Nephew

Randall Meechum’s POV

I spent the next two days interviewing people on the list, slowly building the picture of what happened that day. Michelle was a big help, not so much that she provided any new information, but she was still friends with people in the Tomah Pack and got them to agree to meet her off Pack lands. The excuse was mountain biking on the trails near Sparta, and that was why I was taking a borrowed bike off the borrowed rack on the back of my Jeep.

Bobby had stayed behind, so I put on my gear and followed Michelle on the trail from the parking lot. We rode about five miles in until we found an overlook on the bluff, giving a great view of the rolling terrain around us. I heard some activity on the trail as we stood by the railing before the cliff, and a few minutes later two women and one man, all werewolves, rode up and stopped by the benches. The male was nervous, putting himself between the girls and the unfamiliar wolf who looked older and dangerous. “Hi guys,” Michelle said. “This is Special Agent Randall Meechum of the FBI, he’s looking into Tania’s disappearance.”

“He’s one of us,” the man said.

“I am,” I said. My Alpha dominance was making them all nervous, so I tried to hold it back. “I’m the eighth child of the Sulphur River Pack Alphas. Since I don’t have to worry about being an Alpha or Beta heir, I went my own way and joined the FBI.”

It was enough to relax them. “How can we help,” the teen boy said.

“I’m looking at her disappearance like a cold case investigator, re-interviewing everyone and looking for new evidence. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you each alone. And please, don’t talk about my investigation with anyone, I don’t want to tip off whoever did this that I am looking.”

“The trail loops around, I’ll take two with me and you can talk to Marty first,” Michelle said. He nodded, and she put her helmet on. “We’ll be back in twenty minutes. Come on, Christine, Anna, let’s go have some fun.” They took off downhill on their bikes and moments later they disappeared from view.

A little less than an hour later, I had finished with Marty and Christine. There wasn’t any new information, but they confirmed what Erica and Michelle had told me; nobody scented her between the road above the beach and the Pack border. They didn’t recognize the scents of the wolves at the border, and no other scents were there other than Todd’s. It was Anna who made the trip worth it. “Did anything about Beta Todd’s behavior when he arrived at the road strike you as weird?”

“Yeah. The scent trail Todd followed wasn’t there. I’m a tracker, I’ve got one of the best noses in the Pack, and I was searching for half an hour up at the road before the Beta was even called. That scent disappeared, and the only way that happens is if she got into a car and drove away. I checked for hundreds of yards in every direction before he arrived.”

I paused, this was the strongest evidence yet. Most wolves could scent, but trackers were gifted with super-sensitive noses and bodies built for endurance. Her five-foot-ten body was built for cross-country running, she could probably run for days without stopping in wolf form. “Did you scent Tania anywhere else?”

She nodded. “Beta Todd sent those of us who had followed him to the border back to the Pack House. On the way back, I picked up her scent again in his Suburban.”

“Did you say anything?”

“I asked him that night, he said he had given her a ride that morning.”

Hmmm. “Thank you, Anna.”

“Mr. Meechum?” I looked in her eyes. “I know our Alpha is involved, and he needs to go. Things have not been good since he took over, and I’m praying I find my mate and move away before it gets worse,” she said.

“I’m not letting this go,” I said.

“I hope not, because I think my Alpha had Tania’s parents killed to take over.”

I raised my eyebrow, wondering what she was talking about. “The State Patrol ruled it an accident, the report said they swerved to avoid something, probably a deer, and went off the road into a tree.”

“It’s just my impression, but Todd didn’t seem too broken up by the loss of his Alphas. Plus, I was thinking, what better way to get the Alphas to rush back than to tell them their daughter is missing? Occum’s Razor, the simplest answer is the correct one.”

“How does that work? He’d have to be working with someone else.”

“Yes, because she has to be off Pack lands. We panic, he calls our Alphas and they race home, right into the ambush. He takes out the entire Alpha family and takes over.”

She had the mind of a cop. “Talia wasn’t with her parents, though.”

“Only because she was out water skiing with some other kids, and her parents didn’t wait for her. They told her grandparents to bring her later. If she hadn’t been out there, she would have been in the car too.”

She had been thinking about this for years, and she was right. She just couldn’t prove it. “I need to look into that accident as well,” I said. “You should go to school and study law enforcement, you’d make a hell of a detective,” I said.

She blushed. “I start classes at UW-LaCrosse this fall. Michelle is going to work with her Alpha to see if my family can transfer to her Pack; if not, I’m going to ask permission to stay with her family while I go to school. I haven’t picked a major, though.”

“Thank you, Anna. You’ve been very helpful.” My head was spinning as I thought about what she said. Was Beta Todd devious and power-hungry enough to pull off something like this? He’d ruined the lives of two innocent girls and may have killed their parents, just for an Alpha position. Motive and opportunity, I said to myself.

The others showed up and Michelle said goodbye before we rode back to my Jeep.

Talia’s POV

New Orleans Coven House

“So, she is over the worst of it,” I asked as we closed the door on Tania’s sleeping form in our guest room at the mansion. I’d spent the last week caring for her with the help of the staff and the doctor.

“Heroin withdrawal is not over quickly, but I think the worst of the symptoms is over,” Doctor Anders said. “She may experience strong cravings for the drug, nausea, fatigue, restlessness or depression. The past week has been difficult for her. The Suboxone has moderated the intensity of the withdrawal. You can’t think this is over now, she can feel effects for months, and long-term sobriety rates are not encouraging.”

“Can she travel?”

“Not alone,” she said. “And she needs to continue her treatment wherever you take her. It’s not just the heroin addiction; she’s been through hell and needs ongoing counseling for the abuse she’s endured.”

I nodded; I loved my sister, I wanted the best for her, but I couldn’t give her the full-time care she needed. I had my own work to do, and some people were going to die on my claws soon. Alpha Todd was the easy one on the list, but he would be the last one I’d go after. I wanted Tania to watch the life drain from his eyes, and she wasn’t strong enough for that.

“I’ll need the records of your treatment of her,” I said. “I will ensure she gets all the help she needs when we get home.”

She reached into her bag and removed a manila envelope. “I expected you would ask for this. Jarrod told me you were a guest here.” She handed me the records. “I hope your sister is able to heal from this in time.”

“Me too,” I said as we reached the door. “Thank you for your help.” I let her out, closing the door behind me.

Malcolm approached as I opened my eyes again. “I will keep someone watching her, Jarrod needs to talk to you,” he said. I nodded and headed for the downstairs entrance, going through the double doors since it was still an hour to sundown. Jarrod was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs; I threw myself into his arms and cried.

He picked me up and brought me over to the couch, sitting down and holding me on his lap. Marcy came over and hugged my back, she had been my closest female friend since she rescued me at that gas station four years ago. It took a while until I was calm enough to talk again. “I can’t take care of her and avenge her at the same time,” I finally confessed. “And I vowed to avenge her.”

“You did, and you are close to fulfilling that vow,” Jarrod said. “While you have been caring for your sister, we have been working as well.” Vampires didn’t need to sleep, so they could get a lot more done than I could in a day.

“Did you find her son?”

“We think so. Of all the Packs in North America, only one has a single Alpha male heir who was born at about the right time for what happened to Tania, and no other male children.”

“Why did you search that way?”

“Tania said the man raped her to get an heir, meaning either he didn’t have a living mate or his mate couldn’t give him an heir. Alphas are most likely to be obsessed with an heir, since the Pack normally remains headed by the male bloodline. It’s more likely they only have the one child, but it’s also possible they have an older female child but don’t consider her an adequate heir.”

I snorted. “Like that would happen.”

“We also ruled out Alphas who were unmated, as even a bastard child could inherit the Pack. The only reason for an Alpha to use a captive surrogate is that you don’t want the Pack to know it didn’t come from their Luna.”

I looked up and saw Eduardo had his computer hooked up to the large flat-screen TV on the wall. “This is Alpha Justin Heranus of the Copper Mountain Pack in Colorado,” he said. “He’s been mated for over seventy years to Rhoda. He found her when she turned eighteen and he was thirty.” He moved to another photo, showing the two of them holding a baby in a blue blanket. “Just over three years ago, he told his Pack that his mate was pregnant, but it was a high-risk pregnancy since she had multiple miscarriages over the years. He sent her to stay with her uncle, where their Pack had a specialist to care for her. She returned with a newborn baby boy they named Philip. This is what they look like in the official photo from the last Alpha Council summit.”

The eyes… the hair… there was no doubt in my mind this was Tania’s son. “I’m going to fucking fillet him slowly, dip him in alcohol then let him heal and do it again,” I said. This was my NEPHEW he had gotten by raping my sister when she was fourteen years old. I started to shake, my wolf wanted out.

“Relax,” Jarrod said as he rubbed my back. I pushed back against my wolf; I wanted blood too, but we had to do this right. Finally, I was under control. “Good.”

I was so glad the Covens kept tabs on the werewolves; the files Eduardo showed me on the Copper River pack. It was prosperous, owning a ski resort and outfitter in the rugged Rocky Mountains. Alpha Justin had not participated in the Vampire Wars of the late eighteenth century and had no known enemies. The Pack numbered over a hundred and twenty, living in cabins and a gated housing development in the valley near the resort. It wouldn’t be easy to get at him, and it wasn’t enough to just kill him.

I didn’t know how involved Luna Rhoda was, or other members of the Pack. It didn’t make sense that you could capture a werewolf and hold her for at least a year, and not involve others. Rhoda came to mind, she had the most to gain by holding a surrogate hostage, and she was gone from the Pack for months. “Tania is brokenhearted that her baby is gone,” I said. “I owe it to her to get him back. That’s my first priority after she is safe.”

“What about the Alphas?”

“I’ll take care of them after my family is safe. Alpha Todd will have to wait, he’s not going anywhere.” I stood up, walking over to the screen and looking at the photo of my nephew. My fingers went up to trace his cheek as a tear went down mine.

“I’ve already talked to Daniel Steele of the Denver Coven. He’s agreed to let Eduardo stay with them and set up surveillance on the Pack, and to bring some of our familiars to help,” he said. “Eduardo will make preparations, and when it is time, he can help with the takedown.”

“No,” I said. “Watch, but don’t interfere. I can’t be seen as working with the Vampires, it would endanger their coven and all of you. I will not start a war over a werewolf matter.”

“You’re family, Talia.”

“I know, and you’ve given me everything. I’ll figure out a way after I get Tania back with our family in LaCrosse.”

“There’s one more complication you should know about,” Eduardo said. “That shooting back in Fort Worth has gotten a lot of attention, both from local police and the FBI. The investigation included this man.” He put a photo up on the screen; he was young, strong and very good looking. “His name is Randall Meechum.”

Meechum. “Oh shit,” I said.

“Yes. Randall is an FBI agent, but he’s also the son of the Sulphur River Alphas. He was there that night, and you can bet he has your scent.”

Fuck. Three years since I left this place for my first kill, and I’d never raised the interest of human authorities. Now the Council could use the FBI to find me and bring me to their justice. “What should I do?”

“If you see him, kill him,” Jarrod said.