In no time at all she was enclosed in a room with him, a wizened old woman sitting beside a high bed with a wide smile.
“I’m Dr. Soriano,” she said, waving Elena behind a curtain where a gown hung from a hook. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”
TWENTY-TWO
LEON
He shouldn’t be here. He should be home, deep inside of his mate, hearing her pleasured cries ringing in his ears. Instead he was surrounded by Alpha musk and aggression as the council gathered at the long conference table.
“The fact remains the man is a danger to us,” someone was saying.
“No, not to us. He’s only interested in territory Alphas,” another growled.
Leon could feel the eyes on him and one other, the man Leon respected though he despised the methods the other Alpha employed in the running of a territory.
Leon was small time compared to Goretti, but it was through mutual respect that Leon was able to run his far smaller territory nestled beside Goretti’s. Leon’s territory of Gravendale was nestled against Rookfell, and much business crossed their border, so allowances were made for Leon to do business in Rookfell while Goretti largely left him alone.
This man Kahler from Alderbrook posed a whole new set of threats.
An Alpha with a mind to take over everything within sightwas dangerous, but the fact he’d so far proven to have the power to do so was disturbing. No single man should be that powerful. Something else was at play here, and Leon didn’t like it.
“Hope you’ve got a plan there, chief,” Silas said as he sidled up alongside Leon.
“What are you doing here?” Leon didn’t look away from the arguing men and women, listening with half an ear for anything of importance buried within their fearful bluster.
“Needed to hear from the horse’s mouth what all the fuss was about.” Silas leaned in closer to murmur, “And I’ve got news.”
Leon grunted as Goretti rose, hands braced on the thick mahogany of the table. He wanted to hear what Silas had to say right now, but it would have to wait.
“Kahler has shown little interest in this territory. If, and I do mean if, he does, we will come to terms. I have no interest in challenging the man and I’m sure he’d rather not have a hostile takeover. In the other territories he’s brought under his name, he’s allowed Alphas to continue on in their business with little change. It’s clear he’s a man of reason.”
“A man of reason doesn’t take on a new challenger daily,” a voice in the back shouted.
“He’s got power at his disposal. He’d be a fool not to exercise it,” Goretti said with begrudging respect. “I’ve worked with him in the past. I’m sure we can come to some agreement without bloodshed.”
“And if it does,” Rossini demanded, shoving past Leon to be seen.
“Then I suggest you accept your new Alpha with gracious hospitality.”
With that, the meeting ended, though everyone but Goretti remained to continue debating this man Kahler. Leon knew little of him, other than he once ran a small port city calledAlderbrook, and now he was slowly taking over the entire eastern seaboard.
Leon jerked his chin at Silas, signaling him to follow as Leon made his way out of the room. In the relative quiet of the halls in the office building, Leon took a deep breath not tainted by so much aggression to calm himself. There was business left to be done, and he couldn’t afford to become enraged.
“I went over the footage again the other day, see if there was anything we missed,” Silas said in hushed tones, glancing down the hall to make sure they were alone. “One of the caterers was missing. I didn’t notice the change between the first course and the second, but there was another man.”
“How the hell did you miss that,” Leon ground out, fists clenched at his sides. He’d missed it, too. The security cameras at the hotel were abysmal, the gritty black and white pictures impossible to clear up.
“I found out who it was, he’d left the job the next day. His buddies at the restaurant were only too happy to see him go and were quick to tell me he’d done things like that before.”
“Done what?”
“Been paid a little extra to help an Alpha with a reticent female, things of that nature.”
“What are you saying,” Leon demanded, voice far louder than it should have been as he rounded on Silas. Fists bunching the front of Silas’s shirt, he pushed Silas hard against the wall.
“Don’t go killing the messenger, friend,” Silas said, hands held up in peace.
“What, exactly, are you saying,friend,” Leon growled, lifting Silas from the ground until his feet dangled a good foot off of the ground.
