Page 12 of Protected By Artemis

“No, I’m fine.” She sat up straighter in the chair. If Cade thought he could scare her away with violence, well, he had another thing coming. After all, she was a goddess, not to mention a veteran of a bloody war between the gods and their enemies, the Titans. “But surely there’s some kind of balance and checks in place? Otherwise, shifter society would fall into chaos?”

“That’s why we need evidence, my lady,” Xavier said. “Solid, incontestable proof before accusing anyone, or the other packs will come after us.”

“But why would you immediately assume it’s another pack? Is this a common occurrence among shifters?”

“Who else would it be?” Cade’s nostrils flared. “The humans don’t know about us; we hardly interact outside the pack or ourgeneral area. This was personal. They targeted us, possibly Geri in particular, since they chose to bomb us during her mating ceremony. Unless your brother has an enemy we don’t know about?”

“No one hates my brother enough to send him a bomb. Besides, Apollo doesn’t mingle in affairs outside Olympus, and another god wouldn’t think to use an explosive to kill another god.”No, they would definitely be more precise and elegant than that.

“In any case, other packs are a logical place to start,” Xavier reasoned. “Once we rule out any obvious suspects, we can start expanding our search.”

Artemis quickly got to her feet and walked over to the whiteboard, picking up a blue marker. “And who’s your main suspect so far?”

“It has to be Asher, right, Xavier?”

“He’s on top of the list. Makes most sense that?—”

Squeak.

“Oops!” Her hand stopped in the middle of writing the H, the marker poised on the surface of the whiteboard.“Sorry, keep going. But who’s Asher?”

The two men exchanged meaningful glances before Cade spoke. “He’s the Alpha I arranged for Geri to marry.”

The marker hit the floor with an audibleplink. “Excuse me?” she said, her voice filled with indignation. “You tried to get Geri into an arranged marriage?”

“It’s a pack thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

She waited for an explanation, but it didn’t look like either man would oblige her.

“Besides, it didn’t happen anyway.” Cade placed both his palms on top of his desk.

“He didn’t take it too well, I’m guessing,” Artemis said.

“At first, he wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept demanding to meet with her to change her mind. Then when he found out she left pack territory, he tried to get me to reveal her location. Ever since then, he’s been a thorn in my side.” Cade gritted his teeth. “We do a lot of business down in his territory, and he’s been doing whatever he can to interfere.”

Artemis tapped the back of the marker on her chin. “But would he go as far as trying to bomb her wedding?”

Cade shrugged. “Who knows? But so far, he’s had the most motive.”

“Ah.” She scribbled down ‘motive – failed arranged mating to Geri’ next to Asher’s name. “Hmmm…do the other wolf packs know about the whole Asher thing?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Well.” Replacing the cap on the marker, she spun around to face them. “Then it would be easy to pin the crime on Asher, right? Since everyone knows he pretty much has it in for you and your pack.”

“True.” Cade’s mouth twisted.

“But that could mean any of the Alphas could be responsible and hoping that you’d look at Asher first. Are there any other packs who might want to do this?”

“A few,” Cade conceded. “Which is why we’re here. We need to narrow it down.”

“How many shifter groups are there?”

“In total? About three hundred or so all over the world. And that’s just the wolf packs. It would be logical to start with the ones in the US, since we do a lot of business with them,” Cade suggested. “And they would have the most to gain if something happened to our pack. Or to me.”

“Why so?”

“Cade doesn’t have an heir who can take over if something happens to him. We’d be sitting ducks without an Alpha,” Xaviersaid, which earned him a glare from Cade. Quickly, he lowered his head. “Alpha, forgive?—”

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