Chapter 1 - Kane
Kane wasn't sure why he stood outside Jack's office, listening—eavesdropping, even—but his feet didn't seem able to move. He had been on his way out to stretch his legs, but the scent of human in the manor intrigued him. It wasn't often the humans of Nightstar dared set foot inside the manor.
Of course, they had no idea that their town was being run by werewolves—nor did they have any idea what had happened to their last ‘mayor’, the previous alpha of the pack—but save for a few bumps in the road, things had transitioned fairly smoothly. Most of the humans seemed to have a good sense for staying within their lane.
But it seemed not all did, since he heard the sound of raised voices within the office. “Mr. Ryker promised he would see my debts dissolved if I gave him my daughter.”
Bile rose in the back of Kane's throat.
“Gave him your daughter for what?” Jack's voice was low and calm, but there was an edge of warning, one that the other man might not be able to pick up. Kane was certain he hadn't. Humans, especially human men, weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.
Kane cringed. Once he had been one of them, though he tried hard not to think about that. It had been an entirely different life, one he did not wish to go back to, and one that he would never admit to his pack. To them, he was just another born and bred werewolf. They need not know any differently.
But having humans in the manor brought back things Kane would rather forget, and he tried to make his way past the door, unsure what was stopping him.
“For marriage, of course!” the human bellowed. “What else for?”
Kane’s jaw clenched.
“Mr. Peters, let me make one thing very clear to you,” Jack's tone was deeper now, more aggressive. “Any debt you had to the previous mayor of Nightstar is already dissolved, and any deal you had with him, also.”
Silence fell over the room, and Kane hoped that would be the end of it. But then he heard a feminine voice whisper, “Go on, Michael, you got us into this.”
Likely the woman hadn't meant for anyone to hear but this Michael, but what she wasn't aware of was the fact any werewolf in the house that cared to listen could probably hear what she had just whispered.
“Did you have something more you wished to discuss, Mr. Peters?” Jack asked, and Kane could picture him sitting high and mighty at his brand-new oak desk with his hands clasped before him and an unreadable expression on his face.
Mr. Peters cleared his throat.
“Go on, Michael,” the woman urged again.
“Don't order me about, woman!” Michael snapped so harshly that Kane ground his teeth. The harsh tone of his voice suggested this wasn't an isolated event. This Michael was used to speaking in such a manner.
He could picture him, too. Greasy, sleazy, and downright trailer trash, a glassy look in his eye and sweat upon his brow. He could already smell the sweat and the fear; it didn't take much to guess the rest.
“Mr. Blackwell, my debt to the mayor wasn't the only one I had,” Michael said, and Kane's stomach twisted. “I owe a lot of people a whole lot of money, and Mr. Ryker was kind enough to agree to help me out if—”
“If you sold your daughter to him,” Jack growled, and Kane, sensing his alpha's disgust, was unable to stop from baring his fangs.
His own father had been the kind of man willing to just about anything to anyone so long as it saved his own skin. It had been one of the reasons Kane found himself where he was now; though he was much better off for it, it didn't change the fact his early years had been pure torment.
“If that's how you want to think of it, yeah,” Michael said, and even through the wall, Kane sensed the tension in the room growing prickly. “And I'll not be ashamed of that fact. We fell on hard times, and a man has got to do what a man has got to do!”
Kane fought the urge to barge into the room, take him by the throat and tell him that he was no man. No man would try to sell his own flesh and blood.
“Be that as it may, Mr. Peters, we aren't in the business of buying and selling women,” Jack said, his chair scraping the floor as he stood. “I think it's best you and your wife leave.”
“Mr. Blackwell, don't think we don't see you,” Michael said menacingly.
Kane's hackles rose. His tone was not one Jack would take lightly.
“Excuse me?” Jack growled.
“Michael!” his wife hissed under her breath.
But Michael did not appear to hear the warning in his wife's voice. Kane would be surprised if a man like that gave her any acknowledgment at all.
“I am well aware that you and your ‘friends’ here are very wealthy,” Michael said, and for the first time since their meeting had started, Kane heard Zander growl low in his throat.