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“You’re planning to fight your way out?” Glen stood and began gathering my backpack from the bank. I could’ve sworn I’d seen him sneak a tampon from his pocket into the backpack, but that was crazy. Why would Glen be on his period? Or maybe shifters in his pack just carried them around, in case a girl needed one. That seemed pretty unlikely, though.
“You’re entering the Games?” he prompted.
“Yeah, I figure if I can win one round, I’ll be able to petition another pack to take me on as an Enforcer.” I hesitated. “It is true, isn’t it? That other packs have female Enforcers?”
“Not many, but some do,” he said slowly, a slight smile curling on his lips. “Who told you that, though?”
“Del.” I smiled. “He’s the best. He trained me to fight. He was a friend of Mama’s when she was alive—her only friend. He’s as close to family as I have now, and I’d do anything for him.” I sighed. “He did a lot for me, getting me out, packing me stuff.” I waggled my eyebrows at Glen, who was not smiling now. In fact, he looked like he’d just heard terrible news. “Did you know, he wanted me to come back for the stupid mating things? He bought me a dress and left it for me before I had to split.”
I shook my head, thinking about Del’s awkward attempts to talk to me about trying the mating events before I jumped into the Games. I hadn’t known about the dress, but it was the sort of thing females wore to those parties.
“Yeah, pretty sure it’s a mating dress.”
“A mating dress?” For some reason, Glen’s voice was strained. “Did you bring it?”
“Sure. In fact, I was going to put it on while my other clothes dried. I mean, I’m not going to the mating things, but it’s still clothes, right? And the ones I have on are soaked. Do you mind?” I spun my finger in the air, and he obediently turned around. “Not that you haven’t already seen the show.”
“You are not a show. You are one of the wonders of the world,” I thought he murmured. But that was crazy. Almost as crazy as him offering me some unnamed favor. Maybe I should take him up on it. Maybe… Maybe he’d take me out of here. He was the Northern Alpha Heir, right? He might have the power to do that.
In two minutes, I’d stripped out of the wet clothes and slid on the dress. “Okay, I’m done.” I watched his face as he turned back to me.
It was worth the trouble of changing clothes. I knew I wasn’t much to look at. I had chopped-off hair, no makeup, and I’d been living rough for a few days. But the dress Del had bought me was gorgeous. Long and fitted, with a sweetheart neckline and a layer of translucent silk over the body of the dress. It was a princess dress, for sure.
“You’re magnificent,” Glen rasped out.
“Okay, that’s a little too thick,” I teased, but I knew I was blushing. “But I like it. My favorite color is this exact shade of turquoise. Del knew that, of course. I’ll wear it for him someday.” I ran my fingers over the dress.
“You… You love him?”
I laughed at the way his eyes bulged slightly. “Yeah, but like a father. If I get an offer from another pack, I’ll invite him along. He only has one leg—three as a wolf—but he’s still got so much to give. He’s an amazing fighter, and a great cook, too. He’s taught me all sorts of—” I quit talking when I felt Glen’s hand land softly on my lips, stopping my words.
“Wills.” His voice was filled with a peculiar sadness. “Flor. I have to tell you something. About Del.” His angelic eyes met mine, and I flinched at the unexpected pain in them.
“No,” I told him firmly, shaking my head. Somehow, I knew that what he would say was going to destroy me. “Don’t say anything. I’ll see him in a day or two.”
“Wills,” Glen repeated, his eyes filled with concern. “You won’t see him again.”
9
Mysteries and Murder
LUKE
Iheld my breath as I stood outside the pack office, listening for voices or movement. But the only sounds I heard were from the training ground in the compound yard. The Games were still days away, but the other packs had begun arriving for the Conclave, filling every spare room, even here in the Pack House. This hallway was off-limits to anyone, except the Southern Alpha, his Head Enforcer, and me.
Of course, I was meant to be hunting for Flor, bringing her to justice. That wasn’t what I was doing, though. Today, I was going to bring justice down on my pack’s heads for her. The mate I’d longed for. The mate I’d failed.
I took a deep breath and knocked on the office door. “Dad?” I called out softly. I knew he had a meeting with Van Blackside and the visiting Enforcers, but it paid to double check.
The other Heirs had arrived the day before, and I’d only had a moment alone to speak with Glen, to share the evidence I’d been slowly gathering on our pack’s financial misdeeds. Glen had told me I needed more conclusive evidence of Dad’s knowledge of the crimes to get the Council to remove him.
If he was gone, Flor would be safe. She could leave here, make a new life. I wasn’t foolish enough to dream that I could ever court her. How could I earn her forgiveness for everything I’d done—and hadn’t done—to protect her?
The place inside me that had recognized her when we were both still children ached, as always. My wolf howled to go to her, snarling that she would only be safe if I was there to watch over her. But I knew she was safer in the woods, wherever she was hiding today, and my wolf was too weak to force me to go to her side.
I focused on my task instead. The door was locked, but I had a key Dad didn’t know about. I was in charge of the pack’s investments, and I was damned good at it. Dad was responsible for disbursement, making sure money went to the wolves who earned it. He had divided the financial labor between us years before, though his work required him to be in the field more often. Of course, “in the field” frequently meant in his bedroom, fucking one or sometimes more of the pack’s females.
Confident that Dad was nowhere around, I opened the door and stopped, stunned at the two bare desks. The laptop I used for all my pack work was missing, and so was the Alpha’s. They were nowhere in the room, only the dust-free squares in the middle of the polished wood surfaces giving any hint that they had been removed.
