Chapter 1 Damon

Damon stared down at the text message on his phone for the third time, frowning as he read the words from his boss. He threw it on his desk, leaned back in his chair, and scrubbed his hands over his eyes. She couldn't be serious! He sat up with a sigh and stared around at his new office, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into.

He thought back to the conversation he'd had with Jasmine James.

"We need somebody for both positions; you're more than qualified for them," Jasmine said as she poured the tea.

"What exactly is going on in the city?" Damon asked as he took the cup from her hands, holding his hand up when she offered him the small jug of milk.

"It's a mess; I had no choice but to remove the head; he was running the station into the ground," Jasmine said with a sigh. "It's all-out war, Damon," she said, placing her cup on her desk and leaning forward, her head in her hands.

"When was the last time you got any sleep?" Damon asked, concerned for his friend. She looked tired, as if she hadn't slept in weeks. "You're taking on too much. You need to delegate; you're going to make yourself ill if you continue to worry like this," he said, resting his hand on top of hers on the desk and giving it a quick squeeze. As an Alpha female, if it had been anyone else that had made that move, she would have torn their hands clean off. Only the fact that they had been friends for fifteen years saved his hand.

"Damon, I'm the leader of our Royal Wolf community; it's my job to worry," Jasmine said with a tired smile. "What am I supposed to do? I have no inquisitor and nobody to run the city station. On top of that, I have a war with the mixed-blood Wolf's and other creatures on all fronts; none of their leaders will meet with me, and I have the Royal Wolf trying to revolt and come for my job at every turn," she said, scrubbing her hands through her hair in a very uncharacteristic show of frustration.

"Ha, I'd pay to watch that!" Damon said with a grin, "You would annihilate anyone that came at you. You are the leader for a reason, Jasmine; there isn't a single royal wolf that can best you in combat or an Alpha that would stand a chance against you," he said with a chuckle.

"Damon, I could activate every cell on my body, and I still wouldn't have a hope in hell against you," Jasmine said as she stared at him incredulously. "We both know you can put me on my ass with three moves; I'm only the leader because you refused it," she said with a grin at the expression on his face.

"Am I in charge of the entire community?" Damon asked with a shudder of horror, "It was bad enough heading up the multitude of stations I've already had to deal with; you think I want to be responsible for the entire tribe of idiots? Internal politics, squabbling Alphas, and a dagger in the back at every turn? No thanks; you can keep it. I have enough power within the leadership as it is; I don't want any more," he said, chuckling when she just rolled her eyes at him.

"I have a suggestion, if I may?" Damon said as he set his cup aside, having finally come to a decision. "Why don't you make Jack the new leader? You know he's fair and respected by just about everyone. He chafes at being stuck in another city, and he would make a powerful ally," he said.

"He wants the position less than you do," Jasmine said, her eyebrows practically in her hairline. "I asked him already, and he flat-out refused," she said with a frown.

"That's why he would be perfect; he's probably the only one aside from me that won't come for your job," Damon said. "Anyway, that was six months ago; a lot of things can change in six months," he said with a wink, pouring himself a second cup before topping Jasmine's cup up.

"If you are referring to that... debacle with the werewolf and Valeria Ravencroft..." Jasmine said, the cogs starting to turn in her head as she thought about how to entice him into accepting the position.

"Just order Jack to accept," Damon said, reading her thoughts on her face. "That way he can save face; you have an inquisitor, and Jack can escape his problems," he said, laughing as she sat there, practically rubbing her hands at the idea.

"Thank you, Damon; I knew there was a reason we were friends," she said as she pulled her phone out and fired off a quick text to Jack, ordering him back to the Gard. "Wait, if Jack takes the inquisitor position, who's going to take over the SA station?" she asked, almost slamming her head against her desk as a whole pile of new worries settled over her. She couldn't stop the growl that rumbled through her chest.

"I don't envy your job." Damon chuckled. "Jenny has been chomping at the bit for a promotion. I think she's ready, and she's already there. Make her the head and Ally her second. They might as well run it together," he said, grinning when Jasmine's head shot up.

"I need a mated pair," Jasmine said, the Alpha in her tone clear as her frustration slipped through the cracks of her self-control. "The rest of them won't follow anyone but an Alpha and Omega that are mated! You did a great job, Damon, but without the right leadership, the station will revert to what it was before you dealt with them," she said.

"Haven't you heard?" Damon asked, surprise coloring his tone when he saw the question on her face. "Mike claimed Emma last month; she's already pregnant. How have you not heard? If there's one thing the Royals like more than bickering and squabbling with mixed blood wolves, it's gossiping," he said, both of them bursting into fits of laughter at his understatement.

"They gossip like old female wolves!" Jasmine said, howling. "Thanks to Luna, we were shoved into training together. I don't know what I would do without you, Damon. You've saved my ass yet again," Jasmine said, wiping the tears from her eyes before fixing her gaze on him. "Does this mean what I think it means?" she asked him hopefully.

"You need a mated pair for SA but not Nigaland?" Damon asked her, reigning his expression in and shutting down his internal wince when he reminded himself that he hadn't found a mate yet. How do you get to the age of twenty-eight and not find your mate? He asked himself bitterly. He had accepted that he would be one of those Alphas whose other half was lost to them and that he or she must have died. You do not get to his age and not find your mate, especially if you are as widely traveled as him. Everyone he had grown up with had already been mated for ten years, and here he was, doomed to spend his life alone. He had accepted it, but that didn't mean the thought didn't shatter his heart into a thousand pieces and scrape at his soul like a rusty blade.

"Mike and Jenny are barely out of training. They might have the potential to become great leaders, but they need each other if they are to keep that rabble under control," Jasmine said, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms as she studied her oldest friend. "Whereas you could take on half of the Nigaland station on your own and walk away without a scratch. You're a powerful Alpha, Damon; you don't need a Beta or an Omega to run that place," she said, watching as he sat ramrod straight in his chair, his face an emotionless void. She hated it when he closed himself off like that, something he did far too often.

"Don't underestimate yourself, my friend," Jasmine said when she saw a sad frown crack his hardened exterior. "You earned the respect of even the most hardened Wolf veterans when you overhauled the other station. If it weren't for you, it would have been all-out war with the mixed-bloos wolf. That's why I need you there; they are a mess. And who knows, maybe you will find your mate in Nigaland," she said gently, watching his shoulders slump as his face crumpled for a second. He reigned it in, but not before she saw it. It broke her heart that if anyone deserved to be happy, it was Damon.

"You're far too shrewd for my own good," Damon said with a sigh. "I'll take it on one condition: you pull my best friend from the London station and promote her to my second. It's been far too long since we've been together, and I've missed her. If I'm to take on that shower of shite, I'm going to need her, just for the comic relief if nothing else," he said with a chuckle. "You owe me this much, Jasmine; if I hadn't been stuck in Australia for the last year, we would have been together, as it should be. She's my best friend," he said.

"Done!" she said, pulling her phone out and firing off another text. She waited a moment, smiling when she read the reply. "It's going to take her a week to find someone to take over her combat training classes, but after that, Moni is all yours," she said, grinning at the first true smile she had seen from him in a long time.

"Excellent!" Damon said, jumping to his feet and making his way over to the secret drink stash she kept in the cabinet behind her desk. "May we celebrate by getting extremely inebriated?" he inquired as he closed the door with a swung of the doorknob with one hip. He was holding a couple of bottles in his hand.

"Only if you make me one of your martinis," Jasmine said, laughing when he spun around, a bottle of Gin in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other.