not in our direct lineage. Dad's brothers are the ones who get the occasional daughter."
They argued about that for a while before the conversation came around to the COME and SPTA issues. Nash startled and looked at us. "Hey, I was going to tell you at breakfast. I got a phone call from Morty after you guys went to bed. The contract is broken now that the client is dead. I played dumb since we of course would have no way of knowing who the client was, right? But yeah, you guys are safe now."
Dearest patted my knee. "You mean Nathaniel is safe."
Gib solemnly shook his head. "Dear, why do you think the whole family has been so freaked out? Of course we don't want anything to happen to Nathaniel, but did you ever stop to consider that if your true mate died that you would too? Some people manage to survive the loss of a true mate, but that's usually only in cases where they have young children at home who need a parent. The loss is too hard when a shifter loses their soulmate."
I shivered and pulled Dearest onto my lap, suddenly needing to hold him close. "I feel so selfish. I never thought about that either. Dear God, to think that both of our lives were in danger."
Dearest looked fierce as he narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you ever feel selfish because you’re the last man on earth who is. Besides, it’s over. You heard Nash—it’s done. I bet Morty was bummed to lose his part of the commission but fuck him. When someone tries to take my mate out, I kick them back. Ask Adrienne if you don’t believe me. Oh, wait. You can’t. Why? Because she’s dead. Gil did the deed but only because he beat me to it.”
Nash whistled softly. “Damn, Dear. Remind me not to threaten Nate. Like, ever. Hell, I won’t even try to cheat at cards if he’s playing.” The other guys started joking around and giving Dearest a hard time because he was so protective of me when I was twice his size. Personally, I loved my valiant omega with the soft heart.
After a few seconds of the brothers teasing him, Dearest turned and gave me a kiss and brought the conversation back around. "Okay, enough about that. I don't need anything else to fuel my nightmares, I'm good in that department. We need to talk some more about what we can do to help fight the SPTA and get COME to change the laws. They need to get with the program. The world has changed and those fossils need to change with it. The fact that there are so many omegas being treated like second-class citizens isn't okay. The humans have equal rights, don't they? If we are supposedly so much better, why don't we have them too?"
Gib snorted. "Because if they admit that we omegas have a right to enjoy the same autonomy that our alpha brethren do then they will have to change the laws and lose all that money they get through their cut of the arranged mate agreements. Not to mention that underage and unmarried omegas would have the same right to inherit. There are a lot of alphas out there who won't like that."
Dearest scowled fiercely. "And those alphas can get bent. I think this is going to become my new focus. I might still take the occasional job; I'll have to discuss that with Nathaniel. But I want to work at getting rid of these antiquated laws. And I'm going to start by shaking Morty down until he tells me the truth about Adrienne Powell having been the one who signed the contract. I know that punk has information he's withholding. We saw it with Nick's father when Morty didn't give Clay all the details he knew about the presidential assassination. He's been acting squirrely for a while now."
Gib slowly nodded. "That's true. But then again, Morty is kinda squirrely by nature. It could just be that he gets off on the power trip that comes from knowing all the secrets. Or, he could also be neck deep in a pile of steaming horse shit."
"I agree," Nash said. "This time it came too close to our own door for us to stay uninvolved. When you approach Morty, I vote we do it as a family. He needs to know that we Morenos are sticking together on this, just like we do with everything else.