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“I’m asking you,” Ash said. “I want to know what your take on this situation is. I already know his.”
“Smart. It is important to remain objective, don’t you think?” Evie kept herself from grinning. “The investigation is far from complete, but from the witness accounts, it appears one of your mate’s wolves attacked a member of a rival pack in broaddaylight, in front of humans, before turning his eyes on one of the witnesses. Thankfully, he fled when he noticed just how many witnesses there were, but she is still shaken up.”
It took all of Ash’s control to keep calm. Evie chose her words to try to jam a wedge between Ash and Mason, mate bond be damned. He hadn’t helped the situation by keeping the facts from her. Everything she had learned about the man in the short time she spent with him told her the council was looking at the wrong person, but then why would he keep her out of it?
“I know you are new to this pack, given the council hasn’t had time to update its records,” Evie continued. “But I have to tell you there are dark rumors about their activities. I’ve heard talk of blood feuds, and now blood has been spilled. If you are ever needing any assistance, or if you hear anything that might help us solve this attack, please call me.”
She extended her card, allowing her expression to soften. To Mason and any other observer, it would look like she’d gone from considering Ash a suspect herself to a potential victim. Ash played her part, accepting the card with a shake of her head.
“I don’t put much stock into rumors, to be honest, but I thank you for your concern.” Ash frowned at the card but slipped it into her pocket. “I hope you catch the actual culprits.”
Evie looked like she was going to respond, but her eyes flashed as Mason stepped beside his mate with his glare fixed on the council representative. Evie met his challenge.
“I’ve arranged for one of my men to take Ash home,” he said. “She’s neither a suspect nor a witness.”
“I …” Ash’s objection died in her throat when she met her mate’s eyes. He wasn’t asking. He was commanding. Worse, her wolf all but rolled over and showed her belly in submission.
Ash felt two sets of eyes following her as Mason’s enforcer escorted her to the car. Her best friend followed her movement with as much attention as her mate did.
Alone and back ather place, she paced the cozy little cabin they’d assigned her in a fruitless attempt to soothe her anger. How was she supposed to support Mason if he kept her at arm’s length in a crisis? No. How could she complete the investigation if he kept her away from it? That internal conflict stopped her midstep.
Damn, this mate bond. It hardly had time to solidify, and it was already shifting her priorities. A low growl escaped her throat. After a deep breath failed to calm her, she started toward the door. She needed to hit something. Maybe that would shake off the weak-in-the-knees effect Mason had on her.
Thankfully, the pack’s gym was blessedly empty. It was a spacious room on two levels with a full basketball court and a dozen treadmills, exercise bikes, and other machines on the ground floor. The second level overlooked the basketball court with a boxing ring and multiple punching bags reinforced to handle a shifter’s enhanced strength.
Twenty minutes and a flurry of punches and kicks to one of those bags had it swinging madly while Ash panted to recover her breath. As she did, her idle thoughts turned to Mason. She couldn’t keep him at bay, even in her mind. She wanted him, and the harder she worked out, the more she thought about a better way to exert her energy.
Her shin slammed into the bag, sending it careening into a spin as she began another session. She would have pushed that one past a half hour, but the doors below opened, followed by footsteps.
Ash grabbed the bag, steadying it as she hunched down. She felt ridiculous the moment she moved. It wasn’t like Masonforbade her to use the gym. She had every right to be there. If one of his pack objected, she was more than willing and able to show them the error of their ways.
Murmured voices, deep and low, grew louder, along with plodding footsteps. Ash couldn’t recognize their owners from sound alone. She waited until the men were nearly below the second level before she crept closer to the railing to get a look.
Unlike the men below, she could walk silently, hiding her steps from all but the most attentive. Mason would have heard her, she suspected. Just thinking about the man had her almost stumble. That mate bond was too damn distracting.
As she reached the railing and peeked over, the pair of them were completely oblivious to her presence. They took their places at side-by-side weight machines and started working their legs.
Ash recognized only one of them from seeing him in passing around the pack’s den. He was older with shoulder-length salt and pepper hair. She couldn’t see it from her current position, but she recalled he had a prominent scar from the side of his mouth to his ear.
From above, all she saw of the other was the dark skin atop his shaved head. With the little time she’d spent in the pack and the few that had actually come to introduce themselves, there were still many members she hadn’t met.
The two men argued about football as they worked out. Ash kept listening, though she couldn’t care less. You never knew what you might learn listening in on a conversation. One would think shifters gifted with enhanced senses would have been more careful keeping their secrets, but she’d cracked more than a few cases based on listening in on conversations.
The men below her remained completely oblivious. Ash would have wondered if they were shifters at all if she couldn’t smell it on them. She’d been at it with the heavy bag for a totalof almost forty-five minutes before they arrived. With that alone, they should have realized they had company.
After the argument circled back to which team had the best defensive end for the second time, Ash realized she wouldn’t hear anything interesting. She crept back from the edge, only to be proven wrong.
“You sound like Mason,” one of them said. “Just because you repeat it, that doesn’t make it true.”
“I am the alpha,” said the other in a poor imitation of Mason’s voice. “Honest. I am.”
Ash found herself glaring at the tops of their heads, baring her teeth. She almost started to growl but caught herself.
This was hardly the first time she’d heard pack members trash-talking their leader. It was the first time on this assignment, though. And no mating bond had formed between her and those other pack alphas.
“How long do you think it will be before he wishes he never became alpha?”
“You were there the other day,” replied the scarred man. “You remember what we have planned. What …”
