Page 32 of Escalating Alpha

“How stupid do you have to be to threaten the head of the FBI on a recording?” I whispered.

“I have a feeling it’s been going on a lot and he was too scared to handle it because of his kids,” Corbin muttered as he reached for another chicken wing. A group of us were watching the trial during lunch and eating everything bad for us.

I needed the fun right then not to lose my fucking mind.

“Plus, he’s drowning. He looks five years older since he took over,” Sander added.

Yeah, that was fair. Poor guy.

I mean, I was still pissed at him for valid things but… Poor guy.

I dropped my food when her attorney gave his opening arguments and spewed shit. I’d expected that, but he said something I hadn’t thought of. “How much are we suing for?”

Everyone slowly looked at me and burst out laughing.

I covered my face when I felt it burning up. Yeah, I was a twit. I’d never considered—ofcoursethere was a dollar amount associated with defamation and all of that. I just hadn’t realized it.

Corbin told me the amount.

“There’s no way she has that kind of money.”

“Doesn’t matter. She shouldn’t have run her fucking mouth then,” Corbin bit out.

“Plus, her family does,” Sander practically sang, nodding when I glanced at him. “Oh yeah, she’s a Southern belle from a former plantation-owning family or some shit.”

I groaned. “Why, Scott? Seriously, just… Why?” Right, they’d met in college and—love. Love happened.

Yeah, I had piles of issues because of who I’d fallen in love with too. Didn’t we all?

Dain had his chance and then there was a break where we should have gotten back to work but seriously, there was no chance I could focus. I thought I could, but this was crazy and how could I not watch?

What I didn’t expect was an ad from the ACLU coming on the TV with my fucking face. And my mostly naked body.

Yeah, fun.

But the ad was good. It had pictures of cows, chickens, pigs—animals there were no known shifter types for and the guy saying that these were animals. Then pictures of me from my official FBI picture to ones from the paper and interviews all the way to some of the racy ones. Then he said that I was a person.

And anyone who couldn’t tell the difference shouldn’t be in charge of all of the citizens of a country.

“Well, glad I can be useful,” I sighed, sharing a look with Sander.

“The council should be the one doing this and pushing it all,” he muttered, jumping out of his seat to make the call when I nodded. The shifter council absolutely should be. I couldn’t have agreed more.

Sander was on the phone too long and missed the start of the next part of court… And it was a lot. Like I was glad someone was recording it somewhere because he would want to watch this.

Dain startedbigwith the jury. They didn’t know him since the DC attorney had handled all of that while Dain was here, but he was making it clear how things would be for the case.

Exciting was one of them.

Scott Galvin was called first and sworn in, looking ready and also tired.

“Director Galvin, when was the first time your ex-wife brought up Seraphine Thomas’s name to you?”

“Years ago. I don’t remember the date. I’d taken a call in my home office—a normal update I get when it’s a big case. It wasn’t anything sensitive, so it was on speaker. The chief of the Chicago office—notBrian Havers—made it clear that he wanted to give Thomas a commendation that would normally have a ceremony.

“But he couldn’t because she was undercover. Those ceremonies don’t normally get approved at my level, but apparently he’d gotten some pushback on how often he wanted to give them to Thomas. He also asked I review the denied requests because he was tired of one of his best agents being treated that way because she was young and female.”

“I’m just as surprised as you guys are,” I told the others. “I thought the man didn’t like me.”

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