Simon shrugged and kissed Malik’s jaw. “Let’s go.” He took Malik’s hand and dragged him to Kam’s office. He knocked and waited for Kam to tell him to come in before doing so.
The first thing he saw when he opened the door was Quinn’s scowl, and he beamed at him. Quinn’s scowl deepened, and while Simon shivered with something that might have been fear, he kept the smile on his face.
“Hey, Kam,” Simon said, looking at Kameron, who was sitting behind his desk.
“Simon. I hear congratulations are in order.”
Simon looked at Quinn and smiled snidely. “Someone gossiped?”
Quinn growled and started to get up from his seat, but Kam was already walking around his desk and coming forward. Simon let go of Malik’s hand and let Kam envelop him into a bear hug. He hugged back, and Kam whispered to his ear, “Don’t mind Quinn. He’s all bark and no bite.”
“I heard that!” Quinn exclaimed, and Simon smothered a laugh against Kam’s shoulder.
When Kam let go, he turned toward Malik and held his hand out to him. Malik took it, but instead of just shaking it, Kam hauled him into a hug. It didn’t last as long as Simon’s had, and Malik looked surprised when Kam stepped away, but not in a bad way.
Kam walked around his desk again and sat down. He gestured at the free seat on the other side of his desk, and Simon looked at Malik. Who was going to sit? Malik rolled his eyes as he stood behind the chair, so Simon took it as a go-ahead and sat. Malik put his hands on Simon’s shoulders and squeezed, and Simon couldn’t suppress the smile from blooming on his lips. Quinn pressed his lips tighter together, and Simon smiled at him. Quinn scowled.
“I really didn’t think me needing help would make you find your mate,” Kameron said, “but I’m happy for you and Malik.”
“He doesn’t need to be here. You hugged him. He can leave,” Quinn said.
Simon guessed he should have been hurt by the way the guy talked about him like he wasn’t even in the room, or by his brusque tone, but he’d had to deal with worse for most of his life. His parents and his brother were just as bad as Quinn, and Simon had just met Quinn. His disapproval didn’t mean anything to Simon, not even if he was Malik’s best friend. Simon was Malik’s mate, not Quinn’s.
“Or he can stay,” Kam said, arching a brow at Quinn. “He’s Malik’s mate. You know as well as I do that Malik will probably tell him everything that’s going to be said in this room.”
“Or we could ask Malik not to tell him. Simon doesn’t have anything to do with the council. He’s not a member of pack security.” Quinn stopped talking and his eyes widened. “Please, tell me he’s not. He couldn’t stop a fly from doing anything, let alone another shifter.”
“He’s not, but Zach isn’t either, and it doesn’t stop him from knowing everything there is to know about pack and council business.”
Simon chuckled at the way Quinn opened and closed his mouth. He couldn’t very well say anything against that, because it was true. Zach was a real alpha mate, and that meant he knew exactly what was going on, even if he wasn’t directly involved. Simon knew Kameron used Zach as a sounding board of sorts, and that he talked to him before making decisions. It was the way an alpha couple was supposed to work, and Simon was glad they were the ones leading the Gillham pack.
It kind of made him feel nervous, though, because now he was an alpha mate too, yet he wouldn’t know where to start if he had to make decisions with Malik. He sucked at making them in his everyday life. He didn’t even want to think about having to do it for a large number of other people. Not that he would have to. Malik was the alpha, not him, but people would still expect him to help, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to.
“Simon and Malik aren’t mated yet,” Quinn tried again, but Simon could tell from his flat tone that he was only saying it for the sake of it.
Malik tightened his hold on Simon’s shoulders. “We probably will soon enough, and Kameron is right. I’d tell Simon anyway.”
Quinn rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever.” He looked at Kameron. “So, why are we here exactly? What do you need us to do?”
Kam linked his fingers together on top of his desk and looked at Quinn. “You both know we’ve been having trouble with Tom Miller. He was a member of this pack and of Erskine’s inner circle until he kidnapped Zach and tried to sell him to the Glass Research Company. He fled after that, and he formed his own council.”
“Full of homophobes,” Quinn grumbled.
“Homophobes, abusers, killers. You name it, and they’re probably members, yes. They’ve apparently decided the first thing they needed to do was to destroy the Gillham pack.”
“Tom obviously didn’t take it well when you killed Erskine and took his place.”
“You could say that. He’s been bent on destroying us. He attacked some time ago, and we managed to kick him and his friends out of pack territory, even though he had wendigoes on his side.”
Malik shifted behind Simon, and Simon reached up. He put his hand on top of Malik’s, and Malik squeezed in acknowledgment. “What do you need us to do?” Malik asked.
“I attempted negotiations with Tom, but he didn’t want to talk to me.”
“And you want us to try? You do know Quincy, right? He’s anything but a negotiator.”
Quinn didn’t protest, but then, why should he have? Everyone in the room knew it was the truth, as if the way he’d been treating Simon ever since they’d met hadn’t been a good indication of it anyway.
“I was counting on you doing it, actually.” Kam smiled. “Quinn can be the muscle, your bodyguard.”
Quinn cracked his knuckles. “That I can do.”
Kam sighed. “I’m not hopeful you’ll be able to change Tom’s mind, but I’d like you to try anyway.”
“You do know that the guy should be kicked into the council’s jail and left there to rot, right?”
“Of course I do. He hurt people while he was still a member of this pack, and he kidnapped my mate. I can’t go in guns blazing, though.”
Quinn arched a brow. “You have guns?”
Kam waved Quinn’s words away. “Shut up.”
“Yes, boss.”
Kam shook his head and looked at Malik again. “As I was saying, I’d like you to attempt negotiations. Maybe if it’s not me but another council member...”
“And once he says no?” Quinn asked. “Can I kill him then?”
“Not if you can avoid it. As you said before, he should go to jail.”
“Him and all the people supporting him,” Quinn grumbled.
“Everyone in this room knows it’s going to come down to a battle,” Malik said. Simon shuddered, because the last thing he wanted was to have to fight for his life. Couldn’t he just be happy for once? He’d spent his entire childhood and teenager years fearing for his life and hiding his true self. Now he could finally be himself, he’d found his mate, and Tom was putting all of that in danger. Simon wanted to kill Tom himself.
Kam nodded. “It will, and we’ll need to be ready for it.”
* * * *
“How do we contact them?” Malik asked.
“We know where they are. They moved recently, just before the attack, and we were able to find out where. They’re not exactly subtle, especially with the wendigoes,” Kameron answered.
“What do you want us to negotiate?”
“They leave us alone, and we leave them alone.”
Quincy snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure they’re going to accept.”
“I know they won’t, but I have to try. I don’t want any member of my pack hurt. I owe it to them.”
“Use enforcers, then.”
“I will, but pack members still take care of pack security. I can’t pull them away. They wouldn’t allow it.”
“Last time I checked, you were the alpha.”
“I am, but it doesn’t mean I want most of my pack to hate me.”
Quincy leane
d, forward, a storm in his eyes, and Malik knew it was time to intervene. “We’ll try, but you already know we won’t have good results. What happens then?”
“I know Tom is planning something. He’ll probably attack the pack again, and I want it to be the last time he’ll be able to. If he attacks, we’ll take care of him and his council once and for all.”
“Why didn’t you ask Dominic to help?” Quincy asked.
“Because he already has enough on his hands. You know about the hunters.”
“I know he’s been housing one for months.”
“He didn’t know Bradley was a hunter.”
Quincy snorted. “Obviously. He wouldn’t have let the guy live there if he had. I can’t believe the leader of the hunters was there and Dominic let him slip away. The guy even tried to kill his son, for God’s sake.”
“Can we come back to our own problem, please?” Kameron asked.
“We’ll stay until the situation is solved,” Malik said.
“Hey, talk for yourself!” Quincy protested. “You know my sister is about to pop out her second kid. There’s no way I won’t be there when she does.”
“But you’ll come back as soon as the kid is born.”
“What makes you so sure I will?” Quincy asked, crossing his arms on his chest.
“Because I’ll be here.”
“So sure of yourself, huh?”
“I’m your best friend.”
“More like my only friend,” Quincy grumbled. He let his arms fall down, though, and Malik knew he’d won. “Fine, Malik and I will stay until your Tom problem is dealt with. I’ll need to leave when my sister gives birth, though, so I hope Tom will be nice enough to wait until she’s done to attack.”
“I’ll make sure to tell him when we try to talk to him,” Malik told him. Quincy flipped him the bird.
Quincy turned back to Kameron. “I want to see how you’re keeping the pack safe.”
Kameron nodded. “I’ll show you tomorrow.”
“Great. Now, where do me and Malik sleep?”
Simon’s back stiffened under Malik’s hands, and Malik squeezed. “I’ll be going with Simon,” he said.
Quincy rolled his eyes. “Of course you will. Trust you to want to bone your mate even with an attack hanging over our heads.”
“Do you really have to be such an asshole?” Simon asked.
“Of course I do.”
“Wouldn’t want you to have friends or anything,” Simon grumbled.
Malik pressed his lips together to avoid laughing. He knew Quincy had heard Simon from the way he’d narrowed his eyes, and he was thankful Quincy was ignoring Simon’s words. He could already see he’d have problems whenever Simon and Quincy ended up together, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Handling Quincy was already close to a full-time job. Was it too much to ask for his best friend and his mate to be civil to each other?
Kameron rose from his chair and rubbed his face. “I’ll see you here tomorrow morning at nine. Quinn, you can have one of the free rooms downstairs, or one upstairs. I’d choose the upstairs one if I were you. Aranck is teething, and he has the bad habit of haunting the house. He bit my calf the other night.”
Malik blinked. “You have a pet?”
Kameron laughed. “No. Aranck is Nootaw’s son.”
“And he runs around the house biting people at night?”
Kameron shrugged. “He’s a wendigo. He already knows how to get out of his crib, and for now we still haven’t found a way to keep him there. Merle and Nootaw usually take turns keeping an eye on him, but they need to sleep too.”
“And he bites.”
“Yes, both in his human form and in his wendigo one. Only the wendigo one is dangerous, though.”
Malik grinned at Quincy. “You’re going to have so much fun.”
Quincy flipped him the bird again.
Malik was still laughing when Quincy stomped out. “See you tomorrow,” he yelled at Quincy. Quincy didn’t answer, but Malik didn’t take offense.
“Is he always like this?” Simon asked from Malik’s side.
“Pretty much.”
“Why are you friends with him again?”
Malik shrugged. “I have thick skin. I don’t really care about what he says. I know he cares, deep down. He’s just not good at expressing it, and he relies on harsh words and scorn.”
“Better you than me.”
Kameron stopped by them on his way out of his office. “You get to keep him, Simon. Aren’t you happy?”
“Oh, yeah. So happy. I’m bursting with joy. Don’t you see it?”
Kameron laughed. “I think you and Quinn will become fast friends, actually. You have the same sharp tongue, although you’re better at hiding it.” He clasped Malik’s shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I expect both of you to be here.”
“Was that a demand or a question?” Simon asked.
“An observation. I don’t think for a minute that you’ll let Malik out of your sight just after you’ve mated.”
Simon grinned. “You know me so well.”
“Now go and have fun.”
Kameron walked them to the front door, and once Malik and Simon were alone on the porch, Malik looked at Simon. “You’re sure your housemates won’t care?”
“Why should they? They’re all mated. They know how it goes, and they know I’ve been wanting to meet my mate for a while. They’ll be happy for me, really.”
“I wouldn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”
Simon snorted. “They’ll probably make you uncomfortable. Well, not all of them. Will is really sweet, and Elliott is shy. Mihaja is kind of serious, so I guess the only one who will make you uncomfortable is Mal.”
“The guy who was there before.” Malik vaguely remembered him.
“Yeah. Oh, and I’m going to have to ask Iggy to move to the couch. Poor guy.”
“Move to the couch?”
Simon started walking toward the forest, so Malik grabbed his bag and followed. “He’s a bat shifter,” Simon explained. “He slammed into our living room window trying to get to us to warn us about Tom.”
“And he lives with you?”
“Well, we kind of shared a bed until now. Nothing happened between us,” Simon hurried to add. It made Malik smile, but he knew Simon couldn’t see it in the darkness.
“Nothing?” Malik asked. He was teasing, but he could tell Simon didn’t realize it.
“Nothing, I swear. I mean, he’s cute and everything, but I knew he wasn’t my mate, so I didn’t want to start anything. We just slept. He’s a friend, I guess.”
“Simon, even if you’d had sex with him, I wouldn’t care.”
Simon looked sideways at Malik, his eyes wide. “You wouldn’t?”
“No. It was before meeting me. I don’t expect you to be a virgin.”
“Good, because I’m not.”
Malik laughed and looped his arm around Simon’s shoulders. He pulled his mate closer and kissed the top of Simon’s head. “I’m not either.”
“I didn’t expect you to be.”
“Oh?”
“Oh, come on. You’re, like, the sexiest man I’ve ever met. You’re tall, and your muscles have muscles, and I love your skin and how dark and smooth it is. I bet you have hundreds of guys trying to get into your pants.”
“Not quite, but thanks for the show of confidence. I can’t say I’ve kept to myself, but what with being both an alpha and a council member, I haven’t really had time to get social lately.”
Simon looked up and grinned. “Don’t worry, your dry spell is over now.”
* * * *
Simon led Malik through the forest and to the house he shared with his friends. He’d talked only to Mal, so he hoped Elliott wouldn’t mind him having Malik over. He didn’t think so, but sometimes Elliott reacted to things differently. He might not like a man he didn’t know in the house. If that was the case
, Simon was sure Kam wouldn’t mind him and Malik sleeping in his house. Simon would prefer not to, because then he’d have to face Quinn before having coffee the next morning. He needed to be at his best if he didn’t want to scratch Quinn’s eyes out as soon as he opened his mouth.
They walked out of the forest and Simon smiled. He loved his home. It was more of a home than he’d ever had with his family. It was a home he’d created with his friends, and they were his new family, a family who loved him, not like Simon’s birth family.
“Nice house,” Malik said from Simon’s side.
“Thanks. Mihaja was supposed to live here on his own, but then he met Elliott and realized they were mates, and Elliott was supposed to go live with Mal, so they both moved in with Mihaja. Then Mal met Will, and now everyone lives here.”
“What about you? How do you fit in?”
Simon really didn’t want to talk about his parents right then, but he would have to at least mention them if he answered Malik’s question. Besides, he didn’t want to hide anything from Malik—mostly. “Mal and Elliott are my best friends. I couldn’t stand living with my parents anymore, and Mal suggested I moved into the third bedroom. That’s why Iggy has been sleeping with me. I didn’t mind, and my bed is more comfortable than the couch.”
Simon still couldn’t believe Malik didn’t mind the fact that he’d been sleeping with Iggy, even though it’d been in a totally non-sexy kind of way. Most mates would have flipped, or at least they’d have been unhappy with it, but not Malik.
“What’s going to happen to Iggy now that I’m here?” Malik asked. “I don’t want to kick him out or anything.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind sleeping on the couch tonight. That is, if you want to sleep with me. I guess you could take the couch and he could sleep with me, but it might make things awkward.”
Malik grinned. “I’ll sleep with you.”
Simon found himself smiling back without meaning to. “Good. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, of course, but—”
Malik leaned forward and kissed Simon. Simon knew it was to shut him up, but he loved kissing Malik, so who cared? He kissed back, gripping Malik’s forearms and rising on his tiptoes. He wished he was taller, but he’d stopped growing long ago, so he hoped Malik didn’t mind his pocket-size body.
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