Texas

Chairman Lewis Wolfe’s POV

The private aircraft had a television on the front bulkhead, and Kendall hooked his laptop up to it. He’d already copied the contents of the jump drives onto it, and he handed them back to me. “Let’s see what else he has,” he said as he started opening files. They were numbered, but clearly had been edited.

They watched the story of her abduction again, this time each was taking notes. Chief Counsel Lawrence Kendall was focusing on the information needed for warrants and prosecution, Lead Enforcer, Carlos Mendez was looking for clues as to who else might have been involved. I was fighting my own guilt as I watched the story.

I hadn’t been Chairman when this happened, but I had been in Tomah four years ago after this had happened. I had dismissed Tania as a runaway, and Talia as young and ill-prepared for leadership. Four years later, Tania was a shell of herself; instead of strength and confidence, she was weak and skittish. Her eyes were not bright like the photos I’d been shown, they were sad and hollowed out. My gut twisted as she told of her Beta, the man I had pushed to have mate with her sister to stabilize the Pack, had drugged her and handed her over.

There was no doubt in her identification of Alpha Justin as the man who held and raped her either. I paused the video. “Is that even possible? Can someone bring on heat in an unmated she-wolf?”

“It has been done,” Carlos said. “There were some experiments done by the Mount Shasta pack a decade ago aimed at treating mated werewolf females who weren’t coming into heat. They used a mix of human fertility drugs; high doses over two weeks would fool the body into starting estrus. They gave up because they could induce heat in all the females, but the only successful pregnancy was from a young female who hadn’t mated another yet. There isn’t a demand for fertility in the unmated.”

“Why go through all that with a young, healthy female,” Kendall said. “Why not just mate the girl to start her heat and kill her later?”

“Two reasons,” Carlos said. “You bind yourself to her during that year, and you and your wolf suffer. What if you haven’t found your true mate? Are you going to give that up for a surrogate? Go through the pain and loss of losing a mate? Could you even get rid of her after she bore you a child?”

“And the other reason,” I asked.

“You’re already mated,” he said. “Let’s assume for a moment that Alpha Justin did this. He can’t screw the girl without his mate feeling it.” Cheating on your mate was unheard of because there was no hiding it. The act made you uncomfortable. and your mate suffered like her insides were being burned out. “He can’t mate her without putting his Luna away first. The motivation is obvious, they’ve been mated a long time and no heir, the Pack was getting nervous. The lack of an heir makes the Alpha vulnerable to challenge.”

“And he did have sex with her,” Lawrence said. “If she’s telling the truth, Luna Rhoda was in on it.”

“How do you hide this? It’s not like the Pack can’t smell her if she’s pregnant, or doesn’t see her that way.”

“True. That’s something we will have to follow up on when we get there,” I said. We continued to watch as she detailed her captivity. “If she got pregnant within a month of capture, when would she have given birth?”

We did some quick calculations on a 40-week gestational period and came up with May to early June, three years ago. “Phillip’s birthdate was recorded as May 20th,” Lawrence said. “Right in range.”

I went to the next video, it was describing her time after her baby was taken, starving and left alone. Her wolf had healed her, then the man killed her wolf and left her as a weak human. It was a cruel fate for a born werewolf, forever missing their other half. No wonder she looked so lost. I took note of the description of the man, and nearly came out of my chair when she talked about being sold into slavery. The video ended with her picking a photo out of a lineup, identifying the Beta of the Copper Mountain pack as the one who had given her over to the humans.

Not only was this cruel, it was dangerous. Tania knew everything about our kind, including where the major Packs were located and their leaders. No wolf meant no Pack loyalty and no Alpha command. She was a loose cannon pointed at our heads.

“Thank Luna she’s back with a Pack,” I said. “Imagine if she had talked.” There were werewolves who had their wolves killed; it was a last resort, usually after the loss of a mate. They were kept with a Pack for support and monitoring. I turned off the screen as the interview ended. “Thoughts?”

“I’ve only got enough for warrants on three people, and two are Alphas,” Lawrence said. “Let’s look at the other evidence he sent.” We pulled up the statements; most of it was circumstantial, but in aggregate they looked guilty as hell. I’d seen enough by the time we were crossing Nebraska. “Lawrence, issue the warrants for the arrests of Alpha Justin Heranus and Beta Jack Meoffe of Copper Mountain and Alpha Todd Aldridge of Tomah. Send Todd’s to Alpha Clark and to Carlos, he can forward it to his team leaders.”

“What about Luna Rhoda?”

“Not enough evidence to show she was involved yet,” Lawrence said. “If we get other evidence to show she was aware of the kidnapping or aided in it, we’ll arrest her too. After we get her back from the Alpha Killer,” he said.

“Not much of a chance of that,” I said. “Do it.”

Minutes later it was done. In an hour we would be landing. Once we had linked up with Carlos’ men, we would travel to the Copper Mountain Pack and arrest their senior leadership.

It was time to clean up.

Tania’s POV

Somewhere over Iowa

“Ladies, this is your pilot. We are now passing over the Quad Cities area at our cruising altitude of 14,000 feet. Flight time to Clarksville is two hours and fifty minutes, weather is expected to be good. Enjoy the free peanuts and thank you for flying with Bob.” I had to laugh, the Cessna 425 we were flying was small enough he could just turn around and talk to us. I looked at the safety manual in the pocked of the seat in front of me and reviewed the exit procedures. It was a small, twin-turboprop plane with a single pilot and eight seats. It wasn’t tall enough to stand up fully inside, but the seats were wide and comfortable. I’d flown a few times when I was younger, and this was way more fun. The windows were bigger, and the flight was lower and slower. I unbuckled my belt and moved across the narrow aisle, checking on my boy.

MY boy.

He opened his eyes when I put my hand over his. He looked around, confused. “Mommy?” He looked back and forth.

“I’m here, Phillip.”

“NOT MY MOMMY! I WANT MOMMY!” My heart broke as tears formed in his over-tired eyes and spilled down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Phillip. Your Mommy is gone now, but I’m here. I love you too,” I said. He kept crying, and as I knelt by the side, I felt overwhelmed and helpless. What the hell was I even doing? He didn’t know me, I’d taken him from a mother and father who loved him and had cared for him since birth. How could this be the best thing for my boy?

I was selfish and cruel.

I moved back to my seat, sitting heavily and I buried my head in my hands and cried my eyes out. I felt fur as Snacks pushed his head in, moving between my thighs and my arms. His cold nose bumped against my cheek before his pink tongue licked my neck and jaw. “I’m a horrible person,” I told him as I hugged his neck.

He moved back, tugging at my arm. Leaning across the aisle, he put his head in Phillip’s lap. The boy buried his face in his fur, his little arms pulling him tight. Just like with me, Snacks settled him down.

“It’s pretty smooth, probably a good time to take him out of that seat and hold him,” Teri said from behind me. “I’ll get him for you.” Snacks moved out of the way and Teri got up. She unhooked his harness and picked him up as he reached for her. “It’s all right, little man,” she said. “Sit with Mama and look out the window!”

She passed him to me and I sat him on my lap, letting him look out the big window. “See how high we are,” I said as I held him on my knee.

“Clouds pretty,” he said as he looked out. There were puffy cumulus clouds above us.

“Very pretty. That looks like Elmo,” I said as I pointed.

“Elmo?” I nodded. “That looks like boat.” He settled down as we played our game, and when he tired of that he sat in my lap and leaned back against me. “Why you mama?”

“Well.” How to ruin a boy’s life in thirty seconds. “I’m your mama because you grew inside my tummy for nine months. You’re my baby boy,” I said as tears went down my cheeks.

“I’m your baby boy?”

“You are,” I said as I gave him a hug. “I love you, Phillip. I have always loved you.”

He looked at me, looked down at my belly then back to my face. “Mommy?”

“I couldn’t take care of you when you were born, and your Mommy and Daddy kept you. I never stopped loving you and thinking about you. You’re my love,” I said. I wished I had my wolf, she would have been able to reach his wolf and bond him to me. I didn’t know if he felt anything. I was jealous of Teri for having a family bond with him I couldn’t ever have.

“I’m hungry.”

I kissed his head. “I think Aunt Teri might have something. When we left that gas station, it looked like a kid had found a hundred-dollar bill and had been let loose in the candy section.” I smirked as she tried to defend herself.

“I got more than just candy, but don’t drink too much. This plane doesn’t have a restroom.” She reached into a bag under her seat and pulled out some food. “How about some cookies?”

“COOKIE!!COOKIE!! Mumm mm mmm COOKIE!” He held out his hands and she handed him an open package of miniature chocolate chip cookies. “Fank you.”

“You’re welcome, baby.” She showed me the bag, I picked Twinkies. “You could have FOOD, you know.”

“I like Twinkies. Got anything for my Snacks?”

She pulled out some Slim Jims and took one out of the plastic. Snacks was already looking up at her with begging eyes, and when she handed it to him, he snarfed it up in about two bites. She quickly fed him the other as Phillip and I laughed. He pointed at him. “Shift, puppy, shift!”

Snacks just leaned over and licked his face.

“We can’t do that around humans,” I reminded him quietly.

“You’re human,” he said with a huff.

“I used to have a wolf like you, but I got sick and my wolf died,” I said. “I miss her, just like I missed you.”

He looked at me for a minute, then hugged me around my neck. “Wolfy says he loves his mama,” he said.

“I love him too.” There was no stopping the tears now.

I held him until the pilot told us to buckle up because we were going into turbulence. Teri put him back as sat in my seat and watched. She was so good to me, so good to him. I could sense how badly she wanted a child of her own.

We landed in Clarksville and taxied to a stop outside the terminal. The airport wasn’t busy, and when the pilot put the stairs down a woman was waiting for us. She looked like a human in her forties, dressed in a white sundress and wide hat. Snacks bounded down the stairs and ran to her, licking her and rubbing against her legs as she told him to settle down.

Phillip put his arms up for me, and I unhooked him and lifted him to my chest. He hugged me around the neck as I walked down the stairs. It was hot and humid, uncomfortably hot, but I didn’t care. I stopped a few steps from the stairway, letting Luna Teri go first.

“Welcome to Texas, Luna Teri,” the woman said as Teri reached her.

“Thank you for hosting me, Luna Patty. Can you believe it?”

“I know, it’s so exciting! Come over here, dear, you’re safe with us.” I moved closer to the woman, who pulled me into a hug. “I’m Randall’s mother Patty. This must be the little boy I’ve heard so much about?”

“It is, Luna Patty. Phillip, can you say hello?”

“Hi,” he said before burying his face back in my shoulder.

“Come on, let’s get into the Expedition before you guys melt from the heat.” She led us over to the red SUV and loaded us up. She helped with the car seat while the pilot and Teri got our bags and loaded it. When we were all in place, she put the air conditioning on high and drove off. “It’s about forty minutes to the ranch, but I bet you guys want to eat and use a bathroom,” she said. “Anyone for a steak?”

Snacks raised his head off the seat and barked, making us laugh. “No dogs allowed,” Teri said. “I’d love some dinner if you don’t mind.”

Dinner was good, and Phillip was sleeping again by the time we arrived at their house. The place was huge, but no one was around except her husband as we walked in. They showed us to a room, and it had a bed for me and a small bed next to it for Phillip. I got him undressed and laid him down.

I could do this, I told myself. I’d survived everything they could do to me and dammit, I was going to start living again.