Page 8 of An Unexpected Claim

The whole situation gave me a headache, but as the head of both Councils, I had obligations to fulfill. Besides, having lived through and fought in countless wars, rebellions, uprisings, and many other conflicts, I was well equipped to deal with all the bullshit, as well as legitimate issues.

The fact that I ran a well-known security company, King Black Ops Consulting, or KBO, didn’t hurt either. We also had a division that developed new technology for weapons and protective gear. My connections extended farther than most people would believe was possible.

I set the stack aside and worked for another couple of hours before buzzing Willa’s intercom.

When she came into the office, I separated two folders and handed them to her. “I need to get home and back to work, but I want to meet with those two first. Later this week. We can do it via teleconference, but I want them on HQ premises when it happens. I just need a couple of days to run an even more thorough sweep on them at KBO. I’ll take the rest with me and we can work our way through the pile,”

“Got it.” Willa nodded and took the proffered folders, then pivoted on her heel and glided across the room. She exited into our waiting area and turned left to head to her office, which was two doors down from mine.

Wandering over to the chessboard, I stared at the configuration while deep in thought. Finally, I returned to my desk and scribbled a note before gathering my things. On my way out the door, I dropped the note onto the table by the game.

On my way to the parking lot, my mind drifted back to my time with Peyton and one corner of my mouth inched up. Last night—and this morning—had been seriously hot. The best sex I’d ever had. In another world, I might have chased her sexy ass until she agreed to be my mate. But despite our compatibility in bed, our personalities clashed. Still, she’d been on the periphery of my mind all day. My wolf pushed at me, wanting more of her. Something about her was sticking with us, but I didn’t know what.

* * *

“Tanner,” I greeted my Beta as I opened the front door to my house. I’d been on my way to the kitchen when I’d spotted him coming up the stonework steps and gone to meet him at the door.

“Alpha. Welcome back.”

I grunted and stepped aside to allow him to enter. He waited while I shut the door, then followed me to the large, open kitchen where I tossed him a beer from the refrigerator. As I popped the top of my bottle and took a swig, I studied Tanner. He was almost as tall as me, but that was where any similarities ended. His short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a muscular—but not bulky—build were pretty much my complete opposite. However, we meshed well as Alpha and Beta, as well as friends.

At that moment, he looked agitated, though I doubted most would’ve picked up on it. I didn’t need to tap into his mind to tell either. I was very good at reading people, an ability that had served me well in my lifetime. I preferred not to dig around in the minds of my pack, giving them their privacy, just as I had mine. I mostly used it to communicate with my enforcers, though there were times when it became necessary to use it in other ways.

I motioned for Tanner to follow me once more and led him to the side of the cabin that housed my home office. He sat on a couch that faced my desk—one of two in the room because I often had long meetings, particularly with my enforcers. There were also a couple of comfortable leather chairs and I dropped into one of those. I took another drink and brought a foot up to rest the ankle on the opposite knee. I held my bottle on the bent leg and scrutinized my Beta. “Report.” I’d only been gone three days, but I still liked to keep on top of anything I might have missed.

“Nothing new in the pack. But there’s been some chatter about issues between the Castile and Rossberg packs again.”

“What’s that asshole up to now?” I growled. Xavier Castile had been a pain in the ass since he became the pack alpha at twenty. Sixty-five years and he’d only become more of a problem. I’d never liked him as a person, but he’d gone off the fucking deep end a little over thirty years ago when his daughter, and only child, had died. I’d heard it was during childbirth, but there were no reports of a grandchild and he’d never confirmed one way or the other. Just the mention of the Castile pack sent my wolf into a fit of growling and gnashing his teeth. He’d wanted a bite out of the son of a bitch for a long time. I calmed him with the promise that we’d get our claws in him eventually.

“His usual bullshit.” Tanner downed the rest of his beer and set the bottle on a table next to the couch. “Mainly border disputes. You know how power hungry he is. However, my sources tell me that a few more packs in the area have lost members to ‘hunting accidents’.”

My brow furrowed as I absorbed the information. Reports of shifters being killed by hunters were not new to me, especially when said shifters resided in areas like the South where the activity thrived. Upstate New York didn’t exactly have a plethora of places for hunting, nor was it a big sport here. It did happen sporadically, but there had been at least ten in the last four months, which was double the amount we’d ever had in a single year. The majority had been members of packs that were within miles of the Castile wolves. My gut told me Xavier was involved, but so far, I’d been unable to link him to the incidents in any way other than proximity.

The Castile pack had built a reputation for their prejudice and overly harsh punishments by the Alpha. Around twenty years ago, word had reached me about a child who’d been treated as an outcast within the pack. I would have attempted to step in, but by the time I heard about it, the kid had vanished. Once again, no one would confirm or deny the child’s existence. I’d dug around, but the trail had been so thoroughly swept away that even my best people hadn’t managed to pick up on it. After that, I’d kept a much closer eye on the Alpha and his pack members. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to justify ridding the world of Xavier.Yet.

He was exactly the type of scum I spent my life trying to destroy. My wolf approved wholeheartedly, brushing his fur against my skin in solidarity.

I’d grown up in privilege, my father beingdvoryanstvo—Russian nobility. But he’d taught me to be open-minded, to see all people as my equal, and to fight for those who faced injustice.

My activities in the pursuit of freedom for the oppressed had eventually driven us from our home and country to settle in upstate New York and establish the Silver Lake Pack. It hadn’t stopped me though. Even the nearly fatal wound that had left me with the scar on my arm hadn’t been able to stop me from fighting. Over the years, I’d continued to protect and defend—establishing KBO had a great deal to do with my desire to right the wrongs of the world and when I’d taken over from my father as alpha, it had given me the tools I needed to continue working toward a higher cause without abandoning my pack. I’d developed my own moral compass along the way, and sometimes fighting for right meant crossing lines. I had plenty of blood on my hands, but it hadn’t been spilt arbitrarily. I never did things on impulse, so, although each incident stained my soul a little more, I had no regrets.

Peyton filtered through my mind again as I swallowed down the rest of my beer. But I moved on from thoughts of her when Tanner brought up KBO business. He’d been with me from the beginning and held the position of COO. There was no one I trusted more to lead, both the pack and the company, whenever I was needed elsewhere.

“I emailed you the dossiers of some possible recruits,” Tanner started. “As well as ones for the IT position we need filled.”The Information Technology department was the label we gave to our computer specialists—or hackers.

I grunted as I stood and rounded my desk to sit down, setting my empty bottle off to the side. Finding new recruits was a task I actually enjoyed. However, finding a replacement for our best hacker—who’d retired at the ripe old age of twenty-five—had been impossible. Not one of the candidates had even been able to break through the KBO firewall. We’d put out feelers on the dark web, but so far, none of the cyberpunks were willing to tie themselves to one company.

I opened the files on my computer and we began to go through them one by one, but were interrupted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I dug it out and glanced at the screen, not at all happy to see the name Dana Klimmer on the screen. The Assistant Chief Medical Examiner of New York never called with good news. My wolf rumbled and pushed against me, picking up on the darkening of my mood.

Though most humans were unaware of our existence, the ones on the ISC had established relationships with some high-ranking officials in major cities and the federal government to make sure it stayed that way. Dana’s boss happened to be one of them and since Dana was a wolf shifter, supernatural cases were handed off to her.

“Dana,” I answered in a neutral tone.

She sighed. “Do you always have to sound like you just received a terminal diagnosis when I call?”

One corner of my mouth kicked up. “When you call me with positive news, perhaps I’ll answer the phone with glee next time.”

Dana snorted. “I’m surprised you even know the word ‘glee,’ Nathan. I doubt you’d know it if you felt it.”

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