6. Graeme #2
“Wait. I may have answers here shortly, and I’d hate for you to call Shivani and have her come all this way for nothing.”
His snort was unexpected.
“What?” I asked, my tone sharper than I meant it to be.
“Only you get to call her Shivani. She’d gut any of the rest of us who tried.”
“I’m the only cyne in the holt , or have you forgotten?”
“No. It was always like that. Even when we were younger, at boarding school, only you. The rest of us had to use her last name. She has only one soft spot, and it’s for you.”
“I don’t know. She’s awfully fond of that husband of hers, and her twin sons.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Perhaps now is not the time to––”
“I think you should call her. If you don’t, and it becomes a situation where you or I or Gigi are in danger, she’s going to show up breathing fire and brimstone, and we’ll all be sorry.”
“I’m certain that between Kat and Izzy, we’re in good hands.” I glanced over at Kat, who mouthed the words thank you since I had him on speaker phone.
Kat leaned forward and clasped Izzy’s shoulder in solidarity to get her to stop growling. Just the insinuation that the two women couldn’t take care of me, my brother, and his wife had both of them irritated.
“Then call me the minute you know something,” he told me.
“I will. And when I get home, I have other news.”
“Oh?”
I sighed deeply. “I found my mate. He’s an omega, and I signed his contract.”
Long silence.
“The hell are you talking about?” he roared over the line. “You mated with someone I haven’t even met, and I’m sorry, but did you say an omega ?”
“Just do me a favor and tell Gigi. We’ll talk as soon as I get home.”
“I—no, you can’t just drop a bomb like—I forbid you from hanging up and not explaining this all to me right this second!”
“Maybe if you hadn’t insulted Kat and Izzy, I would have had one of them explain it to you while I go in and talk to the police, but we’re here now, so I have to go,” I muttered before I hung up. Before I could even get out of the car, the phone rang again.
I hesitated, kept myself from picking up, and instead, glanced at Kat.
“I’ll talk to him,” she affirmed curtly. “Because it’s what you want.”
“Tell him the part about Avery being a police officer first. That might stun him long enough for you to get the whole story out without being interrupted.”
She nodded, and I got out, met immediately by a uniformed police officer who instructed me to turn the car around because I wasn’t allowed into the crime scene.
“I was called here,” I informed the man. “My assistant spoke to a detective Massey.”
After that things moved quickly.
I was given booties for my shoes before entering the house, and told not to touch anything.
As if I would. I wasn’t allowed into the master bedroom, where Remy’s body was, instead being directed to remain in the living room and await further instructions.
Standing in front of the doors leading out onto the enormous back deck, I suddenly caught Avery’s scent and pivoted to face him, stunned by the turn of events that would lead us to cross paths twice in one night.
“Mr. Davenport?”
But it wasn’t Avery there. A strange man—tall and muscular, handsome, his eyes an unusual color—stepped into the room.
The shield hanging from a chain around his neck proclaimed him a detective.
I would have been interested in what information he had to impart if he wasn’t absolutely steeped in the scent of my mate.
I could barely think. Coherent thought came second to a craving that lived, dark and brutal, inside me. I wanted to eviscerate him.
It wasn’t that Avery’s smell clung to his clothes.
This went deeper. This detective carried my mate’s spoor on his skin and in his hair, as though they’d spent considerable time in close, intimate contact.
When the detective exhaled, Avery’s scent flowed from in his lungs, and strands of his golden hair were caught on the man’s dark trench coat.
To witness these signs of intertwined lives, outside of familial connection, was yet another reason omegas were to remain cut off from others.
The rage I felt, rage any alpha who’d found their true mate would feel, was immediate and incendiary.
I was nearly drowned in the desire to tear the man limb from limb.
It took everything in me not to act upon that.
“Sir, I’m Detective Massey,” he began, oblivious to the danger I posed. “I regret to inform you there’s been a terrible mistake. We apologize for causing you any undue emotional distress, and…we’re just so sorry.”
My hands were clenched into fists, and I was shaking.
“We fu—we messed up, badly.”
“What?” He’d lost me. Mostly because I was trembling with my need to disembowel him. “Speak plainly,” I reproached him.
He cleared his throat, and I felt the surge of anger he stamped down, allowing me to see only his professional facade.
“Sir, your cousin is alive. We were worried about him hurting himself, or someone else, so we had him sedated. We’re ready to transport him, but we wanted to wait until you arrived. ”
Wait. Remy was alive? “My cousin isn’t dead?”
“No, sir. A man fitting his description was found here when officers responded to a 911 call, and they jumped to the conclusion that it was him.”
“Well, I…” The news jolted me from my anger. I had to be the holt leader, the cyne , not some besotted alpha out of his mind with jealousy. “That seems a reasonable deduction to have made.”
He brightened like a weight had been lifted. “Thank you for your understanding.”
“But you said something about transporting him?”
“Yessir. He’s going to Geary Hospital, downtown. We have only two facilities in the city rated for lupines, with locked wards. The closest one, in Parkridge, is full.”
Any lupine could go to any hospital—there was no issue there—but locked wards, those made specifically to withstand the added power of an alpha or beta who was in police custody, those were few and far between.
As a rule, lupines were dealt with by their alphas.
If the crime was committed by an alpha, then that alpha was dealt with by their cyne .
If they didn’t belong to a holt , then the dryhten stepped in and either took justice into his own hands or tapped the nearest cyne .
Even those lupines charged with murder, who were sanctioned to be put to death by the state, were executed by alphas.
Lethal injection might or might not work on wolves, as they each had different tolerances, different shifting speeds, and just plain strength.
But when your alpha tore out your jugular, that was certain death, without question.
“So now he’s a suspect? Is that why you’re holding him?”
“He attacked my partner, and––”
“Is your partner all right?” I rasped, heart in my throat.
He squinted at me, the look conveying his annoyance. “What? Yeah, of course. He’s a wolf himself, so he put him down easy.”
But Remy was an alpha and Avery was an omega, so the “easy” part was in question. “You’re certain your partner sustained no injuries?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Thanks for your concern, but we’re trained for this, Mr. Davenport, and like I said, my partner’s a wolf too.”
I needed to see Avery to confirm Detective Massey’s claim.
“As I was saying, we’re not sure why your cousin came at my partner, and yes, Mr. Talmadge is a suspect.
To be frank, at the moment he’s our only suspect.
It’s his house, after all, and the dead man was killed by another wolf; that’s obvious to our ME, as well as to those of us who have worked homicide for more than a minute. ”
“So you’re saying this dead man, his throat was punctured?”
“I’m saying he was torn to pieces.”
Which meant the crime scene was a thoroughly gruesome sight.
“We’re going to question your cousin tomorrow, so you and your family can arrange to have a lawyer present at the hospital. As cyne of his holt , you are, of course, welcome, by law, as well.”
I nodded.
“Also, we would like your permission to perform a search of the premises. As you know, even at a murder scene, we’re required to have a warrant, as even a murderer—though we’re not saying Mr. Talmadge is one—is still entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
“I understand, Detective. A homicide occurring on the premises doesn’t magically make it constitutionally permissible for you to search the house.”
“Exactly.”
“I, on the other hand, as Remy’s cyne , may grant you permission per lupine law that supersedes human law in this area.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “So will you?”
“I will.”
He drew his phone from the breast pocket of his coat to pull up a document for me to sign, which was immediately dated and time stamped.
“Do you know the identity of the dead man?” I asked him.
“We do, but I’m not at liberty to divulge that information at this time. We need to contact his family first, and we’re having a bit of trouble finding them.”
“As you’ve noted, Detective, I’m not only an alpha but a cyne , so I have contacts who won’t be in your database.
” I pulled a small gold case from the breast pocket of my tailcoat, flipping it open and extracting a business card I handed to him.
“If you need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to call on me. ”
He took the card, and his eyes flicked to mine. “Thank you, that’s very generous.”
“Now,” I began, clearing my throat, “if I may be permitted, I’d like to see my cousin before you move him. And, more importantly, have a quick word with your partner.”
“Seeing my partner is more important than seeing your cousin?”
“It is, yes,” I answered, trying to keep the leeching coldness out of my tone, but not altogether successfully. “So, if you would point me in his direction.”