Page 39 of Wulf's Pack
I’m grateful for his insight. He’s never been a member of a sleuth, but he’s worked in security for decades. Frankly, I got lucky when he joined. I need him. I spent my youth training to be beta of my pack. I have a good bit of knowledge, but I hated my position and never took it that seriously before I finally gave it up alogether and left the pack.
“We’ll take any advantage we can get,” I say. “If they’re a small, well-trained army, we don’t have the manpower for a direct fight. We’ll have to get creative. Find ways to turn them against each other. They won’t have time to worry about us if they’re fighting amongst themselves. And if we can dwindle their numbers any, all the better. How loyal are they to one another and their alpha?”
Skylar shakes her head. “His inner circle, the original twelve of his pack, are loyal to the core. They’ll die for Victor. The others…” She shrugs. “They like the money and power Victor’s pack gives them, but they’re not much better than a group of rogues.”
“So we take away the money and the power,” Bree says.
I consider her. I can see the intelligence in her eyes. She’s sharp. And she moves like a fighter. “What’s your background?” I ask her. “Have you ever been a member of a pack before?I know cougars are usually solitary. Have you got experience working with a group like this?”
She sits back and shakes her head. “I’m sorry, no. You’re right: Cougars are extremely solitary. I never knew my father, and I moved away from my mother as soon as I was old enough to break out on my own. I work in computer science as a video game developer. I can fight, though,” she says a little defensively, as if needing to validate her place in the pack. “After my ex beat the shit out of me, I started taking self-defense lessons from a panther. I’m trained in human mixed martial arts, and in my cat form as well. I’m also trained with guns and knives.”
Wanting to put her at ease, I say, “I’m glad to have another fighter, but having someone handy with a computer is also a huge asset to a pack. We’re lucky to have you.”
Surprise flashes in her eyes, and she relaxes again. I grin at her. “Video games? You need to meet my ex-clan brother, Oliver. He’ll geek out over the video game thing and teach you just how useful computer knowledge can be.”
Bree sits forward, interested. “Hacker?”
I smirk. “Not officially.”
Carl snorts.
Bree meets my smirk with an understanding nod. Then she sits back again and gives me a casual shrug while examining her fingernails. “I wouldn’t say no to that meeting. I dabble on the dark side of the computer world occasionally, but I’m hardly an expert.”
My grin turns to a full-fledged smile. “I’ll set it up as soon as we get through this crisis.”
There’s a beat of silence, then Preston raises his hand. I want to laugh. This isn’t school. But I don’t want to embarrass him or discourage him from chiming in. None of the Kellers have spoken much. “What’s up?” I ask him.
He sucks his lips between his teeth as if nervous to say what’s on his mind. I give him an encouraging nod, and he clears his throat. He looks at Bree. “How much dabbling on the dark side can you do? Could you possibly get into the pack’s financial records? If they’re working in so many illegal revenue streams, they’ve got to be laundering the money somehow. If I could look at their books, I could probably find enough evidence to bring it to the FUA. They would freeze their assets.”
I grin so wide my face hurts. Pride for my small, resourceful pack wells up in me. “That’s an excellent idea.” One I never would have thought of on my own. I glance at Bree. She’s lost in thought. “I could try,” she says, “but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“We don’t need to hack in,” Skylar says. “I was Victor’s prize possession. He took me everywhere—ready to use my gifts to get people relaxed so he could manipulate them into doing his bidding. I was in on every meeting, including the ones with his accountant. I paid attention, hoping one day I could escape and take him down. I know his banking account logins and passwords. Most of his records are probably localized to his office computer, but could you get what you need from his online banking accounts? He used the ski lodge as his front.”
Preston considers this and slowly nods. “I can probably find something. Maybe not how he’s moving the money, but enough to flag him by the IRS. Enough to make them look into him. Along with your testimony, they’ll freeze his accounts for sure.”
“If you know so much about his operation,” Elise says, “couldn’t we just go to the FUA? Couldn’t they do some kind of raid?”
I nod, but Skylar’s shoulders sag and she sighs. “I considered this, but Victor is crafty and careful. He’s got a whole team of lawyers who could make things difficult, and he’s always got an escape plan. The FUA has to play by the rules, and Victorknows all of them. He’ll see them coming from a mile away. He’s probably been waiting for it since I left. Especially since all that video footage of me was at FUA headquarters.”
The entire group deflates at this news. “We could still tell the FUA everything,” I say. “In fact, we should, just to cover all the bases. And if we can get the money frozen, that will help a little despite them being ready for a shakedown.”
“So we still need a way to thin their numbers,” Bree says. “Are we thinking of bringing the fight to them?”
Carl shakes his head. “It’s a lot easier to defend than go on the offensive.”
“But they won’t expect it,” Bree argues. “We could watch them. Take them out one at a time.”
I grimace. “We’re hardly SEAL Team Six.”
“And we can’t just go killing people,” Sophia says. “There are laws. Wulf is too known by the FUA, and they know all about Skylar. If we go to them to freeze Victor’s accounts, they’ll know we’re being targeted. They’ll be watching us. If we start killing people and it’s not in self-defense, we could all get arrested.”
Skylar bolts upright, moving so fast it startles me. “So we get someone else to do it!”
I give her a grim smile. “I thought of that already. Illren is psychotic enough to try to single-handedly take them out and deadly enough that he could probably do it. But we can’t rely on my clan. It’ll be seen as a weakness. It’ll send shifters the message that we can’t take care of our own problems.”
She shakes her head. Her eyes are lit up with excitement. It’s the most animated I’ve ever seen her.
“We don’t have to use your clan,” she says. “We could come at them indirectly. Orchestrate a strike on them that they won’t see coming. If we’re the masterminds behind the attack, it won’t matter who does the killing.”
