Page 162 of Omega's Heart

The entire point of this job appeared to have been lost.

He’d barely touched down in Washington when his phone rang. “Hello?”

“You got the early flight, good,” Adam said, without even a hello. “You pick up your baggage yet?”

“Heading there now.”

“Excellent! I’ll head over to pick you up. We have things to talk about.” He hung up, leaving Kaden standing there in the middle of Arrivals, feeling lost and slightly irritated.

He met Adam at the door. “Quick, get in!” Adam said, grabbing Kaden’s suitcase and hurrying him along the sidewalk. “I’ll look after the suitcase.” He suited actions to words, tossing the luggage into the trunk of the car, then running around to drop into the driver’s seat and zoom off into traffic. “I know we’ve only got so much time before curfew, so hang on!”

Kaden casually reached up and grabbed for the holy shit bar above the passenger side door, bracing himself as Adam swerved from lane to lane as he drove them to wherever it was they were headed.

“Where are we going?”

“Council of war,” Adam said, grinning.

Kaden stared at him in complete confusion, but Adam refused to elaborate.

They pulled up at the side of a tall hotel, its outside pillars elegantly lit, fountains playing with light and air out front. Adam pulled into an empty parking spot and turned off the car. “Come on.” He led Kaden into the hotel through a side door and up a set of stairs. “We can grab the elevator on this floor,” he said as they hurried down the hall.

“What’s with the cloak and dagger?” Kaden had to work to keep up, his left knee starting to ache with an effort. His breath came short. I’m so out of shape.

“Not cloak and dagger, more time constraints.” He darted for the elevator door, catching it just before it closed completely. “Come on.” He was pushing the button for the nineteenth floor before Kaden had made it all the way inside, and was pounding on the Close Door button as soon as Kaden’s heels had cleared the edge of the elevator

Kaden leaned against the wall to catch his breath. “No cloak and dagger, huh?”

Adam flashed him a grin. “Maybe a little.” He fixed his eyes on the floor indicators, the car moving far too slowly for his obvious impatience.

They had a few moments here, now. It was tempting to talk to Adam about the money issues, but even as Kaden opened his mouth, he knew he wouldn’t. The intriguing scent of this discreet meeting piqued his curiosity—maybe it would explain why they had suddenly started insisting that it be Kaden who went to Washington whenever the need arose, instead of one of the humans, who could have roomed in with someone, or slept in the office, or even gotten a cheaper hotel room.

The floor chime dinged and the door slid silently out of the way. “We’re down at the end of the hall,” Adam said and led the way.

Last door on the left, looking out over the back of the building. The first thing Kaden noticed when he walked in was the mixed smell of about a half-dozen different colognes in the air. The curtains had been pulled across the window and every seat in the room had been taken.

“Got him,” Adam announced unnecessarily as the door closed behind them. “That’s everyone, right?”

Mike stood up from a chair in the corner. “That’s it. Kaden, sit down.”

“I don’t need to take your chair.”

“I’ve been stuck in an office all day anyway. Do me good to move around.” He nodded at the chair and waited, while Kaden crossed the room feeling suddenly like the lone three-legged deer in the middle of a wolf pack. He sat and looked around. Of the seven of them filling up the available seats, he only knew Mike and Adam. The others were completely unfamiliar to him, both in appearance and scent.

Adam came back with a paper cup of coffee. “You want cream or sugar?”

“Both.”

“Ah, ex-soldier for sure,” one of the strangers said cheerfully. “Alan Yoon.” He held out a hand for Kaden to shake. “You’re the shifter.”

Statement, not question. So they’d already been talking about him. “I am.” Interesting—Alan had a slight not-American accent. Not much—he’d obviously grown up here, but someone in his family hadn’t.

Mike dropped a couple of packets of sugar and a tiny cup of cream on the table next to Kaden. “Sorry, I know you don’t like that much coffee with your cream.”

“Ha.” Kaden poured everything into the cup and stirred it, taking a cautious sip. Tolerable. Not up to Felix standards, but it would do. He raised an eyebrow in Adam’s direction and waited.

Mike and Adam exchanged a look, then Mike clapped his hands together and moved out into the middle of the room. “Most of us know each other, but Kaden, you’re the new man to the group. So we’ll do a quick round of introductions and get to the meat of it all. Folks, this is Kaden Mercy Hills, newest member of the senator’s staff and our liaison with the shifter population around the country. Kaden, you’ve already met Alan—he’s our West Coast guy.” He turned to the only woman in the room, seated on the couch with Alan.” This is Sophia Mallory, she’s our East Coast organizer.” Sophia nodded at him, and Mike went on. “Cliff Williams, our organizer in the south.” He gestured toward an older man with a receding hairline and large, strong hands that squeezed a little tighter than necessary when he shook Kaden’s. “And Liam Jensen, Midwest.” Liam got up from his seat at the room’s desk and came over to shake Kaden’s hand.

“Good to meet you,” he said.