Page 79 of Omega's Flight

He was right. Cas thought about what was going on with Raleigh's situation, how Jackson-Jellystone was holding out on the pups and Mercy Hills digging in its heels. "Yeah, we need a plan, and everyone has to be on the same page."

"We're offering the lawyers," Holland said. "End of deal. And your help, Garrick, if you don't mind going outside walls for a while?"

"We'll still need a Wisconsin barred lawyer to handle the case, unless it gets moved back to Minnesota or we can get it moved here. Here would be the best case, but to do that, we're going to have to have something more than it's just more convenient. Wisconsin might be better anyway, it doesn't have an enclave."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Bram demanded.

"Laine says that the closer humans live to enclaves, the less tolerant they are. A state without an enclave might be our best chance to pry some sort of win out of this. Even if it's just bringing them here to serve their sentences." Garrick glanced around the group. "You need to understand that this isn't likely to go well. Best case scenario, we can get them fairly nominal sentences and hopefully have them served here or in their home enclave. Worst case is they go to a shifter wing in a human prison. Most likely outcome is that they’re going to send them to one of the shifter prisons. Which might be safer for Araminta but will be absolute disaster for Julius.”

The room went silent and Cas suppressed a shudder. "I think we can probably avoid that. They're young and Julius is underage."

Holland sighed and Jason turned his head to look away. His knuckles were white on the fist clenched on the table.

"We can throw money at it, get a tiger lawyer," Cas said. "It would set a good precedent. An important one. And," he pointed a finger at Holland. "I'd bet you a month of babysitting that your Jesse would show up with a dump truck of cash for this if you asked him to." He looked at Garrick. "Find a good lawyer. Set that human of yours on it."

Quin cleared his throat and for a second, Cas thought he'd gone too far. But Quin's voice quivered with suppressed hilarity when he said, "He's right you know, love. If you ever want to be mated to a millionaire, Jesse would have you in a heartbeat."

"Shut up, all of you. It's not funny." Holland stood up abruptly and reached for Zane, fast asleep against Cas's shoulder. "I'm going to put him to bed." He stormed off out of the room.

"You shouldn't tease him," Bax scolded their Alpha gently. "You know it bothers him."

"Jesse doesn't really want him," Quin said equably. "He pretends he does, because he knows it's safe. Holland knows that. And he knows I trust him."

"But does he trust Jesse?" Bram asked in a low voice.

Cas waited for Quin's response, curious about what his brother was thinking.

But Quin just shook his head. "We should make that call to Winter Moon before it gets too late. They have to be worrying." Then, quieter, "He'll be fine, and Jesse knows better."

"Tell Holland that," Bax said softly, then reached for Garrick's pad of paper. "I'll make notes?"

"Let me call my parents first," Garrick said. "They can get Minnie's and Julius's parents to their place and they can listen in on the call." He shrugged at their startled looks. "It's not illegal. And it'll help our case."

"Do it," Quin ordered. "I'll be right back." And to Cas's relief, his brother padded off down the hallway after his mate.

C H A P T E R 5 5

T hings seemed to have been smoothed over when Quin and Holland came back, sans baby. The phone call went about as well as they'd expected, which was not well at all, with Winter Moon demanding that the two shifters be returned to their birth pack once Mercy Hills had won their freedom. But the Alpha of Winter Moon didn't know about their secret weapon—they'd already spoken to Julius's parents and had let them listen in on Mercy Hills' side of the negotiation. Whatever their original plans for Julius had been—and they'd been pretty damn cagey about it, in Cas's opinion —they at least cared enough to just want their child out of the human prison.

And if there were hints that they’d be pleased to see him mate into a well-to-do pack like Mercy Hills, both Quin and Holland had ignored them without actually giving the appearance of it.

The omegas packed themselves up, but no one seemed to want to leave yet.

“Winter Moon will change their minds," Cas told Jason. "Once the parents get hold of them—look what your parents did because they loved you."

"Listen to the alpha," Mac told his mate. "He's been through these things before."

Cas shot him a startled look, then laughed. "Yeah, you were around for that, weren't you?"

Mac grinned, but it seemed more to hide his true feelings than any real humor. "Salma Wood didn't want to give him and Abel up, but they were determined to move." Mac pulled Jason against him in a hug. "Do you think that Julius's parents will be any less determined to see their son well taken care of?"

"To see him settled in Mercy Hills, you mean," Holland said dryly. "But, if it works to our advantage, then I really don't care. Once he's here, they don't have the hold on him that they do in Winter Moon."

Bram rubbed his hands over his arms and fidgeted where he stood. "How long do you think it'll take them to decide?"

Quin shrugged. "Could be quick, could take a couple of days."

"I can't imagine being in prison," Bram said in a spooked voice.