Page 33 of Vicious Wolf Mate

“So, what are you up to these days Mace? Seems you’ve been a bit busy.” Drario teases.

This shifter that sits before me now is a far cry from the cruel man who ordered me beat to within an inch of my life only a few minutes earlier. Now his look is more like that of a juvenile delinquent, tough but harmless.

“I guess you’ve been busy as well. Too busy to reach out to your old friend it seems.” Mace replies.

Drario sighs. “When the old man died, everything went to shit.” he says.

“Who killed him?” Mace asks.

“No one,” Drario replies. “One minute pops was here, then boom he was gone. The doctors claim it was a heart attack, but no one here believes that.” Drario scoffs.

“He was in perfect health. No history of heart problems. It just doesn’t make sense.” Drario finishes, shaking his head.

“How long ago did he pass?” I ask worriedly.

“Nearly nine years ago,” Drario replies.

“It was probably the microchip.” I huff.

“Huh,” Drario says. “What microchip?”

I sigh, taking a deep breath. “Insignys.” I begin. “Nine years ago, they implanted a microchip into each and every single shifter. Even the pups.”

“What,” Drario hisses. I watch as his knuckles go white.

“Now the purpose of these chips was supposed to be tracking,” I hurriedly continue. “But a kill routine was also programmed into them. At any point in time, any Insignys employee with the proper credentials can activate the command and…lights out.” I finish with a snap of my fingers for emphasis.

“What the hell!” Drario cries out at the same time Mace shouts “you didn’t mention a fucking kill switch.”

Even the shifter medic who has since moved onto tightly wrapping my sprained arm, snorts in disbelief.

“Rumor was my father requested a few tests before he would declare operation wolf collar complete. My guess is that your father, Drario, was one of those tests.”

“So, they killed him, and threw my clan into chaos, just to prove their barbaric creation worked!” Drario yells.

“Yes.” I reply simply.

Drario howls and flings his chair across the room. The shrieking metallic sound of the chair slamming into the wall silences the room.

Drario is now mid-shift and appears to be teetering on the edge of sanity. I begin worrying that my brusk, rip-off-the-Band-Aid manner of delivering the news wasn’t the best approach.

“We are going after them, Drario.” Mace whispers. “We’re going to take the whole damn system down.” He adds.

Drario’s focus narrows on Mace.

Mace spreads his arms wide and calls out to the room. “I declare a truce. No more will members of the Big Sky Clan war with our brothers of the Sand Rock Clan. Instead, we will attack our true enemy, Insignys.”

“What do you say brother? Will you join us?” Mace asks, lowering his voice.

The room remains deathly silent, no one so much as moves as all eyes focus on Drario.

This moment is huge I think to myself. It would be awesome if we could add the power of Drario’s people to our ragtag rescue/takedown operation. As it stands, I’m not super hopeful our little foursome has much hope standing against the might of my father’s organization.

“No,” Drario finally replies, his voice booming through the silent room.

23

MACE

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