Ben looked up as the wolves entered the conference room. He’d felt Tegan come into the building a minute or two before. Odd, like she came into his thoughts and he felt her as if she were in the same room. A whisper at first and then it grew stronger as she got closer.

He tried to keep in mind she was there in an official capacity but when she sat next to him, he reached out to squeeze her hand briefly under the table. The need to touch her rode him when they were together.

“Agent Harrison Benoit, you know everyone?” Ben motioned from the task force agent around the table.

Benoit nodded until he came to Tegan and sensual awareness seeped from him as he tipped his head in her direction. “Not everyone.”

Ben wondered if he was feeling what Tegan picked up from Benoit or if it was just his guy sense picking up when another man scoped out his woman.

He neatly leaned over and touched Tegan in clear view as he looked Benoit in the eye. “This is my fiancée and one of Cascadia’s Enforcer team, Tegan Warden.”

Tegan’s lips fought a smile as she nodded her head toward Benoit.

“Ah. Nice to meet you, Ms. Warden.” Benoit looked back to Lex, who made no attempt to hide his gloating smile and Ben wanted to smack him.

“Getting down to it, shall we? We’ve received a coded message from Jack Meyers.

Pellini has demanded the National Mediator position be filled by one of his own people.”

Lex and Cade both looked shocked. That would make the Fourth, and the Third, the Mediator both positions held by Pellini loyalists. It was also commonly believed that Jack Meyers was on Pellini’s side too even though he and Templeton Mancini, the National Pack Alpha, were working to stop Pellini. Essentially Pellini would have the entire top governance within the National Pack in his power. Or so he’d believe.

Gabe Murphy, Tracy’s second mate and National’s previous Mediator spoke over the phone line. “Well that’s bad. What are they going to do?”

“Templeton has asked for an envoy from each Pack in the National Council to go to Boston to meet. Jack will supposedly try to corner you all to see where you stand but really, he’ll be gathering strength against Pellini. The member Packs will have to rise up and demand the position not be filled by a Pellini loyalist.” Benoit sat back in his chair and watched them.

“Explain to me please. National Council?” Ben had been working with the wolves for a few years but there were so many things he didn’t know about their culture still.

“Well, you know the National Pack is essentially the one Pack that holds the most power. The other Packs nationwide are like satellites. Mainly they’re left alone to do their own thing but National takes on issues like lobbying for laws to protect us, making sure each Pack behaves and doesn’t prey on humans, that sort of thing. Within each Pack there’s an Inner Circle—the Alpha and Enforcer are first and second and then a Third through Fifth are the next strongest wolves. They’re the governance of each Pack.” Cade took a sip of water before continuing.

“So there are forty-five Packs in the United States and of those Packs, the five strongest Packs have a seat on a National Council. A sort of Inner Circle of all the Packs.

Cascadia holds Second. Calling for a meeting of the NC is a big deal. Templeton is exposing himself to challenge if wolves see him as weak.”

Well yeah, Gabe was right, that wasn’t good at all. “So each Pack in this council goes and you all tell Pellini to shove it and he’s gone?”

“We don’t know where two of the five Packs stand. Great Lakes, the largest and most powerful Pack is on our side. They’re actually the most affected by Pellini as his groupis a Pack that broke away from Great Lakes and they run a lot of their crap through Chicago, the seat of the GL Pack. We’re pretty sure Yellowstone are in with Pellini. That leaves Granite and Siskiyou. Granite like to be left alone. They’re going to be annoyed at Templeton’s call to Council and they’re very old school, fought coming out to the humans. Siskiyou are wild wolves, the Pack is large, the third largest in the country. I’ve never been able to get a very accurate bead on them.” Cade looked to Lex, who sighed.

“We need to get a group together. Gabe, how many in an envoy?” Lex asked.

“I’d say you’d stay this side of not insulting if you took four.”

“We’ll have to call our own Pack Inner Circle together to discuss this. Lex will obviously decide who goes, this is a security issue.”

“You won’t be going? Ben asked Cade.

Tegan snorted. “No. Alphas don’t go. You have no idea what it’s like to deal with five Alphas in one room. Nothing would get done as they measured their dicks over and over.”

Megan barked a laugh at Tegan’s comments and Ben just shook his head.

“You know, I’m missing those days when you glowered quietly all the time.” Lex sent Tegan a dark look but his lips twitched. “Most likely we’ll send our Third and three from our Enforcer team. I’ll stay back with Cade, as will all the other Enforcers.”

“Jack also indicated he understood humans would also want to keep an eye on this.

Ben, you’ll go naturally as will I. Once we know where the meeting is to be held, we’ll set up surveillance,” Benoit explained, making notes on his PDA.

“Okay, I’m going to try to make contact with Jack, to let him know we’re on it,” Gabe said. “You know where I am if you need help or expertise. I can give you the specs on most of the Pack buildings they’d use for a Council meeting. Trace, babe, I miss you.”