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“You said ten,” he pouts, but she clicks her tongue and frowns at him, one side of her mouth twitching up as she fights a smile. This banter must go on all the time.
“Yes, but that was five minutes ago. Don’t be difficult.” She winks at him and he laughs, falling silent as she slips out the door.
“You have to laugh or else you’ll cry. It’s like being five years old again, pleading to stay up past bedtime.” Alpha Anderson shifts position in the bed and winces, pointing to the chairs beside his bed. Joseph settles into the chair nearest to the alpha and rests his hands in his lap, looking visibly shaken at the sight of his alpha, pale and thin in the bed.
“Shauna baked you some goodies. She’ll sneak them in when the nurse is gone. They’ll fatten you right back up.”
Alpha Anderson smiles kindly at Joseph’s attempt at a joke, then his still-bright eyes land on me. “Joseph, would you mind if I speak alone with Ethan for a moment?” The beta looks surprised but agrees, shaking his alpha’s hand, and leaving to wait outside.
“So, what do you make of our pack?” Straight to business. The alpha’s body might be failing him, but his mind is clearly still sharp as a tack. “Sit, please. It's easier on me than looking up. And it feels less like I’m being interrogated.”
“Can I speak freely?” Sliding into the chair Joseph vacated, I hold his eye, showing him I’m not afraid to speak the truth.
“Please.” Nodding for me to continue, he waits patiently. I can tell he’s genuinely interested.
I know that if I sugar coat my answer, he’ll lose all respect for me. This is a test.
“I think a lot of money has been wasted, money generated on the backs of the loyal, hardworking wolves within your pack. A significant proportion of those in senior positions still think Toby was a great leader, when, clearly, he was not. The warriors are weak, the finances are dire, and someone inside your pack is doing shady deals with Leon Lennox’s crew. That’s going to come back and bite them, or the whole pack, in the ass someday.”
Anderson’s eyebrows bounce at my brutal assessment, but he doesn’t argue with me. “Bears, huh? I thought they were gone.”
Shaking my head, I lean back, resting one ankle on my knee. “No. I don’t know who it is yet, but Leon Lennox will eventually backstab them. I’m assuming it’s the same person who orchestrated Toby’s escape from our jail. The Boss, I think, is what Leah overheard Mike call him.”
Alpha Anderson narrows his eyes and blinks once, twice. “You mean the Grey Ridge jail. Unless your intentions to stay here have changed?”
“To be honest, sir, I’m not sure I’m the man for the job. If Lucia wants to keep the pack, she has to show everyone that she’s in charge.”
Anderson scoffs, sitting up a little straighter and reaching into the top drawer of the locker beside him.
“She doesn’t want to be in charge, that’s the problem. Lucia is my daughter, and I love her dearly, but I’m afraid I have spoiled her far too much. Combined with Toby’s bad influence, well… she needs someone to remind her that being Luna is a public service. We work for the pack, not the other way around.”
It’s a relief to hear that Alpha Anderson isn’t on board with the extravagant spending I’ve witnessed, but I can’t help wondering why he didn’t intervene sooner.
“So, the bears are still hanging around then, eh?” he asks again, more wearily this time. When I grimace and nod, he sighs, disheartened by my response.
“You didn’t know they were still hanging around?” Resting my elbows on my knees, I lean forward, trying to understand the weird dynamic of this place. How does the alpha not know that bears are still lurking around his territory? Why isn’t the future Luna trying to grab this pack by the scruff of the neck and turn its fortunes around?
“I had my suspicions, but nobody wants to break bad news to an old man in this condition.” He gestures to his frail form and shakes his greying head. “I’ll have a word with Lucia. See if she can root out who’s involved. If there’s another attack linked to this pack, to our family name, Steel would be within his rights to swoop in and clean house. She should be taking this more seriously.”
My thoughts exactly.
Looking despondent, he stares into space for a minute and lets the silence drag on between us, then pulls out a notepad and scrawls something down. Ripping off the page and folding it over once, he holds it out for me.
“Can you run this down to the doctor’s clinic, discreetly, at some point today? I want to discuss something with him, but I don’t want to involve Lucia. She worries too much already. I’m glad she’s got you.”
Nodding, I slip the note into my back pocket without reading it. It’s none of my business. I try not to react to his comment about Lucia having me, glancing at my watch instead. Voices in the corridor tell me I’m about to get tossed out, and, judging by the exhaustion written all over Anderson’s face, the nurse has come back at just the right time. Rushing the questions out, standing closer, I wait with bated breath for Anderson’s answer. “The bears aren’t here because they love your wolves. What do you think their end game could be?”
I can hear the nurse just outside the door, telling Joseph she needs help, that they need to find the budget to bring in another nurse to take care of the alpha.
“Money. I’ve been neighbours with Leon Lennox for a long time, and there are only two things he cares about: cold hard cash and making more bears. And he’s not making bears with my wolves.”
Thinking about Marcus and his numerous siblings, born by a variety of women, that part tallies with what I know about the leader of the bear clan, but something doesn’t add up.
“But you don’t have any money? If the plan is to attack Grey Ridge again, how are they going to be paid? I know much of your pack is still loyal to Toby, but I doubt they’re willing to go into debt just to pay some bears’ mercenary fees.” Anderson locks eyes with me, the sharpness still there behind his tired look, but I continue my thought. “There would have to be some kind of pot of gold that they intend to split in the end.”
Anderson looks stricken, but I know we’re both thinking it’s the only scenario that makes sense.
“Ransom,” Anderson whispers so quietly I almost miss it.
