Hidden in Plain Sight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #3)

1. Chapter One

~Felix~

After fifteen minutes of waiting for Vaughan to show up for our scheduled meeting, the impatient clicking of my pen had almost started to sound like music. Before I drove myself crazy, I mind-linked him. Are we still on? There are only so many times I can count the number of trees outside your window.

After a short pause, his reply echoed in my head. Shit. I forgot.

A smirk tugged at my lips. Let me guess: your Luna is currently underneath you?

Based on how often the two of them were going at it, calling my statement a ‘guess’ was generous. I would have put money on it.

On top of me, actually. Sheepish satisfaction filled every word. I’m sorry, Felix. Can you review what needs to be done with Leo?

No problem. Have fun, kids.

Closing the link, I sat back with a rueful shake of my head, the leather office chair creaking beneath me. As happy as I was for my best friend and Alpha, I also hoped the all-consuming honeymoon phase between him and his new mate wouldn’t last too long. At the end of the day, we still had a pack to run.

Heading down the hall, I ducked into the Gamma’s office and found Leo there, hard at work. Stacks of neatly ordered files covered his desk, not a single item out of place. At least he would never change. “Hey. Vaughan’s busy and I know we need to catch up on everything that we missed while we were up at the Ravenstone pack. Can you run through it with me?”

“Of course.”

He tidied up his already pristine desk as I took a seat across from him. Although all the rooms in the pack house were cleaned with the same frequency, his office always had a freshly-cleaned scent that mine never kept for more than a couple of hours.

From his desk drawer, Leo pulled out a long, typed, itemized list. “I kept track of the things that would need your attention while the two of you were away. Now that Savannah has defected from the pack, we’ll also need to reassign her responsibilities.”

“She didn’t ‘defect’,” I pointed out as I took the paper from him, wincing at the sheer volume of items on it. Any hopes I had of getting through this meeting quickly vanished faster than a vampire at sunrise. “She found her mate. There’s a difference.”

“The end result is the same.”

Since I couldn’t argue with that, I started working my way down the list instead. Over the next hour, we managed to get most things taken care of other than a couple of items which required Vaughan’s personal attention. Thankfully, when I finished with Leo and headed back down the hall, Vaughan sat at his desk with Calista standing next to him.

“Alpha Marcus called while we were away,” I announced from the door, nodding to Calista in greeting as they both looked up. “Says it’s important. Do you want to return his call?”

“I should,” Vaughan agreed, his brows knit slightly as he beckoned me inside. “Come on in. I’ll put it on speaker so you two can hear.”

I took my usual seat across the desk from Vaughan, whose arm curled around Calista’s waist as she perched on the arm of his chair. Her feminine scent had become mixed with his upon their mating, declaring them a couple as effectively as the physical marks on their neck did.

“Who’s Alpha Marcus?” she asked while Vaughan pulled up the number on his computer.

“Alpha of the Vermillion pack, fifty miles northwest of here,” Vaughan explained, his tone more patient than usual when he spoke to her. “They’re a small pack and under our protection.”

His last words told me he shared my concern that Marcus’ call had something to do with a threat to his pack’s security. After the attack on us and the recent events at the Ravenstone pack, it seemed that strange happenings were on the rise and we should all be on our guard.

The gruff older Alpha’s voice filled the room as he answered the call. “Hello?”

“Alpha Marcus, it’s Alpha Vaughan from the Crimsontooth pack. I understand you’ve been trying to reach me.”

“Thanks for returning my call, Alpha.” The relief in his voice bled through the phone clearly enough that we all heard it. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Nobody ever calls just to say hi anymore,” I quipped under my breath. Calista smiled while Vaughan shot me a warning look before speaking aloud into the phone.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m not quite sure how to describe it,” he answered, stammering over the words as if he knew how strange they would sound. “We keep getting alerts of someone crossing into our territory but we can’t locate them. There’s no scent, no sign of anyone here, but we’re receiving the alerts anyway.”

The hair on the back of my neck prickled as I leaned forward and caught Calista’s eye.

“Ghosts?” I mouthed to her.

She shook her head as she whispered back, “Not physical.”

Good point; without a physical form, ghosts shouldn’t trigger a pack’s territorial defense.

“Trolls?” she suggested instead.

“Too smelly.” My nose wrinkled in such disgust that she had to stifle a laugh, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Vaughan did his best to ignore us both as he continued the conversation with the Vermillion Alpha. “Is that all? Just the alerts?”

“No. That would be strange, and an annoyance, but not really a worry. The problem is that after the last couple of times it happened, we found some of our weapons missing.”

Now that was interesting. Whatever set off the alarms had to be physical enough to move objects but capable of disappearing with them before being discovered. My pulse quickened as the possibilities raced through my mind and I could tell Calista’s thoughts were going a mile a minute too. As a former hunter, she knew more about different species of supernatural beings than anyone I’d met before, including me, and I knew a lot more than the average werewolf.

Vaughan easily picked up on my investment in the situation and gave me a nod. “I’ve just returned from a trip away and need to stay here for a while, but I can send my Beta, Felix, to investigate with you.”

I suspected his desire to stay home had a lot more to do with spending more time alone with his new mate than catching up on pack business, but I didn’t mind. Not only did it sound interesting, we had a duty to protect the packs who relied on us. What was a Beta for if not to take on the jobs his Alpha couldn’t or didn’t want to do?

“We’d sure appreciate that,” Alpha Marcus said. “We’ll have a room ready for him as soon as he can get here.”

After making a few final arrangements, Vaughan ended the call and looked between me and Calista. “Do either of you have any idea what might be behind this?”

Calista went first. “Pixies and goblins like to steal things, but I’ve never heard of them being invisible.”

“I wasn’t thinking invisibility,” I contradicted. “I’m thinking they might have the ability to appear or disappear at will. If the creature’s invisible, won’t the weapon still be visible? Meaning the pack’s guards would see these weapons walking themselves off the territory?”

The visual image made Calista smile. “It depends on the being. Some can confer invisibility to things they touch, but those ones aren’t usually known for being thieves. It’s an odd combination of characteristics.”

We tossed a few more ideas back and forth before Vaughan interjected. “Do you want to know what I think?”

Curiously, we both turned to him. His knowledge of other species wasn’t as extensive as mine or Calista’s, but maybe he picked up on something we missed.

He leaned back, his fingers drumming rhythmically on the desk and his tone steady and serious. “I think there’s nothing supernatural about this at all. I’d bet this is an inside job and someone in the pack is triggering the alarm somehow. That’s why they can’t find anyone: because the person they’re looking for belongs there.”

That could be possible, I had to admit. “But why trigger the alarm at all in that case? Why not just steal the weapons?”

“To divert blame. If the weapons went missing without the alarm, they’d know it was an internal problem. This way, they’re busy looking for some outside force when the perpetrator’s right under their nose. Sorry to disappoint you but I think you’re looking at a plain old werewolf thief here.”

“Well, that’s no fun.”

Calista smiled again at my fake pout. She smiled a lot more now than when she first joined us, and Vaughan seemed more relaxed too. They were good for each other.

What new side of me would my mate bring out? After watching first Vaughan and then his sister Savannah find their other halves, a faint ache had settled in my chest every time I thought about my future mate, but I doubted I’d find her at the Vermillion pack. Pack business had taken me there a few times before without a hint of her.

And business called me back there now, starting with packing my overnight bag once again and getting back on the road.