Dominic
I was sitting at the large dark wooden table in the Conclave meeting, not really paying attention. I hated these meetings. I had a pack and a business to run. I didn’t want to be wasting what precious time I had being stuck in one of these stupid meetings where Garrett Blackthorn, the Alchemist Guild Master and Master of the Supernatural Conclave, lorded over everyone and commanded us all to kneel before him. Well, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I bet he would try if he thought he could get away with it.
The room was full of supernaturals, around twenty of us in total. There were at least two vampire clan leaders in here, one coven priestess for the witches, and a master sorcerer. I think I even spotted a few different faeries as well. But what I did notice was that my Beta, Liam, and I were the only werewolves in the room. That didn’t look good. I knew that a lot of the supernatural community thought of shifters as lesser than, that we were just out-of-control beasts. But I had seen how some of these clans and covens worked, and they always seemed to be out for each other. At least we had loyalty.
I had done dealings with a few of the supernaturals in the room, mainly through my work within the Conclave. My father, in all his wisdom, had signed me up as a Conclave agent when I was eighteen. It was to build connections; he said. And to build strength. But here I was fourteen years later, still being dragged into the dumb meetings once every three months, and wasting my time.
I felt a sharp pain as Liam kicked me under the table and I looked up to see everyone looking at me expectantly. Fuck, I had fazed out and hadn’t heard a thing anyone had said.
“Erm…” I hesitated and glanced at Liam for help. He was too busy trying to not laugh at me, fat lot of good he was, the prick.
“I’m sorry,” I said finally. “I must have zoned out. Did you say something?” I looked Garrett squarely in the eye and watched as his face slowly turned red with the attempt to not smite me where I was sitting, or whatever these jerks did.
“I asked if you were aware of the werewolf in question,” Blackthorn said and I looked at him blankly. Werewolf? I was totally lost and had no clue what he was talking about.
“If the perpetrator is a werewolf, then he certainly isn’t one of ours,” Liam said with a cough. “We can check out the rogue community but they aren’t always forthcoming with information as we like.” He then glanced at me and his eyes glazed over. Sure enough, a second later, I heard his voice in my head.
“There is someone sharing supernatural secrets to the human world. They, obviously, are blaming us wild heathens, which is impressive because I assumed they didn’t think we were advanced enough to write a book.” I held back a laugh at his mocking tone and returned my gaze to Blackthorn.
“Did your Beta catch you up now?” he said sarcastically, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his condescending tone.
“Yes, thank you,” I replied with the same level of sarcasm.
“So this supernatural is releasing information how, again?” I asked.
“In the form of fiction books,” Blackthorn snapped.
“Well, if the books are marked as fiction, then why is it an issue? I mean, it’s not like the other tripe that is out there is causing us any harm.”
“Only the information is extremely accurate,” Blackthorn replied. “In the wrong hands, be it supernatural or human, this information could be rather damaging.” I nodded.
I could understand that. There had been a couple of instances back in the seventies where some supernaturals had tried to expose the supernatural community to the human world. And several cult-like groups had sprung up. The problem was, of course, that the humans were not equipped enough to know the truth about the supernatural world. They were ants compared to us and it wouldn’t be long before we would be overrun with either worshippers or pitchfork wielding idiots. Both types were dangerous to humans and supernatural alike. So it was the number one enforced rule that humans didn’t find out about our existence. Even the humans working in my company didn’t know their CEO, and most of the management team were in fact werewolves.
Which meant that this person who was giving away this information would need to be shut down, and fast.
“Okay,” I said. “And why do you think that this is a werewolf?”
“Because the information that is coming out right now seems to be focused around werewolves, and in fact your own pack has been mentioned more than once,” Blackthorn said. I immediately sat up straighter. If my own pack was being harmed by whoever it was, then I had a duty of care to my people, as their Alpha, to protect them.
“Fine,” I said. “Send me the case file and I will investigate myself.” Blackthorn nodded in approval and turned away onto the next point on the agenda.