Page 222 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
“Thanks, Tav.”
I’d been alpha of the Wargs for over a decade now, but I hadn’t had to banish or kill more than fifty people in that time. I could remember the names and faces of all of them. I doubted Troy or Gregor could say the same. Troy, for one, hadn’t been alpha for a year, but he’d gotten rid of over fifty people; Gregor’s number was in the hundreds. The Redwolfs were far more likely to kill their enemies.
Troy rarely bothered to give reasons for his punishments, but Gregor’s reasons ranged from a very reasonable “stole large sums of money” to “committed assault” to “refused to work when commanded” to “looked at another man’s woman with lust.” The punishments were usually a lot worse than the crime itself.
The kidnappings were the most interesting to me because they seemed to follow a pattern. A decade prior and for four years straight, most of the victims were males, and all were between the ages of five and seven. They had apparently gotten lost in the woods and were expected to have died from “exposure, starvation, accident, or animal attack.” The Kings had sent search parties, but the children’s remains were never found, and the trails went nowhere.
It wasn’t strange to lose pups in the woods; when they were young, they weren’t able to track their way back home, and unfortunately, that often led to them getting turned around. But to lose dozens of children over a few years without ever findingtheir bodies was unheard of. It was strange, too, that this had happened ten years ago. At that time, I had just become alpha.
“I’m going to talk to the council,” I said.
“Yeah?” Tavi looked up, and I noticed that she’d gotten through a lot of documents as well. “Find something?”
“I might have, but I need to ask them more. Do you know where they are now?”
“They’re probably in the meeting room. They handle pack business there for a few hours every day.”
“Good to know. I’ll be back.”
I left her to her search and went for the door. On the way, Bryn’s scent drew my attention to the staircase. She was wrapped tightly in her robe, and the color had returned to her face. The few hours she’d had to herself had done wonders for her, setting my wolf and me at ease.
“Where are you going, love?” I asked.
“I was just about to ask you the same thing.” She finished coming down the stairs.
I smirked. I was on a mission to speak to the council, but some banter with my mate wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. “I asked first.”
She quirked a brow, a light smile on her lips. “Alright. I was coming down to get more tea and make some toast.”
“I could’ve brought it to you. Or Tavi could have.”
She shook her head. “I’m feeling better, thankfully. Now it’s your turn.”
“I’m heading to the council. I have questions about some of the ledgers…what is it?”
Bryn’s lower lip, pink now that she was feeling better, poked out as she frowned. “On your own? I don’t think so, Night. They might see that as overstepping.”
I started to say that they would listen to me, anyway, but it occurred to me that Bryn was right. I couldn’t just burst in there demanding the Kings’ council to give me answers about something that had happened a long time ago.
“I think you should take Tavi with you,” she said.
I nodded. I was glad Bryn hadn’t suggested going herself, but she must not have felt up to walking around. “I’ll go get Tav?—”
“I’m here,” Tavi spoke from behind me. I hadn’t even heard her coming. “Bryn already filled me in.”
I smiled. I wasn’t used to being outside the alpha-beta telepathic connection, but I didn’t mind. Knowing my mate and sister had that connection pleased me to an unreasonable degree. “What if they ask where you are, Bryn?”
She shrugged. “Just tell them I’m reviewing documents. I’ll be doing that, anyway.”
“You’re sure you’re feeling up to that?”
She patted my chest. “I’m fine. Now you two go on. You can fill me in on how it goes later.”
“Okay, love.” I kissed her forehead and then her lips. “See you soon.”
Tavi and I headed out, and I filled her in on what I’d found on the way. She was right.
The five council members were discussing something in the meeting room. Their voices died down as we entered.
