Page 45 of Escalating Alpha

“Yes, but I don’t know how to present it,” he admitted.

“I’ll call Apollo and tell him what I want and tell him to work with you. A wolf did it and it was against an Alpha wolf. Make a stand that the wolves are pushing back for better if their leaders will support them and you’re that leader. We’ll make the rest work.”

He thanked me and we hung up.

Emilio met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “You’re banned from biting off more than you can chew. Seriously. That man is centuries old and you’re not here to bail him out.”

“No, back him up because I was one of the people who shoved him into the role because it benefitted me,” I mumbled, sounding petulant to my own ears.

“Fine, but I’m calling Apollo about the idea. You don’t need his salt right now.”

No, no, I did not, and I thanked him for handling it.

A few hours into working and finally feeling like I was actually caught up for once after Brian’s help and my office line rang. I didn’t pay attention to who it was and just answered it.

“Thomas,” I mumbled. “This better be important and not piss me off. I’m on the last box of bullshit, and I really want this off my damn plate and mind.”

“From what I know, those were sitting in an empty office for ten years, so they can wait a bit longer,” Galvin replied, his tone amused. “I’m shocked you got through it all and a bit worried about your delegation abilities that you didn’t farm it out.”

I snapped the pencil in my hand. “I delegated out what I could, but a lot of this stuff needs my clearance to be accessed, and I would break FBI rules to even let an SAiC touch it. Which I brought up several meetings ago because I’m not going to be the only one with an office or two of bullshit. So either a task force needs to be put together to handle this or—”

“Right, right, sorry, I remember. The request is on my desk somewhere and we have to figure it out.”

“Glad it will help whoever is next,” I said sweetly but hurried on so he accepted my snark. “What’s up?”

“I need you to go to St. Louis to clean up a mess. It wasn’t done in malice, and I will write up the division chief and those involved, but the locals are demanding you handle it from here since they know you’ll do it right.”

I almost flipped my desk. I got so angry so fast that I almost flipped my fucking desk. “What happened?”

“Four shifters with suspected drug overdoses—”

“Drugs don’t work on us like that,” I bit out.

“Which is their fuckup and I will reprimand them. I need you to handle this before it’sanotherembarrassing moment for the FBI that others can use against us. As the head of the non-human office in that area. Right away.”

“Sounds great. Email me the contacts and details and I’ll keep you updated,” I said as fast as I could before I exploded. I think I forced out for him to have a good day or something before I hung up.

Emilio and two of the other ancients were already at my office having felt my upset.

“Get the chopper ready and someone pack us overnight bags just in case. I need Nestor or Freddie to come with us—a non-FBI Beta.”

“Sure, but why?” one of the ancients asked.

“Because St. Louis is a problem,” Emilio grumbled.

I nodded. “So there is one of us who can punch out the wolf Alpha when he goes way over the line with me and it won’t fall back on the FBI and will simply be wolf shit.” I let out a deep growl. “It had to be fucking St. Louis with all of this other shit already. Get on the phone with Brian. I want Topher with him. I’m not risking—someone with a big badge has to be near Topher.

“Tell him to call Gavlin and get the fucking exception that he can bring Topher and security to the training center. If I’m going to be called away with all the unrest after what the former president did—he needs to allow this before I fucking explode. How can no one use their fucking heads? It’s not even out in the press and they’re demanding me? It’s like we work for—”

“It’s a trap,” one of the guys groaned. He shrugged when I gave him a look like he was slow. “Sorry, I closed my eyes for a few minutes and woke when I felt your upset. I’m a heavy sleeper.”

That was amusing enough that I eased down on my anger a bit. “Yes, it’s a trap. The wolves at least. The Alpha wants me to take over like I did Des Moines and keep him in place, but he doesn’t want to admit he needs it.”

“He also wants to do it in as insulting of a way as possible,” Emilio grumbled. “Carter is… Sorry.”

Yeah, right then wasn’t the time to bring up that Carter was going to be anything in reference to me.

I focused on the other ancients. “The Alpha has said several times that he’s willing to become one of my whores—part of my harem for the good of his people and he’ll accept my terms whenever I’m ready and able to handle it.”

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