Irish Bear's Enemy (Boston Bear Brothers 4)

After no objections, they called in the other women waiting to join them for a vote, roughly only about twenty at this point, twenty-four if you counted those on the cusp of womanhood. The vote was almost unanimously decided in favor of Maeve.

“Well, I guess that’s it then,” Karla hissed at her. “Your new Alpha Omega is Maeve Gallagher. I’ll hand this meeting over to her.”

Maeve was at a loss as to what to say. She was both excited and petrified at the thought of leading her clan in a way that did them a service. She had visions of turning a bunch of Omegas who had been oppressed for years by dominant Alphas into strong, independent women, capable of making their own choices. It would be a hard sell with some of them.

What she was more concerned with was how they were going to support themselves. Most of the women here had already grieved their losses a long time ago when their husbands were murdered by Sorley Maguire, the original Alpha of Trill’s clan, but they’d been afforded care by their prior affiliations.

Most importantly, this unexpected rise to the top of the ranks gave Maeve a renewed hope of achieving the revenge she’d begun to embrace in the months leading up to this moment. Though it might not be apparent to those around her, she was on a mission of her own. The McNallys had taken something from her and she intended to see to it that they paid for that—every last one of them.

“Ladies and very small gentlemen,” she said, addressing the women and children gathered for the vote and announcement, “I’m honored that you’d put your trust in me to lead us forward. I’ll be honest, this was unexpected, and I am not even sure where to begin, but I won’t be dragging my feet in getting things on the go. We’ll meet again soon and discuss how we move forward together.”

Maeve left the meeting with a million thoughts swirling about her head. It was good in the sense that being Alpha Omega would get her closer to the McNallys, but being responsible for her clan’s well-being could interfere with her plans if it came down to making hard choices between what she wanted to do and what would affect them adversely.

They would be able to separate themselves from her if she was just some lone actor who had decided to go rogue and attack the Alpha of another clan, along with his brothers, but as the Omega, she represented them as a whole, and any action she took made them more directly involved. There could be repercussions for any actions she might choose to take.

CHAPTER TWO

Ronan

“Welcome back, Ronan. I trust you had a decent trip?” Andrew asked.

“Aye. Ready to do what needs be done,” Ronan told him.

“Should I drop you off at your hotel then?”

“No. I’m not headed to a hotel just yet. If you’ll drop me in the city center, I can manage there.”

“The town center? Why’d you want to be shuffling about there?”

“I just need to get some things I didn’t want to bring over on the flight. I’ll get a taxi to where I’m headed later.”

“Aye. How will I catch up with you if I need to?” Andrew asked.

“You won’t. I’ll call you when I’m done with my business,” Ronan told him.

“Aye. Fair play,” Andrew replied, pointing the car away from the airport and onto the motorway toward Dublin proper.

Ronan did have a hotel, but he didn’t want Andrew to drop him there. There had been word that some of the clans were rumbling about joining the council he and his brother, Niall, had formed before leaving to go back home to Boston. It had been their hope that helping liberate the clans that had not escaped Ireland as their family had would somehow garner some loyalty, but it seemed that the newfound taste of freedom had only inspired some of them to take the next step toward their own nefarious goals.

His brothers had agreed that they couldn’t just let things here work themselves out. Instead, he would return as the Alpha of Clan McNally in Ireland, while they transitioned to more of the traditional mafia family found in Boston rather than a bear clan. It wasn’t as if they normally used their shifting powers on the tough streets of South Boston anyway. It was the enhanced mental powers their family possessed to erase the memories of humans that came in far handier in their business, especially with the police.

“Good to see you again,” Greyscale, the Alpha of a dragon clan up north, told him as he joined him at The Temple Bar, a pub Ronan had chosen because it was well populated. His presence there would mean nothing to the local humans, but any shifters that might be lurking would understand the implications immediately. It didn’t hurt for them to believe the dragons still had their backs.