Inequities by Jambrea Jo Jones Page A

son—” She almost choked on the words.
    “No need to put yourself out, Mother. I’m sure you’ll be happy to see the last of us. And so you know, Ive and Grey will be staying with me.”
    They finally reached the car. When they got to the hotel, Grey would have to shift one more time and rest so he could get his strength back. They were going to need it. Vivian had a bad feeling about this visit.
    The ride to the hotel was done in silence. Her mother kept looking back and forth between them all. Vivian had no clue who was driving the vehicle. She hadn’t seen him before, but that didn’t really mean too much. Vivian had stopped caring about the tribe a few years ago.
    She gnawed on her lip, worried about what could happen. Russ leant over to her and soothed her abused flesh with his finger. She smiled at him.
    Okay. I can do this.
    The car stopped at a battered hotel. Vivian wasn’t sure why they were staying at such a run down place. The last time they’d made a visit to Greenland it had been on the den’s land. Something was very off.
    “Here we are. Oliver, one of our betas, will escort Russ and the rest of us—”
    “No thank you, ma’am. We’ll be doing this meeting together. Oliver is more than welcome to join us.”
    Roberta looked at Oliver for permission. It was then she knew. Her parents weren’t in charge any more. This—whoever he was—had taken over. Shoot. She wished she could push her thoughts through to Russ. She had to warn him somehow. Why all the subterfuge? Russ would have talked to the person in charge, no matter who that was.
    And why did they want to separate them.
    “Wait,” Vivian demanded. “Grey, shift.”
    If anyone was stunned by the order, they were silent. And Grey hurried to obey. The shift was over fast. It had given the man more of his strength and he would have a jolt of energy. Enough that they should be able to take care of this situation before he crashed.
    Pete r helped him back on his feet and Russ nodded at her.
    “Okay, Oliver. If you’d show us the way,” Russ announced.
    Good. They were on the same page. Russ had noticed the hesitation in her mother’s response. She hoped that one of the betas would be able to take over the den. Her father obviously wasn’t strong enough if they were deferring to someone else.
    When they got into the room, Vivian’s father was on the bed staring at the ceiling and not moving.
    “What’s wrong with him?” Russ demanded.
    Grey and Peter surrounded Oliver. Russ shoved Ryerson into a chair.
    “What’s going on, Mother? The truth.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Russ didn’t like the situation at all. They needed to take care of this before anyone else showed up. Vivian had been great, having Greycen shift before they got into the room, it would give them a slight advantage and they might need it. Vivian must have seen her mother waiting for Oliver to okay the situation. No way an alpha would do that in front of strangers. They’d want to show no weakness for fear of being overthrown. Roger was no more than a puppet. Russ had to wonder who else was under Oliver voluntarily.
    Roberta burst into tears at Vivian’s question and they didn’t have time for the nonsense. Oliver wasn’t talking and had a shit-eating grin on his face. It would be Russ’ pleasure to knock it off. He stalked forward.
    “I don’t think so alpha man. This is my show.” Oliver brought forth a ball of power in his hands. It wasn’t the same as Russ had seen in the past. The colour was a muddy black.
    Could it be this easy? Was Oliver the source of the drug? If so, he’d seriously underestimated Russ. He continued forward and Oliver let loose. The ball of energy hovered around Russ and dissipated before it could touch him.
    Oliver cursed and readied another ball. Russ continued forward. Again, the energy disappeared.
    “What the hell? You have no magic. I was told—” The confusion was clear on Oliver’s face.
    “No. I don’t have any magic. But