Invading Alpha

by Erin R Flynn

  I leaned in closer so I was between his legs, my arms resting on his thighs. “I know.” I smirked at him as I took the tablet and perused the menu. “I would eat all of that. Truffle is nice, but I don’t get it for the price, so it’s wasted on me.” I scrolled down the menu. “Damn, this place is pricey. That’s dangerous when filling the stomach of an Alpha wolf, Apollo.”

  “Well worth it if you are the wolf,” he chuckled. “I will order extras for everyone if they can handle it. You two be nice and don’t fight.”

  “No promises,” I snickered as I passed him the tablet. Then I moved to straddle Dubois’s lap, still cold. He did one better, taking off his jacket and putting it over my shoulders. “Thanks.”

  “You are welcome.” There was a slight pause. “I’m sorry I got aggressive with you.”

  “I’m used to arguments and butting heads on busts. You are not used to people arguing with you, so I get it.”

  “No, I am not,” he murmured as his fingers ran along my thighs. “You are distracting me.”

  “No, I’m seriously cold. If me being half naked and here keeps you in a good mood, so much the better. The moment the car warms up more, I’ll sit on my seat like a normal person.”

  “Please don’t,” he breathed as he played with my hair. “I can make you behave too. I saw how much you liked this.”

  I pressed my lips to his ear to be a brat. “You could go down on me, and I still wouldn’t cave on this, Enzo.” I sat up and smirked at him. “There is another option here I’m pretty sure, but talk to me about what you’re trying to accomplish here. You want to keep what the coven did secret, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And we’ve done that. What has changed to make you call others and vote you should take the cartel from us or whatever?”

  “What does it matter if you would get your information?” he challenged.

  “I think you’re hiding more from me and won’t share with the class,” I answered honestly. “Now is not the time to abuse the extras we can call upon when there is so much shit going down and more about to. You care about vampires and covering this up. I’m worried about all paranormals and all citizens.” I held up my hand to stop his argument. “What happens the next problem?

  “What if you pull this now and the next case we can’t get the warrants we need because we didn’t follow the very loose rules? Who do you screw over in the future? What if it’s another coven and it’s something worse and now we can’t do a fucking thing to help them? There are too many people who need us to help them next, and I promise, if you screw with this now, I will end up in front of an ethics hearing and in trouble.”

  “We don’t want that,” he muttered, moving one hand to cup my face. “You are cold to the touch. Feed. You are powerful but young. Not enough full moons under your belt to balance it all better.”

  I stared at his lips, licking my own as I thought of tasting his power. “Your darkness terrifies me.”

  He gave a slow nod. “Call it payment for continuing to sit on my lap, as I like feeling you against me.”

  “Deal,” I growled, mashing my mouth to his. I drank him down, fisting his shirt, and I swallowed his power. He wrapped his strong arms around me, cupping my naked ass and kissed me back. When his fingers moved under the dress more, I flinched. “I’m not okay with that.”

  “You are a very odd woman,” he murmured, not sounding like it was an insult, simply confusing him. “As you wish.” He kept his hands on my ass though, and I didn’t complain.

  “I trusted you enough to know you would respect where my line is and after what I went through, understanding you guys scare me,” I murmured as I brushed my lips over his. “Trust me now and just tell me what’s going on, Enzo. Off the record.”

  “You have a master to answer to, and they will make you tell them,” he argued.

  I snarled as I grabbed his chin, my power flashing in my eyes. “No one is my master. I am mistress. I am Alpha. I have a boss, but I am not a drone. My boss is Chad Monroe. We know there are lines and tricky situations. We’ve been in them before. As long as it’s not breaking rules, but driving outside the lines a bit, it’s fine. I think I know what’s going on already, so just tell me the truth and let’s go hunt some more baddies.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me, glancing to where my hand was. “The last person who got aggressively physical with me is dead. No woman ever has.”

  I pressed my lips against his and fed as I let go of him. “I wasn’t attacking or threatening you, and we both know it. And it’s a shame you’ve not let a woman play that way because I feel how much you liked it.”

  “I like my hands where they are and you moved so I got to feel a bit more. Don’t mistake that for my desire for a woman to be aggressive with me. I have no desire for that.”

  Liar. Fine, I’d leave it because there were things I wanted to explore and try that I wouldn’t want to discuss with someone I barely know either.

  “Just talk to me off the record, Enzo, and then we can go have fun. I still have one more challenge to beat Apollo at, and I have one hell of an idea.”

  He licked his lips as his hands massaged my ass. “I do wish all my meetings and negotiations involved a beautiful woman on my lap, half naked and giving me such pleasure before I even fucked her.”

  “You were really doing well there until you said you fucked her,” I grumbled. “That implies it’s all about you. Any man in my bed would say ‘we fucked’ so it’s about us.”

  “I will think on that.” He leaned up and kissed me. I took the excuse and fed, finally, finally feeling full for the moment. “The coven here did not buy the gulls. Another coven did, and they are involved in other very bad misdeeds. We do not want this to become a vampire mistreating shifters situation and blow up when there are so many other issues at play and for the moment we are working well together. Let us fix this. Let us take these humans, Seraphine.”

  “No.” I sat back and studied his eyes, ignoring the anger I would tell him that and looking at what else was there. “One of the very, very clear lines US citizens have is that any in custody can’t be fed on. You get information by feeding. I cannot have you drain these guys dry, even if they would be executed by the Shifter Council. You do not have the same relationship with the US government.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” he ground out.

  “I need more information. Is this coven in the US?”

  “No,” he answered, frowning. “What does that matter?”

  “A lot. It’s not in my jurisdiction then, so it wouldn’t be a big deal to leave it out of my reports.” I nodded when he gave me a disbelieving look. “I work for the FBI, not the CIA. I work in the realm of inside these borders. I can do other investigations if we’re asked for, or the raid on the other cartel was because of cases here.” I waited until he settled a bit. “You’re not going to just make these shifters disappear, right?”

  “No, of course not. We wish to handle the situation and punish the coven instead of risking the shifters making a move.”

  I bobbed my head. “Got it. You want an internal clean up instead of a cluster fuck.”

  “Yes. Will you give me what I want, Seraphine?”

  “Yes, Enzo, but not how you wanted it,” I countered. “I made you orgasm, which you wanted from me, but it wasn’t while we had sex but I fed. We’re going to do a bit of dancing and get to the same result.”

  “You are very good at dancing,” he complimented, smirking when I flinched. “Of course Apollo wanted to see the fun. We hid our presence among the humans and watched.” He leaned in and ran his nose along my neck. “You were marvelous. That trash wasn’t worthy to even look at you much less demand you come play with him.”

  “I think I was too cold to catch that your pun earlier meant you were in the club, not just assuming we were dancing at a dance club,” I grumbled.

  “Have we reached an agreement?” Apollo asked. “I told two of the other vehicles to bring the or
der to us when it’s ready.”

  “We have,” I told him, smirking at Enzo. “I promise it will give you what you want out of this.”

  “I doubt that as I want to be inside of you, Seraphine.”

  “That was not what we came here to handle,” I chuckled, moving off of his lap and sitting next to Apollo. “What did you order?”

  “Lots of everything for you as I love to watch you eat.”

  “Better than watching me dance?” I teased, busting him and nodding to Dubois when he gave me a confused look like he didn’t know how I figured it out since I hadn’t caught it earlier. But Dubois had let out something big I hadn’t known.

  Scary powerful vampires could cloak themselves from being sensed. Like how I could lock down my power, they could do something similar, and that made for a very good assassin to someone who could sense those things. I needed to make sure Alena and the others were warned given they had a lot that was coveted.

  I wasn’t surprised when Melicent and her people were there when we arrived, shrugging like it was no big deal.

  “Fine because I think you can help on this and I have an idea about what you were saying earlier.”

  “Color me intrigued, little sister,” she purred.

  We got Haton on a Skype call, and the woman looked as exhausted as I felt, doing her best to be civil when we kept bothering her. It was a double edged sword for sure. Be good at handling stuff and people went to you more. It was a problem I was well acquainted with.

  Very well acquainted with.

  “The vampires find themselves in a very tricky situation, a volatile one, and involving someone powerful and connected,” I explained to Haton, rolling my eyes at Dubois when his mouth fell open. “I’m never as stupid as people think I am. Of course it’s someone connected. They’re also hooked in so you’re worried news will get to them faster than you can handle what you need to.”

  “Yes,” Dubois and Apollo said together.

  I nodded, swallowing a smirk. “So we got the cartel, but they know of this information. I cannot give them to the vampires because they don’t have the same setup with the government you do, but they don’t want everyone knowing this.”

  “So what are you proposing to leap frog over that?” she asked, rubbing her hand over the back of her neck. “And who decides what gets leap frogged over? We have people to answer to as well when we work with your government on this stuff.”

  “Yes, but you are required to tell when it’s in regard to this country. It is not.” I held up a hand to wave her off. “We can’t do it the vampire way, and they don’t want it to come to you. That is not the only option to get information.” I pointedly looked at Melicent. “Assuming my older sister is willing, and I have an idea how she will want to be willing we can discuss later, she can get them to spill everything within our laws.

  “Now you and I have reports to handle though. So, I would like either Axel or Eugene to sit in on these interrogations, along with a vampire that works for the government too, say Carter, and they will make sure the section we cut out is actually what’s okay with both of us to be cut out. The vampires have promised they will handle this and clean up their own mess as we’ve done on our end.”

  Everyone was quiet a few minutes, but then Haton spoke first. “I’m fine with that as long as it’s either of them, as they’ve worked with the council for over two hundred years each and know what we do need to know. I would ask your fairy draw up one of the NDAs so all parties know they won’t say anything. Record the rest like normal or record it all and cut out what is agreed upon.

  “If one of ours is on the interrogation, then we can sign off on it and not have to redo it once they’re here, or if the councilmen prefer, we can review what’s sent and like we normally do with Monroe and your office, discuss the results before sentencing. However that works. As long as they give their word they will clean this up and not additionally harm any shifters, I’m fine with quietly handling it.”

  “As I’m sure they’ll remember if they come across any such instances where the situation is reversed,” I added. I smirked at the councilmen. “Yes, I want you all to play nicer together. It makes my job infinitely easier if both councils and Queen Laila are on the same page, working together, and then I’m only bounced between that and the US government instead of all four like we’ve been dealing with.”

  “You are speaking as if you assume all of their sentences will be death,” Dubois muttered after a few moments. “That sounds a bit blood thirsty even to a vampire.”

  Brian and I both snorted, but he explained. “Most cartels have a loyalty test of killing someone to get in that they all know about. It’s insurance they’ll be loyal, as none of them are clear, but also making them prove how far they’ll go. And it’s normally not like a rival gang member like some US gangs.”

  “The cartel we took down in Mexico was actually run mostly by a woman, the eldest daughter of the old boss who was dying,” I added. “She made anyone who was already a member or wanted to join kill an ex-lover in front of her so they would show her their secrets or past and she had dirt on them. If they hadn’t had sex yet, she brought in an enemy or a family member of an enemy and made them rape the woman before killing her.”

  “Holy fuck,” one of Melicent’s party whispered.

  “Yeah, we felt the same,” Brian muttered, scrubbing the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say more but then noticed I was only in Dubois’s suit jacket. He took it off and replaced it with his heavy coat. “Sorry. I was distracted with the conversation. I didn’t realize that wasn’t heavier.”

  I smiled at him. “Thanks.”

  We finished with Haton as the huge mother order of Chinese food arrived. It was funny to see nicely dressed vampire councilmen and their people or Melicent and her group standing around eating from open containers on the hoods of cars, but everyone wanted it while it was hot.

  Once my stomach was mostly full and I was completely warmed up, I decided to bring up the rest of the juggling act.

  “So Melicent and I were talking while we were dancing,” I led in.

  “We were?” she asked, giving me an amused smirk.

  “Yes, before we had the discussion with Diego about how too many think we need a man or men at our side to be useful women and there was much we wanted to do.” I waited until she nodded, understanding filling her eyes. “So let me give you some background so it makes sense.” I explained how I’d gotten the apartment building I’d bought and it hadn’t been set up yet. Mostly for Dubois, but I wasn’t sure how much Apollo knew either.

  “Everything is top of the line,” Brian added, looking like he wanted to help but not sure where I was going with what I was saying.

  “Thanks. Part of that was we filled the gym with eco friendly everything. Flooring made with recycled materials or even a super filtered water system that people can go refill their water bottles with. There are several of them we put in at common areas. But we also put in machines that don’t use electricity, they produce electricity. It’s not a ton, but it covers using the lights and more.

  “Granted it’s more because we’re shifters or vampires but helps, and people like using them knowing they’re helping the environment. And I told this to Alena that with the fairies making such a push to help clean up the environment so they’re a bit more loved and not just doing Vegas shows—”

  “Which was your idea that they should do that after you saw how Dain’s powers worked,” Brian threw in.

  I nodded as I shrugged, focused more on the Peking duck than getting praise. “Right, but it’s helped change their image a bit at a time, and that’s what we want. The Shifter Council and a lot of shifters are helping them, doing the manual labor or driving trucks—whatever. It’s slowly helping our image too that we would use our strength to aid the community if we aren’t scared we’re going to get beat down for it.”

  “And you want the vampires to have such a community service project?” Dubois as
ked, not hiding how provincial or small that sounded. It was pretty demeaning, and it ruffled my feathers.

  “That site Laila was talking about where they’re adding to the weight of garbage they’re pulling out of our waters and disposing of properly is getting millions of hits. It’s gotten a few global news broadcasts. This isn’t cleaning up one little park. Some world renowned scientists have asked to get involved so they can track the progress and see if it helps ecosystems. It’s not a small thing. It’s a first step.”

  “I understand. I did not mean to sound so dismissive,” he replied with a firm nod. “And I’m not only thinking of myself as I cannot see vampires getting involved with that.”

  “The vampires of Chicago do,” I defended. “But we’ve got this covered. Bijan suggested they might do a blood donation program to reduce taxes. You’re never going to get that from a human run government. However, there are other options, and vampires are seen as the leeches of the world, taking not just blood from humans, but always taking and not giving back.

  “Even among other paranormals with your games and everything always being underhanded. So I was talking to Alena about all of these pieces, and Melicent came up with an idea to help connect them maybe.” She rolled her eyes at me, everyone knowing it wasn’t her idea but whatever, I wasn’t going to say that. “What if each coven opened an eco gym?”

  “So we help the environment more like the fairies and it’s such a hot topic?” Apollo asked, giving me a look like he wasn’t getting it either.

  “Yes, but it’s more than that. You’re helping the humans be healthier. Offer it for free if they generate so much energy a month to help offset the costs. The energy can go back into the grid. Make vampires be there and let them see how normal they are. No biting like at the clubs or bars. That scares a lot of people if they’re not used to it. Offer free training for those who are getting off baby weight. Something to show you want humans to do well too.

  “You could offer free screenings for certain things. We showed the Memphis office that we could tell someone had diabetes. Goran could tell a shit ton about the guy without even tasting him. And then add like jet water massage tables or something that helps after a workout and blood flow. But don’t make them pay for the extra.”