Moe escorted me out of the restaurant, his sons trailing us. I was exhausted and full, I wanted to get back on the RV and take a nap. “Moe, do you think they’ll find Marvin hiding down there?”
He helped me get up the stairs as he thought about it. “I don’t know. If he does something stupid, they might be able to find him. If he’s smart and lays low, he could retire there and die of old age as long as he still has money to pay for protection. The cats aren’t like us; there are no Packs, just individual territories. They don’t communicate with others and don’t associate much with humans. The only time they leave their territories is when the females go in heat and they go off in search of a mate.”
I sat on the couch heavily. “They have mates like us?”
“No, the females are solitary. They find a strong male, mate with him, then return to their territory and have and raise the kitt on their own. It must be a lonely life, but that is what they are.”
I didn’t like what I was hearing. “So what can we do then?”
He sat back as the bus got rolling, thinking about it. “Well, going down there is suicide. The big cats don’t like wolves on their territories. They aren’t vulnerable to human connections or intercepted communications. The only thing I can think of is to hire a cat to find him.”
“Is there one?”
“Yes… there is a panther that has a reputation for getting anyone, anywhere. She won’t be cheap, and she doesn’t take any old job, she has to find a reason other than money to help. I can reach out to her if you want.”
“You know her?”
“No, no one really does. I know someone who knows someone who might be able to reach someone who can reach her. She’s professional and discrete, and absolutely deadly. If you cross her, you end up dead.”
I thought about it for a while; as pregnant as I was, I wasn’t going after him and I couldn’t risk Doug’s people either. “Contact her and offer her $100k for the job.”
He laughed. “Black Ker isn’t like hiring a guy to put in a pool. She takes the job or she doesn’t, and the price she gives is not negotiable.”
“Do it.” I got up and moved to the bedroom, I was tired and needed my rest.
Things really calmed down at home after we sent our message; every once in a while, I’d get a text or message from someone congratulating me on my revenge. It was weird, but my tiny little pack had more allies and was feared more than when my parents were Alphas. And it was a Pack now, since I had my Alpha Male by my side. His wolf gave us the ability to bind our members together, even if it was just Marge and Mabel at first. I was a little shocked when Melanie Schefter asked to transfer to our new Pack. We had a long discussion about it; she felt at home here with us, and her old Pack had too many memories of her attack to get over. Craig agreed, so she and I called her Alpha in Chippewa Falls and worked out the details. We had her Pack induction in the back yard, and had a barbecue to celebrate.
I still didn’t have a wolf or a Pack link, and that pissed me off a little. My mark did stay, though; it scarred beautifully and other wolves could now see and smell that I was taken. I noticed a few other things; my mark was incredibly sensitive. All he had to do was kiss it, suck on it or bite it, and it was like a live wire straight to that part of the brain that controlled arousal. The tingles when he touched me intensified everything, and we were very active considering my advanced pregnancy. We were both making up for lost time. Craig was basically restricted to our house and those on our block. We didn’t want it to get out that he was my mate, since he was supposedly killed in the failed abduction attempt. I wasn’t up to going out much anymore, so we stayed home and watched a lot of movies together.
Since I was getting so huge, my family made sure I wasn’t doing too much until finally it seemed like all I did was sleep, eat and pee. Craig picked up most of the slack; the team caught him up on what we had, and he filled in details where he could. A lot of what we were doing was damage control, it seemed.
Werewolves don’t like to be involved in human hospitals because it can create too many problems that could lead to us being exposed. A detailed blood test or DNA test would reveal differences that we didn’t want anyone to follow up on. Josh was kept busy hacking; not only did he manage to delete Olivia’s hospital records, but her billing records as well. By the time he was done, she didn’t exist. We monitored the autopsies for the two rogues, but the County didn’t dig too deep and the case was quickly closed. We got our guns back a week after the file was closed out.
The Sheriff’s investigators in Grand Forks were stymied; they couldn’t locate the victim and now her medical records were gone before they could be subpoenaed. Alpha David Lewis was released on $500k bail and has to wear an ankle monitor, which means he can’t shift or it will fall off when his legs change. He retained a lawyer, and is fighting to get the charges dismissed. The prosecutor is vowing to go forward with eyewitness testimony, with or without the victim.
We had Josh edit our surveillance video down to ensure no wolves were shown, then we mailed the file on a flash drive to the County Attorney. We figured this would slow him down a bit.
Craig, Olivia and I had a heart to heart about their old Pack and their parents. Alpha Michael was going to die at my hands, and we all agreed with that. Olivia wanted him gone after he kicked her out of the pack and cleared the way for Alpha Lewis to beat her to death. It was Luna Marie that was the source of disagreement. I had targeted the Alpha pairs since they were all in the meeting with my parents. I relented only when Craig told me he had talked to his Mom about that day, and she said she hadn’t fought. Her mate was going to die, that was punishment enough for her.
We made it into June, and with that I officially graduated from high school via the online courses. I elected to have the diploma mailed to me, not wanting to waddle across the stage in front of everyone in town. I had decided not to apply for colleges in the fall, as I was going to be busy with babies and revenge.
When I started getting Braxton-Hicks contractions in mid-June, Craig called Doc in the Johnson Pack and talked to him about how I was doing while I was napping. When I woke up, they were already packing my suitcase and prepping the RV to go down there. I was hesitant to leave, but they were right. I needed help that wasn’t here, and I was about ready to pop.
Moe, Theresa, Marge, Mabel and Craig were going to drive down in the RV with me, while the boys and their mates would follow us down in the SUV. Melanie volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on things, and I gave everyone else a few weeks of vacation. Tom, Shelley and Mark were going to come down in a few days after his father closed out some business in town.
The trip went fast with how much I was napping. The boys were wearing me out, and I was always uncomfortable, moving around trying to relieve the pressure on my body. My back hurt, I had a bladder the size of a grape, and I was eating something almost constantly. “We get there, I’m telling Doc to get them out of me,” I told Marge.
“You’re doing fine, Ella. You want them to grow a little more before you kick them out, it’s still early.” She rubbed my back, making me moan as I lay on my side in the master bed of the RV. I was starting to drift off again when there was a knock and Craig poked his head in.
“Mind if I take over for a while?”
“Not at all.” Marge got off the bed and walked out, giving Craig a hug as she went. I was happy my mate got along so well with the important people in my life, and they were happy to have a man like him as their Alpha. We had a good thing going.
He took off his shirt as I watched him, my tongue unconsciously flitting out to wet my lips. He lifted the sheet and tucked in behind me, spooning my back as his left hand rested on my huge belly. The boys reacted to his presence, moving around under his fingers. “It won’t be long now,” he said.
“I know. I can’t wait, I’m ready to see them.” My hand went over his as he traced the leg pushing up against the skin.
“I had a long talk with Mark yesterday.” I stiffened, wondering where this was going. “Don’t worry, it’s not bad. He’s my sister’s mate, it’s not like I’m going to kill him.”
“He is the father of the boys, you can’t kill him.”
He buried his nose in my shoulder and kissed my neck lightly. “We all hope he is, but we don’t know. He told me what he had said to you when you found out you were pregnant. I know how I reacted when I found you, I had no right to be mad at you or him. When I knew the story, I was glad you had him to help you. But now? You have me, and he has Olivia.” He moved up on one elbow so I could see him. “We agreed on how we want to treat the boys.”
“YOU agreed. Without me?” I was getting a little annoyed.
“Yes, you know how territorial a werewolf can be, especially an Alpha. We’ve got Olivia to consider as well, no she-wolf likes her mate having feelings for another woman.” Well, I used to know, I thought. “What we decided is that it would be best for the boys if I was their father, and Mark was their favorite uncle. We think they deserve to have two parents together in their house.”
“And Mark is all right with this?”