“Hey…you still there?” asked Smokey.
Clearing his throat, Ghost left Riley and headed to his office where he’d have more privacy. “Yeah, I’m here…just a minute.” Shutting the door, he sat down heavily in his desk chair. Lifting his phone back to his ear, he said, “Congratulations…at least I hope it is.”
“Of course it is, asshole.”
“By your use of ‘mates’ I assume you have more than one…who are they? Have I met them before?”
“Two of the prettiest Ghost Bear shifters I’d ever seen. They’re part of the Blackwood Pack.”
“Ghost Bears Shifters? You mean their bears are white? Wait a minute…are you sure about them bein’ Ghost Bears? I thought they were extinct. Does Snow White know about them?”
“Yes to all of your questions and obviously, the agency got it wrong about them bein’ extinct. My mates met Glenn when he and his mates showed up here.”
“Holy hell and fuckin’ shit! That is some fuckin’ coincidence,” Ghost muttered.
“Yeah…well, I’m sure Riley can tell you the odds of that happening, but I don’t have a lot of time…”
Snorting, Ghost said, “I bet...you must be exhausted after a night with two hotties.”
“Not your fuckin’ business, asshole,” Smokey growled. “Look, an oracle warned me someone is after my mates and I need your help tracking down the asshole.”
“An oracle? What makes you think you can trust her? Riley made that mistake once and look what happened to him,” Ghost said.
“I trust this one…now listen.” Smokey quickly told Ghost everything he knew about his mates and what had happened to them, only pausing to answer questions.
When he’d finished, Ghost finally asked, “So along with searching for your mate’s parents, you want Riley to do a deep dive into the Alpha and find out if he’s the one who’s posing a threat to your mates?”
“Yeah…and tell Riley I want everything from who he fucked last to which hand he wipes his ass with…and I need it yesterday,” growled Smokey.
“Understood. Any idea when you’ll be here?”
“Nope…have you heard from Snow White?”
“Still radio silence,” Ghost replied, sighing. “I fuckin’ hope one of you two can get your ass down here soon…my jail is getting full.”
“Did Riley find out who’s behind the attack on Kevin’s parents?”
“Not yet…whoever it is, he’s done a helluva job hiding his identity,” muttered Ghost.
“Well someone knows something…I’ll try to get down there soon and maybe I can convince your prisoners to cough up a name…listen, I gotta go,” Smokey said, after getting a text message from Theo asking him when he would be back. “In the meantime…”
“I’ll have Riley get his ass in gear and start diggin’ up shit on the Ghost Bear Alpha and the parents.”
“Thanks…I owe you one.” Ending the call, Smokey stood for a moment, thinking about Theo and how it would affect him and the cub if the news about his parents wasn’t good. Sighing at the possibility, Smokey headed back to his mates—it was claiming time.
~/~/~/~/~
Rudy stood in the middle of Josiah’s office, scanning the mess on the floor. He was no closer to finding an answer to Josiah’s unexpected departure than he was before he began his search of his boss’s files. Stepping over piles of folders in front of him, he walked over to the desk, sitting down before opening one of its drawers.
Emptying the contents, Rudy pawed through them, pushing them aside when nothing of interest jumped out at him. After going through all of them, he slammed the last drawer shut in frustration, deciding the only other place to search was Josiah’s house. Grabbing his cowboy hat from the desktop, he smiled at the thought of CeCe’s reaction when he told her what her future was going to be. As he was getting up to head for the door, Josiah’s intercom buzzed. Cursing at the delay, he hit the speaker button and growled, “What is it?”
“Uh…uhm…there are representatives from the High Council here to see the Alpha.”
“Did you tell him he’s not here?”
“Uhm…yes sir…but they also want to see you.”
Frowning, Rudy didn’t want to speak to them without Josiah present, but thanks to his boss’s absence, he had no choice. Glancing around, Rudy groaned at the mess. It would be clear to anyone with half a brain what he’d been doing and that was the last thing he wanted a council goon to know. Pressing the button again, he said, “I’ll be right out.” It would only take a couple of minutes to get rid of them once he told them the Alpha had to be present during any meeting.
