Reorganized Wolf (Seraphine Thomas Book 12)

by Erin R Flynn

  Emilio came around and marked off more that was cleared off, CPD giving relieved looks as we were doing it faster and more efficiently than they could.

  “School’s completely cleared and kids are at the hotel,” Carter told me. “They’re all hanging out in the event rooms while the staff gets them water and whatever else they need.”

  “Good, tell the news that I’m sure is gathering at the perimeter that the kids are there and safe and if they could pass that along for any of the parents listening, we’d appreciate it,” I told him.

  “I don’t believe that’s standard FBI protocol to make comments on ongoing investigations and certainly not at your level,” a voice said from my right.

  I hoped I was wrong but I knew that voice, cursing mentally and a lot before turning to lock gazes with Andrew Murray. “Well, it’s not your call, Murray, and I’d ask you be professional for once. The kids aren’t part of the case, it’s a public service and safety announcement as we could have thousands of parents fleeing closer to the spot where there’s a bomb.”

  “Good to see you too, Thomas,” he said sweetly, extending his hand to me. “And I was very professional, just questioning the move.” I didn’t correct him to my title as he was petty like that and acknowledging it meant the hit landed with me but it didn’t. I went to shake out of professional habit but he smirked. “Not taking off the ring to shake with me?”

  I blinked at him and dropped my hand. For a moment I’d thought the ring from Brian but he meant the ring to block my getting images… Which there was no world he should know about it. “We’re on the same side so why would I try to get anything off of you?” I shook my head when he opened his mouth. “Murray, it’s great to see you again, but I’m a bit busy so just stay out of the way.”

  His eyes flashed shock but then a shit-eating grin formed on his face. That couldn’t be good.

  Bomb squad arrived and I headed over to them, noting Murray was still around. Why was he even in town? He had to be working a case with the regular office. I swallowed a shiver. If there was one person I’d hoped never to see in my career again it was Andrew Fucking Murray.

  “Oswalt, thanks for getting here so fast,” I greeted the head of the bomb squad team I’d worked with before.

  He nodded, shaking my hand. “What’s the deal?”

  “I smelled the explosives and made the call it’s real, not even touching it,” I told him. “Whether it’s a box of explosives or a real device, I have no idea, but we’re still evacuating.” I waved for him to follow me. “We’ve got the map.”

  “Alpha, we’ve cleared out the apartment building,” Gayle informed me. “What else can we do?”

  I glanced at the map. “Check these three for me that they’re clear and then go help at the hotel. That’s a lot of kids to keep entertained.”

  “Got it,” she said before hurrying off with their group again.

  “Civilians helping on a case,” Murray muttered as if keeping tally of all my sins.

  I gave him a look to shut up. “Yeah, and I had teachers get the kids to safety too.”

  Oswalt gave him an unfriendly look. “She’s cleared the area in record time. She didn’t have random people bagging crime scene evidence.” He gave me a glance like who is this guy but I just shook my head. “We’ll get in place. Let’s move back this setup so the radios aren’t problematic with any the device might have.”

  “Tell us where,” I agreed, nodding when he pointed it out, calling for everyone to back up the vehicles and everything to where the bomb squad van was.

  “Always so quick to be accommodating,” Murray commented, and I heard the layers there, swallowing the urge to punch him.

  “Why are you even here?” I asked him.

  He smirked at me. “I was in the area.”

  “Great, but this isn’t your scene so what’s the rules on that, Mr. Rule Follower?” I threw right back, mocking him because he was one of the last people to follow the rules.

  He just liked to point out when other people didn’t. He was the ultimate bully and that asshole who pointed out when anyone was stepping near a line to distract others while he started before the whistle. I hated Andrew Murray and going through Quantico with him made it twenty times harder. He was the poster child of the boys’ club I loathed in the FBI and our government.

  And he knew how to work the system. It had to chap his ass that I was promoted to division chief before him. He was the guy who took all the credit and got the glory while those of us undercover had to duck it. He was everything wrong with the FBI basically and I hated he worked for the same place I did because I loved the FBI and what it stood for, the good it did.

  Unfortunately, nothing was perfect and rats like Andrew Murray worked the system to their advantage.

  And unfortunately, he felt about the same for me, as people who wouldn’t play his games or were smart enough to step around his bull or strong enough to jump over his hurdles were in the way of his climbing the ladder to his expected greatness.

  Why the fuck was he in Chicago and I had to deal with him on a day like today?

  7

  “No need to get hysterical, Thomas,” he said with that fake sweet and calm voice like he was dealing with a wild animal. That wasn’t a new tactic for him now that I was a shifter as he’d always done it. In his mind if he acted extra calm, he made the other person seem unreasonable.

  Unfortunately, people could be stupid and it tended to work.

  But unfortunately for him, Chicagoans were smarter than that and everyone around us gave him a look like they were trying not to laugh.

  “The day we see you hysterical at a scene is the day I retire because the shit has completely hit the fan,” one of the officers said as he walked by us, several people chuckling in agreement.

  I turned back to the map and was about to ask where my update was on the second apartment building when Murray finally made me flinch.

  “The ring’s nice, a bit understated but tasteful.”

  And this time he meant the engagement ring. I glanced at him with a frown. “If you’ve got a point to make or something to say, spit it out so I can focus on work, Murray, otherwise, can you try and focus on the bomb instead of my getting engaged?”

  His eyes flashed annoyance but I didn’t enjoy landing the hit in front of others. I just wanted him gone. “I was simply saying congratulations.”

  “No you weren’t. You were taking a shot at the ring like he didn’t spend enough on me so he must not love me. I wouldn’t have liked a loud ring that got in my way. I have all the huge gems I need. I prefer elegant and understated, as not everyone needs to announce their presence or get the credit like insecure people who need the pat on the back.”

  Several people snorted and the annoyance came back.

  “Oh, I think you’ve gotten your credit and everything worked out well for you to become division chief so young.” He glanced at the ring as if implying it was only because I’d been with Brian it happened. “Even if your mistake caused you to get the job.”

  Again, that was loaded as he saw it a mistake in his mind I’d picked Brian over him as he made his interest quite known at training. But also he was counting the bust that got me injured my fault.

  “Well, clearly IA and everyone actually involved in that case didn’t agree with you as it wasn’t ruled my mistake as I was undercover and flying in the dark,” I said easily. “Are you done picking at the past you weren’t involved with or can we focus on the bomb?”

  Carter appeared and I bit back a smirk when Murray flinched. “The rest of the buildings are cleared. We have all the full blocks cleared around the church.”

  “Good, talk with Oswalt and work out a sign so you can get anyone out of there they put in if things go wrong.”

  “Got it.”

  “Congrats on your fiancé’s promotion,” Murray said before Carter left.

  I locked eyes with Carter and saw the shock I was feeling, slowly turning to give t
he attention to Murray he so clearly wanted.

  He smiled evilly at me, glancing at my engagement ring again as if saying I made the wrong choice. “I wasn’t completely ready to move here but obviously circumstances pushed it all up. I’m glad he survived, of course, as Havers is a good guy. I liked him a lot when we met, talked for a while.”

  I didn’t bite, sliding off my other ring when I stuffed my hands in my pocket like I didn’t want to show the engagement ring around him anymore. He totally bought it, his eyes dancing with victory.

  Horror filled me as I got images from him as he was a loud broadcaster like Mike Harris, top ten I’d ever been around for sure. I swallowed loudly and tried not to show any other reaction, but I was having a hard time keeping my cool at work for once.

  “I was thinking of asking if you had any room in that swank building since the last division chief got to live there and you’re so accommodating like that.”

  “She doesn’t handle that, I do as the one in charge of security,” Carter cut in, glancing between us like he was missing pieces of the puzzle. “You’re not from Havers’s office though, so you’re transferring?”

  Murray answered him but he kept his eyes on me to watch the fun reaction he was waiting for. “I’m his replacement. I’m the new division chief of the regular FBI Chicago office. Brian Havers has been promoted to section chief of the non-human division a bit earlier than planned and Chad Monroe is now deputy director of the non-human division as the president wanted.”

  “Oh fuck,” Sander breathed behind us at a level the humans couldn’t hear, clearly picking up this was all news to me.

  I smiled at Murray, doing my best to act like I knew even if I’d only learned a moment before he said it. “I didn’t know you were the replacement. We were dealing with that whole thing in Russia and all of that. Congrats. It will be nice to have a junior ranking division chief to help out when we need it.” It was hard not to laugh when he frowned, clearly having not thought about that.

  “My division’s—”

  “Welcome to Chicago, Murray,” I said over his bullshit of him thinking I’d be under him as he had the bigger office. It didn’t actually work that way, just how his ego saw things. “Good luck, really, good luck because we are our own breed here.” I gave a dismissive wave. “If you haven’t started, you’re not involved so stop acting like a child wanting attention so the adults can work.”

  I spun on my heel and headed to Oswalt to get back to work, using all my training and sanity to shove what I learned into the corner. But that was just a temporary hold because the storm that was brewing inside of me would come out and bad.

  Really, really bad.

  “Okay, good news and bad news,” Oswalt announced about twenty minutes later.

  “I could use some good news,” I sighed, meeting his tired gaze.

  “Good news is the one of the wires fell out of the connector so the device isn’t active,” he told me, nodding when I growled.

  “Hey, not active sounds great,” Sander muttered, his tone confused.

  “Yes, this time, but the bad news means we’ve got someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing to make such a basic mistake,” Oswalt explained. “That means we have someone who had access to a block of C-4—”

  “And we would assume has more,” I interjected, Oswalt nodding.

  “But could blow his whole supply at any time or in transport or any of our worst-case ideas. He could blow something when he meant to scare people. He might have already meant to blow this smaller device and it didn’t work so he’ll go bigger. A malfunction like this by his error means we can’t build the normal profile to get started.”

  “Well, fuck,” Sander grumbled.

  “The good news again is that if he’s only to this level, it’s not anything we can’t easily defuse.”

  “We don’t know it’s a he but statistically, it’s a guy,” I told the others when they were giving Oswalt looks like they were missing something. “They’ll refer to him that way and if they’re wrong, no one gives a shit about the PC factor when it’s a bomb maker.”

  Oswalt nodded. “We get in trouble if we just call them a POS constantly, so he is what we use. Women are too smart to ever be this big of assholes.”

  “I’m sure your wife appreciates your stance on that,” I teased him, smiling when he just snorted. I’d never met her but she had to be a hell of a woman to put up with her husband doing that dangerous of work.

  The bomb squad recovered the C-4 and I actually had Carter call Monroe because I wasn’t sure I could stay professional at the moment. The all clear was given to the mayor through CPD and I thanked everyone for their help as we got people back to where they needed to go before opening the streets and everything back to normal.

  As if there could be a normal rest of the day after a bomb was dropped off to a church.

  That of course didn’t have cameras or any sort of security.

  I went over with those from my office that showed up on where to try and what footage to get just like any other crime scene.

  “You handled that well for not having the training,” Murray said, not wanting to give me the praise but the slight I was unqualified.

  I snickered, shaking my head. “I had the same training as you, Murray, and did it better than you. Just because you had more office grunt work while I was undercover and in the field, don’t assume you know my cases or talents.” I gave him a dismissive once-over. “I rejected your offers often, after all.”

  “Oh shit,” Sander whispered again, getting there was lots, lots more than they knew.

  When my part was over, I raced off back inside the building to get warm but mostly so no one saw when I had the meltdown that was coming. Alena and Eva were already there when I arrived but I felt bad that the Haverses still were, as that meant I needed to be rude and I didn’t want that.

  “I think that’s enough for today though there is more to talk about,” Alena muttered as she took in my state.

  “What?” I pushed, wanting it just done.

  “Theon infected him,” Eva answered, her tone careful. “Giannis Barlos will have a field day with that when he finds out and he might have already figured it out. Why are you moments from shifting?”

  I nodded, not having thought of that, but ignoring her other question. “We deny it.” I shrugged when they all gave me shocked looks. “What’s he going to do? Call all of us liars? Call you a liar as his Alpha? Let him think he smells his bloodline on Brian all he wants but if all of us say it wasn’t Theon, it wasn’t Theon. From now until forever, Christos infected him and thank his grandmother even or whatever.”

  “The idea has merit, but we can talk about it more later,” Alene replied as I started shaking. “I suggest you go for a run.”

  “What happened, Sera?” Brian asked, freezing when I flinched away from him.

  “Please leave my apartment,” I told him, taking all I had to keep my voice even.

  “Wait, what?” He came closer but I backed away.

  “Leave my apartment,” I growled, sounding more wolf than woman.

  Carter showed up with a few of the ancients, clearly worried about me. “I’d leave before you get that ring back.”

  A fly farting could have been heard in the room as Brian’s heart raced too fast.

  “Sera? Do you want to give it back to me?”

  I swallowed my answer as it was yes and I was too upset to be rational at the moment. “Leave my apartment before I do something I can’t take back.”

  “Tell me what happened,” he pushed.

  And I snapped, snarling at him. “Who the fuck are you to demand that of me?” I chuckled when his eyes flashed shock. “Right, you’re my boss again.”

  He winced as I felt shock in the room… But not at the news, simply I was upset.

  I glanced at his family, seeing the confusion and swallowing upset laughter. “Your family knew before me? You told your family you were offered section c
hief of my division before you told the woman you say you want to build a life with?”

  “Oh, Brian,” Mrs. Havers sighed. “Okay, let’s leave them to this. Sera, thank you for having us and we’ll talk soon.”

  I nodded. “Sorry to be so rude but it’s been a rough couple of days.”

  “We understand,” Grammy said, winking at me as they headed out.

  Alena muttered about them getting settled in the guest apartment and I just nodded.

  “I’m not leaving when you’re this close as I’m worried you’ll hurt him,” Carter said before I could even tell them to go.

  I couldn’t even argue it because I wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of Brian. I bobbed my head and swallowed loudly, not even able to look at Brian for fear of what my wolf or siren might do. “Warn everyone about Andrew Murray. Get a picture and pass it around—”

  “Wait, you know the new division chief?” Brian interjected, his tone sounding confused and frustrated.

  I looked at him then and whatever he saw made him flinch, slowly pale. “You are such a fucking Boy Scout you are dangerous. He’s a spy for the director, who doesn’t like supes. We had Galvin’s backing and you were supe friendly, no reason to get anyone in here and his own eyes in.” I shook my head when he looked shocked. “I would rather have Vlad back than Andrew Fucking Murray.”

  “That bad?” Carter asked, wincing at whatever he was getting off of me or in my expression.

  “Jason has a line and morals even if he pushes too far for his mission. It’s always for the greater good. Andrew Murray has no goal but himself.”

  “How do you know him?” Brian asked, clearly reeling. “I didn’t know any of this.”

  “Well, you should have fucking asked!” I roared, shocking all of them. “I just went through the most humiliating moment of my career as he gleefully told me that he’s your replacement, you’re getting a promotion to my boss again, and Monroe’s now Galvin’s rank and no one fucking told me.” I shook my head as I fought the need to shift. “Get out, Brian. Just fucking get out.”