Page 83 of Protection of the Pack

As long as I can groom myself afterwards.

‘Fred is okay to shower after we’re done here, right? That stuff stinks.’

‘Of course,’ Amber agreed.

‘Then go ahead. Do your thing.’

‘I’m going to paint a few runes on your head,’ she explained to the wolf. ‘Then you will need to touch your nose to the water.’ She gestured to the bowl. ‘Please hold your nose there for a few moments while we get a picture of whoever attacked you. It will hurt at that point. I’m sorry.’

Fred gave a distinct nod, and Amber lifted her brush nervously. She dabbed on a little of the potion; when it became clear that Fred wasn’t going to attack or devour her for covering him in rabbit-corpse juices, she continued.

A few moments later, he gave a low whine which alerted all of my alpha instincts. The urge to hit Amber, to get her away from him, was so strong that I had to battle with every inch of my will to stop myself lashing out.

‘The bowl,’ I said tightly to Fred. ‘Can you touch your nose to the water? Then we can be done.’ Unable to help myself, I laid my hand on his fur and stroked him reassuringly. He leaned into my touch, and I knew he needed the comfort. It was unnatural to let him be in pain and not to do all we could to stop it. It hurt Esme and me, too.

He stumbled a little as he made his way to the bowl. Greg had his phone out, ready to take a photo of the image. Fred lowered his snout to the water and I waited for the image of Elena to form. It took a moment before the image rose to the surface, as clear as day.

Well, hell.

Chapter 31

Ihadbeenfullyprepared to see the image of Elena rise up, maybe even Noah’s mum, Sally. But I hadn’t been prepared for the image of Lauren Gallagher, sixth in the Devon pack and council member extraordinaire. Mark had been attacked before she’d officially arrived and I hadn’t even included her on my suspect list. Why on earth would she kill Mark and attack Archie?

I touched Fred’s shoulder lightly.We’re all done. You can stop now.

It hurts,he panted, pulling his nose back from the water.

I’m sorry,I apologised with all of my heart. Guilt cut through me; I was supposed to protect the pack and I was causing Fred pain. I could feel how much it upset Esme.I will hunt down the one that hurt you now,I promised.

Then it is worth it,Fred whimpered. He loped back to Archie’s pile of clothes and willingly transformed back into two legs.

Archie dressed with shaking hands, then crouched low. His hands were pressed to his head. ‘Damn, my head hurts.’ He tried to shake off the pain and stood up. ‘Lauren?’ he said, bemused. ‘I haven’t spoken two words to her. And I swear those two words were respectful. I don’t understand.’

Greg frowned. ‘Mark took you to the black tourneys. I think someone thought you saw something you shouldn’t have done. We suspected that someone was pulling Mark’s strings and making him hold back from challenging your father. We suspected Jimmy Rain, Mark’s former alpha, but someone in the council arranged for Lord Samuel to travel to Liverpool to investigate Rain under the radar. With no pack back up, Lord Samuel was alone and vulnerable.’

‘You think someone in the council lured my father there to be killed? But why?’ Archie crouched down again. He looked young and lost.

The door swung open and in walked Elena. ‘Because he was helping me bring down the black tourneys.’ She turned accusing eyes on me. ‘You were in my room – your scent is everywhere. You had no right to invade my privacy.’

‘I’m your alpha,’ I growled back. ‘I have every right, especially when we saw you at the tourney last night.’

Elena sighed and sat down next to Archie. ‘And what a clusterfuck that was. Months – years – of hard work and all the main players walked away. The Connection is a joke. Lord Samuel warned me, but I wanted to do it by the book. I wanted to see them rot in jail.’

She turned and raised tired eyes to meet Archie’s. ‘So now you know. It’s my fault your dad is dead. If he hadn’t been digging into the black tourneys, the council wouldn’t have sent him up to Rain to be taken out.’

‘What’s the council got to do with it?’ I asked.

‘Everything. I’ve been investigating the tourneys since Jackson died. I’ve spoken to a lot of people, but most weren’t willing to go on the record. A number of council members helped start the tourneys, though I still don’t know who. The council has records of every lone wolf without a pack. Someone handed the list over to the black tourney organiser for the loners to be rounded up and slaughtered. The message soon got around: to be a lone wolf was to be a dead wolf walking. Jackson refused to be cowed, especially when he found out that our pack leader, Beckett Frost, was hip-deep in the tourneys. I applied to transfer here, and Jackson went lone. We all know how Jackson’s story ends,’ she spat out bitterly.

Beckett Frost was Ace’s brother and alpha. Damn. I frowned. ‘But why kill Mark? He was all for the tourneys.’

‘He was,’ she agreed, ‘until he was told to throw his fights. Mark was an asshole and he wanted to win. He wanted to be alpha, but he was told to bide his time. He threw his aggression into the tourneys, then he was told to throw a few fights. He wasn’t happy to lose, and he wasn’t happy to remain number two.’

‘How do you know all of this?’ Greg demanded.

‘Mark told me,’ she admitted unhappily. ‘He was blackmailing me. He’d found out what Lord Samuel and I were doing. He said that if I didn’t pay him, he’d make sure I ended up just like Jackson. But while he was bragging about how neatly he’d trapped me, he told me about blackmailing the council members involved in the tourney. He had evidence of the fights being fixed. Not only that, he had evidence about each of the council members that he would give to the Connection if they didn’t make him the alpha here. I didn’t tell Lord Samuel because IwantedMark to blackmail those shits responsible for Jackson’s death. It seemed fitting.’

She looked at Archie again. ‘I’m so sorry. If I’d known what they were going to do, I’d never have sat on the information.’

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