***
Need 2 meet with u, Dr. R, and Cnclmn. Black. 9PM. Police station. V. Important.
Sheriff Andrews forwent his usual lengthy phone call in favor of a brief (albeit incoherent) text message. Strange, but I didn’t have the mental energy to question it much further. I just needed to clear my fucking head.
I jogged to the station, plugged my headphones into my iPhone, and allowed only the soothing sounds of Slayer to run through my mind. Normally, I’d see a few people out and about, laughing with their children while barbecuing or some family-friendly shit like that – but I didn’t run into a single soul.
Shit. People must be on lockdown or something. Word travels fast.
I felt like a shitty Alpha. I didn’t even think about briefing my clan or coming up with a safety plan of some sort. Hell, what was I expecting? For them to not freak out when someone in Timber Creek ends up murdered? This whole marriage shit was fucking me up.
My stress levels spiked, causing my jog to turn into a full-on sprint. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest; it was pumping what felt like a volatile mixture of adrenaline and caustic blood through my veins. I blocked everything and everyone out of my head: Aubrey, my dad, Councilman Johnson...
“What about Mason?”
“What about him?”
“Your son? He’s your son, Charles. He’s your son.”
“He won’t even remember me.”
My mother laughed. “How delusional are you?”
“Not so delusional that I don’t know when to leave.”
“What does she have that we don’t? What does she have that we can’t provide you? Is it because I lost our little girl?”
“Chris....”
“You’re the reason she’s gone, Charles. You’re the reason she died.” My mother let out a pained sob. “Answer me, Charles.”
“Settle down, Chris –”
“You will call me Christina from now on.”
“This is why I’m leaving you.” My dad placed his hands on his forehead.
“Because I stand up for myself and my child?”
“Because you love him more than you love me. You love your son more than you love your fucking husband.”
“I can’t believe this is –”
“Shut up, Chris – I mean, Christina. Shut up.”
“Not until you tell your son why the hell you’re –”
A loud smack, followed by my mother’s shrill screams nearly pierced my eardrums.
I ran to my closet and shut the door behind me. I held my stuffed bear tighter, and let him absorb my tears.
My breathing became labored and my lungs were ready to burst. I bent over, gripping my thighs as I tried to catch my breath.
Fuck.
***
“You look like death, Mason,” Councilman Black said, bearing his decaying yellow teeth in a disturbing smile.
“That’s inappropriate, Councilman, considering the circumstances of this meeting,” I replied, staring him down.
“Gentlemen,” Dr. Reynolds said as she cleared her throat. “Sheriff Andrews and I called you here to discuss Councilman Johnson’s case. We need your help–”
“We need your help identifying potential suspects,” Andrews interrupted, prompting a groan from Dr. Reynolds. “Suspects from within your clan, specifically.”
“Why is he here, then?” I said, glaring at Councilman Black.
Dr. Reynolds crossed her arms and cocked her head. “I’m not sure, to be honest –”
“I asked to be involved in the case,” Black said, placing his hand over his heart. “Johnson was a great friend of mine.”
“Edgar, you mean,” I muttered.
“Show some respect, Fortescue. I’d like to find the killer and make sure justice is served.”
“Anyways, what do you want us to do? Why aren’t the other Alphas here?” I said, gritting my teeth.
“We want to separate the clans for the time being. We don’t want any conflicts of interest,” Dr. Reynolds said.
“Yes, particularly with the wedding – ahem, arrangement – you and Alpha Moore are considering,” Andrews said.
“Ha, like Moore would be any help. That bitch only cares about one thing and one thing only: herself and her comfort.”
No. No fucking way. I grabbed Black by the collar of his stained shirt and threw him against a stack of filing cabinets. “The fuck did you just say about her?”
His beady little eyes bugged out of his head, and his Adam’s apple bobbed rapidly. I grabbed his neck and squeezed, and his pudgy hands attempted to pry my fingers off of him to no avail.
“I said, what the fuck did you just say about Aubrey?” Every second that went by, I squeezed tighter, wanting to steal the breath from his worthless body…
“Mason…” I felt Dr. Reynolds and Andrews try to pull me back.
Black gasped for air, his face turning blue.
“Mason, you’re going to kill him if you don’t let him go.”
“Good,” I responded, watching his eyes become bloodshot.
At this point, I wasn’t in control of myself; my bear was. I was simply a vessel for him to act out his primal urges.
“Mason, I know you’re better than this…” Dr. Reynolds said, her voice muffled under my ringing ears.
“You bitch, you can’t just talk to me like that.”
“Watch your language in front of your son. He can hear you.”
“I can do whatever the fuck I want, and I’m telling you to shut your fucking mouth before I do it for you.”
I tiptoed away to the safety of my room, knowing that my Dad would only get angrier if I made a sound.
What would 3-year-old Mason think of me now?
“Mason, he’s suffocating. You’re killing him. Let him go, please.”
I dropped him and watched him slump to the ground. He squeaked with every breath, and tears streamed down his face. My handprints left a red mark on his neck, which he was rubbing with his meaty palms.
I turned to Andrews and Dr. Reynolds. “I’ll keep an eye out for potential suspects. Alone.”
I walked out of Sheriff Andrews’ office and let the door slam behind me. A few officers who were working overtime peered out of their offices as I walked by.
“The fuck are you looking at?” I yelled. I hit the ground running the moment I left the station. Physically and emotionally, I was exhausted.
I needed to feel the pain. I deserved to feel pain.
Chapter 5: Gregory Fortescue
“Are you mad?” Councilman Black fumed. “It’s a miracle you didn’t get caught! You could’ve gotten both of us —”
“Oh, shut up,” I said. I was starting to grow tired of his presence. “I have it under control. Do you not trust me?”
“Of course I do, it’s just that Rogers is not going to be happy about our carelessness,” he said as he paced back and forth between the trees, wringing his hands. The moonlight reflected off his disgusting balding head, revealing beads of sweat that were forming on his brow. “I mean, he wanted us – hell, he paid us – to eliminate the councilmembers first, and then the alphas without being detected. But Reynolds and Andrews knew he was poisoned, now. They know it was silver nitrate and not natural causes.”
What a pathetic creature. He can’t even control his own nerves. “Our carelessness?”
“Yes, we both —”
“Nuh-uh, this isn’t about me.” I wagged my finger in his face with a big, toothy grin. “If we get caught, it’s your fault. Not mine, Steven.”
He placed his hands on his head. I loved to make him squirm. I had nothing to lose, while his entire life was at stake. I made sure to exploit that at every chance I got.
You see, in order to gain power, you need to find people weaker than you. You need to find someone you can control. Someone who will look at you for support, someone who will trust you, someone who has no one to turn to…
Steven was
the perfect candidate. He was power-hungry himself. Cocky. Arrogant. Stupid. He was hesitant to work with Rogers and me.
To him, I was just a 26-year-old bastard, nothing more. There would be no benefit to him in our relationship.
Ha. You bet I made him see the errors in his ways. Oh, I played him perfectly. I made him feel like he had power over me, like he was in charge…that’s all he wanted, a little boy to boss around, like his dad did to him as a child. The ones with daddy issues are the easiest to manipulate. You see, blackmail is a powerful tool for establishing dependency…
Steven and I both harbored resentment for the paranormals: I was born without shifter powers despite being the son of a shifter and a human — most half-shifters have their own set of special abilities, but I am a human for all intents and purposes; Steven was a shifter who despised his own kind for one reason or another, I never really cared to ask. Rogers, a human “paranormal hunter”, provided us with the wonderful opportunity to exact our revenge on the community we both despised. If they won’t accept me, I’ll kill them. Easy as that.
“Did you hide the silver nitrate?” He said, his voice wavering. “Where is it?”
“I thought you had it, Steven,” I yelled. I had it, but I wanted to see him crumble a little bit more — I derived pleasure from his pain.
“Be quiet, or someone will hear us,” he said in an aggressive whisper. “And no, Jesus Christ, you had it last. You know I can’t touch that stuff, where would I put it? What the hell would I —”
“I’m just kidding, calm down.” I rolled my eyes and kicked a twig in his direction. “Besides, we’re in the middle of nowhere, practically. No one goes to Mount Callista this late. No one will find us. You’re being paranoid.”
He looked down and pressed his lips together. “Calm down? What do you mean, calm down? They’re launching a fucking investigation into what we did.”
“They won’t find us. They won’t know it’s us.” I examined my fingernails, feeling bored and disappointed in Steven’s behavior. “Besides, there are other, more pressing issues we need to address.”
“Oh, really?” He put his hands on his hips. “What could be more pressing than a fucking murder investigation?”
“Oh, Steven, I keep forgetting how old and frail you are. Now I understand why you’re so upset, your senile brain can’t handle the stress,” I said with a laugh. “I need to save Alpha Moore. Aubrey.”
He yanked at the only tufts of hair left on his head. His exposed neck was covered in bruises — autoerotic asphyxiation, maybe? I wouldn’t be surprised.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he said. “She’s part of the problem!”
I tried to ignore his stupid little voice with his stupid little comments. “How does she feel about the arranged marriage?”
“I don’t fucking know, she’s fucking incompetent in my opinion.”
I lunged toward him and grabbed his collar. “Don’t you dare say that about my Aubrey, or I’ll filet your scrotum, fry it while you watch, and feed it to you for breakfast.” His beady little eyes were practically bulging out of his head. “Now, what does she think of the marriage?”
“She doesn’t want to do it,” he gasped, struggling for air.
Perfect. I let him go. “That’s because she wants me. She wants me to save her. I know it.” I paced back and forth, my feet squishing into the wet soil.
Aubrey. Aubrey. Aubrey. It’s a sign. “It’s been 8 years since we’ve been apart, you know that?”
“What are you talking about?” He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes.
“Aubrey and me,” I said. “We were lovers, you know. High school sweethearts.”
He stared at me with a crazed look in his eyes. “Can we focus on the situation with Rogers? He will kill us and our families if we —”
“Let them, I don’t care,” I said, my mind still fixated on Aubrey.
“W-well,” Steven stammered.
“W-w-w-w-well, what?” I said, mocking his stupid little stutter. God, this man was a waste of space.
He pursed his lips. “Well, I have people I care about who I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die, either. Your mom is one of them. Are you saying you don’t care if she dies?”
I rolled my eyes. “Must I repeat myself? I. Don’t. Care. You shouldn’t care either. My mom’s the town whore — she’ll open her legs for anyone with a pulse, and you’re no exception. She’s only fucking you because she’s lonely.” I tried not to concern myself with relationships — everyone dies in the end, so why should I spend time caring about them in the first place?
He clenched his fists and his nostrils flared. “Don’t you dare speak about your mother that way, she has done so much for you —”
“Keep complaining, old man, but nothing you say is going to change how I feel. Anyways, I’d rather talk about Rogers, and that’s saying a lot.” I might as well placate him if it means he’ll shut up.
“Yes, right.” He resumed his pacing back and forth. “We need to figure out if we’re going to lay low or not. If we don’t keep making hits on people, Rogers is going to be pissed. On the other hand, if we aren’t careful, we’re going to get caught and possibly killed.”
“Mhmm,” I said, my mind still fixated on Aubrey.
“So, we need to make a decision.”
“Right.”
“Now, Gregory.”
“Do you think Alpha Moore will be angry at me if we get caught?” I wondered out loud.
“Uh, yeah, definitely. Why wouldn’t she? Like I said, she’s part of the —”
“She loves me, you know that, right? She just won’t say it out loud.” I sighed and remembered how upset she was with me when she told me she wasn’t going to tutor me any more. Me threatening to kill myself didn’t make her stay, either. Strange, that usually works on people. “She just won’t say it out loud,” I repeated.
“Let’s —”
“Do you think she hates me?” I said.
“I don’t know, I barely know her.”
“Wrong. The answer is ‘no’.”
“Okay, then —”
“The answer is no, Steven. Say it with me.”
“Fuck, okay. No, she doesn’t hate you. Why do you care so much about her, anyway? She’s the first person Rogers is going to want us to target once things get moving.”
“No. No, she’s not.” How dare he insinuate that my precious Aubrey was going to die under Rogers’ control? Not on my watch. She was going to be under my watch, under my control, like I’ve always dreamed of.
“Can we please, please, please stay on topic?”
“Fine,” I said. “How was your meeting with Andrews and Dr. Reynolds yesterday?”
He covered his neck and looked down. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You piece of shit!” I ran toward him and kicked his shin. “Tell me. How. Was. Your. Meeting. Yesterday?”
“What the fuck?” he said, bending over and hopping on one leg.
“Can you not understand me?” I slapped his cheek. “Did they suspect either of us?”
“No, they didn’t, not as far as I know.” Tears welled up in his eyes, and it was hard to suppress a smile. His pained expression aroused an addictive feeling of joy within me…I craved this feeling.
“Good,” I said. “That means we can move forward. We should make another hit. Any suggestions?
“Um. Well, I think we should pick someone who —”
“I have an idea! Let’s pick someone who is close to Aubrey. That way, she’ll be so upset she’ll run back into my arms.”
“I’m not too sure that’s —”
“What, Steven?”
“I mean, that may make us look suspicious.”
“You, maybe. They won’t think it’s me because I’m a Fortescue.” In the eyes of the different clans, I basically don’t exist. Never have, never will. I am the bastard son of a dis
graced Alpha — an anomaly, a shit stain on the delicate fabric of our precious little community. Everyone would much rather see me disappear than acknowledge my existence. For that, they’ll pay.
“Fortescue or not; we need to watch ourselves. Security is going to be ramped up the moment we merge the clans. It’s already happening. We don’t want the Defense Force on our asses.” He rubbed his neck once again and winced.
“You really think Mason would send his army after his own little brother?” I said, flashing my biggest puppy-dog eyes at Steven.
“Absolutely. He hates your guts, and mine.” He wrung his hands and continued to pace back and forth. “They also know that we used silver nitrate to kill Johnson, which leads me to ask again: how could you be so careless?”
My stomach churned. “How did they —“
“Let me see your hands, Gregory.”
“No, why do you need to —“ I jammed my hands in my back pocket as I slowly stepped away from him.
“Give me your fucking hands,” he said as he grabbed my arms and yanked them. “Fuck, Gregory, your hands are stained.”
I pulled away from him. “It’s not a big deal, Steven.”
“You didn’t fucking wear gloves? You’re practically wearing the murder weapon.”
Sweat started to form on my brow, and I was beginning to feel shaky. “I didn’t know this would happen.”
“It’s chemistry 101. Silver nitrate stains skin, for Christ’s sake.”
A familiar feeling of dread washed over me — the same feeling I felt when Aubrey left. I was losing control, losing power. I needed to be in charge. “How was I supposed to know? You should’ve warned me, Steven.”
“You little prick. What the fuck?” He kept stepping closer and closer to me. He could easily crush me, which is why I desperately needed to maintain an emotional advantage over him.
“You touch me, and I’ll tell my mom what we’re doing.” He stopped dead in his tracks as a smile crept on my face. Bingo. “She won’t want to fuck you ever again.”
Alpha Arrangement: A BBW BWWM Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Arcane Affairs Agency) Page 5
