ETHAN POV
“I got a lead,” I said, racing into the office I shared with my brothers. “Do you remember Gavin Burchard? The weird guy in science class?” My brothers nodded.
“He turned into a really good warrior,” Reese said, noncommittally.
“Yeah. That’s the guy. He went to visit his cousin over at the Firehole River Pack. They went out into town to a local bar, and he overheard a couple of shifters talking about a big order that they had to fill a couple of months back. It was for something they called the Black Draught. He got curious so he asked his cousin about it, and he said that it was a poison that is sold on the black market.”
Reese sat upright. “Did he find out where the shifters stayed?”
“Yeah. He asked around and turns out they live in town. I want to go talk to them.” I was excited about this lead. I was hoping we could figure out who had poison
IZZY POVI wearily opened the door to my floor and entered the sitting room with Stella. She and I had just gotten back from training. She tended to accompany me whenever I left the Alpha House these days. The triplets had been gone for over two weeks, following leads to find whoever was responsible for poisoning their father.Something crashed in my bedroom and Stella looked at me, alert. Warily I walked to the bedroom door and flung it open. Katie was coming out of my bathroom.“What are you doing here?” I asked, letting the anger fill my voice.“Did you not send in the order for supplies?” she asked me, her voice sounding as angry as I was. “I need shampoo. You didn’t order it, so I took yours.”I stood, speechless at her gall. She took my silence for compliance.“As Luna of the pack, it’s your responsibility to make sure we are pro
IZZY POV “I demand to see the Luna right now!” There was shouting outside of my office, and I hurried to the door to see what the commotion was all about. A very angry woman stood outside the door, shouting at Lucy. “Let me make sure she’s available,” Lucy was trying to soothe her. I opened the door wider. “I’m available,” I said, brightly. “Come on in.” I pointed to one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area of my office and took the one opposite the woman. “How can I help you?” The woman was angry. “You can start by apologizing.” I was confused. “For what?” “For standing me up twice!” She was working herself into a tirade. I was even more confused. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are,” I admitted. She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Are you serious?” she shouted at me? “I’m Melba Able. My son is Tom Able.”
IZZY POVLucy and I looked at each other in disbelief. Finally, I spoke.“Is there a way you can make it look like the program is still working, but it’s not?” I asked. I wanted to regain control, but I didn’t want to lose the upper hand. Right now the person who was messing with my communications didn’t know that I knew I was being sabotaged.Ben pursed his lips and nodded. “I can build a program,” he said. “It will take a couple hours. And we’ll have to send some dummy calls through so that it still looks like they’re getting your calls.”“What do you need?” Lucy briskly asked. “And can you print out that list of numbers? We need to go through and figure out what’s all been tampered with.”“I can take this home and work on it there,” Ben said. “I have a better set up than what I&rs
IZZY POV“Izzy! They’re here!” Lucy poked her head into my office. Excitement danced in her eyes.I shut my computer and ran down the hall after her. She stopped at the entrance door, uncertain, and I pushed past her, running down the steps and into the arms of my mates.I forgot how good they smelled. I forgot how strong their arms were and how good it felt to be in them. I forgot how they made my knees weak and made my mind all muddled and how I would lose focus of everything around me except for them. I was in their arms, held, letting our mate bonds flood each other with emotion.“Well, look at that,” Caleb said with a grin, poking me and breaking the spell. I looked up. Lucy was looking at Brian with awe in her eyes. Brian was standing at the bottom of the stairs, just watching her. Lucy took one step down and Brian climbed the remaining eight steps
CALEB POV“How about we celebrate our return,” I suggested to Izzy. “We can go out to the village and have dinner at Emilios. I’m in the mood for some Italian tonight.”“Really?” She got a big grin on her face, and I melted inside. Reese took her hand.“Go put on something pretty,” he said. “But make it easy to take off. You won’t be in it for too long.” He gave her a wink and she blushed. She was so beautiful and, even after all that she’s been through, still innocent. My heart swelled just looking at her.“Should we invite Brian and Lucy?” Ethan suggested after Izzy left the room. “We should probably have a Beta lined up before we talk to Silvo. I’m not entirely sure he will accept. The training program he’s in is pretty elite and he might not want to give up his position.&rdq
IZZY POV We all climbed silently into Ethan’s SUV. He was behind the wheel, driving like he did life. Aggressively. “That was a hell of a punch,” Brian broke the silence from the third-row seat. “Yeah. Sorry about that,” I muttered. I was sitting next to Caleb in the second row. Reese turned around from the passenger seat and looked at me in surprise. “Nothing to be sorry about. That was incredible.” “Saved me from having to punch her myself,” Brian agreed. “I don’t like that she talks about you like that, baby,” he murmured to Lucy. For some reason that broke all the tension and we laughed. “Hey, would it be okay if we didn’t go to Emilio’s tonight?” I asked. “The mood is kind of gone for me. I’d rather get greasy burgers and go sit in the Packhouse watching the boys play some basketball.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” Ethan said, immediately changing direction.
IZZY POVSpring is a short season in the mountains. It tends to go straight from winter to summer and this year was no exception. It seemed as if I went to bed with snow on the ground and woke up with flowers blooming in the planters next to my front door.Once Silvo was out of the Packhouse and Ben was in charge of our cyber security, things seemed to smooth out for a bit. We had a Beta Ceremony where Ben was widely received. Because of my experience taking over as Luna, I was afraid my friends wouldn’t be well received, but both of them had been members of the pack since birth and everyone knew them and how hard they worked.Lucy coming on board as the Beta’s mate was a huge help to me. I tried not to be hurt when the pack members preferred her over me. I had to remind myself that they knew her, and I was still an outsider. I haven’t even been here a year and for much of that year, I was hidden
ETHAN POV“Thanks for hosting us,” I said to Alpha Steve. He had been a gracious host, allowing us to stay on his Packlands while we hunted Rogues outside his territory.“No problem,” he said, smoothly. “Did you find out anything?”“No,” I admitted. “No one is talking. We’re going to give it one more day and then head home.”“How is your Pack handling your absences?” the Alpha asked carefully. I narrowed my eyes, hearing something in his voice.“The Pack is fine. It is in the best interest of the Pack for this mystery to be solved and the perpetrators punished. Our Beta does a fine job running the day to day without us.” My voice held a warning that Alpha Steve heard and understood. He just nodded.Caleb and Reese came down the steps. Caleb stepped forward and stuck out his hand. “A