Gamma No More - Book 3

The journey back to the pack is uneventful, but while the warriors drive, Toni can only focus on the urgency to find this Tane, whoever they are, it is clear they were working toward a plan, the problem was, both the plan and person were still unknowns at this point.

Leif had engaged both Alpha Dimitri, Jenna and Raine to search their records for any name of Tane, either as a first, middle or family name and so far, there was no trace under that name, not living nor dead, whoever it was, they were good, Toni had to hand it to them.

The only reference she had found was an obscure reference to it being the name of a god, one of forests and light, that had made Toni choke on the irony, God of light, there was nothing good or light about this person’s actions.

As they got back outside their pack house, they had quite a reception, Katie had come out with her pups and the sight of them always quietened her mind, she dreads the day when she can’t carry both of them in her arms, having them close and being enveloped by their scent calms her and Tyra.

Karl watches on as she buries her nose in both her pups. That action alone, telling him that whatever she and Leif had spoken about, it had unsettled her.

“Want to talk to the rest of the gang?”

“Give me an hour, I need to feed these two first” She grins at her pups, hiding her worries briefly.After a lot of talking to bring the leadership up to speed, they are staring at the list of werewolves who are rich enough to be behind the uprising.

She’s confirmed that each of the other leaders was compiling lists of their own, but there’s something about the name this person had chosen that made Toni sure it was a wolf, God of the forest unless he or she had done it ironically of course.

It’s far shorter than she had imagined, but even as she looked at it, no name jumped out at her.

“Let’s call out each name and talk about reasons for or against?” Ezra suggested.

Toni nods and starts at the top

“King Petrus,”

“Pro, if he quells the unrest, it will make him look like a powerful leader, assuming he can find a scapegoat to blame it on.” Tommy muses.

Toni snorts

“You are looking at the scapegoat Tommy, bear that in mind!”

“It’s a good point, though. If he creates fake unrest and can settle the kingdom down, then people will forget about the fiasco with Prince Darius.” Karl backs up Tommy.

“Ok con, if he’s found out, then the werewolf world will erupt into a civil war regardless as people fight for the throne and whoever it is, is worried about Vampires, but King Petrus has a treaty with them already so that seems wrong.” Ezra added.

Small conversations start between the individuals that make up her leadership team on the implications of the Vampire’s being scouted out.

Toni quietens the group. They need to be focussed on the list first, get it down to the top five, then try to work out the motives of the individual.

“What would trigger the vamps to get involved?”

It’s Brendan that poses the question just as the conversation has died down and the group takes a moment to think about it

“If we threatened the human populace.” Laura suggested quietly.

“The Neutral and Human Zones profit nicely off the sale of blood. They aren’t interested in the blood of wolves, as we all know.

If wolves controlled either source of food, by taking over either of the Neutral or Humans zones, wouldn’t that cause a war?

And with the treaties between Vampires and Humans, the vampires would be honour bound to step in regardless of their treaty with us, otherwise, they let wolves control their food source, although I guess they could leave the continent.”

She shrugs as everyone stops to look at Laura. Rarely heard in meetings, she’s an introvert who watches and listens mostly, putting things into action in the background. She looks at all the people staring at her.

“What?

Don’t look at me like that. I love history, but it has a tendency to repeat itself and it has caused unrest before.

But a human or wolf would be mad to start a fight without knowing the strength of the neutral force because they are pretty much guaranteed to side with the non-aggressors.”

She shrugs nonchalantly

“Dammit Laura, you need to attend the strategy meetings with the Deltas more,” Ezra whistles out in approval

A deep pink colour flushes over Laura’s cheeks.

“Ok, let’s assume that’s the reason and move on with the list?”

Toni changes the subject for Laura, who looks like she wants to fade into the background, but she will have a word with her in private. The input she has given is far more valuable than she can imagine.

“Okay, moving on…”

They worked their way through the list, discarding Alpha Robert from the Nightshades pack since he had no access to any financial accounts until Toni deposed Alpha Vincent in a coup and if he had been involved, Toni argued he would never have banished her, nor given her details of the account.

They cleared Alphas Randall Ridgeway of the Shadow Stalkers and Lee Bates of the Shadow Stalkers pack. Both received a significant amount of money, there had been a long discussion on what the possibility was of one of them doing a double bluff, putting their name on the list would be a great way to hide, but the consensus was neither of them was bright enough to think that one through.

Alpha Kieron was the next one removed from the list, he had made the list mostly because of pack wealth, but most of the accounts were accessible to both him and his brother Andy, but they felt Kieron was too much of a stickler for rules, plus he wouldn’t have to pay Edwards for information on Toni during their hunt for her if he had been Tane.

“Ok, so that leaves us with:

One, King Petrus, who has the treasury at his fingertips, plus his personal wealth

Two, Former Prince Darius who inherited money from his great-grandparents, plus had access to pack funds

Three, Former Alpha Nate, again his family under the Royal pack, has accumulated a large amount of money

Four Alpha Knight of the Blue River pack. This one still surprises me, as he hid his money well.”

Toni’s distaste for that Alpha is clear to everyone in the room.

“In Five, we have Prince Kai, also rich from his great grandparents, but still claims he wants to drop his claim to the throne.

And finally, sixth, Elder Woods, head of the werewolf council in the Neutral Zone.

Does anyone have any other names to add to the list or who disagrees with the shortlist?”

Toni looks around the room, but gets no more amendments. Hitting the print button, she sends the list to the printer and opens the drawer of her desk.

As she grabs a pen, her eyes catch the red flash drive she’d put in the drawer. What had she once said, that ripping off the band-aid was better than letting it fester?

Leaving it open, she grabs a pen from beside it and scribbles a note onto the printout, before putting it into an envelope and addressing it to Lord Leif.

“I can’t help thinking there’s some motivation that we’ve missed.

This is the list we now work through. Try to find reasons to remove them from our suspect list, in the absence of any other clues.

I want to share a copy sent to Lord Leif, but I said we’d send it physically until they have done a full security sweep. Leif doesn’t want to take any more risks.

One of the Veiled ones can take it over after it’s sealed, only for the eyes of Lord Leif or Lord Alaric.”

The meeting finally ends and people disperse from her office as Toni sits back staring at the Red flash drive, leaving things to just fade away has never helped her, she knows she is an ‘address the issue’ kind of person and she’s already accepted the pain once, so whatever is in the drive she is ready to face.

Plugging it in, she opens the drive and reviews the contents.

The start of it is a repeat of what she knows. They had Colin’s arrest reports and had visited the crash site, plus they had copies of all the post-mortem reports on the bodies, along with werewolf medical records for both her parents.

Most of the reports correlated with the records that she had from the werewolf systems and were old news to her.

Then she moved on to the financials. It was here that she paid more attention; the hackers had traced this money far more easily than they had the account owned by the person they are now referring to as Tane.

As her eyes run down the records, she takes a sharp intake of breath, going back over the list once more. She reads it carefully and yet she still comes back to the same line.

The account name making the payments to Colin sat there innocuously.

“Killian Fucking Parker,”

Involuntarily swearing, his name comes out explosively, something she’s always prided herself on avoiding, but in this moment, it felt so right to just say it out loud, as if doing so cleared the air.

Standing, she paced around her office and she wondered how much of a coincidence it was that he was involved in the unrest, as well as being named in this file.

Taking a deep breath, she goes back to the file and carries on reading until she comes to a picture of Killian that takes her breath away.

She’s staring into the face of someone who betrayed her, but she’s also staring into the face of someone she knew from the Nightshade pack, just a little older than she remembered.

He needs to pay for our pain

Tyra’s words are simple in her head and she can’t disagree with her.

She finished reading the rest of the file when she realised that none of it was going in anymore; she ejected it from the laptop and placed it into her safe; it was not something she wanted lying around the office anymore, but she was already formulating a plan.

Gritting her teeth, she decides she needs to deliver him a message, one that he will understand, putting him on warning that she is out there and watching him,

Maybe that will lessen his influence in the general pack unrest in the short term, while she plans on what to do with him longer term.

Her desire for justice is burning in her chest, but she needs to be as calm as she can, or she will lose her focus on the bigger picture. Regardless, it cannot go unnoticed by her.

Picking up the phone, she dials Karl.

She’s got to give him enough information to plan her escort, without telling him what she intends to do, partially because she hasn’t fully decided on her next course of action.

“I need to head off pack land in a few days, sorry, but this is non-negotiable and the protection team needs to be as small as it can be.

We’ll travel fast and light, but we are heading toward the Shadow pack. There’s something I need to do.”