8. Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Gage
Levi was preoccupied when I stepped into his office. That would work in my favor. It wasn’t easy to catch an alpha off guard—even when that alpha was your brother—and I needed his defenses down for this conversation.
I put it off all day, forcing myself to sit still and calmly at my desk as I tried to follow up on Joseph Cargill.
The firebombing was real. That part of his story, at least, added up.
I hadn’t found any information about it when I did my initial background check because I hadn’t been looking. I wasn’t trying to find a legitimate reason for Cargill to need our help, I was trying to prove the opposite. My own biases were getting me into trouble lately and I had no idea how to shut them off.
Whether the attack on his New York home was real or not, I didn’t believe Cargill. Vincent Manchini had a lot of connections but none that would lead him to seek out classified information. It wasn’t his M.O.
My research also located three other shifter security firms across the country. All of them were closer to New York than Seattle.
Whatever Joseph Cargill wanted with us, it wasn’t protection. I didn’t have time to figure it out, and we didn’t have the luxury to waste our resources on a man that was here to jerk us around. Maybe he was some anti-shifter asshole with an agenda or maybe he was bored in his retirement and wanted to feel powerful again.
Either way, we didn’t need it right now. We had missing shifters to locate, new shifters to relocate, and about five hundred other more important things to do.
The sun was already setting, dimming the light in Levi’s office and casting long shadows across the floor. Levi was packing his bag for the evening, eyes unfocused as he collected a stack of folders.
“Why are you skulking?” he asked, not looking up from what he was doing.
Dammit. “We need to talk about Cargill.”
Levi removed his hands from his bag to prop them on his hips. “Did you find new information already? I haven’t formally accepted him as a client.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said bluntly.
“Accept him as a client? Why?”
I took a steadying breath. “If he’s actually on the radar of the Manchini pack, that’s going to take a lot of manpower. Not to mention our most complex system. We’re already swamped with clients. I can’t do all that and look for Mackenna or keep track of the new neutral shifters.”
I hated to admit it, but I had to be honest with my brother. There were more important priorities than some self-important ex-military asshole with a questionable story and history. There wasn’t enough time in the day—or the night, because I was working through most of those too—to do everything Levi needed me to do.
“Why not?”
I scowled at my brother. “Are you serious? There’s only twenty-four fucking hours in a day, and I can only stay awake for so many of them.”
He considered me, piercing me with those blue eyes and delving far deeper than I ever wanted anyone to.
“You can’t handle the workload?”
There was strategy in that question, and a logical part of me recognized it. He was pointing out my weakness on purpose, trying to get me to admit that I was overwhelmed. To ask for help when I so desperately needed it.
The less logical part of me won out, unfortunately, and my reaction proved whatever point my brother was trying to make. “I’m not the fucking problem! It’s worthless human dickheads that want us to follow them around like puppies so they can feel important while actual shifter lives are at stake.”
My fingers raked down the side of my neck, the tone suddenly blaring loudly. That was my sign that Abigail was leaving for the evening, the distance between us creating an opening for the madness to creep back in.
Fuck, I couldn’t keep going like this, relying on her to keep me from losing it during business hours and then pacing my apartment like a junkie until I saw her the next morning.
“That worthless human dickhead is going to pay the bills for this building,” Levi said calmly. “That contract will cover my living expenses, yours, and the rest of the team. Whatever is left goes to the lawyers for The Initiative. I can’t pay them without this job.”
I was tired, and the tone in my ear was getting louder, and suddenly the thoughts I’d been keeping to myself for months came bubbling out. “Fuck The Initiative! It’s just a na?ve idea, a stupid hope for a future that won’t exist. No one cares about shifter discrimination. No one cares what happens to us except us. So, if I’m not out there looking for these missing shifters, no one will.”
Levi’s face hardened. “The Initiative is the reason we’re here.”
“The neutral shifters are the reason we’re here,” I argued.
“Helping neutral shifters is a side project. The Initiative is the number one priority. Alpha’s orders.”
He wasn’t talking about himself. Our alpha back in Alaska—our mother—gave Levi an order and he would follow it right off a cliff.
And I was only a few steps behind him.
But I was so sick of this fucking shit. Sick of batting our eyes and writing out proposals and asking nicely to pretty please not get treated like second-class citizens. I was sick of lawyers and whiny clients and every fucking part of being in this city.
I came here to watch my brother’s back. To get away from my inevitable breakdown into a person I didn’t recognize.
There was no escape from myself though. The tone was deafening now, drowning out whatever else Levi was saying. My fists clenched, my blood burning under my skin, and I became aware of a growl thundering through my chest.
Words fell from my lips. I couldn’t comprehend them.
Whatever I said, it was bad. Really bad.
Levi’s eyes were ice chips, his teeth bared, as he said, “Go for a run. Now. Go clear your head before I take this shit seriously.”
I blinked, some of the aggression ebbing with the commanding edge to his voice. My feet shuffled back two steps. “It won’t change anything.”
“It fucking better!” He snarled. “Tomorrow, we contract with Joseph Cargill. We take his money, and we put it to good use. You’re going to drop the rest until I say so.”
I wanted to attack him. My hands were poised to ring my brother’s neck, to show him which of us was truly the most dominant.
I couldn’t abandon Mackenna or the other females.
I wouldn’t leave the neutral shifters to flounder.
Except, I would, because already I was retreating from Levi’s office, clutching my truck keys and storming down the stairs. My wolf was dominant enough to fight the compulsion to obey my alpha, to tear at the bonds that held us in position.
He didn’t want to. He was tired too, and a direct order was a relief. He needed to run, to taste blood, to let his head be empty.
I was out of the city within twenty minutes. Out of my truck in two. The trees were shadowy figures around me as I stripped off my clothes and vanished into the wolf.