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“It’s so horrible,” Linden agreed. “I mean, all the redundant fields?”

I nodded. “No tabbing.”

“Oh no, heaven forbid.”

“You two are cute,” Wade told us.

I flipped him off, and Linny pinched him.

“It was a compliment,” he muttered, then looked at Linden. “Finish your thought.”

“If a comparison of DNA could be made between the Lovells and the Wilkeses, then that would prove it. Because, in theory, there should be the same genetic markers.”

“To an extent,” Wade grumbled. “You have any idea how many times I’ve had cases screwed up over DNA?”

“Yes, but lupine DNA is different.”

“How so?”

“The lupine part, like when Avery tested your blood and it came back with two percent lupine DNA, if you wanted, you could trace that back to the absolute line you come from.”

He shook his head. “I don’t care about that, only that the two percent got me my omega.”

When Wade smoothed his hand over Linny’s cheek, I sighed deep and loud.

They both turned to me.

“It’s very romantic.” I sighed again, a bit less like I was going to swoon the second time.

Wade smiled at me. “Don’t worry, kid, it’ll happen for ya.”

“It’s all right. Apparently I’m helping you to weed out fraud on occasion, and look, this is fraud again, but on a much bigger scale.”

Wade kissed Linden on the forehead, then said to him, “So we could actually test the Lovells’ and Wilkeses’ DNA, and the lupine part should be the same.”

“Yes.” Linden nodded. “It should match a hundred percent. That’s the key difference between human DNA and lupine. In humans, even siblings can be fifty percent. In lupines, in the same family, it’s all a hundred percent.”

“So if they call bullshit on the diary, they have to be tested.”

“Graeme, and others, would call for that, yes.”

“Okay, then once you leave, I’ll call Graeme and explain all this to him, and he can present it to the Wilkeses when he’s ready, but tomorrow, I’ll be filing it with Lupine Affairs. Also, I’ll let them know that they need to go through me to talk to you,” Wade apprised me.

I exhaled sharply. “Okay. Thank you. I feel better.”

“Is it weird for you that omega rights triggered the United States, and every other country, to break with your figurehead king in Rome, as well as having the office of dryhten be dissolved?”

I smiled at him. “Weird topic change. I feel as though you’ve asked this question of every lupine you know.”

He tipped his head like “yeah, maybe.”

“I knew that all the wolves in the US reporting to a single person, the dryhten, couldn’t possibly last. And the idea of a king, any king, ruling over lupines scattered all over the world, in many different countries, was no longer sustainable. It was an antiquated notion. You have to hold allegiance to where you live.”

“I agree,” Linden said, leaning back on the couch. “I wasn’t surprised in the least when both positions ceased to be. Lupines have always fallen under the purview of our alphas, and then of course, a cyne, if our family happened to belong to a larger holt. We’re all citizens—none of that should be separate, and I’m glad it’s not anymore.”

I nodded. “It’s better now. The Maion Council here has fifty seats, one representative from each state. That’s so much better. I also think it’s good that they can only be alphas, not cynes, so wealth or property have nothing to do with it. All lupines get to vote, and that’s your representative for two years. It works, and it’s been seamless for these past five years. We get to vote for someone new next year.”

“Yes, and the good news is that here in Chicago, we’re all under Graeme since Avery’s father became part of his holt; as well as yours, I might add,” Linden replied, smiling at me.