Kelvin #5: MM Fated Mates (Tangled Tentacles), page 13
“We get it, can you quit complaining and tell us what you’ve found?” Markov growled, then went to the counter to refill his coffee cup.
“Grumpy much,” Todd complained.
“It’s pregnancy hormones, Danik was a nightmare,” Alexi whispered his gaze on the door with a worried expression.
“It’s not hormones. Just not enough coffee or sleep.” Markov rubbed at his belly and sipped his coffee.
“Whatever!” Victor nodded at Todd indicating for him to get on with it.
“Ryujin Urt is the oldest member of the council and sits, as we suspected, at the top holding the ultimate position of power. This happened after the head shifter, a lion named Abbas, disappeared a hundred years ago without a trace.”
“Disappeared or was murdered?” Markov asked and received an angry glare for his trouble from Todd who clamped his lips together. “Alright bossy boots, carry on.”
“So, let’s go with disappeared as there was no trace of the lion. His family and his wife said he went to meet with a council member over an issue and never came back. The records indicate that council member was?” Todd glanced at them.
“Ryujin Urt,” Kelvin answered when no one seemed inclined to say anything after Todd was being snippy with them.
“Yep, gold star for you. From the records, when Ryujin was questioned he stated, ‘Abbas never showed up for their meeting,’ no one could show differently, or sense any deceit from Ryujin, so it was dropped. Though, the investigator made an additional note in the locked record that Ryujin was not shocked or concerned at the council member’s disappearance.”
Kelvin shuddered hoping that the lion wasn’t given to Andromeda or one of his cronies to be experimented on and murdered instead. The harsh reality was murder was a kinder fate after what Kelvin had read and seen on the discs recovered from the ship.
“Is there anything in the files in relation to Andromeda?” Magnus asked as he came into the room, looking sleepily sexy in his rumpled T-shirt and sweats, his feet bare as he went to get coffee.
How much did you hear?
You were projecting, so possibly everything.
I didn’t want you to feel left out.
The coffee cup was placed on the table and Magnus took his mouth in a soul searing kiss. Kelvin wished they were anywhere but in the conference room in front of his brothers.
Me too babe, later maybe we can go back to the pool. His lips were released, and Magnus winked at him taking the seat next to him.
They didn’t get the chance to speak when the door opened again, and Lucas came in followed by Ki. “Where are the girls?” Todd questioned, starting to get up.
“In Marvin’s very capable hands. Abbie and Cali are still asleep. And Riley came in to help too as soon as Cassius mentioned a shower. That boy really does not like water,” Lucas answered, his gaze on coffee. “No one made any breakfast?”
“No, I’ve been up working all night, so if you feel like making me pancakes,” Todd smiled at his mate in a way, Kelvin felt his cheeks heat and he looked away.
Magnus grinned. You look at me like that too, babe.
I do?
The smile was immediate. Yep. Magnus sipped at his coffee, his thoughts projecting exactly how it made him feel.
Stop that, I’m getting hard. He playfully slapped Magnus’s arm, enjoying the happy feelings coming from him after the night before.
“It seems everyone is up. Let’s do breakfast and I can fill everyone in,” Todd said, sitting back at his laptop, his gaze back on the screen while he started to tap at the keys furiously.
The noise in the conference room increased when Lucas returned with two huge platters laden with food. He glanced at Markov. “I’ve taken food up for Cassius, Riley, and Marvin. Once they’re sorted Cassius said he’ll be down.”
“Cool.” Markov was back to rubbing his belly his gaze on the food.
Kelvin had gone to retrieve plates and cutlery for everyone, and Markov was the first to get up to go help himself. Azim had gone to make more coffee, whereas Victor had gone for glasses and fruit juices.
Quiet descended as everyone tucked into what they’d chosen to eat. The scent of bacon and sweet syrup won over everything else. Cassius arrived not long later, grabbing the last few pancakes and strips of bacon. When Markov eyed his plate like he’d not been fed for days, Cassius rolled his eyes and emptied half the contents of his plate onto Markov’s. Then silently took a seat next to his mate and started to eat.
Todd wiped his lips with a napkin, a satisfied look on his face when he sat back from his empty plate. For once his laptop had been pushed to the side. “That’s better, thank you Lucas. I can see some of you are still eating but I’m gonna go through everything again just to catch everyone up.”
Ten minutes later they were all filled in. “Are we convinced that Ryujin is a changeling?” Magnus questioned the room, his gaze sweeping around the table. Each man nodded. “Then I have some questions. First and foremost, what is a changeling capable of? This I think is key to finding out the other answers as to why he connected with Andromeda. And what benefit does experimentation on shifters give him? There has to be something, or else why take the risk?”
Cassius nodded, deep lines appearing between his brows. “That feels like the right question to ask first to me.”
“Same,” Todd answered, the plate was moved, and his laptop placed back in front of him. “I’ve made some records on them. The problem is that over the centuries myth and legend get combined. Though I have found one piece of lore that seems to hold true - reflections. If Ryujin is a changeling, when looking at his reflection in any reflective surface you’ll be able to see what lies beneath.”
“So, we need a big fucking mirror and the opportunity to wave it in his ugly ass face?” Magnus stated, getting everyone laughing.
“Pretty much,” Todd replied, a grin on his face. “Only problem, we have no clue what he looks like as there are no pictures in the archives, which could confirm the whole reflection thing.”
“Then we need to come at this from a different angle.” Magnus scratched at his stubbled jaw, his eyes unfocused. “Is there anywhere in the shifter council computer system that mentions regular meetings or places the top leaders meet?”
Todd tapped at the keypad, his gaze not lifting from the screen. “There are bi-monthly meetings held. The next one is in what appears to be a former military base, in the town of Churchill. This is on the shore of Hudson Bay, in Canada. From what I can see, they rotate meetings to fit with the different species of shifter. There are two polar bears on the council.”
Magnus sat forward at the same time as Markov and Victor. “When is the meeting planned?” both Victor and Magnus asked at the same time.
Todd chuckled as he glanced over the top of his glasses at both men. “In five days’ time.”
“Then we have four days to figure out how the hell we get in there and get out with Ryujin without starting a bloody war with the shifter council,” Cassius said in a tone that was not in the least bit joking.
“Any ideas?” Kelvin asked of the military men sitting around the table.
Magnus’s smile was pure leopard. “I might have one.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Magnus
“I don’t like this.” Kelvin hunched in the plane seat, his bottom lip sticking out. “Surely someone else…”
“Babe.” Magnus sighed. “If Ben’s as involved with the council as I think he is, then he’s not going to talk to random strangers, especially from a paranormal security firm. I was amazed he even remembered who I was.”
“Huh. Like anyone could have you in their bed and not remember.” Kelvin turned his face towards the window. It had taken three days to bolt down the various pieces of Magnus’s plan – a plan that started with Magnus getting in touch with someone he’d had a night with just before his sister went missing. At the time, Magnus had tentatively planned to catch up with the fellow cat shifter on his next swing into town, but then Elsa happened, and shit went south at work, and the moment passed.
“I’m touched that you’re jealous.” Magnus picked up Kelvin’s slightly fisted hand, stroking over the knuckles. “I realize it’s more instinct than anything else. I know, as we’re mates, you’d never think for a second that I would stray in any way…” he let the sentence hover in the air, and sure enough Kelvin picked it up.
“I’m not jealous,” he said quickly. “Okay, I’m only a little bit jealous, but not really.” Kelvin stopped, huffed, and tried again. “I know I can trust you absolutely. I don’t have any worries about that.”
“Then what is it?” Magnus kept his voice low. They were the only passengers on the plane. They were being dropped off in Churchill, and then the pilot was going back to pick up the players for the second part of Magnus’s plan. But there was still cabin crew within earshot. “What’s making you upset about this part of the plan?”
“Your damn Ben, that’s what’s got me on edge.” Kelvin’s knee jiggled but he didn’t pull his hand out of Magnus’s. “He’s one of your kind, someone you’ve been comfortable with, someone you remembered after just one night.”
Oh, boy. Magnus knew he had to be honest about why he’d put Ben Putney’s name forward as a possible contact for the council, even before he did it. The entire Thalassa crew now knew Magnus had slept with him. Once. And they knew Magnus had parted from him in a friendly enough fashion for the guy to take his call two years later.
“You forgot one other thing,” he said in the calmest voice he could muster. “Ben was the last guy I slept with before being claimed by you and your kraken.”
“The last…?” Magnus watched as Kelvin connected various dots in his head to make sense of the timeline. The eyes widening showed his mate had gotten it.
“So, perhaps you want to drop a few names and make me all hot and bothered too?” He suggested, knowing Kelvin would pick up the tease. “A fine man like yourself, I know you’ve had sex with someone else more recently than I have. Is it someone I’m likely to bump into at any point? Do I need to keep my claws sheathed and my mouth shut if it happens?”
There was a moment’s silence, and then a pink blush appeared on Kelvin’s cheeks. He groaned, leaning over, and resting his head on Magnus’s shoulder. “I’m being an idiot. I know I am. But is it too much to hope that he’s ugly looking, or has a really horrible personality?”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to judge for yourself when you meet him.” Resting his cheek on Kelvin’s head, Magnus grinned. “I’m not sure what it says about my tastes though, if you say that about him, yet we claimed each other pretty much from the instant we met. A lot of that had to do with the fact you’re exactly my type.”
Like Magnus, krakens didn’t purr, but there was a definite sense of smug satisfaction coming from his mate as they settled in to rest for the remainder of the flight.
/~/~/~/~/
Whatever his actual occupation, Ben Putney seemed to enjoy the finer things in life, as he was staying at the same hotel Magnus and his mate checked into. They had an hour or so to go before the appointment Magnus had made with him, and Magnus didn’t consider it too much of a sacrifice to go limp in Kelvin’s tentacles and be pleasured over every inch of his body. He felt amazing, and Kelvin was positively strutting as they finally headed down to the reception desk to request directions to the private dining room Magnus had ordered. Ben knew Kelvin would be at the meeting as well, although all Magnus had said was that he was a member of the Thalassa security company.
The hotel staff were discreet, which was a real bonus. The building itself was older, something Kelvin seemed to prefer. From the way he was looking around, Magnus wondered if his mate had been at the hotel before – perhaps when it was built, Magnus thought with a grin. He wondered what it might have looked like then. The plaster moldings still in place, the deep rich burgundy carpets and dark wallpaper that looked original, suggested the hotel had been built with opulence in mind.
Ben hadn’t aged, but then Magnus didn’t expect an adult shifter to start showing signs of aging in just two years. His smile was as wide and friendly as ever – the first thing Magnus had noticed in that bar two years before. Built maybe an inch or so taller than Magnus, more Kelvin’s size and with matching shoulders, the man gave off the illusion of power effortlessly. Power that was backed up by his mere presence.
“You went and got mated without me,” Ben teased as he held out his hand for Magnus to shake. “It suits you.”
“Thank you for seeing us.” Magnus urged Kelvin forward. “My mate, Kelvin Thalassa. He’s with…”
“Thalassa Security, I know.” Ben nodded. “Nice to meet you, Kelvin, if you don’t mind me calling you that. I sense we’re all at a point where we can be on first name terms in here.”
Magnus wasn’t sure what Ben meant by that, but he took the chair Kelvin indicated, tugging his mate down beside him. When Ben sat across the table from them, Magnus said, “I’m not sure what you meant about your last comment, although you know I’m happy to do away with formalities. But you have the air of a cat who’s got the cream. Should me and Kelvin be worried?”
Ben’s laugh was smooth like melted chocolate, yet that was just Ben’s way. He wasn’t flirting, and Magnus hoped Kelvin realized that. “The Thalassa company was the one who broke the sex slave ring franchise, am I right?”
Magnus felt Kelvin’s surprise, but the kraken nodded. “It was in conjunction with our local law enforcement agencies, but yes, work is well underway on tracking them, isolating their finances, shutting them down, and obviously saving every captured paranormal that can be found.”
Ben nodded. “And the dragon egg thefts. Word is that was your company that traced that sordid little business to the human not-so-human Andromeda.”
Magnus stiffened at the name. He hadn’t been around for that, but he’d heard enough talk about it since working with the krakens. Kelvin finally said, “Someone is spreading a lot of words out of school, but in the interests of transparency between us here, yes it was our company – me and my brother actually that made that connection.”
“And it was your other brother and his hammerhead mate who finally took Andromeda down. So freaking glad that’s finally done.”
“What the fuck?” Magnus’s fist clenched on the table. “Are you setting us up or something?”
“What on earth makes you think that?” Ben looked as unruffled as ever.
“Because…” Magnus looked at Kelvin whose face was expressionless which probably meant he was conversing with the other krakens. “Because if you knew all about the dragon eggs that were stolen even though Andromeda knew they would die within weeks of being hatched., Or the sex slave ring that killed my sister, or anything about Andromeda’s ship where torturous experiments were carried out on innocent shifters, and you have a connection with the shifter council, why wasn’t something done about it sooner?”
Ben leaned his elbows on the table, his expression grim. “First off, I didn’t know about your sister, and I’m sorry for your loss. But think about it. Think about what you know. Think about the missing pieces. Andromeda – I never met the man – but I’ve got ears and his influence on the head of the council…”
“Ryujin Urt,” Kelvin said briskly.
“Ah, okay. See, you do know more than I suspected. But yes, Andromeda had some kind of hold on Ryujin and anytime any of the council members wanted to object about it, they either disappeared, or suddenly decided to retire.”
“Like the lion shifter Abbas?” Kelvin asked.
“I wondered if you’d heard about that, too.” Ben nodded, looking more resigned than worried. “Now that Andromeda’s gone, I had hoped Ryujin might be more inclined to help his fellow shifters, especially seeing as he’s a dragon but…” Ben shrugged.
“You’re not getting very far are you.” It was a statement, not a question. Magnus could already tell by the droop in Ben’s shoulders and the tight lines around his mouth. “I need you to be honest with us. What is your connection with the shifter council?”
Squaring his shoulders, Ben met his gaze head on. “I’m the cat shifter representative – I’m on the shifter council.”
Magnus looked sideways at his stoic mate. What do you think?
I’m broadcasting this to my brothers. They agree with you about going ahead with the second part of the plan.
“Alrighty, then.” Magnus inhaled sharply. “Can you get me into the council meeting you’re having in just under forty-eight hours’ time? I want to make a presentation and can do it either as a member of the FBI, or as a consultant with the Thalassa family. I will be bringing a witness, more than one actually, who can tie all of this together, along with proof from my new dragon friends that Ryujin Urt is not what you think he is. In fact, I think it’s fair to say we can expose him for who he truly is in front of every council member, so it can’t be ignored, and prove once and for all that he has no right leading the council in the first place.”
“You can actually do that?” Ben slumped back in his chair, his eyes wide.
“Me and my new family, yes.” Magnus took Kelvin’s hand, slotting their fingers together. “The Thalassa’s have got a vested interest in this, and it has nothing to do with running the council and everything to do with getting justice for their parents who Andromeda killed five hundred years ago.”
Wiping his hand over his forehead, Ben shook his head. “I can’t believe this crap has been going on that long. But then I don’t know why I should be surprised. I’ve been around the council buildings these past fifty years and my cat’s fur always feels on edge when I have to have anything to do with our illustrious leader. Have you found any clues as to why all these crimes against paranormals are happening? There has to be a reason for it all.”
