Page 17 of Rogue If You Want To
Auden pulled out an old book from the shelf and thunked it on the desk. He flicked through the pages until he found what he wanted and stabbed his finger at the images.
“Do these wounds look like Otto’s?” He pushed the book across the desk.
I didn’t want to look because if I did, it might prove what he was saying, and then what? Perhaps we’d be in a worse position. But I forced myself to examine the pics. The pattern and depth and angle of the wounds were similar to Otto’s.
“Yeah. So what? You have a different theory other than they weren’t supposed to be fatal?”
This wasn’t how I should be speaking to an Alpha and a respected elder. I was a newbie at pack life and shiftereverything. Creven could easily bleed me and make me clean the toilets in the dining hall.
“They were done by someone who knew how to injure a shifter but not kill them, at least not immediately.”
Creven took over. “They tortured Otto, wanting to see him suffer. Human behavioral analysts would say the hatred his brother had for Otto was deep-seated. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision because his twin annoyed him.”
I threw up my hands. “Okay, they tortured him. That’s the end of it.” Hearing the words in my head, I couldn’t believe I was being so blasé about his brother making my mate suffer, considering the guy must have taken pleasure in it.
Creven held up his hand. Maybe he was finally tired of my insolence. “Auden has been using his contacts with other packs and dens to find out more about Otto’s background.”
I slumped into a chair. This was where they told me my mate had a dark history. He was a liar, a thief, or his attack was payback for a life he’d taken. But no matter what he’d done, that was then. I couldn’t turn off the mating instinct like water from a tap.
“Don’t know any otters or the bevy they live in.” Auden leaned back against the wall. “But I know someone who knows someone…” He waved his hand in the air as if he couldn’t be bothered with the details.
I put my head in my hands and braced myself for bad news.
“Otto’s father died recently.”
My head shot up. Otto was grieving as well as being injured, though he hadn’t mentioned his father’s death.
“Onley was the Alpha of a small but influential bevy north of here, and he fell from a cliff.” Auden’s steely gaze was fixed on me as he spoke.
Was that supposed to tell me something? It was tragic, yes, but not unheard of. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Otters don’t fall from a height.” Creven leaned forward and clasped his hands. “They’re agile and aware of their surroundings. Onley was an experienced hiker, and the trail was one he knew well.”
They both stared at me as if willing me to grasp what they were saying.
“You’re saying it wasn’t an accident but he was murdered.” That fit with the attack on Otto. His brother wanted to be Alpha and pushed my mate out of the way. It seemed like the end, but the furrows in Creven and Auden’s brows suggested I hadn’t grasped the implications.
“They think Otto killed his father because the Alpha favored Otto’s twin.”
“What?” I closed my eyes, trying to block out the arrows zinging at me. “Why?”
“Otto disappeared around the time his father was killed, and no one in the bevy has seen him since.”
If the shifter council or the police were after my mate, we could solve this easily. We’d march into the police station or wherever and relate the story of the attack. And they’d want evidence. So we’d show them… what? The police were probably human, and there wasn’t even a scar on my mate’s body. And Ihad no experience of shifter councils and didn’t know how they operated.
I had to think, so I paced the floor. We’d tell them where my mate was attacked, and they could find the place and take DNA. But could Otto lead us there, and would there be any viable evidence? Shit. Sweat trickled down my spine and into my briefs.
“There’s more.” Creven sighed.
What else would there be?
“Otto’s brother declared himself Alpha.”
That was what I assumed. He could head his bevy of otters, and Otto and I would live our lives.
“He told the bevy that with his brother as the culprit, he was branding him as rogue so no one would help him.”
“But we did.” I clapped because I’d outwitted my mate’s brother.
