Jael strode into Asher’s back office in the club, it was almost time for the quarterly meeting with the other Mafia Kings, and this time, Nikolai would be hosting.
"Did you tell Caspian we’ll be late for dinner?" He asked as he walked in.
"Didn’t bother to," Asher muttered without looking up.
Jael frowned, he had been downtown all day for some hands-on business so he hadn’t gotten the chance to. "Why?"
"Because he’s coming along," The Mafia King looked up now, a shit-eating grin on his face.
Jael looked at Asher warily, his short hair messy, sleeves rolled up. "He’s coming along to the quarterly meeting," He clarified, his tone dry.
"Davian mentioned Lake was coming along. He’s not the only one who gets to bring his mate." He half-grumbled.
Jael sighed, "Pretty sure he’s got a good reason going for him." He pointed out the obvious.
All three Mafia Kings had dealings with each other, so Jael had already heard a bit of news about how Lake was running the Black House alongside Davian.
It was surprising, to say the least, he hadn’t expected this outcome from his first meeting with the Omega.
"Too late," Asher said doggedly, "Caspian will be here in a few minutes."
Jael really had no issues with the Omega tagging along, it wasn’t like Nikolai could hurt him. If anything, the both of them would end up hanging out while the meeting went on.
"Can we grab ice cream on our way back?" He asked instead, choosing to relinquish responsibility for whatever would go down tonight.
There was a knock on the door then, Caspian walking in with a smile. "Oh good, Jael is here."
"Can we get ice cream on our way back?" The Beta turned the question on him, ignoring the rest of Asher’s words.
"Ice cream?" Caspian’s blue eyes sparkled, "Sure."
Asher got to his feet and shrugged on his fur coat, "Jael’s paying." He slipped an arm around Caspian and led them out.
Caspian had been flummoxed when Asher asked him to come along with him to the very important Mafia King meeting. But his mate had told him that Lake would also be there, and that was enough to convince him.
Jael got in the driver’s seat, he couldn’t really be bothered about how the night would go, more interested in ice cream.
"Thank you," Lake said to Davian, the Alpha helping him close the passenger door after.
Davian would be driving them to the quarterly meeting which was a little surprising because he had been expecting that they would take a driver, just like they did at the event.
Things had been unsurprisingly normal after the events of the day before. That morning, they had both left for FluxCorp together, Davian going for the morning classes over at the cooking school while Lake got some work done.
They had left the company early, had a late lunch, and then got ready for the quarterly meeting.
Lake’s nerves were frayed, it would be his first time meeting Mafia King Nikolai in person, and it didn’t help that everything he’d heard about the Mafia King was unsavory.
Fortunately, Davian would also be at the meeting, after all, it was still a meeting of the Mafia Kings, and Lake was anything but that.
The meeting would be held at Mafia King Nikolai’s casino, a place Lake had only ever heard about.
Well, he had done more than heard if he was being honest, because his dad had dealings in the casino, and he had had to comb over large sums of money to stay alive.
But that felt like so far away now, not only was he debt-free but he wouldn’t need to have to worry about money again, and his baby wouldn’t either.
It was half of the reason why he was currently running the Black Mafia, his financial insecurity still clung to him like a noxious cloud.
He wore one of the necklaces Davian bought for him, it rested against his collarbones, his silk dress shirt rustling like a whisper over his pale skin.
He bound his hair up behind his hair with a scrunchy, the meeting was too important for him to be constantly pushing his hair back.
Lake was relieved that he had become friends somewhat with Asher, it meant he only had to deal with one Mafia King.
The casino was bigger than Lake could have imagined. Even after seeing pictures of it, it couldn’t have prepared him for the real thing.
It was like a little city of its own, lights flashing, the muted sound of music playing.
The thing that stood out next after the massive casino was the empty parking lot, there was only one other car at the far end from where they were parked, it was eerie.
Lake waited until Davian stepped out to open his door, rightfully nervous about this entire venture.
"Are you alright?" Davian easily picked up on his fluctuating emotions. "You don’t have to attend if you don’t want to."
This had nothing to do with wanting to attend or not, it was just the normal reaction of an average person to a dangerous Mafia King, Davian wouldn’t get it.
"I’m fine. Let’s head in." He added to distract Davian from further fussing over him.
The large doors of the casino were ajar and unmanned and although it was blindingly bright inside, it was also completely empty.
The slot machines were still on though, their flashing lights and muted sounds filling up the space.
The stripping poles were empty, as well as the bar and the dance floor.
There was a private section off to the side where the lights were dimmed, and it was here that Davian led them to, opening the door to the first room.
Lake’s nose wrinkled at the smell of cigar smoke, bracing himself for the nausea that never came.
Seated in the empty room all alone was Mafia King Nikolai. The Alpha was seated on a sofa, black leather trench coat around his broad shoulders.