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I tried to look casual, like going there wasn't the most important thing in my life, but I got looks from the nurses and doctors as I hurried. I was halfway to the glass before I recognized the german Sheppard looking in at the baby and froze.

If he even thought about--

"What the fuck are you doing here Reilly?" I growled, keeping my voice low not to bother the three other fathers in the room. They looked asleep.

He looked at me and gave me a toothy smile. "Did you really think you could hide him from us? Which one of the brats is he?" he asked in disdain.

"None of your fucking business. I swear on Him that if you ever come close to my son, I am going to end you in the most painful way I can think of."

Riley snorted. "You think I'm scared of you?"

"Trust me, you should be."

"No, you should be scared of me, Rasia. Unlike you, some of us are working their way higher within their power structure and soon, I'm going to be in a position to wipe you and all the perverts you call friends from this city. So consider yourself on notice, you're not welcome here."

He turned and walked away before I worked out the best way to cut him. He stopped by the door and looked at me over his shoulder "Oh, and congratulation on becoming a father," he said with derision, then left.

I breathed slowly, Like I needed that after Damian last night. All I'd wanted was to look at my son for a few minutes before heading into work, bask in his beauty. Now I had to calm myself down.

"Mister Brislow?" a nurse asked.

I forced a smile. "Yes."

"I thought I recognized you. I was one of the attending nurse when your wife gave birth." I opened my mouth to correct her, anger spiking again. "Do you want to come hold your son?"

"What?"

"If you want to, you can come in and hold your son for a few minutes."

Hold him. I smiled.

"I'm going to take that as a yes. Follow me." She led me through a few doors, handed me a gray robe to wear and sat me in a plush chair before vanishing. Two women and another man were there, each holding a baby. The women were breastfeeding.

The nurse returned with Eddy and placed him in my hands, speaking while she made sure I held him correctly, but the words didn't register. The only thing that did was his little face. He mewed, and I relaxed. He wriggled in my arms.

"Wait," I said before she walked away. "Shouldn't his eyes be opened?"

"It's going to be a few days before that happens. It could be as much as three weeks, same with his ears. Don't worry, your son is healthy. I expect you'll be able to take both of them home in a day or two."

Home, fuck, was Martin taking care of that? I'd forgotten to ask him in yesterday's I'd have to remember to call him when I got to the office.

"Hey, buddy,"

Eddy gurgled.

"Yes, your daddy's here. No, let's go with father, maybe dad, not daddy. If we use that one I will never hear the end of it from my friends. And how are you doing? Have they been treating you well? Letting you sleep, changing you, if your mother feeding you properly? Just wait a few years, your grandmother will..."

I closed my eyes. Fuck. Dad didn't know. I'd try calling. Sending messages. Maybe there would be a glitch and I could get through his blocking and finally talk to him.

I looked at my son in time to see him smile, and I forgot everything else. I placed a finger in his little hand and he closed his fingers around it. I was his. I'd always be his. I was going to keep him close to me, keep him safe. Make sure he was happy.

"Mister Brislow?" the nurse asked, pulling my attention away from Eddy. "Edward needs to go back in his crib."

"Already?"

"It's been twenty minutes. He needs proper sleep to have the energy to grow."

"Of course."

She reached for him and I hesitate. "I'm sorry," I said, putting him in her arms. "I didn't realize I'd be this possessive of him."

"It's alright, most first-time fathers react that way. If you want to hold him again, come back in three hours."

"I will." I watched her take him away and fuck if it didn't feel like part of me was going with him. It was a few seconds before I could stand. The man had left at some point, as had one of the mothers. The other was crooning to her baby.

I dropped the robe in the bin and walked out, barely away of my surroundings. Twenty minutes with Eddy and I felt like nothing could go wrong with the day anymore.

* * * * *

There was screaming as soon as I stepped into the office. Colby was holding a money and a malamute aloft by the collar as they screamed and tried to grab for each other. Around them a handful of men were cheering them on.

Older men, seasoned men, looked at the commotion as they came and went, shaking their heads. The few who noticed him gave him a 'what are you thinking' look, and I wondered the same at the moment.

"Okay, what's going on?"

"Adesida fucking said he should fuck me," the malamute snarled.

"Of course I did. Since when do you Saghani not want to have sex?"

"With a dirty Adesida? You guys will put it in anyone. Sex isn't something you just do, It's for Him, you respect the act!"

"Couldn't you just have said no?" I asked, sighing.

"They don't take no for an answer, they're a bunch of perfects, rapist!"

"Enough!" My yell brought utter silence. I pointed to the closest conference room. "In there, all of you. Now! I added when no one moved." I motioned for Colby to drop the two he was holding and waiting until they were in the conference room to. "What am I going to do with them?"

The armadillo shrugged, pointed up. "Pound them?"

That was a thought. Tie them to the beds upstairs to be used by the men. That would certainly take care of the potential conflict of someone hitting on an unresponsive guy.

I should my head. "No. I didn't arrange to get them working for me just to turn them into stress relief workers. Not to say of what their Elders will say if they think I treat anyone of them differently."

Colby shrugged again. "Pound you?" he smiled hopefully.

"I wish. I have to deal with them, then I have tons of paperwork."

"Afternoon?"

I threw my hands in the air. "Come find me and we'll see if I'm even able to think by then."

"Perfect," Colby replied, and he headed off.

I entered the conference room to another shouting match. I could make out four group with an otter standing aside watching all of that with a dismayed expression.

"Kevin, what are you doing in here?" How much had he heard of the screaming? I could hear references to Him, to being blessed, cursed, to powers. And what was just what was said in English. What else had they said in his presence?

"You said 'all of you'," he replied. "Who are they?"

I sighed. "How much have you heard?"

"Enough to question their sanity."

I sighed again. "I'll explain things when I have the time. Just know that unless I point you out specifically, in the future when I say 'all of you' it doesn't include you."

Kevin grinned. "Sure thing, but really, what are they doing here? I mean, I get why I'm here. But I already know the city, and you said I'm pretty smart, but these guys come across as a bunch of stuck up snubs, and that's the nice ones. If you get much more of them than the rest of us, you might have a mutiny."

"Are they causing that much trouble? Why hasn't no one told me?"

"Dent, you personally give each of them the tour, you haven't done that since the second group of us. We can tell they're special."

"They're not supposed to be."

"Maybe you need to tell them that. Not just this bunch, all of them."

"Thanks, Kevin. I'll figure something out."

The otter left, and I closed the door.

"Silence!"

Silence fell.

"Okay, let me make something fucking clear. You aren't--"

"Hey, he started--"

"I don't care!" I glared at each of them in turn. Fifteen of them. "I don't know why you were picked to come work for me. I didn't set criteria because I expected it would be reasonable to assume your Elders would send me adults, not a bunch of children."

A fox opened his mouth, and I glared him down.

"You want to fight? I don't care, but you don't do it here, and not on the clock. Better yet. Go to the gym and punch each other, at least that way you'll learn to fight and there's always someone there to supervise." I looked them over. "Clearly, you guys weren't paying attention during orientation. When you are in this building, when you are on the clock, you are not Society. You don't answer to your particular Elder. You answer to me. I don't want to hear any protest," I said at the men taking breaths. "Because I don't care. You have two choices. You either accept my rules, or you do home and deal with your Elder's reaction."

The looks I got told me they weren't here because they were well-liked back home. I'd expected to get the trouble makers, counted on it actually, but I'd forgotten how ingrained the elitist attitude is in them, even those who don't want to behave that way.

"Since none of you have left, I take it I'm the lesser of two evils. So I will remind you that while you work for me, you are going to put aside whatever family feud you have going. I'm not asking you to like each other, but you are going to respect one another. That means asking and refusing sex is going to be done politely. It also mean I don't want to see any display of powers. Most of the men here don't know magic exist and I'd love to see your Elder's reaction if I have to tell him how one of you is responsible for making us public. Is that clear?"

All I got were begrudging nods.

"Alright, you should all have things to do, go do them."

When they were gone, and the door closed, I enjoyed the silence. Was it better to get all of them together after the day and give them the reminder? Or to do it in small groups like this?

"What was I thinking?" I didn't have the time to play babysitter. I had to build a security firm. I should have waited until everything was in place before going around and giving back the secrets, but I'd wanted their temptations out of my hands as soon as possible. Or course I hadn't expected the Elder to send me someone quite this soon, but the moment one of them had, the others all weren't going to be seen as not doing their part and now I had representatives of close to half the families, if not more, and each thought they were someone special.

I sighed, yet again.

I took my phone and punched in a number. "You call has been refused. The recipient had put you on a block list. If you feel that this was done in error please--" I ended the call. "Come on dad. You can't be pissed at me forever." Right, he still wasn't talking to Magdee, and that had been going on for over a decade now. I sent him a message and got a notification it couldn't be delivered.

I stomped down on the hurt and anger and entered another number.

"Dent, how's it going?" Martin answered.

"I'm regretting just about every decision I've made in the last six months. Where are you at, we need to talk."

"I'm at the government office. I hear you're having trouble getting people approved as instructors."

I sighed. I had to stop doing that. "Yeah, I figure it's the church making my life difficult. I'm not comfortable sending all these guys for gun to train outside, and with Tom, Colby and some of the military guys we already have, and the gun range in the basement I figured we could handle that internally. I didn't think the church would care. Raphael had a security company, and most of the families own one in their cities even if they don't run it directly."

"Yeah, but most of them haven't made personal enemies from within the church."

"Speaking of which, Riley was at the hospital."

"Shit, did he do anything?"

"Just make threats."

"Do you think he or Alice are going to be a problem about this?"

"I want to say there's no way they'd involve a kid in this, but a year ago I'd have told you there's no way Alice would be so irrationally angry for so long, so I don't know."

"Maybe you should put someone at the hospital, just in case."

"No. I don't want to do anything that will cause them to act. It's a hospital, I doubt they'd want to do something in such a public way. The church doesn't want to attract attention either. Which leads to why I called. I know I said I'd take care of his mother."

"[her name]"

"Right, but my apartment isn't set up for two people. Will Tess be okay taking her in until I've figure things out on that front?"

"Of course, until yesterday, it was going to be a permanent arrangement, we haven't taken anything down just because you changed your mind."

"Thanks. How do you feel about having me stay with you during that time? I want to stay close to Eddy."

"You know I love sharing my bed with you, so of course you're welcome to stay for as long as it takes."

"I don't expect it to take long, Tom is already looking into places for me." Tom entered the office and saw me. He waved pamphlets as he headed for the room. I stepped out. "I should get back to work."

"And I should get back to sweet-talking the rep into approving your request."

"Martin, when you get back, we need to have a talk about your job description. I expect my accountant to stay in the office, not go in the field."

"Then, when I get back, I'll just have to sweet talk you into agreeing that a man of my talents can't be kept within four walls."

"Colby's got first dibs today."

"Then I'll wait in line. You're worth it."

I disconnected and rolled my eyes.

"What's the status on finding Stephan?" I asked before Tom could launch on his sales pitch for whatever fortress he'd found me.

"We found the phone he used, but he was already gone. No traces of him or the Orrs in Miami. Now, I found--"

"Did the Trebellius give you any problems?"

"I sidestepped them entirely, only used people I knew. Now, about your house, I--"

"It's going to have to wait." I indicated the elk entering the office. "I have to go play referee to internal Green Man problems I expect."

Tom looked over his shoulder. "I swear Brislow, if I find you're orchestrating this to make my job harder, that tower idea will look a lot more appealing." He shoved the pamphlets in my hands. "Look them over. I think one of them will be to your liking."

I headed for my office and the elk joined me there. "What can I do for you Mister Tall Tree?" I asked as I motioned for him to enter. He bent down to keep his rack from scraping the top of the door frame. I closed the door behind us and dumped the pamphlets on my desk. Images appeared around them as they landed. I turned and leaned against the edge of the desk.

Victor Tall Tree sat in the chair facing me and sighed. "It's about Magdalene. I need you to tell her she isn't needed here now that I've arrived."

"She doesn't take orders from me."

"She worked for you, she convinced the triumvirate that having a representative in your organization would help all of us in this conflict you seem to believe is coming. I'm nowhere to represent the Green Man, you no longer need her."

I sighed. Damn it. "Do you know my sister?"

"I know of her. She's one of the enforcer, as I am."

"You're flora I take it? The green tint in your fur is telling."

He smoothed the fur over his shoulder. "It's dye."

It wasn't. Magdee had explained how a lot of the Followers of the Green Man whose affinity was the plants gave themselves photosynthesis, as a way of being closer, hence the green tint to the fur.

"Look. Madgee is her own woman. Our own father couldn't get her to do things his way. Don't expect me to be able to change her mind. She knows her position here has been terminated. She wasn't happy about it, as you should remember since you sprung it on her that she wasn't going to be your representative, as she'd believed she would be. There's still a few holes in that conference room that need patching."

"She's still refusing to leave."

"Can you blame her? She just got a nephew, she isn't going to want to--"

"She has duties." The elk was on his feet and in my face.

I stifled the sigh. "I know that, but I think you need to understand that she is the one who decides what her priorities are. Not me, not you, and not even her god. Independence has always been her defining trait. You can fight that losing battle or you can find a way to work with it. By the way, I spent the last five months dealing with all the Elders in my faction, you don't intimidate me."

The elk huffed. "I can not simply let her do as she wills."

"Look, what's her job for your faction? She goes out, kicks your bad guys in the ass and brings them back so they can be told they need to stay under the radar, right? So why can't she do that while living in Denver?"

"Because it isn't how is it done. The Enforcer House is in Yellow Stone. Unless we are assigned somewhere else, we stay there."

"Yeah, us Brislows aren't big on traditions. The bottom line is that I can remind her she had obligations to you, but in the end, it's her decision. And she's going to do what she wants. You might as well get used to that right now."

Victor sagged. "She had prospects, before this. She was going to be one of our leaders. Now, the triumvirate isn't sure where her loyalties lie."

"They agreed to this."

"This is strategic. Coordination between one of your families and us will benefit us, so long as we are careful to be certain the church doesn't become aware of it. They didn't expect her to remain here."

"Is loyalty to your leaders more important than doing the right thing for you guys too? Among us, it seems like everyone's expected to do what their Elder says regardless of how stupid it is. Is blind obedience that spread out among the factions? Or am I just unlucky enough to be dealing with the few how are like that?"

"It isn't blind obedience. It is known what is right for our god."

"From what Magdee told me, your god isn't afraid of nudging people in the direction he wants them to go. So maybe you should trust that if he doesn't want her here, he's going to tell her."

"And you think she'll listen?" the elk asked hopefully.

I laugh. "Are you kidding? She'll tell him to go fuck himself. My sister doesn't take orders from anyone but herself."

The elk deflated again.