Page 17 of Protection of the Pack

Chapter 8

Manners’gunwasraisedand pointing at the intruder. Where had he been hiding it? His T-shirt was painted on and I hadn’t notice any weird bulges. Some not-so-weird bulges, maybe…

‘It’s not true!’ the woman shouted as she marched in. ‘I don’t believe it.’ She ignored Manners and me. ‘Liam, it’s not true, is it?’

He started towards her. ‘I’m so sorry, Cassie. I saw his body myself.’

‘Me too,’ Marissa muttered, looking green.

Cassie drew shaking hands up to her lips. ‘No,’ she moaned through her fingers.

‘I’m sorry,’ Liam repeated softly, his eyes sympathetic. He may not have liked Mark but he obviously had some affection for Cassie.

‘Let me see him! I need to see him!’ She started for the door to the corridor but Liam pulled her back and into his arms. ‘You don’t want to see, Cass.’

‘You really don’t,’ agreed Marissa, swallowing hard.

I studied Mark’s ex-wife carefully. She had mousy-brown hair streaked with the odd wiry grey; her skin was well-cared for but showed her age – I’d have put her in her mid-thirties, the same as Mark. She was athletic in build and she was dressed in workout clothes. She looked to be in great shape.

‘I need to see his body. I won’t believe it’s true, not until I see his body. It can’t be true. Not Mark!’

I stepped forward. ‘You don’t want to see him just now. He doesn’t look like the Mark you know. Let the coroner and undertaker do their thing, then pay your respects. You can’t unsee death like that. Remember Mark as he was – strong and vibrant.’ And a total asshole. ‘That’s what he would have wanted.’

She gave me a look full of scorn. ‘And what do you know about death?’

I gave her a warning look; grieving or not, she still needed to show me the respect that the alpha title deserved. ‘I saw a great deal of death when Lord Samuel and I fought with the Rain pack, just us two to their fifty.’ Of course I’d had other allies, but she didn’t need to know that right now. ‘Suffice to say, there was plenty of death dealt that day.’

Cassie glared. ‘Including Lord Samuel’s,’ she said stridently. Finally, someone had voiced the words that the whole pack had been thinking for weeks.

I nodded solemnly. ‘Yes. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. I might be a new werewolf, but Jimmy Rain was something else. If he were alpha, things here would be very different.’

‘If he were alpha, Mark would still be alive!’ she accused.

I shook my head. ‘No, Jimmy Rain would have killed Mark straight away.’ Everything I knew about Rain suggested he would have got rid of anyone he deemed a threat. If Mark had been sniffing around the alpha role, Rain would have killed him. Simple.

Silence fell; no one disagreed with my assessment. It was the first time that I’d spoken openly about what had happened. I saw Liam exchange meaningful glances with Marissa.

I turned the topic back to Mark. I needed to question Cassie because she was Steve’s number-one suspect and I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to speak to her again. This was the first time I’d seen her at the mansion, courtesy of that restraining order, I guess.

I gestured for her to sit and she obeyed reluctantly. Liam and Marissa sat next to her and I sat on the sofa opposite with Manners. Dammit: once again it was us versus them.

‘I need to ask you some questions. I’m sorry about that, but no one else knew Mark as well as you did,’ I said, slathering on the flattery.

Cassie nodded. ‘Of course,’ she replied in a more reasonable tone of voice. ‘I want to see his killer brought to justice.’ As she stumbled over the word killer, Liam reached out and linked his fingers through hers. It was an effort to stop my eyebrows from meeting my hairline.

‘Do you know anyone who had a grudge against Mark?’ I asked.

She snorted, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone loved Mark. He was number two in the pack.’ She sat straighter. ‘Of course he had to enforce Lord Samuel’s rule, but he was always firm but fair. People respected him.’

Marissa gave a small eyeroll which Cassie caught. ‘They did,’ she insisted. ‘A few people might not have liked his methods, and there were a few naysayers. You’d know about that, if you’d been here more than five minutes,’ she sniped at me.

Esme growled and in my mind I saw her bare her teeth. I ignored Cassie’s comment and silently told my wolf to settle down. She growled more loudly.

‘Tell me about the naysayers.’

‘That’s Mark’s business,’ she retorted.

‘Mark’s business became my business when he died under my roof.’

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