Mated to the Alpha and His Beta (Lanie Stanton) novel Chapter 458

Chapter 458
Mason

The air in Xander’s office crackled with an electric tension as we gathered around his desk. He’d called for the pack meeting to be held in the town square and put out the word that every pack member able to make it should plan to attend. There’d be many who couldn’t make the journey in time, but according to Zane’s statistics with confirmation from Maxim and Monroe, we were looking at a huge group.

“Zane, you’ve got the lead on the speaker system and all of that?” I asked.

Zane nodded. “Yep. Maxim and Monroe have put together an amazing communications setup, too. Great job.”

Maxim laughed and jerked a thumb at his partner. “Blame this guy. I’m just the one who installed the equipment. He’s the one who planned the system.”

“It looks state of the art to me,” Xander said with admiration lacing his tone. “Something my father would never have embraced. Too much access to information, too much transparency about what the Alpha was doing? Fuck no.”

“But you’re not your father,” Zane told him. “And this is no longer your father’s pack. Or the High Council’s.”

Maxim and Monroe nodded. I was still having a hard time telling them apart. They were the same size, same shape, their voices sounded the same, all of it. They looked more alike than Xander and I did, but Zane had told me they weren’t brothers.

Not so far as anyone knew anyway. That was my private thought, which, admittedly, was probably formed by my own existence as the son whose father hadn’t known about for a long time.

I looked out the window toward the town square. I couldn’t see it from here, but the rest of the mansion grounds were bustling with activity. I let the curtain fall and turned back to the room.

“We want there to be a solemn but also joyous feel to the meeting. We want the pack to be assured that Xander and I are a team, working together, to protect and lead. But we can’t promise that every threat’s been extinguished. There are still those hybrid testing places out there, for one thing,” I said.

“On my list to immediately disassemble,” Xander added. “But we can’t just go in with teeth and claws. There are innocents in those places.”

“They’ll need compassionate care once they’re released,” Zane said quietly. His gaze darkened. “Some of their families may not be around any longer to take them back in.”

“Got it.” Maxim tapped the keys on his laptop and squinted at the screen. “Fuck. I think I need glasses.”