irresponsible pups who didn't know what they were getting into, and Julius being a little spoiled."

"Well, it's obvious they didn't know what they were getting into trying to run cross country through human territory." Abel picked up his mug of tea and sipped at it. "How did they get out of the enclave?"

"No one knows," Quin told him. "And no one's been able to get in to talk to them yet, the Bureau's got them sequestered in a prison in Wisconsin for now and they aren't approving any travel papers for the family."

Garrick cleared his throat and, when he had everyone's attention, he said tentatively, "I called my mother to ask what she'd heard. She didn't know the family that well, they came from Waterside, but she thought that the pups weren't all that happy there. Which, translating from Mom to English, probably means that their Pa was rough on them and that we'll likely find some old injuries. Waterside's a poor neighborhood." He looked at each of them in turn, and seemed about to say something more, then stopped, shook his head, and looked down at his pad of paper.

"Well," Jason said softly. "Not entirely a surprise. We'll deal with that when we get them here. The question is getting Winter Moon to let them come here instead of going back."

Abel scratched at his beard and shot his mate a look. "What do you think?"

Bax frowned and fiddled with a pen that had rolled in front of him. "I say we play hardball." He raised his eyes to Holland's. "I think we tell them we'll send the lawyers, but only if they offer Julius the choice of whether to go home or come here."

"You're sure he'll come here?"

"He ran, didn't he?" Jason said, and Cas thought he wasn't the only one who heard the undertone of bitterness in his words.

"Are you okay with that?" Holland asked Quin quietly.

Quin's eyes met his, then he looked around the table, silently asking the agreement of each one sitting there in turn. When they'd all nodded, he turned back to Holland. "All right. I'll call them and let them know what the deal is."

"Do you want us here for it, or do you want to do it in the office?" Abel asked matter-of-factly.

"Here." Quin set his phone on the table in front of him and hit the speakerphone. "They might as well know we're a pack."

"Hang on," Garrick interrupted with a raised hand. "Let's decide exactly what we're willing to offer, and figure out how low to start. You know this is going to end up being a bidding war."