by C. T. Adams
A burst of laughter from Lucas sounded both delighted and pitying. “Yeah, I wouldn’t bet on that. The dragon women of Komodo weren’t ever known for looking fondly on their mates until the eggs were safely underground. Morning sickness lasted all the way through the pregnancy. But don’t tell him I said so. He’s the one who wanted to breed, so he can find out the reason why there aren’t many snakes or dragons anymore. Yeah, do take along Bobby. There’s nothing Josef can throw that he can’t handle. If you can hook him into the vision, that would be even better. Then there’ll be no question if the council wants corroboration. Just don’t make a scene or take anyone out. I don’t want any loose ends with the pack or the public to clean up when I get there.”
The other man’s voice had a questioning tone. “You’re on the a la carte menu now, you know.”
“We’ll discuss it when I get there. Just get moving and call me when you’ve got him in a secure location.” Lucas pressed the end button without another word, or waiting for a response. Then he flipped down the cover on the phone and looked at Adam with raised brows.
“So, you might be winding up with the Minnesota pack, depending on what the council decides after hearing the evidence. Will that be more to your liking?”
He couldn’t decide what to say or do and Lucas let him take his time. Finally, he fought his way around to the main question. “Did I just hear you put a hit on my pack leader? For crissake, he’s going to know what you just said through the pack connection!”
Lucas nodded and took another casual sip, apparently choosing to ignore the roiling scents that rose from Adam enough he nearly choked on them himself.
“Not a hit. Not yet. And no, he won’t have a clue what’s coming. Let me give you a little background and bring you up to date on what your pack leader has been up to lately.” He grabbed a file folder from the bed and tossed it into Adam’s lap. “This is a statement I took last night from Vivian. After a little… gentle persuasion, she admitted Josef sent you down here for the express purpose of killing you. I’m not quite sure why she thought she’d be safe from the same fate, but she was pretty convinced of it.”
Adam was busy reading the statement, written in a bold, masculine hand that seemed to fit Lucas’s personality. The words she said Josef called him—traitor, motherless cur, murderer—spun in his mind.
“The council didn’t order you to be the Alpha here. They gave full authority to the pack leaders to make the final decisions. And Josef never talked to me, nor any other council member. I asked. No, you were sent here to die and, in fact, have been cut off from the pack for over a week. It’s why you’ve been irritable and depressed. You’ve been pining for your pack mates. Fortunately for you, though, he had no way of knowing how lenient Cara is about strange wolves in her territory. I really didn’t know either, until I met her.” He sighed and shook his head. “But if Vivian wasn’t lying… and I doubt she could… then he expected you to be slaughtered for coming here, either by Cara or me. He knew I was coming here and had ordered everyone to stay away until I met with Cara’s pack.”
Adam heard an almost eerily calm tone in his voice that betrayed none of the emotions swirling through his head. “He blames me for his son’s death, and for the pack split. I’d suspected that, but he swore otherwise and I could never tell when he was lying, because of his natural scent.” Closing the file didn’t remove the words from his mind. He wasn’t pack anymore. But he could swear he could still feel them, in the background. Were they only memories? Is that why he attached to Cara so completely and… desperately? And what did that mean for the other pack members who would be cut off before coming down here?
Lucas’s voice was sad. “I’m starting to think Josef’s gone completely insane over Tyr’s death. It’s happened before and, if so, then he’s a danger to everyone up there. Tony Giambrocco is a new turn—an attack victim who is gifted, or some might say cursed, with hindsight. He’ll be able to tell me, and the council, everything that went on behind closed doors as though he was there.”
That perked Adam’s ears. “You have a seer in Wolven now? And he can see the past? Wow, would that speed up case resolution!”
Lucas laughed with a trace of bitterness. “Yeah, but he doesn’t come cheap. He has no loyalty to the Sazi, and trying to rein him in with discipline only serves to make him more stubborn, so we have to pay him better than the competition. He was a freelance assassin as a human, working for the Mafia and is a lone wolf—unable to be bound to a pack because of his mate. He’s quite possibly the only three-day wolf to ever become an agent and certainly the only one with a per job fee arrangement. But he’s not in Wolven just because of his gift, so don’t piss him off when you meet him. He’s turned bullets into a whole new kind of obstacle on the Wolven training course—one that’s even impressed a few council members.”
A Mafia hitman seer who works for Wolven because it’s the highest bidder? Bobby Mbutu married and about to become the father of dragons? “This sounds like the plot of a bad reality TV show. You sure you’re not bullshitting me?”
Another laugh, but this one was amused. Lucas relaxed back into his seat. “You ought to hear what’s happening in the council It’s a whole new world in Paris. But that’s beside the point. For the moment, what I need you to do is work with Cara for the next two days and give me a list of people to bring back.” He raised a hand to stop Adam’s protest. “Just deal with it, Agent. If you can’t stand to be in the same room together even after the cologne… and I don’t want to know the details, then make the plans by phone. But I want a firm list of twelve families ready to take back with me by five o’clock on Friday—and you need to start making a decision… do you want to come back to join this pack or not? If you say yes, then you’re off the list to take over Minnesota if we need to replace Josef.”
Adam took a deep breath and nodded. Cut and dried, just that simple—at least for Lucas. But for two packs, the decisions he and Cara made could change the lives of a dozen people forever. “If you have to put Josef down, there’s a chance that neither pack will follow me as Alpha. They’re the same people, and they’re loyal to him.”
Lucas shook his head lightly, with tiny movements. “People will follow any good leader, Adam. But leaders make mistakes. It’s how you deal with those mistakes that determines whether they’ll trust you enough to keep following.”
“How did you deal with it? Making a mistake, that is. If you’ve ever made one.” The sound of frustration playing through his voice was clear, even without the burnt metal scent he knew the other man could smell.
He’d expected a laugh or anger for daring to ask. What he didn’t plan was the weary, almost sad sigh. “Made one? Hmm… which one? There’ve been too many to count lately. You’ll find yourself asking questions there aren’t any answers to—should I have stepped in sooner? Should I have gotten involved at all? Did I make it worse, or better? What could I have noticed that might have made the difference?” He shrugged. “But you don’t have time to second guess. All you can do is look around you, listen to your people, make your decisions, and move on. Oh, and watch your back when you have time. Outliving your enemies is a key element of leading.”
Watch his back. He never thought he had to do that alone—believed his pack, his family, would help watch it. “That reminds me! Cara doesn’t bind her pack, but Josef does. Do I insist, or let my people pine down here? What do you do in Boulder?”
The shrug didn’t really help to answer the question. “Boulder was lightly bound… not like Josef does. We’re aware of each other, but there’s no strong tie. I’m severed from them now, and so is the Alpha who took over for me.” A small smile and a shake of his head didn’t really telegraph any particular emotion, and his scent was still blocked. “I never really planned to stay for as long as I did. Time sort of got away from me.”
He looked lost in thought for the barest of moments and then shrugged again. “So, I guess there’s no good answer. There are advantages a
nd disadvantages to binding, and the level of binding, for a pack leader. Cara’s pack is also family. They see one another every single day. There’s probably never been a need. But with the new members coming down… well, that’s something she and the new Alpha Male are going to have to work out. Your people are more aggressive than hers. She’s going to have her hands full. I think it’ll make her grow as an Alpha, but it also might be too much for her. She might wind up the Second or even the Omega eventually. That’s the way of packs. I think Raven Ramirez, who will be taking over the Boulder pack, is considering full binding. He might pull it off, since that pack is splitting, too.”
Boulder is being split, tool So this really wasn’t just retribution against his pack for one mistake? Adam remembered Raven, the previous second in command of Wolven. Yeah, he would be a good pack leader. Strong, confident, easy to talk to. Lucas kept talking even as he nodded to himself.
“Things happened up there that might not have if I’d been attached to the members. But I can’t allow myself to believe it was a mistake not to fully bind them. It was a choice I made with what I thought was good information.”
The older man picked up his coffee cup again and started to put it to his lips before realizing it was empty. He set it back down and looked at Adam with world-weary eyes. “Still, don’t be too certain your members will pine down here, either. Pick the right people, and they might consider the structure down here… liberating.”
Lucas’s voice filled with determination. “Remember that sometimes people don’t recognize freedom until the chains are off and they have something to compare the chains to.”
Chapter 15
“SHERIFF? DO YOU have a minute?”
Cara stopped on the bottom step of Tedford County’s century-old limestone courthouse and looked up and behind her. The county attorney, Jeff Stone, was hurrying toward her, his arms laden with files. He nearly lost his grip on the oversize trial case in his hand and Cara reached out to steady it.
While she’d known Jeff for years, she made the play of keeping her tone professional, mostly for the benefit of other ears on the square. “I’ve got just a minute, Mr. Stone. My calendar is insane today. What can I do for you?”
He looked at her with chagrin and the dry heat of embarrassment rose over the top of his normal scent, which always reminded her of canned limeade. It was probably the slightly cardboard hint that did it. Apparently, he was flustered enough he forgot to play the game. “Yeah, and I know that’s my fault, Cara. I really thought we were going to need your testimony today. Sorry to make you sit through that whole hearing for nothing.”
She shrugged. “Occupational hazard. At least the judge ordered the extradition. That’s one more bed I’ve got available in the jail.”
“Mmm-hmm. I saw the state correctional board turned down Carl’s request to add new beds. What are you going to do now?”
A little frustrated noise leaked out of her before she could stop it. “They aren’t new beds. That’s the frustrating part. They’re right there now, sitting open. But they’re allocated for female prisoners.” She knew she was stating the obvious, especially to Jeff. “We don’t have any female prisoners. Why not use them for the men we do have? I’m getting tired of shipping them to out of county jails. The gasoline alone is killing our budget.”
Jeff shrugged. “Ah, the mysteries of logic in our state capital. Well, I’ll try to do my part and push for early hearings on extraditions, like today.” He let out a little laugh. “Maybe you need to stop arresting so many people.”
She returned the laugh. “I’ll take that under advisement. That all you needed? ’Cause I really have to get.” She tapped her watch face to emphasize it and he got a startled look on his face.
“No! I mean, could we sit for just a second? I really do need to talk to you, but my arms are killing me. It’s important, or I wouldn’t ask.”
He shifted the files around again and she sighed. She really did have to get back, but after checking her watch again, she realized she still had ten minutes to make her next appointment. It was only a two minute walk back to the office—one minute if she hurried, and goodwill with the county attorney’s office was never a bad thing. Nodding once, she scanned around the courthouse square, then pointed to the seldom-used gazebo, covered with ivy, that was only a few steps away. “How about over there?”
“Sounds good.” He joined her in the short walk. Cara nearly reached out to help with his load of files, but there was such a fine line between helping out and insulting him that she didn’t. As much as she hated it, there was still a very strong male-female tradition in this county, and insult came quick and stuck hard.
Cool dampness closed around her as they entered the open structure. The scent of growing plants and rich soil made her forget the muggy heat just a dozen feet away. A few black mud dauber wasps had built nests in the upper reaches of the gazebo, but they weren’t at all aggressive like the red ones, or yellow jackets. A quick flip of her hand toward one made it fly lazily in the other direction. Jeff ignored them entirely. “Okay, here’s the thing,” he said once he’d placed his burdens on the slatted bench next to him and removed his cream-colored cowboy hat. “I’m missing some cattle—I think.”
She knew that the Stone ranch was one of the largest in the region, and missing cattle was a very big deal, but she shrugged because it wasn’t her business. “Why tell me? The Cattle Raisers Association agents are paid to handle that. I know you’ve worked with them before. I haven’t picked up any estrays lately, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
He shook his head. “The TSCRA guys can’t help. They’ve already been out to the ranch. There aren’t any tracks in the fields or even foot prints. My ranch manager hasn’t checked all the ear tags yet, and we haven’t finished branding the spring calves, so he told me to call back after I was done. But I know they’re missing, probably close to a dozen of them. See, I found blood.”
“So… what? You think someone is slaughtering them on the spot? Right there in the fields?” That might well turn it into a case for her department. Rustling was one thing, but killing them would be destruction of property.
He ran fingers through his thick sandy hair and then pushed his metal-rimmed glasses higher on his nose.
“Yes… no. I don’t know for sure. There’s not enough blood, if you know what I mean—that’s the problem. There’s too much for a simple barbed wire cut or a coyote taking a calf or two, and Hank and I checked the animals for healing wounds. Nothing. But there’s not enough for a full-fledged slaughter. It looks—and I know this sounds stupid, it’s why I haven’t made out a report yet—but, it really looks like something just swooped down, cut them up a little, and then carried them away. And please don’t laugh and ask me about alien abductions. The ribbing from my wife is bad enough.”
Cara’s mouth went dry enough that a startled cough escaped her. It was the word swooped that did it. Had the birds—? She remembered Jeff raised Red Brangus, massive Brahma-Angus cross cows. The birds were certainly strong enough individually to lift a heifer, and two could probably manage a full grown bull. How much blood had those talons pulled out of Adam with just a few swipes? Her heart started to pound and she had to lick her lips before she could continue. “Which field was it? Is it part of your regular acreage?” The J Bar S spread was north of town, the opposite direction from the van, which would drastically increase the range they’d been considering. Or could there be more than one flock?
Jeff shook his head. “No. It was on a leased parcel, down near Little Coffey Creek. It started to happen a month or so ago, and we decided to move the cows back to the main ranch last week. But I can’t keep ’em there for long. My whole west pasture will wind up overgrazed and covered in mesquite by auction time. I’ll have to throw some straw as it is and with the drought, there’s not much to be had. So anyway… could one of your deputies maybe… I don’t know, maybe take a look around out there? Is that allowed without a report? That new
guy at the TSCRA will get pissed if he hears I stepped over his head and filed a report with your office. He’s really territorial and I don’t need that sort of grief. You’d think for the amount of dues I pay, I’d make the decisions, but—”
That would answer so much—especially the mention from the birds that they attacked the van because they were hungry. If the cattle were moved, and the deer kept to the undergrowth where talons couldn’t reach… which they no doubt would if they spotted a bird the size of a freaking hang glider, there wouldn’t be any other game big enough to feed a full grown Sazi, except maybe feral hogs. She found herself nodding almost absently, because who would report hogs disappearing? They were a nuisance to most everyone in the county. She met Jeff’s eyes as a glimmer of an idea came to her. She needed to start making some calls. “Sure. Tell you what—I’ll do it myself, off-shift. Then nobody else will catch wind of it. If I find something that points toward a rustler, I’ll call the Association. But I’ll need a key to the gate.”
The cool ozone scent of relief and gratitude burst into the air. Jeff pulled a key ring from his pocket as he spoke. “I really appreciate this, Cara. You have no idea. If you want, I can have Hank meet you out there to show you the blood spots we found. He covered them with rocks so the fire ants wouldn’t eat up all the evidence.” He handed her a small padlock key and his business card. “Leave me a message if you find anything, or if you want one of us to walk the fence with you. Oh, and you might want to take a shotgun with you. There was a whole nest of rattlers down by the creek when we moved the cows. We didn’t bother to kill ’em since the cows were going anyway.”
