Claiming Treasure

Heather Rhodes’ POV

Cascade Pack Alpha Office

“WHAT in Luna’s name are you kids talking about,” Colletta asked, her hands on her hips and that Mom look. I snorted in amusement; my Mom had the same look when I did something stupid.

“We’re going to get you voted onto the Council, Mom,” Carson said.

Her jaw dropped. “How? I’m not an Alpha! I haven’t been retired for a century!”

“That’s just tradition, Mom,” Sawyer said. “All the Council bylaws require is that the nominee is retired from any Pack positions. It doesn’t require former Alphas.”

“And we think it’s about damn time we had a woman on the Council,” Coral said. “Besides, everyone else here has a job; even Frank has one.”

“It makes sense, Mom,” Chase said. “You are the liaison to senior members of the US administration, you have decades of experience, and you are trusted. There’s no one I’d rather put on the Council than you.”

Frank pulled her back into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. “Our coalition has the votes to stack the Council with the kind of leaders we need. You’d be first on my list, too.”

Mom closed her eyes, thinking about it. “Who else do you want on the Council?”

“We have some candidates put forward by our allies,” Sawyer said.

“I’ve nominated my father, Anders Ulfson,” Alpha Michael said. “He’s been retired since 1978 and is a good man.”

“He is,” Colletta said. “Who else?”

“Nehemiah Pensky, my mate’s grandfather,” Martin said.

Colletta looked puzzled. “Rebecca’s grandfather was a Pack Doctor, not an Alpha.”

“We know,” Rebecca said, “But it’s a good call. Some of the issues we will need to deal with will be helped with a Doctor in the room, and he’s a respected man.”

Sawyer nodded his agreement. “Once we got past the idea that the Council is for former Alphas, and just started looking for good people to lead, a few names pushed to the front. Nehemiah is level-headed and open to change and has no desire to gain power. He’d be a good addition.”

“We need to move quickly to solidify the Pack leadership and elect the Council,” Rori said. “The longer it is until we have you on the Council, the harder it will be to expose what Coffey did.”

“I already talked to Lisa Funk, the new Council IT specialist,” Teri said. “I told her the new Council would hold her personally responsible if any files were lost. Alpha Rori also sent Brian Steele back to Banff to help secure the information. He used to own it all, so he’ll know if anything gets deleted.”

“We’ve uncovered evidence of corruption to bring charges against Jack Coffey,” Rori said. “Our people are still going through the phone recordings looking for more. Councilman Baronsky signed the arrest warrant; you should all get a copy of it soon.”

“If we get him, he won’t get a trial,” Carson said. I growled at the thought of him getting loose. My wolf wanted his blood in her teeth for threatening my mate and our babies, and my human side wanted to see him suffer. Carson scratched my neck, calming me down.

“He did more than you, that’s why we need the trial,” Coral said. “He tried to kill me too. Frank, what’s the latest on the investigation?”

Frank shifted Colletta on his lap and leaned towards the camera. “The FBI has confirmed the explosive residue on Charles’ plane is the same as that found on the device in Coral’s charter jet. That brings up another point. Coral, how long was it from the time you found out about the attack on Carson’s pack and the time you arrived at the airport?”

She thought for a minute. “I made the call within five minutes, and Kamloops airport is about 240 kilometers away, so just under three hours. Why?”

“It’s not much time to react, and Coffey couldn’t be sure how you’d get there. You don’t own a plane, and there are several charter companies you could use, plus commercial flights. You could drive, it would take about ten hours and include a border crossing, but you could do it. All Coffey really could control was your need to leave in a hurry.”

I raised my head. The fucker had someone THERE waiting for her! “He found out I was chartering a plane and had someone close enough to get to the plane.”

“Exactly. Coffey had a hit-man in the area, just waiting for a time and place to take you down.” Shit! I growled at the thought of Coral targeted by a killer. “Did you call the charter service from your office?”

“Yes. Fucking BUG!”

“This is why we need access to the Council servers. We need the email packet her bug would have sent to Coffey, and records of who accessed it. It draws the line straight to the person who ordered the hit,” Frank said.

“And get the call records and emails from the Banff Pack outbound in the two hours after that file arrived,” Sawyer said. “That will connect him to the bomber.”

Frank let out a breath. “If you find evidence of this, you need to send it to me immediately.”

“Why? He’s OURS to take down,” Carson objected.

Frank held out his hand. “Carson, I understand, but you’ve got the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searching for a bomber, which brings Homeland and the CIA and BATFE and a bunch of other groups into play here. It’s bigger than us because Coffey used humans to do his dirty work. It’s better if we cooperate and assist the investigation than if they trace it back to our Packs and find we’re hiding something.” I could see his point. “We are also limited in what we can do to find Coffey. If we can tie him to this, law enforcement in both countries will make him their Most Wanted.”

“Can we do that? Turn over one of ours to the humans,” Michael asked.

“We have to,” Frank said. “If we want to live in peace with humans, we better figure out how to cooperate with them.” He looked at his mate. “What happens to a werewolf in prison, love?”

“They slowly go nuts, the isolation and inability to shift and see the moon is more than a wolf can take,” she said. “It can take years before they waste away. When their wolf dies, so do they.”

Rori closed a book. “I’ll work with the Council to get our Alpha choices for the Monongahela and Katahdin Packs recognized, and set up new elections for the Council vacancies. Carson, you need to address the Denali and Banff Packs and do the same. We should talk again tomorrow, same time?”

“Unless something comes up before then,” Colletta said. “I love you all. Stay safe.”

Carson ended the call and leaned back into the chair, his hand scratching my ears. I whined and got his attention. “Are we going to let the humans have Coffey?”

“Frank is right; it’s better to let the trail end with him instead of the Packs,” he said. “He could be anywhere, and you can be sure he had money and an exit plan. I don’t know if we’d get him without their help. The sooner he’s caught, the better.”

The phone rang. Carson looked over at the caller ID. “It’s Denali,” he said.