Chapter Twenty-Four
CAINE
I’d been called to district ten to deal with more pack bullshit that could have been an email.
A beta of mine, newly inducted, had thought it would be a stellar idea to murder his father, and while I wasn’t against permanent solutions to familial disputes, it was fucking paperwork I didn’t need. Not when I could be elsewhere.
Out with my mate and my daughter, for instance.
“You killed him because he sold your car,” I said flatly, and he nodded from his place on the floor, kneeling at my feet in supplication.
I swallowed down my sigh—and the urge to reunite him with his father.
“Why did I need to be here? You could’ve sent word to my assistant, and I would’ve dealt with it once I deemed it worth my attention. ”
Or whenever Torin decided to set down his phone and inform me of the issue.
The beta floundered. “I-I . . . I know there might be repercussions, but I don’t want to go to jail. My mate has a baby on the way, I can’t—”
“So you brought me here in the hope I’d take pity on you, clean up your mess, and ensure you don’t go to prison?”
He nodded again.
“You are aware of who I am, yes?” The question was rhetorical, though he visibly gulped at the reminder. “I’m not exactly known for my leniency, so what makes you think I’d waste resources on a pitiful excuse of a man like you?”
“I’ll do anything,” he sniffed, tears welling in his eyes. “I’ll owe you for the rest of my life. Punish me however you want, but please, I can’t leave them.”
“You want to be punished?” I said boredly, and he hesitated, considering it.
“Not really.”
“You’re lucky I’m in a decent mood. I would have shot you in both your legs if you’d been even a day earlier.
” He owed it to Dylan, of course. Not only in regard to the events of last night, but his oral fixation had been put to use before he’d left the house to take Minseo shopping.
The vision of him teary-eyed and choking was tempering my default irritation toward stupidity.
Mildly.
The beta looked up. “You’re going to help me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I’ll beg.”
I glanced at Raegan, who wore the same unimpressed expression I did. “Would you?” I said, returning my gaze. “It might make this trip not so wasted for me.”
His “begging” consisted of snivelling and tugging at my trouser leg, offering me everything he owned to aid him—which wasn’t much, considering he no longer even had a car.
It was pathetic, and did vaguely make the journey worthwhile, though his voice grated on my nerves.
And his fingers grazed my bare ankle. “Enough.”
He stopped.
“Fine,” I agreed, pointedly ignoring Raegan’s subtle eye flare.
I didn’t blame her. I must be going soft.
“You’ll stay out of prison, though you don’t deserve it.
” I lowered my tone to a threatening rumble.
“There will be no further chances. If you pull anything like this again, I’ll eviscerate you and your mate, do you understand? ”
“I won’t. I swear.”
“Then we’re done here.”
He frowned. “You . . . don’t care I killed my dad? An Alpha in your pack?”
It wasn’t ideal. He had depleted my forces without express permission, but there were no set rules against it.
Each family had their own concerns. If I’d found out one of my pack Alphas had been murdered by his son through a report, I’d have given him a warning, taken a finger or two for the trouble, and sent him to Aaron at the centre for further training on composure. If the police hadn’t reached him first.
“It’s inconvenient, but not my business,” I said. “I’d prefer for you to handle your affairs more liberally in future, and for the love of fuck, move out of your family home. Don’t give yourself the temptation.”
He swallowed. “Okay.”
I turned to Raegan. “Give him to Aaron. He’s not ready to be on the field.”
“Of course,” she acknowledged before dragging him up off the floor, and guiding him outside to stick him in a car and ship him to the centre.
I surveyed the body on the floor. It was a gruesome sight. He must have loathed the man. I could relate. At a glance, there were at least twelve stab wounds, mostly in his face.
The carpet would stain.
Raegan returned, nodding her assent. “Done.”
“Send in cleanup,” I instructed. “I’ll deal with the police, cover his tracks in case they start sniffing around. The chief still owes me for keeping his affairs secret.”
She dipped her head once. “What about the rest of the family? What’ll happen once they come back and notice their Alpha’s gone?”
My jaw clenched. “On second thought, bring the beta back so he can finish the job. Make my life fucking easier.”
She snorted. “I’ll send them to the centre too. Have Az drill it into their heads that filing a missing persons report is not in their best interests.”
“Hm,” I agreed. “This is why I pay you a small fortune.”
“You don’t pay me,” she tossed out. “Your mother does.”
Semantics.
There was no further reason to linger. The matter was resolved, or at least it would be before the day was out.
I aimed to leave, debating whether Dylan would appreciate a dinner reservation at Solovan’s—they served his favourite pasta dish.
However, footsteps hurrying down the hallway stalled my advance to the door.
Brian marched into the room. My brow furrowed.
“Why are you here?”
His eyes locked on mine, veiled with confusion. “You asked to see me at this address. Your text . . . you instructed me to come directly after we’d dropped Dylan and Minseo off at the house?”
I adjusted to my full height, my pulse quickening. “Did George bring you?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Dylan?”
“At home,” he repeated. “I left him the note, as you asked, and arranged for Lina and Preston to escort him there at four. Do you have plans?”
My blood ran cold.
What note?
“Raegan, the surveillance of every room in the house. Now.”
“On it.” Her phone was already in her hand, her thumb swiping against the screen. My senses dialled up to a hundred, my chest twisting and bone-deep ire rising from the deepest pits of my stomach. “Here.”
I snatched the device from her, flicking through the feeds, scanning for signs.
Minseo was there.
Dylan wasn’t.
“Where is he?!”
Brian shifted on his feet. “I-I . . . I don’t understand. Maybe he left to meet you already? He won’t have gone anywhere on his own. I made sure of it.”
I bared my teeth, snarling. “Except I didn’t ask you to leave a fucking note.”
His face paled, and I was on him quicker than he could flinch. I seized his jacket in my grip, yanking him closer to my face. “If anything has happened to him,” I warned. “I will skin you alive.”
“I’d let you,” he whimpered, his eyes glinting.
I shoved him aside, marching out of the room.
“Go on ahead,” I barked at Raegan as we exited the building. “Get to the house, alert Tobias and Aaron—no one else. Scour every goddamn corner of that place, inside and out, and ensure my daughter is safe. Double her guard. Don’t leave her side until you hear from me directly, do you understand?”
She bowed her head and strode to the car parked down the street.
“Where did you send him?” I snapped at Brian, who was trailing behind.
“Joles.”
“Pray to whatever god you believe in that he’s there.”
“Boss, I’m so—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I dismissed, though the words tapered off with a grunt as a rush of intense fear and adrenaline washed through me. My body stiffened.
Brian hurried over to my side. “Boss?”
This wasn’t my fear.
Fuck.
I climbed into the back of the car, slamming the door. “Joles Bakery,” I demanded. “Break every damn speed limit and get there as fast you fucking can.”
George nodded in the mirror and he didn’t disappoint.
I felt Dylan in my chest, through our mating bond, his earlier contentment and joy warping to anguish and panic. If anyone laid a single finger on him, I swear I—
A hot, throbbing pain nipped my ear, earning another grunt.
My palms ached, and the terror intensified, merging with recognition and shame.
It warred through every fibre of me, reflecting, heightening, but as quickly as it came, it dispersed.
Vanishing. Leaving me breathing heavily and rubbing at the spot just below my heart, which was now silent.
I felt nothing.
He wasn’t there, and for an hour I’d ripped apart the foundations of the entire place to make sure. His scent wasn’t even lingering outside or anywhere in the immediate vicinity. Either he hadn’t arrived at his destination, or they’d covered their tracks.
I ascended the steps to the house three at a time, every atom in me seething, baying for blood. My sole purpose narrowed down to him, to finding him, to destroying whoever dared take him from me.
Hunt. Mate. Kill.
“He’s not here,” Raegan confirmed what I’d already known.
My heart tightened. I could hardly breathe.
Cold fury laced my command. “I want every pack leader at my feet within the next ten minutes or I’ll start blowing up every single region in this godforsaken city.”
“You can’t—”
A flare of crimson stained my vision. I fisted her jacket, my fingers burning with how hard I gripped, my brace threatening to snap off.
“I don’t give a shit about the treaty,” I snarled, and her unfazed eyes reflected a rabid dog, foaming at the mouth.
“I’ll slaughter them all, every one of them. On my fucking own if I have to!”
“I know you’re furious, and you have every right to be, but you have to stay rational.” Her tone was firm yet defusing. “You have a kid to think about. A pack.”
Hunt them.
“You know nothing.”
She scoffed. “You think I don’t care about him too? You think none of us care? I want him back at your side, but if the city is rubble, we’ll have no hope.”
Find him.
My clutch tightened. “I’ve killed people for less than going against my orders.”
“Then do it,” she said calmly. Too calm. Her gaze challenged me. “Get it over with. I’m going to be fucking dead anyway if you insist on losing your shit now.”