Order of Protection

Alpha Yuri’s POV

“SASHA! Get you ass in here!”

My new Beta, who was acting as my personal assistant, arrived in front of my desk a moment later. “My men in Minnesota just called. The locals swung and missed. Three of their men disappeared, along with their car AND the target.”

“Yes sir, I just heard.”

“Apparently, twenty million dollars isn’t enough to get results over there.” I turned and grabbed the bottle of Stolichnaya, pouring myself a large glass. “Two things. Get the word out to everyone of the new reward amount of twenty-five-million dollars. I don’t want her to be able to poke her head out of the water in the middle of Lake Fucking Superior without some guy shooting her between the eyes.” I took a long drink, letting it burn in my throat. “And get my lawyers for the estate case, I want to talk to them within the hour.”

“Of course, Alpha. I’m on it.” He practically ran out of the room. I had been on the phone all afternoon, talking to every Alpha in the Upper Midwest. It hadn’t gone well, I recalled as I drained the glass and refilled it. There was no hiding what had happened with the European Council had talked about. I pushed two things- the reward money, and the fact that Yevgheny’s daughter was a null.

I’d had Mikhail Gustova, one of my new men, bring his sister to me here in St. Petersburg to discuss what she knew about Natalya Klishnina. She had been very helpful, giving me copies of everything her lawyer was preparing so my lawyers could be ready. The most interesting thing, however, was her insistence that Natalya was human, not a wolf. “I swear, Alpha, I detected no wolf at all on her, and I took a good smell of her in the room. If she’s his daughter, she’s a null. There is no way she can take over the Moscow Pack without a wolf.”

That had been the ONLY good news of the past week. The European Council could never see her as a worthy heir to the Pack, no matter who her mate was. A null as a senior pack leader, much less the Luna, had never happened.

In any case, my influence with the overseas Packs was limited, as only a few of them had organized crime ties. A few even laughed at me when I asked them to look for and capture Natalya and the two men she was with. I moved on, using the lure of monetary reward to at least grant my men passage as they performed the search. I did warn them all that I would take it personally if anyone was sheltering them, and they all knew my reputation.

An hour later, I was meeting with my team of lawyers, and I wasn’t a happy man. I was paying these people millions of rubles, getting nothing, and I was running out of patience with them. “It’s not possible to delay any more, sir,” the lead lawyer, Shurik, said as he wiped the beads of sweat off his receding hairline. “We’ve been stalling for a week, and the judge is not even accepting our filings now. The ruling will come out by the end of the week, and we have no chance to prevail here.”

“That’s MY FUCKING MONEY,” I yelled as I stood up from behind my desk.

“Sir, this Natalya Klishnina has proven she is Yevgheny’s daughter. The law is clear; as long as she is alive, she inherits.”

“Is there any way to delay her ruling?”

Shurik shook his head no, then his partner touched his arm and whispered something in his ear. “The judge might grant a continuance if Natalya’s lawyer requests it, or she has to change counsel.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Thank you, gentlemen. Sasha, escort them out please.” The men couldn’t get out of my office fast enough. “Sasha, tell Vasili I want him and Mikhail Gustova brought here now,” I sent over the link.

“Of course sir.”

I continued calls to other Packs as I waited; finally, Vasili and Mikhail were announced as being present outside my office. I called Vasili in with Sasha. “The lawyers can’t delay on our side any longer, the ruling will be handed down by the end of the week if we can’t push it off. Natalya will be declared the heir and I’ll be out,” I said.

“Nothing they can do?”

“No. They did say the judge might accept a continuance if Natalya’s lawyer asks for it, since she is newer to the case. The question is, how do we get her to ask for one if it is to our advantage to delay? I need more time to kill this bitch.”

“We could just kill the lawyer,” Sasha said.

“She could have another one in a day,” I said. “They’d be lining up to take the case at this point.”

“Put her in the hospital,” Vasili said. “No way she would want to give this case to another lawyer, and if she is out for a few weeks it gives you the time you need.”

I smiled at him. “You go to Moscow with Mikhail. Talk to his sister, figure out her movements and make it happen. Don’t kill her, make it look like an accident or a mugging. It can’t come back to me.”

“I’ll make it happen, Alpha.”

“You do that.” They got up and left, and I went back to the phone. I was running out of time to kill my niece.

Patrick’s POV

The room was clearing out, it was now past nine at night and I was tired, horny and frustrated, not in that order. I had spoken with Mischa over dinner, we both knew it was better she stay home, but I didn’t have to like it. My wolf and I wanted her safe with me, and that frustrated me to no end.

Alpha Javier poked his head into the room. “You look like you want to hit something,” he said.

I grinned a little. “Yuri’s not here,” I said.

“Come on. You’ve been neglecting an important part of your training. Since my mate is out visiting other Packs, I’ve got frustrations of my own to work out.” I followed him to the elevator, and we went down to the basement where the training facilities were. I quickly put my clothes in a locker, dressing in loose shorts, and met him in the padded sparring area. Two other Betas, Hermann and Roberto, were on the mat and were breathing heavily. We watched for a few minutes; Hermann was fighting MMA- style, while Roberto was a straight boxer. Hermann finally won, knocking him down with a right cross before getting him in a chokehold.

“Stick around and watch,” Javier told them as they moved out of the fighting circle. “Patrick opened some eyes with the spar at his Alpha testing, you could learn something. Patrick, why do you think you won?”

“He was confident in his size advantage and boxing skill and did not consider me to be a threat,” I replied. “Then I fought in a way he hadn’t seen, that he had no counter for.”

“How would you fight me,” Roberto said.

“A lot like what Hermann just did. Boxers are used to rules, they only use their hands, nothing above the belt. Real life fights are anything goes. Eyes, nut shots, knees, legs. What I learned in Krav Maga is that it doesn’t have to be pretty, just effective. I learned to use bursts of violence to create space to attack or escape.” I pulled him out on the mat with me and had him take his normal stance. “Boxers use fists, he stayed just far enough away he could have that reach advantage on me. When I jabbed not with a fist but with extended fingers, and aimed at his eyes, he flinched and that was all the advantage I needed. Boxers watch hands, not legs, so against you I would use my legs and attack yours. Get you down on the ground like Hermann did, taking away the advantage of your training.”

“Brutally effective strategy,” Javier said. “He’s right. We fight for our lives. No one will care if you looked good doing it, or how long it took. All that matters is one walks away and the other doesn’t.”

Javier had me demonstrate some tactics, then he called them off. “Hermann, you referee. Patrick, let’s go.” My eyes bugged out, I didn’t expect the respected elder Alpha to want to fight with someone who was the age of his grandchildren. I took my spot, bowing my head in respect as he took his spot and the spar began.

I took an MMA-style stance and was shocked to see the stance he took. It was used in Thai kickboxing, something I’d only seen in movies like Bloodsport. “Really?” I shook my head as I circled and he bounced, his hands held evenly just below his chin.

“You learn a few things along the way if you never stop trying to get better.” I ran through what I could remember about Muay-Thai; it was a discipline that used knees and shins to brutal effect, using the arms to tie you up while the damage was done. I decided I would try and end this quickly, because if he got me he’d bust me up good.

I shot in low, sweeping my leg towards his knee, only to miss as he jumped over my leg. I turned it into a roll, bringing my other leg up into his thigh and knocking him sideways. He kept his balance and jumped on my back as I tried to scramble away. His arm wrapped around my neck, and I tried a wrestling sit-out move to escape. I got loose, but not before taking two brutal shots to the ribs from his right knee.

I stood up just as he charged, this time his arms tangled with mine and he pulled me forward, into his knee. I felt ribs breaking before I was able to grab his leg, pushing forward as I lifted I got him on the ground. Somehow, he got his legs wrapped around my chest as we hit the ground, and he rolled me on my side as his ankles locked me in a vise.

I pounded his stomach with an elbow, but he caught it and held it to his side while he kept squeezing. I couldn’t get a breath in, and my broken rib was moving inside me. I tapped out.

“You see? Never stop learning. Every Beta I ever trained had mastered at least three fighting disciplines and was familiar with a dozen more. I’m going to set up a training rotation; each night of the week will have a different style that will be taught and practiced.”

I just nodded my head, spitting out blood as Hermann helped move my ribs back in place so they could heal. I still had a lot to learn. I did learn one thing- never fuck with an old Alpha. They didn’t get to be old Alphas by being weak.