Chance nodded.
“Also, have him do his best to hack into any security cameras around the area where his house was. See if we can get a trail on his license plates to find the direction he went in.”
A wiser man would’ve remained close to hunt down Pines’s movements. But the only thing on my mind had been to get Reese as far away from that house as possible. I felt safest back on my territory with my pack.
I went back to cutting fruit and preparing a real breakfast of steak and eggs for my mate and me.
“I could probably get a better idea of what’s going on if I could get back onto Pines’s property,”Chance said.
I nodded. “That might be best. I must also check in with Raffa and the other betas. We still don’t know who is behind the destruction of our site.”
I was at the Arizona site for only a few hours when Christophe notified me that Reese’s tracker pinged her hours away from our commune. We still hadn’t found out what happened to Richard, our foreman, or the site.
“Are you thinking these two things are connected?”Chance asked.
“Absolutely,”I answered.“Reese told me that the masked shifter with Pines acted as if he had a vendetta against our pack. He was thrilled to have captured my mate.”I balled my fists at my sides, anger rising in my body.
“We have to narrow it down to whoever has an issue with our pack,”I said sarcastically.
Chance snorted.“That list could be long.”
I shook my head. “Not necessarily so. We have been peaceful for decades.”
He leveled a look at me. “Our pack did damage for many generations before that. And shifters don’t let go of the past easily. The Alliance still doesn’t trust us.”
I folded my arms across my chest, knowing that he was right. You can’t erase the past, and despite the changes made over the past five decades, some still associated the Nightwolf name with war and destruction.
“Do you believe the Alliance is behind this?”I asked.“What purpose would they have in trying to destroy our pack?”
Chance shrugged.“Revenge for past harms. Or to take our businesses for themselves. We’re also a direct trade route between the packs of the North and Southern Hemispheres. Perhaps they want to get us out of the way to make communication simpler.”
I thought about what my brother said, but none of those made total sense. None of the representatives that sat on the Alliance were direct descendants of the packs that the Nightwolf clan had harmed. Or, they had vowed to make peace with us to place the preservation of the shifter world above past rivalries.
“We’ll withhold our taxes for now,”I told my brother.
His eyebrows rose.“Are you certain?”
“Damn certain. Suppose they aren’t behind this bullshit. Withholding money from them will damn sure get the Alliance to start an investigation to sniff out who is behind this. If they’re behind it, it’ll anger them enough to come at us directly.”
I was tired of lying in wait for the next shoe to drop. It was time I took matters into my hands.
“In addition, I’m telling them about Reese.”
“You’re going to request permission to be with her?”Chance asked.
I shook my head. “I’m not asking anyone for permission to be with my mate. Mother Moon assigned her to me. That’s all the authority I need.”We might’ve placed too much authority into the hands of the Alliance. In the beginning, I was willing to go through the proper channels. I was willing to be patient. But not any longer. Almost losing her filled me with a sense of immediacy. Reese was mine to protect, and I refused to allow the Alliance or anyone else to come between us.
My brother looked at me as if recognizing something for the first time.
“Henry.” Reese’s voice penetrated the silence.
I glanced toward the entryway to find Reese dressed in one of my T-shirts, kneeling as Henry trotted over to her. She giggled as he licked her face, even more excited than when he’d taken the banana from me. My belly warmed from the sound of her laughter.
“Hi Chance,” she said as she rose to her feet, still stroking Henry behind his ear.
He nodded at her.
Her eyes darted from my brother to me and back to Chance again. She shifted from one foot to the other. I stared at her. She looked fucking delicious standing there in just my T-shirt, and yeah, I knew my brother would never look at my matethatway, but having her barely dressed in the presence of another man, made my wolf stand up.
