Magnus

When our morning meeting with Anita and her aide ended, I slouched and groaned as soon as the door shut behind them, just as I did every time she left the room.

The only word I had to describe Anita was odious. Talking with her was exhausting and I was tired of trying to keep up the front I had to put on when she was around. If I made the slightest mistake in what I said, how I said it, or in my manners, she leapt on it. Whenever Anita looked at me, I could see the disdain in her eyes. It was all too obvious that she thought I was completely incompetent, but I had no choice but to keep trying to convince her I was a good alpha... even when I wasn't so sure of that, myself, sometimes.

And that aide of hers. Every time Anita corrected or scolded me, her aide would light up with delight. It took a certain kind of person to work for Anita, I thought, and it made a sad kind of sense that her aide would enjoy the small ways she tormented people.

Roy and I headed for the hospitality room where Tasha spent her days while we were holed up with Anita. We should have been able to go home yesterday, or maybe this morning. Instead, Anita was holding us hostage. The Summit supposedly wanted to get alphas back to their packs as soon as possible, but she didn't get that memo.

Roy locked the door behind us, just as he always did during our lunch hour. He said it was for our sanity. We needed to be able to relax between Anita sessions without worrying about her bursting in and catching us being too informal. Heaven forbid she see me with mayo on my cheek or slouched in my chair. She might just give up on me altogether.

"How's it going?" Tasha asked around a mouth full of food. Lunch was always delivered to this room just before Roy and I arrived.

I loaded up a plate and pulled out my phone to turn it on and check my notifications. Roy said, "It feels like she's building a case against us instead of for us."

"I don't know what more I can do to get on her good side," I complained. I had already let Roy talk me into getting my hair trimmed into a neater style and I was dressing up every day even though I hated button-downs. I missed my t-shirts and sneakers, and I missed wearing pants that wouldn't crease badly no matter how I sat in them.

And I missed my home, my family, my pack, and my mate.

How long would Anita hold us hostage here?

I had a text from Lachlan wishing me a good morning, which made me snort, though it really wasn't funny that my meeting with Anita had started before he woke up and ended after the morning had already passed.

I also had a message from Felix that said, "Call me ASAP."

I called him and he picked up on the second ring. "Who are you with?" Felix asked immediately.

"Roy and Tasha."

"Put me on speaker."

Something was wrong – it had to be for him to sound so grim and to not even greet me before jumping into whatever he had to say. With trembling fingers, I put him on speaker and waved a hand to silence Roy and Tasha. "You're on speaker," I told him.

"Anita is Opal's godmother. Molly's been digging into everyone involved in your case and she just found out this morning. It's hard to tell how close they are, but it looks like they at least spend holidays together. It's looking like this investigation is a setup. Don't tell her anything that can be used against you."

I gaped at my phone.

"She's been so antagonistic toward Magnus that he's only tried to impress her so far," Roy said. Usually, you told your lawyer everything, even the bad, so that they're prepared to defend you against it. It was true that we hadn't reached that level of sharing with Anita. And now I knew for certain we never would.

"Good. That's good," Felix said.

"What does this mean?" I asked. What I really meant was: am I doomed? Without someone truly in my corner, how was I supposed to prove my competence to the Summit?

"We may be able to claim there's a conflict of interest and get her reassigned," Roy said. "Since Opal's claim against you was dismissed and this is technically another matter, the Summit may not do anything... but we have to try."

"How could they not see this as a conflict of interest? Opal started this whole mess and she's clearly angling for my job," I complained.

"We're going to figure this out, Magnus," Felix said.

"I'm going to go talk to the receptionist. He should be able to give us some direction here," Roy said.

I nodded and picked up my phone, turning off speaker mode. "Thanks, Felix, and thank Molly for me."

"No problem. I'm just glad we caught this in time to maybe do something about it," he said.

Since I needed to think about something else – and because I really did want to know the answer – I asked, "How's the pack doing?"

"Fine. You'll have a few mediation requests waiting for you when you get back, but nothing major. Most people have been fine letting me handle things. It also looks like there are a few hundred dollars missing from the budget. Rita's looking into that. Some of our enforcers are getting whiny about working longer shifts to cover for me, but it's nothing to worry about. If this goes on much longer, Mel offered to help cover some of my shifts."

Felix was downplaying how upset the enforcers were if Mel was offering to help – that, or she was spoiling for a good fight. Since I couldn't do anything about it from here, I decided to take him at his word when he said not to worry. "Thanks for all your help," I said. "I don't know how I would have done this without you."

Felix laughed. "You don't give yourself enough credit. You would have worked it out."

Maybe, I thought, but not as well. There wasn't anyone else I could trust to watch over the pack like I trusted him.

"You don't give yourself enough credit," I said.

Felix snorted. "Why don't you get some lunch? I'll talk to you later."

Even though this felt like a terrible time to eat – when this Summit ordeal was falling apart around me and everything was more up in the air – I was hungry. "Okay. Later."

We hung up and I loaded up a plate with a chicken club, pasta salad, and chips. Say what you want about the Summit, but they sure knew how to feed people.

"This just makes me even happier we're going home tomorrow," Tasha said.

I winced. That had been the plan, but now... "Sorry, Tasha, I think we need to stay while this all gets sorted out. Hopefully, I'll be assigned a different defender. Then we would have to redo all of the work Anita has already done." All those painful hours of interviews and those detailed accounts of my background, wasted.

I pulled out my phone and texted Lachlan, "Probably have to postpone the trip home. I'll call you later."

Roy came back a few minutes later with Tyler. I had been trying to pin down Tyler's role within the Summit since we got here, but it seemed like he did a little bit of everything.

Tyler shut the door behind them and stood at the head of the table. Once Roy sat down, Tyler said, "I understand you have concerns about Anita's impartiality. Unfortunately, we are not able to assign a new team to your case as the rest of our staff is already assigned to other casework. We can't delay your evaluation – once one has been ordered, any delays can take away from the integrity of the process."

Was he serious? How could there be nothing they could do? This was the highest level of werewolf justice; how could they endorse such a clear conflict of interest?

Tyler held up a hand. "However, we do have one solution for you. If you prefer, we can switch the lawyers assigned to your case. Anita would work on your counter-case and Jason Kinsella, the current prosecutor, would defend you."

Tyler looked to me for a response and seemed unsurprised when I nodded. I knew nothing about Jason Kinsella, but he had to be better than keeping Anita. "That would be appreciated. Thank you."

Tyler nodded briskly and clapped his hands together. "Okay. I'm going to inform Anita and Jason of the switch. I'll send Jason to meet with you. You can wait here for them. It may be some time."

"I understand," I said. "Thanks again." Tyler aimed a small smile in my direction and left.

Roy whistled. "I thought for sure it would take them longer to sort this out – if they were willing to make a change at all."

I nodded absently, but in my mind I was going back through my interactions with Anita. I had been careful around her, but could she have picked up on anything she could use against me during our meetings?

We waited for maybe half an hour before the door opened and the doorframe filled with the most massive person I had ever seen. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall, and even through the button-down shirt he wore, you could tell his muscles were huge. His arms were as wide as at least three of mine. Long curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his expression was stern... for all of three seconds. The man smiled at me and his face transformed. Suddenly, he looked friendly and warm.

"Magnus?" he asked. His eyes flicked between me and Roy, and I stood and held out a hand. "It's good to meet you. I'm Jason."

"Good to meet you too."

He smiled and his eyes crinkled in the corners – something I found oddly reassuring. "That's very polite of you to say. I know how trying all of this must be for you."

I couldn't help smiling back at him. "A bit. It's also a little comforting, knowing alphas face some kind of scrutiny."

I'm not sure why I said that, but it was true. People like Marcus wouldn't reign unchecked for long. Jason smiled his approval and nodded a bit. "I appreciate that you're able to feel that way." His eyes left me to flick between Roy and Tasha. There was appraisal in his gaze, and calculation.

I realized he might have no idea who they were. "This is Roy, my assistant, and Tasha, who came as a guard," I quickly supplied.

Jason shook each of their hands with a warm smile. His hand engulfed theirs like a baseball mitt. Had I looked that silly shaking his hand, too? "Good to meet all of you. Now that introductions are out of the way, I was thinking maybe we can start making plans? I know you all must be eager to return home."

I was sure he had no idea just how eager I was. I was going through withdrawal. Lachlan and I had barely spoken and I hadn't even brought anything with his scent on it to avoid raising suspicions. Our separation was wearing on me, the pain in my chest growing stronger and sharper with every day that passed. I needed to see him again.

Jason laughed at my expression and I could only imagine how I must look. "I was thinking we could get you on the next flight back home. I'll come with you and we can start our interviews on the plane. There's no reason to keep you here in Albuquerque – I can get a lot more done on your pack lands, if that's okay with you."

Yes! Every day with Anita, I had desperately wondered why she insisted we keep meeting at the Summit building when any table in the world would have worked for our conversations. In just a few minutes, I already felt loads better with Jason than I ever had with her. "Yes, that would be great. Thank you," I said earnestly.

He just laughed a little and shrugged. "No need to thank me. Besides, it'll be good to get out of the city for a while."

I turned to ask Roy to work on making new travel arrangements, but he was already typing away at his phone. Tasha's fingers were flying over her phone, too – texting, no doubt. I didn't know a lot about her personal life, but I had noticed that whenever she was able to let her guard down, she was texting.

"Looks like there are four seats available on a flight for five o'clock," Roy said. "Will you have anyone else traveling with you?" he asked Jason almost as an afterthought.

"Nah, no assistant for me. I prefer to work alone."

Roy needed some of Jason's information to be able to book him a ticket. While they handled that, I pulled out my phone again and texted Felix and Mel to explain that Anita wouldn't be defending me anymore. I tuned back in when Roy said, "Okay, we're booked for five. Can we meet you at the airport, Jason? We should go pack up our hotel room."

"That'll be fine. I'll see you all later." Jason dipped the slightest bow, moving surprisingly gracefully for someone of his size, and left.

"Never mind, coming home tonight. See you soon!" I texted Lachlan.

--

Hours later, we landed and Lachlan still hadn't responded when I turned my phone back on. He had been bad about responding to texts while I was away, but this seemed extreme. Surely at some point in the afternoon, he would have checked his phone... unless something was wrong?

My heart raced and I suddenly felt very trapped on the airplane. Our seats were toward the back since we had bought them so last-minute, so it took us a while to get off.

"You okay?" I texted Lachlan, but he didn't respond to that either. My palms were starting to sweat and awful possibilities were racing through my mind. What if something had happened to him? Someone could have taken him. They could transform him against his will. There were several supernatural species I knew of who were dying out and who just might be desperate enough to do it. Sure, he had his cousins for protection, but they weren't always by his side.

How long would it take before someone noticed something was wrong?

I had driven separately to the airport, so the instant we were off the plane, I pulled Roy aside. "Could you pick up my suitcase and get it back to Tourmaline? And could you get Jason settled in? There's something I need to take care of."

He must have seen my impatience and I was starting to feel enough fear that he must be able to smell it in the air. Roy didn't ask, though, and I was grateful for that. He just nodded and said, "Of course. We can catch up in the morning."

"Thank you."

I waved to Jason and Tasha, who were waiting for us a little further down the hallway, then hurried to my car.