Page 15 of Ascension of the Pack

I didn’t know the names of the wolves that had died – not yet – but they were stillmine.All wolves were, and it was time I started acting on it.

I had calls to make.

Chapter 9

Debbie, Tarkers and Wakado arrived the next day; they must have dropped everything to come running and, as Queen, I appreciated their haste and show of loyalty. As requested, this time they came alone. Greg hustled them into my office with Jacob in tow, and I summoned Ben to join us.

When we were all in my office, I began. ‘Thanks for coming here, gentlemen. It seems only right that you are part of this since most of you were with me when I went to see the Librarian. In some ways that started it all. I’ll tell you a little about the question I asked, and what it means for us.’

I sat back in my big-boss chair. ‘I can’t tell you the specifics of the question or the answer, so we’re going to speak in broad terms. I had a conversation about the lost orb.’

‘The Orbof Lochlan,’ Wakado breathed, leaning forward.

‘Right, that’s the one. It’s time for a little history, which you may or may not know, so apologies if I’m teaching a dragon to hoard.’ I cleared my throat. ‘The orb, when combined with the seat of power, allowed the seat of power to speak to all wolves. Not only that, it allowed the seat of power to connect to the Great Pack in order to release our wolves’ souls back to it. Finally, the orb allowed wolves to access their dormant air powers.

‘The orb’s importance can’t be overstated. We’re lucky in that Nina – the seat of power – can still send souls to the Great Pack by using muscle memory, but without the orb she can’t speak to other wolves except for me and David. Equally importantly, without it we can’t access our lost air powers.’ I had to tread carefully here. I couldn’t mention the Third realm to anyone who didn’t know about it, and the others only had one triangle on their head. ‘For that reason, with the Librarian’s help, we managed to identify the thief.’ I kept things deliberately vague. Wakado’s eyebrow went up a little, but he didn’t ask questions; he knew better.

‘I recognised the family line right away,’ Greg interjected. He was still glancing at the security console as he spoke. ‘He was a Hunter, one of Geneve’sbrethren.’

‘Geneve the ancient, powerful dragon Elder who just removed Emory from power?’ Debbie asked faintly.

‘One and the same,’ I agreed. ‘And for the record she’s a total bitch, which is why I have absolutely zero compunction in stealing something from her. Especially something that shouldn’t have been hers to begin with.’

There was a knock on the door and David poked his head into the room. ‘Sorry,’ he said when he saw everyone gathered in my office. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and pointed at the security desk. ‘I was just coming to man the console.’

Greg considered it. ‘Probably a good idea, then my focus doesn’t need to be divided.’ He jerked his head towards the desk. David scurried to sit down and started clicking his way through various camera views.

I trusted David. When we’d been trying to identify the Domini mole by putting a camera in the pack lounge to see who came to check if a rose had been placed on the mantlepiece, he’d gone to bed early. Plus, he’d been horrified at the destruction of the garden and his plants. It had obviously been agony for him to watch his hard work go up in flames.

‘Discretion is required,’ I said to him.

He nodded. ‘Of course, Alpha.’ He turned back to thescreen.

Greg turned away from the console to face us as I started speaking again. ‘Geneve stole the orb from us, and now we’re going to steal it back.’

‘It’s not theft if she stole it from us in the first place, Your Maj,’ Tarkers objected. ‘It is reacquisition.’

I smiled at him. ‘Call it what you will – I couldn’t give a fuck. The point is that the orb is ours and we’re going to get it.’

I nodded to Greg and he took over the briefing. ‘As you know, I am former brethren. As such, I’ve been privy to a great deal of sensitive information over the years, sensitive information that we can now use.’

Debbie grinned. ‘I like the way this is going.’

‘Me too.’ Tarkers smirked and rubbed his hands in mock glee.

‘Like all Elders, Geneve has grown more paranoid with age, and for us that’s a good thing. She no longer protects her hoard with runes because she doesn’t trust the witches.’

Tarkers made a noise of disbelief. ‘For real?’

‘Indeed,’ Greg confirmed. ‘She’s also made plenty of enemies during her long life. She has sticky fingers, and we’re not the only ones she has stolen from. By all accounts, she’s also taken a precious dwarven artefact that they want to get back.’

Wakado sat back. ‘Now we’re cooking. If she doesn’t use runes anymore, we can use the dwarves to tunnel right into the hoard.’

Greg grinned. ‘Bingo.’

‘Why haven’t they gone after their treasures themselves?’ Tarkers asked dubiously.

‘They don’t know she’s stopped runing,’ Greg replied. ‘About sixty years ago the dwarves tried to recover the artefact but they were unsuccessful.’

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