Page 213 of Omega's Heart

Jesse nodded and shuffled through the folders, flipping a few open to glance at the pages inside.

So this is the infamous Jesse Mutch. Kaden looked him over discreetly. He had the look of someone aged before his time, with a tinge of gray to his face, just around the edges. Like someone who’d been working too hard for too long on too little sleep and bad food. The way the lawyer sitting next to him watched him told him that whatever was going on with the human was no secret, at least on the human side of things.

The way Holland was catering to him too, though that just made Kaden uneasy. A glance at Quin told him nothing, but surely his brother couldn’t be unaware of the subtle flirtation going on at the other end of the table.

Just another thing to add to the list. That was going to be a fun conversation.

They started with the easy ones to cross off. Salma—his mother was going to have a fit, but he could handle that. Los Padres were well integrated with the local community and not suffering. Rathburn, though that was a regretful crossing out, but they’d be fine until the next round.

He managed to keep Honisloonz on the list for a while, but eventually they went down under the combined votes of the group. In the end, they had the list narrowed down to Buffalo Gap, Green Moon, and Jackson-Jellystone. The three had been pretty even with yeas and nays all the way through, each having different strengths. Holland had abstained from the voting on Buffalo Gap, as had Bax, and the emotions drifting off each of their mates were not happy ones.

Holland erased the board and wrote the names of the three packs on it, with space for pros and cons of each beneath. “Should I send for more coffee before we get into this?”

“No more for me,” Jesse said. “Doctor’s orders.”

Holland patted his shoulder and turned back to the rest of the group. “Anyone else?”

A slow chorus of noes answered him and he nodded. “Then let’s get this done.”

It took an hour to eliminate Jackson-Jellystone, despite Quin’s strong preference for them.

“They’re not going to hurt for the wait,” Ava explained. “Their finances aren’t as good as Nevada or Salma, but they’re stable.”

“They’re close to us, though. And Roland has taken my advice on things a couple of times. He’s open to guidance.”

Kaden shook his head and let Quin argue for a few more minutes. “Vote?” he suggested when it became apparent that neither side was going to back down. Truthfully, he would have preferred Jackson-Jellystone himself, because they were better off than either of the other two packs and they’d likely see the results from the trust earlier. Then, in an ideal world, they could do two next time and both of the other two packs could get one.

Jackson-Jellystone lost by a margin of one vote. This time, interestingly enough, Holland and Bax did vote, both in support of the pack. It was the humans who were mostly against it and, oddly, Abel.

Kaden shuffled his papers. “Pros and cons of Buffalo Gap?”

“No,” Felix said immediately.

Kaden glanced over at him in surprise. He’d thought he’d known Felix’s mind on this one—they’d certainly hashed out their own personal issues about the Alpha and his Mate and weighed them against the potential for success in the pack.

Felix reached for his hand and squeezed it. “No,” he repeated.

“Okay,” Kaden said, but he planned to find out what had prompted this change in opinion in his mate at the earliest opportunity.

The voting went on, overwhelmingly yes, until they got to Bax.

“No.”

That was it. Just a flat no, in a voice that left no room for compromise. Given that he’d had absolutely nothing to say during the discussion, his sudden defection from his birth pack was startling. At least to Kaden.

“Abel?” Kaden prompted.

“No,” Abel said firmly and leaned back in his chair. Something had changed about him in the past few minutes. He almost felt like Quin now, a deep dark roll of power that hovered under his skin, waiting to be unleashed.

Kaden scanned the room—every shifter in the place sat bolt upright, watching Abel. Even Quin, though the sense of unease in the rest of the shifters was missing in him. Then slowly, Quin nodded at their brother and turned to the next person in line, the younger Jesse. “Your vote?”

Jesse glanced at everyone in turn, then turned to Bax. “I’m confused. This is your birth pack, right? You still have family there, don’t you?”

“I do,” Bax said, and as hard as his voice was, underneath it Kaden thought he heard the struggle Bax was having with his decision. “But still, I vote no. In fact,” he stood up and braced his hands on the table. “If Buffalo Gap is chosen, I will petition every other damn pack in the country, and a few outside it, to transfer to another pack.” His eyes went to Holland, still as a hunting wolf at the end of the table, and the tension in the room rose another notch.

Felix’s hand on Kaden’s grew tighter and his mate’s scent turned sharp with unhappiness.

Quin never moved, never even stood up, but he leaked that power of his until it filled the room, pressing against skin and nose and eyes until Kaden felt he could hardly breathe with it. “I will support you in whatever decision you make,” he told his mate, his voice thrumming with that same dangerous energy. “And there will be no fallout for you. This I promise, on the moon and the sun and the trees that witnessed the binding of our souls. If I have to cry challenge, then so be it.”