of gay dudes and mages and mermen and all kinds of shenanigans.” Agent Faste returned his attention to Colin. “Keep your shirt on, Mangnall. You’re free to go. We aren’t detaining you.”
Colin tugged down his t-shirt, pulled his hoodie back on, and put his leather jacket on top. Picking up his backpack, he glared at Agent Faste; the berserker stayed calm and impassive under his pointed disgust.
“You should pick your friends with greater care, old bear.”
“You can pick your friends and you can pick your breakfast, but you can’t smother your friends in hollandaise sauce.” Agent Faste was a bit of a weirdo, probably why Agent Lenis did most of the talking.
Colin thought about Judd smothered in hollandaise sauce and said, “Yeah you can, you just need the right kind of friends.”
With which he got out of the limo and slammed the door hard behind him. It was petty, but it made him feel good. And they let him go.
They let him go!
Colin’s first instinct was to call Judd. Or his brother. Or both. He did neither. He bent over, put his hands to his knees and hyperventilated for a bit. He managed to not throw up, which was a victory, since his stomach was all kinds of freaked out and he still hadn’t eaten anything that day. His mother, so many Alphas, all them intensely wanting something from him, forcing him, and he hadn’t yielded. He had resisted. At least, he thought he hadn’t yielded. And he’d left with his own intel, too. He now knew that others beyond the selkie were after Trick. That the government thought Trick was dirty, thought Trick was trouble. That Lexi Blanc was working with the SBI. Were they protecting her? Was she some kind of spy for them or something?
Colin did some yoga breathing, got himself back together, stood up straight. Then he did the right thing, he called his Alpha.
And his Alpha called a pack meeting.
It wasn’t even dark when Kevin busted into Judd’s room and woke him up from a really hot dream.
“What?” he growled. “We aren’t meeting with the client for another two hours.”
“Your little brother featured in a starring role. There was a neon mesh jock strap involved. You sure you wanna hear about it?”
“Yech, no. Dude. I mean, dude! That’s not cool. I gave you my blessing, but I so don’t want any specifics.”
“Which is what I tell you every time you screw a woman. Now you know what it feels like. Plus, maybe if you didn’t divulge every tiny detail of every sexual encounter, they’d feel a little less like bragging rights and more like people you actually cared about.”
“Now you’re giving me advice on my love life? What, you got everything suddenly sorted with Colin, so now you’re all Captain Magicdouchnugget Superdick?”
Judd groaned. “It is way too early for you to be all up in my biscuit. Pack meeting? Isn’t Alec still at work?”
“He’s headed back. And you gotta get up and dressed because we’re meeting at the Bean.”
“Pack meeting in public? At a cafe? What the hell?”
“I know, right? But apparently it involves Trick and he’s working. So we take the pack to him.”
“Weird.”
“And you’ll never guess who called the meet.”
“Alec, of course.”
“No. I mean, yeah Alec summoned us, but the reason for needing a meeting came from Colin.” Kevin went off to rouse the others.
“Wait. What?” Judd was out of bed and dressed in record time, even for a shifter. Even for Judd, who wore jeans, t-shirt, boots, and nothing else most days. He didn’t hold with underpants or socks – too many layers between him and wolf.
Down in the kitchen, Judd waited impatiently. He was gonna leave for the cafe alone. They could damn well meet him there. Then Kevin, Lovejoy, Tank, and Isaac ambled in. He shepherded them all out the door without allowing for any conversation. He practically ran them down the hill. They arrived at the Bean in less than ten minutes.
Alec had claimed a family emergency and left work early. His lab was usually good about that kind of thing. Marvin was at sea, looking for a lost shipment of bullion-level prosciutto. Preserved meat was a serious business in a town with high shifter numbers. Bryan and Max were already at the cafe. They’d been on Trick detail all afternoon. They’d set themselves up on the wireless. Max doing whatever it was that he did that revolved around