"I’ve had enough fires for one day! So no! Whatever this is..." Jameson gestured to Roman, seated smugly on her desk, "I am not interested in it. You guys had the opportunity to contain this commotion but kept quiet. So yes, I do not need you!" She was ranting at this point.
But Roman, unbothered, raised a brow. "You don’t need our help even if it would save your ass?"
She scoffed. "There’s no saving my ass. The Alpha King’s Beta is minutes away from calling me, and I’m sure as hell it’s not about some briefing. King Elijah’s already heard the news and the testimonies your parents gave will have filled his ears by now. He’s going to fire me..." Jameson didn’t even realize she was chewing on her nails now. "I’ve had the feeling for a while." She looked down, caught herself, and pulled her hand away.
Jameson was a mess. She looked like she had aged ten years in one day. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, her hands trembling. Roman nearly felt sorry for her.
"Nearly" being the word.
She had profited off this school for as long as he’d known her. She knew all the cracks and dysfunctions and kept silent. Now that everything was falling apart, she was suddenly a victim? Nah. Scratch that. Zero sympathy.
"You should listen to us," Griffin said, fingers drumming against the chair arm with that calm, calculating expression he must’ve inherited from his cardinal brother, Asher. "Even if you’re fired, shouldn’t you leave with your head held high? What better way to go than solving the mess you helped create? It’d look great on a résumé for whatever school’s desperate enough to hire you next."
Jameson paused, then turned to Ashley. "How many minutes left till the Beta’s call?"
"Fifteen minutes."
Jameson turned back to the Alphas. "You have ten minutes for this conversation."
"She said fifteen," Alaric pointed out.
"I need the extra five minutes to fully brace myself. That’s four minutes left now by the way. So chop chop, talk turkey."
Griffin glanced around the room. "We need privacy."
Ashley frowned. "But who’s going to answer the calls?"
True to her words, the phones were still going berserk.
"Alaric?" Roman called, a lazy smirk playing on his lips.
Electricity crackled in Alaric’s blue eyes, and instantly all the phone lines sparked violently. They popped, shorted, and smoked while the staffers screamed in shock, some ducking instinctively.
"Finally. Some peace." Roman slumped against his chair like he’d done all the work. "I don’t think I’ll ever go into admin work. It’s so depressing."
"Being an Alpha is admin work, dummy," Alaric replied with sass.
"At least I won’t be stuck in the office all day like you, smart-ass," Roman shot back.
"Don’t make me remind you two to behave," Griffin growled.
Jameson ignored the childish bickering and turned to her staff. "Leave us."
Ashley and the others didn’t need to be told twice, they bolted, grateful to escape the room they’d been trapped in since last night.
As soon as the doors shut, Jameson turned sharply. "Speak."
"Ah-ah," Roman said, wagging a finger. "You do not use that tone with us. We’re helping you, Jameson, not the other way around."
Jameson’s hands balled into fists. How she would love to squeeze the life out of these animals. God, where was all this murderous energy coming from? She needed to calm down.
She forced a breath and smiled sweetly. "Help me out, would you?"
"Better," Roman said, then looked to Griffin and Alaric. "So how do we start this? Some great opening speech? Ease her into the plan gently? I mean, this is usually Asher’s forte, and I’m not like that robot. I like to ease people in—"
"Dear God." Griffin face-palmed. Why did Asher leave them with this idiot?
"Create a fifth house," Alaric cut in, putting an end to Roman’s rambling.
"And there! I was just getting to it." Roman threw his hands up in mock frustration.
"Excuse me?" Jameson’s expression shifted fast. "Are you guys fucking with me right now?"
"No. Definitely not," Roman replied with a straight face. "If I was fucking you, you’d know. I mean, there’d be lots of screaming, moaning and all." He winked, "I’m that good at it."
Jameson gave him the what-the-fuck look, while both Griffin and Alaric glared daggers at him.
"Alright, that’s not helping. I’ll shut up now." Roman mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key.
It suddenly dawned on Jameson, and she began to laugh. A long, shallow, bitter laugh.
"I should’ve known," she rasped. "This was all your doing."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Roman replied, far too quickly.
"You mean ’we’, right?" Alaric said dryly to Roman. "We don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Every man for himself, brother," Roman muttered.
Alaric groaned inwardly. He didn’t think he’d say this, but they truly couldn’t survive as a unit without Asher.
Jameson went on. "I should’ve known Asher’s obsession with that girl would bite me in the ass one day. Now he wants to create a fifth house for Violet Purple to rule with him. What kind of obsession is that?"
"I’d call it love," Roman said with a wink.
Jameson shook her head and turned to Griffin. "I thought you were the sensible one. But now, they’ve dragged you down too."
Griffin didn’t flinch. "Don’t paint yourself as the saint here, Jameson. You knew how rotten this place was."
"And you three weren’t the harbingers?"
Alaric replied coldly, "We never said we weren’t. But we’re making an effort to bring change. Unlike you, who intended to keep profiting off the rot."
"And you think creating a fifth house for your girlfriend is the answer?"
"Violet represents the humans, and they listen to her. They trust her. And we—" Roman shrugged, "we like her. That’s a bonus. Together, we can make actual rules. Real decisions. Not symbolic crap, but things that matter, housing, resources, safety, equity."
Jameson snorted. "And now you want to share power? Really? Alphas?"
As alphas, they were hardwired to be at the top and sharing their authority was just not in their nature.
Roman leaned back. "What’s a king without a queen... or in our case, kings?" He flashed a devilish grin.
Griffin stepped in. "We’re using our power to legitimize change. Because if we don’t, this place is going to implode. You saw it already. The protests are right outside your office."
Alaric added, "We stopped a fight from breaking out this morning when an elite shoved a scholarship girl for stepping on her floor in the Silver Court. It was about to get ugly. Jameson, if something doesn’t change, this won’t just be protests. It’ll be war."
Jameson looked genuinely thoughtful now. "So you’re saying I give them a voice before they steal one."
"Exactly," Roman said. "Do this right, and Lunaris doesn’t fall apart, instead, it evolves. We show the packs and the humans that the future is collaboration, not domination. And if we back it, they’ll listen."
For a moment, it looked like Jameson was buying in. But then she said it. "It’s a nice idea. But I’m sorry, that cannot happen."
"What?!" the three of them shouted in unison.
Jameson remained calm. "Within this school, yes, you wield power. But outside these walls? Your parents, and the Alpha King are the ones who make the decisions. They’ll never accept a fifth house, and definitely not one run by a human. It’s not going to happen."