Page 151 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

“Of course not, sir.” The face of the guard stretched into a smile. He extended his hand to my mate. His black clothes were crisp with no signs of wrinkles, and his matching black hat sat on dark chestnut hair that spilled from the edges. The hat was marked with a crescent of two buildings and an upside-down paw print above it, the logo for Shadow City. “My name is Lars. We’ve been searching for you.”

“For me?” Griffin tapped his chest. “Why?”

“Because Carter called, informing us that Dove disappeared,” Dick said, as he gestured to me. “And then you couldn’t be found.”

“Did you expect him to just sit back and twiddle his thumbs when his fated mate had gone missing?” I asked. I bet he hadn’t. In fact, I’d have wagered that he’d hoped that Griffin got hurt along with me. I mean, here he was, in the middle of the night, dressed to the nines. He’d put time and thought into what he wore on campus, which signaled some kind of power play. “Would you wait around if your mate went missing?”

“Probably,” Killian chuckled, causing Dick to flick his gaze to the back seat. However, Killian didn’t miss a beat as he continued, “They’re chosen, anyway, so they don’t have as strong of a connection.”

I bit my cheek, desperate to find a way to keep my smirk from spreading. Killian had pretended to justify why Dick wouldn’t feel as passionate about his wife by effectively reminding everyone that he had a chosen mate rather than a fated one. Every shifter knew that a fated mate made a person stronger in a way that a chosen mate never could. He’d weakened Dick’s status compared to Griffin’s with me by his side.

“That doesn’t make a difference.” Dick’s nostrils flared as he glowered. “I’d...” He trailed off.

He and his mate barely get along.Griffin linked.They’re good at pretending, but behind closed doors, they’re awful.They live next door to my family in Shadow City, and we can hear them yelling through the walls. But Dad and I never confronted Dick about it.

That was information that I could hold close to use when it might be advantageous. Sometimes, keeping the tidbits quiet helped make a bigger impact later when you needed it. For now, Killian had sufficiently called Dick out, and I didn’t want to anger the beast more than he already was. He might explode…

Hmm…that made it so much more tempting.

“Well, he’s here,” I said. If we kept pushing Dick, he could play the victim, claiming that he’d stormed the halls, looking for their alpha, and all we’d done was show up and insult him. He’d use whatever he could to cast Griffin in a bad light to prove that he wasn’t fit to actually lead. “And thank you for your concern. It’s nice to know that Griffin has people who have his back.” I smiled sweetly because I knew Dick understood that I hadn’t been referring to him, but rather to myself and Killian. He’d soon learn he wasn’t the only one able to play the nice guy.

“Of course.” He forced a smile, but all it accomplished was making him look constipated.

“So, what happened, sir?” Lars took a few steps closer.

If we wanted to sniff out who was behind all of this, we’d have to be vague and keep our ears alert. That way, if anyone knew more specific details, we could identify them. I needed to be careful and make sure I didn’t say anything that could be a lie. “We’re not sure, exactly,” I said before Griffin could answer Lars. “Someone put a bag over my head, so I couldn’t see much, but I know my kidnappers drove me about an hour east from here. Luckily, these two guys”—I beamed at Griffin and then Killian—“found me before anything truly horrible happened.”

“Oh, man.” Lars’s sea-green eyes sparkled with admiration. “You’re lucky that they found you in time. Do we need to go check out the area? And what’s with the rental car?”

“We don’t have jurisdiction over that area,” Dick growled. “So unfortunately, we can’t check it out. The last thing we need to do is get more involved and make our city a target.”

Of course Dick didn’t want us to check it out. Every meeting with him made him more suspicious than the last.

“Are you sure the city is a target? Or is it just my mate?” Griffin asked, his brows furrowed.

Don’t push too hard.We didn’t want to alert Dick that we were suspicious of him.He needs to hang himself naturally.

Dick laughed loudly.

Fine, I’ll let him off the hook, Griffin replied. “As for the rental,we thought it’d be nice to have something different so people couldn’t easily identify us.” He shrugged and reached over the center console, taking my hand as he stared lovingly at me. “Good thing we had the crazy idea, or we might not have been able to track her, since they’d probably have recognized my car.”

“You’re going to have a hard time returning it.” Lars gestured to the back of the SUV. “You have at least three bullet holes on this side.”

An older man ran out the front door of the school, heading straight to the car, his bald head glistening in the moonlight. A brown shirt with the Shadow Ridge crest of a paw print on the front covered his large, muscular chest. He was only slightly smaller than Griffin, which meant he was huge by wolf standards. His face was lined with concern as he beelined to us. “Are they okay?”

“Yeah, Billy.” Killian’s voice softened to the tone he only used for me. “Sorry if we caused a problem.”

“As long as you three are safe, that’s all that matters,” he replied. Goodness radiated off him, especially standing next to Dick. This must be the man who’d been holding things down on the Shadow Ridge side since Killian’s parents passed.

“Well, as you can see, they are.” Dick nodded curtly at us. “So you and the other guards are dismissed.” He wrinkled his nose as if speaking to Billy was beneath him.

Billy lifted his chin, and his acorn eyes narrowed. “Shadow Ridge guards were here before Shadow City’s personnel. If—”

“Now listen here.” Dick pivoted toward the beta, looking ready to unleash the rage he was barely containing.

Do something,I encouraged Griffin. It was important for him to be the one to put Dick in his place, not me. The Shadow City guards needed to see their true leader take control.We should be one pack, not divided.I must have sounded like a broken record, but going against the established norm was hard. I finally understood how Dad had felt all those times our pack rolled their eyes at him being insistent the day would come when we’d need to fight and protect not only our own kind, but the entire supernatural world. None of us had believed it because nothing had happened for centuries. Now here I was, harping at the guys, trying to encourage them to embrace change.

Maybe nagging them was more accurate, but…harping sounded alittlebetter.

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