they’d have to wait. Priorities and all that. Footsteps neared. Bray stood on alert as well, back straight, head facing the door. Palani was coming. With Armitage…and Lidon would be ready for him. He gave Baig and the other guy a warning growl, then retreated to the corner that wasn’t visible from the door.
“I’m just gonna show you he’s alive, but you’ll have to prove to me he’s not Lidon Hayes because I still don’t believe you. You’re lying.”
Wow, the general sounded a tad desperate, wasn’t he? A little whiny too.
The door opened, and then Kean darted inside and dropped to the floor at the same time as Bray bounded toward him. The beta hugged his alpha wolf tightly, burying his face into his fur. He held on to him for what had to be ten, twenty seconds. Then Bray nudged him, and Kean let go. His alpha licked the tears from his face, making a soft sound of distress. How beautiful they were together.
“Very touching,” Armitage said as he stepped farther into the room. “But it doesn’t prove anything. For all I know, Lidon Hayes has amassed himself a harem.”
A harem? Oh god. Palani was so gonna tease him with that one. But not now. It was time. Lidon growled, not holding back, and Armitage damn near jumped a foot into the air. He looked like a fish on dry land, his mouth opening and closing to form words that weren’t coming. And fuck knew they needed to talk, but Lidon was tired and angry, and all he wanted was to go home and be with his men, his pack.
“May I introduce you, General?” Palani said, his tone sugary sweet. “That is Lidon Hayes.”
Lidon would have to reward him for that intro. The reverence in the beta’s tone was just all kinds of sexy and wonderful. Mmm, yes, he’d definitely have to spend some one-on-one time with him as a personal thank-you. Maybe fill him up real slow, tease him a little, stretch him wide open with his…
Palani cleared his throat, then winked at him as if he’d read his mind. He probably had. Not that Lidon cared. Nothing wrong with daydreaming about fucking one of his mates, right? But he did have some unfinished business here. Like the weasel in front of him.
“Arrest them all!” Armitage commanded the two soldiers who’d accompanied him and Palani’s group.
But the two soldiers took a step back rather than forward. “General…” one of them said. “I don’t know if…”
“Arrest them!” Armitage shouted again, and when the soldiers still didn’t respond, he strode toward them and yanked the gun out of the hands of one of them. Before he’d even turned around, Bray was on him with one powerful shove that sent the general stumbling backward. The gun clattered on the floor and skidded out of his reach. One more push and the general lay flat on his back, with Bray standing with his front paws on the man’s chest. It seemed the alpha had some pent-up frustration, and Lidon had no trouble allowing Bray to express that. He’d deserved it.
“Don’t kill him, Bray,” Palani said. “We’re not done with him yet.”
No, they weren’t. And as much as he wanted to just go home, that wasn’t his mission. Lidon had a job to do, and for this part, he’d have to be human. With a sigh of reluctance, he shifted.
“Let the general up, Bray. He and I need to have a conversation.”
30
Sean’s mission was the vaguest out of the three. Lidon’s and Grayson’s mission had clear objectives: to free Bray and to check out the camps, offer help where needed, and report back, respectively. His mission was much broader and thus less specific. Take the city’s temp, Lidon had said. Find out what you can about the situation, how bad it is, how people are coping. Find out how big the support for the general is.
It had seemed easier said than done, but Sean quickly discovered all they had to do was to keep their ears to the ground. They listened in to some conversations at army checkpoints first, hearing complaints about the food these guys were served, but also about how boring running the checkpoints was and how they had doubts about the legality of it all.
“It’s a coup d’etat, man,” one soldier had whispered to his comrade, so soft no human could have heard it. “I don’t care which way you look at it and how you insist it was done