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He held his arm out to gesture toward the back of the house, then waited for me to move. Once I did, he spoke. “Let’s go discuss it in my office.”
His office was more practicality and less style. I recalled Kase’s, all minimalism and everything in its place—nothing like here. Fredrick had piles of papers stacked all over, with drawers only partly closed. It didn’t have that musty scent of somewhere rarely used, though, telling me he somehow worked around all that mess, that he actually used all those items.
He nodded at the chair, and instead of sitting behind the desk, he took the other chair beside me. It put us near, and I really wanted to be nowhere near any werewolf, especially one who evidently wouldn’t be giving me a choice about helping.
“I understand you did a job for the coven recently.”
“Like I told Sarah, I didn’t have a choice. Besides, I couldn’t find anything out for them.”
It was best to leave off the part where I did later find things, or that I wasstilltrying to discover answers. There were times to tell people all the wonderful things about me and there were times to just shut up.
This was a time to shut up. Incompetent people were left alone.
“Right.” His tone said he didn’t believe me. “I realize that people think the three main factions don’t speak to each other, that werewolves, mages and vampires have lines we don’t cross. That is true for many of the lower-downs—often by choice—but those of us in the higher rungs of society, we do talk. Not officially, but we know what’s going on. There are much bigger threats out there then our petty squabbles.”
“So why do you even have the squabbles?”
“Because eternity is boring and we need something to do.” His light eyebrow lifted, as if to imply it was stupid that he needed to explain that at all.
Well, some of us didn’t live forever, so what would I know about it?
“Could we get to the point?”
Fredrick nodded. “You helped them because a vampire killed someone they hadn’t expected him to, then went off the radar. I’ve had similar issues. All older wolves, steady ones who I’ve never had a problem with before.”
“You have wolves who are killing people and you want me to get involved?” I pointed at myself. “Human. Crazy werewolves aren’t my area of expertise.”
He didn’t smile, didn’t seem amused by my attitude at all. “Wolf. Just one.”
“You said—”
“I do not allow unstable wolves to roam free, Ms. Harlin. They are no longer a threat. However, ending them was premature, it seems, since the problem hasn’t stopped. I figured we had a few old wolves who lost control, but now? Especially with the vampires and mages reporting similar instances? It seems it might be a bigger issue.”
“None of this explains what you needmefor. My entire job was simply to figure out what had happened—to find the vampire Olin, if possible—but I couldn’t do that. I’m not a detective, Fredrick, I’m not some investigator who can go figure out what happened. I can talk to the dead—that’s it. I don’t see how it’s useful here.”
Fredrick took a long moment to answer, and I shifted in the silence. It felt off to be stared at, and it reminded me he wasn’t alpha because he was weak, no matter how he looked. “I have run out of options. I don’t know where else to turn. You, however, are the only one who is connected to this through the vampires. Perhaps if you look, you can see connections we have missed if you speak to this wolf, to Paul.”
I sighed, because it was his desperation that pulled me in, that made me pause. He might not be giving me a choice, but it was becausehehad no choice. He had werewolves killing people, and that wasn’t a problem anyone in charge wanted.
Before we could continue the conversation, a crash outside the room and snarling stilled us.
Fredrick lifted his gaze, but he didn’t appear surprised. Instead, his expression wavered between annoyed and mildly concerned.
I rose, but he remained sitting when the door to the office slammed open.
Troy stood there, his chest rising and falling, looking less like my charming, stable neighbor than he ever had.
In his silver eyes, the ones I’d always found so calming, I glimpsed the wolf that hid inside, the one that was at least partly in control at the moment, and I couldn’t believe he’d managed to hide it so well.
Troy snarled, a low and threatening sound that vibrated through the room. He had his lips curled up to show his teeth and…yep, his canines had shifted to sharp points, the start of a transformation. His body seemed impossibly larger, as if he’d become taller and even wider.
“Calm yourself,” Fredrick said. A strange rush of power went through the room. It didn’t stick to me, sliding over me as most magic did. When it struck another man outside the door, his shoulders dropped as if he couldn’t refuse the command.
Troy shuddered but showed no signs of calming down himself. “Don’t try that with me,” he growled out in a voice that wasnothinglike his own. “Webothknow you can’t command me.”
Fredrick remained sitting, though he sat rigid, as if ready for an attack. “As you can see, Ms. Harlin is unharmed. I simply require her help.”
“You will not get her involved in your problems,” Troy snapped.
