Page 3 of Shadow of Fury

His father, on the other hand, did not.

As Pack Alpha, Byron had the ability to use his wolf’s voice to give orders. Pack members could fight those orders but it was painful and nearly impossible to break the hold of one. Most Pack Alpha’s only used that special gift in the most dire of circumstances, to control a rogue wolf or help their pack to shift or heal when they couldn’t manage it themselves. Their father, on the other hand, had always used it whenever it would benefit him and Logan knew better than anyone the damage it could do.

“I should kill him for everything he’s done.” he growled but his sister only shook her head.

“He’s dying anyway and I don’t want patricide on your conscience for the rest of your life.”

“He’s dying.” Logan blew out a rough breath, glancing back at the house where the door was wide open but his father was nowhere in sight. “Out of everything he said, that much, at least, seems true.”

“He does look like he’s dying, but I think there’s more to the story.” Vivian reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Find Dominic. Find out what Dad isn’t telling us. After all this time, there has to be a reason he made Dominic call now, right?”

Logan stared at his smart little sister and sighed because he knew she was right. Again. She wasn’t the little girl he liked to think of her as, not anymore. Maybe she hadn't been since that night six years ago when she’d left everything she’d ever known with him. She hadn’t asked not once in all that time why they had to flee their hometown, but it was clear now that she needed some answers, just as much as he needed the truth to come to light.

It was time, wasn’t that what he’d been telling himself the whole drive back to Shadow Pines?

He finally nodded, “Okay. We’ll stay, at least until we get some answers.”

“Yeah?” Vivian looked surprised but hopeful.

“Yeah.” He motioned to the house, “You check on Mom. Ask questions. Figure out whatever you can about what Dad is up to. I’ll go back into town, find Dominic, and try to get some answers of my own.”

“Thank you.” Vivian smiled softly.

“Don’t thank me yet. This could all turn out very, very badly.”

“I know.” She assured him but the truth was, she didn’t know, not really, and he couldn’t tell her, not yet. “Be safe out there.”

“I’ll be back for you as soon as I can and I have my phone if you…”

“Logan…” she groaned, “I’m twenty-three, not thirteen. I can take care of myself.”

Vivian turned and headed for the house and Logan tried to keep his breathing even as she waved before she shut the door behind her. Every instinct he had said he should charge inside, grab her and hit the road again but he held tight to his control. If Vivian could face their parents, the least he could do was find his best friend and figure out what was really going on here.

Logan looked up at the moon that was just rising high above his head. He was home. Finally. And now, he had work to do.

CHAPTER TWO

It had taken her years to get this far, to get this close. Six years and eight months to be exact. She had started plotting and planning as soon as her grief had allowed her a chance to breathe. She had spent years working her way towards her goal, ignoring anything and everything that might distract her. She had been a one-woman, justice seeking missile and now, she was finally going to uncover the truth of what had happened to her sister.

Wren Culvert had imagined this moment a thousand times but none of her daydreams lived up to the real thing. Her heart was racing. Her blood rushed through her ears so fast and hard it was deafening. Her mouth was dry and when she raised her fingers to her lips she found her hands were shaking with the burst of adrenaline and anticipation.

If there was proof that the Kemp family was responsible for Lark’s death, if the Pack Alpha had helped his son cover up her murder, odds were good the proof was somewhere in his private office.

She’d worked her ass off to get the secretarial job in Alpha Kemp’s office when it became available. She had bribed others not to apply. She had threatened even more. She had played the role of an awed young pack member grateful simply to be in the presence of a great leader and hidden her inner disgust for the gross old man who looked down her shirt and always found ways to brush up against her.

She’d ignored his innuendos. She’d laughed off his slimy remarks. She had smiled and preened instead of baring her teeth and ripping his throat out. And she’d done it all with nothing but the hope that someday she would get this chance, that he would leave her alone in the office without locking the inner door, and she’d be able to scour his private files for the proof she needed to confirm what she’d always known.

Logan Kemp had murdered her sister.

The story coming out of the Kemp house had been that Lark snuck over to be with Logan that night, which Wren knew to be a fact since her sister had told her she was going to see her boyfriend. It hadn’t been an odd occurrence, not until the next morning when Wren woke up and Lark still wasn’t home. That was when the story had stopped making sense to her because the Kemps had said Lark drowned in the pool but Wren knew her sister had been a strong swimmer. There was no way she could have simply drowned in a shallow pool, and if she’d jumped in and hit her head like some people said, then where had Logan been and why hadn’t he pulled her out and called for help? Why had nobody noticed Lark floating in the pool until the next morning? It didn’t make sense.

The Kemp family had been covering something up. She was sure of it. And Logan leaving town immediately after the funeral had only confirmed his guilt in Wren’s eyes. He had done something to her sister. His father had covered it up. And he’d run away like a scared little boy to keep his secret from ever coming out. But he couldn’t run forever and when she found her proof, she was going to track him down and make him pay for ruining her family.

When Alpha Kemp had gone storming out of the office earlier, she couldn’t believe her luck. She’d been trying to find evidence of what really happened that night for years but she’d only been the Alpha’s secretary for seven months. In that time he had never once left her alone in the office without locking his door behind him and though she’d like to think that she had won his trust she assumed the open door had more to do with his rush to get home because he wasn’t feeling well than anything.

The Alpha was sick. She’d been listening to his hacking coughs and wheezing breaths for months now. She’d watched as he lost weight and his color turned blue-gray. She’d noted the changes in him and wondered why he wasn’t healing, how he was sick at all when most shifters never got so much as a cold due to their healing powers. But if anyone else in the pack had noticed they weren’t saying anything so she’d kept her mouth shut and her head down, only stopping to wonder if whatever he had was contagious when she was halfway through scouring his file cabinet.

If what he had was catching, she’d probably end up with it too after being in his office, going through his things, but she couldn’t force herself to worry about a possible life-threatening illness right now, not when she finally found a locked drawer in the bottom of the Alpha’s desk.

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