7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Saying goodbye to Mum and Dad was hard. I was still thinking of Maria and Luca and, by the way that my mum clung to me, she was thinking the same.

I'd told her over the phone that I'd found out that my birth mother and father had died, but we hadn't had the chance to discuss it in person. After all the smiles and much-needed laughter over lunch, I suddenly wasn't eager to bring them up but I felt their presence, like spectres haunting me.

I hugged Mum harder and she kissed me on the forehead. ‘All right, baby girl?' she whispered.

Not in the slightest. I longed to tell her the truth, to tell her about the two men who had died on my land, to tell her about the crown that sat oh-so-heavily on my head. But instead I simply nodded and summoned a weak smile. ‘Getting there.' I paused. ‘I'm glad I have Greg.'

She smiled brightly, warmth filling her eyes. ‘I'm glad you have Greg, too. He gives off such a supportive vibe, like he'd do anything for you.' She grinned. ‘If anyone did blackmail you over porn videos, he'd definitely help me bury the bodies.' She winked. ‘I approve.'

I groaned. ‘Will you ever let the porn thing go? There are no videos, it was just a silly question.'

She gave a ‘humph', but she was still smiling at me. ‘It's nice to see you looking so strong in yourself, Lucy.'

I felt more than a prickle of guilt. She'd visited me 24/7 when I'd been dying, but since my miraculous healing I'd worried about lying to her face and put off seeing her. I'd called lots, but there was no substitute for being in the same room. You couldn't hug like this through a video call and for whatever reason – possibly the two dead bodies and the crown – I'd really needed that hug.

When Mum finally released me, it was Dad's turn. ‘Don't be a stranger,' he said and his words held a note of chastisement.

I took it on the chin and nodded. ‘No, sir,' I teased.

‘Your mother has missed you a lot,' he said gruffly. ‘And so have I, Lucy Caboosy.'

The old nickname made heat spring to my eyes. No matter what was going on in my life, I could rely on my mum and dad. Thank goodness .

Dad gave me one last squeeze then drew back and handed me a big cake box. ‘Take the rest of the cake home for the residents of your fancy mansion. Lord knows, I can't eat it all.' He patted his slightly rounded tummy. ‘I know you said to your mother that you were struggling to make friends. Cake always works.'

I suddenly thought of the trays of cookies that Finley had carted in the previous night; maybe he had reached the same conclusion. He'd been a loner before he joined us. I needed to speak to him properly and check he was settling into pack life.

Ben and Pollyanna were staying the night in my parents' guest room, but my brother got up to say goodbye. ‘Smell you later,' he whispered into my hair as he hugged me far too tightly. I nodded against the crook of his neck. When we pulled back, he spotted the tears in my eyes and his own filled. ‘I'm really glad you're not dead,' he said bluntly, startling a laugh out of me.

‘Me too, bro. Me too.'

He slugged me on the shoulder.

Greg was waiting in the car, giving me some privacy to say my goodbyes. The engine was already running, ready to take us back to pack drama. His eyes lit up as I slid in with enough cake to feed an army. ‘Dad says we can share the cake with the others,' I told him.

He snorted. ‘Fuck that. That cake is for us. That's alpha-and-beta-only cake. I'll kill to protect my slice,' he vowed solemnly, making me giggle even more.

I was still laughing as I waved goodbye to my family and we zoomed away.

I got back to the mansion filled with a new determination. We needed to get to the bottom of Larsden's death, and hopefully that would tell us more about why Ramsay had taken his own life. Another question was bothering me: who had Ramsay given the laptop to? Who was the mysterious driver of the car that had zoomed away with it?

‘Can we do something with the footage?' I asked Greg out of the blue.

He blinked. ‘Give me a clue.'

‘The footage of the car that Ramsay delivered the laptop to,' I expanded.

‘Ah. I've shot it to Fritz to see what he can do, but the reality is that it was dark, the CCTV is grainy – and it's not like in the movies. He can't just clear up the CCTV by creating pixels that weren't there.'

‘Damn. Okay. So what can we do to make it better quality next time? I thought it was top-of-the-line stuff? '

‘The cameras on the property are, and they have a special light fixed next to them to help illuminate the video feeds when they're in night mode. We couldn't fix a light by the gate because it would distract and blind drivers on the road outside.'

‘Damn,' I repeated. There really wasn't much we could do about that, but at least that issue hadn't been another balls-up by us. ‘Well, if cleaning up the footage isn't possible then I guess we're back to good old-fashioned police questioning. I think we'd better get Elena in to talk to us, don't you?'

He grimaced. ‘Yeah.' He paused. ‘But it needs to be handled delicately. We can't afford to alienate our pack.'

‘No asking Elena outright if she killed Larsden?'

‘Best not,' he said mildly.

I was pretty sure I used to be able to do subtle but having Esme in my head with her blunt questions and solutions had started to influence my behaviour. Her attitude cut out a lot of shit, but a bulldozer wasn't always the solution. However, I'd have to dig deep to find some of my former finesse.

Greg found Elena quickly and brought her to my office. I smiled brightly at her. ‘Good afternoon, Elena. How are you? '

‘Curious,' she replied, still standing behind the desk chair. ‘What do you want to see me about?'

I floundered. If I couldn't accuse her outright of killing Larsden, I needed a reason to question her. ‘Um, you were working together with Lord Samuel to bring down the black tourneys, right?'

‘Right.'

‘I know he suspected that some of the Werewolf Council were involved.'

She sat down. ‘They must be. Loners were specifically targeted, not one or two but virtually every single one. When you go lone, your name is stricken from your pack's records and the Council is notified of your defection so it has a record of every lone wolf. It's one of the reasons Finley and Daniella both petitioned to join a pack. All the loners know it's a ticking time bomb to stay lone.'

‘Do you know which packs they were from?' I asked, knowing full well it was a rude question.

Elena licked her lips. ‘I don't know about Finley, but Daniella was from the Cheshire pack.'

‘She was one of Rain's?' I said in surprise.

Elena grimaced. ‘I don't think she ever really was – that was the problem. He groomed her into a medical position so she could help the pack with any severe injuries. She would help get them into the hospital and seen by crossover healing wizards rather than Common doctors. Through her position, she saw how many of the pack were getting injured – really badly injured. And worse, she knew Rain was the one doing the injuring. One day a kid was hurt and Daniella couldn't save him. She left that night and didn't look back, no matter the risk of being lone. She couldn't be a party to Rain's ghastly behaviour, and she saw her nursing as enabling him.'

I tried to keep how much her words horrified me off my face. An alpha should provide a safe space for their pack, not terrorise them. Jimmy Rain had been on my shit list for a while – after all, he'd tried to kill Lord Samuel – but I'd had a ‘he's not my most pressing problem' attitude. Maybe I needed to rectify that.

I was Queen now – almost – and that meant something. Once I took the seat of power, I'd be responsible for all these werewolves, and if they had abusive alphas in place then that was all kinds of wrong.

But how the heck was I supposed to sort out which packs had abusive alphas and which didn't? I couldn't exactly ask. The abused would go to great ends to cover up for their abusers; it was all part of the terrible cycle that was so difficult to break.

I studied Elena: so far, so truthful. Time to bring it back to the black tourneys. ‘Did Lord Samuel ever speak with you about who he suspected from the Council was in cahoots with Ghost?'

She hesitated. ‘He had his theories and I had mine.'

‘Tell me,' I ordered.

‘I suspected William Walker,' she said finally.

Walker was one of the few Council members that I actually liked. He had a warm smile, he made eye contact, and so far he hadn't said or done anything sleazy. He also didn't stutter or look like he'd swallowed a frog when he said ‘my Queen'.

‘Why?'

‘Money, mostly,' Elena said bluntly. ‘He's second to the Yorkshire West Riding pack, and although they are land rich they don't have much money in their coffers. Despite that, he's always driving around in the latest car dressed in sharp suits – and he has a Cartier watch.'

‘Maybe he has family money?' I suggested.

‘No, I looked into that. His parents are both still alive, so no inheritance, and his mum's a teacher and his dad is a plumber.'

‘The trades make good money,' I argued.

‘Not Cartier good.'

She had a point. Dammit, I really liked Walker. Despite that, I mentally moved him to the suspect column. ‘Who else?'

‘Well, Lord Samuel suspected Ramsay.' Elena shrugged. ‘I guess he was right on that score.'

‘It seems likely,' I agreed. I'd told her about Larsden being on the USB drive and asked her to dig into him. Less than a day later, he was dead. ‘And Larsden?'

She nodded. ‘Lord Samuel suspected him, but honestly I wasn't sure if his suspicions were based on anything other than dislike. Larsden was second to Jimmy Rain, and that made him guilty by association in Lord Samuel's eyes. I took his suspicions with a pinch of salt right until the time when you told me he was involved. Anyway, Lord Samuel had no evidence against him, not about the black tourneys. Apart from Larsden, the only other one on his radar was Aitken for the same reason as Walker – too much wealth. Aitken is second to the Staffordshire pack.'

‘Which neighbours Cheshire,' I noted. And Cheshire was Rain's pack.

‘Yeah.'

‘Did you manage to speak to Larsden before he was killed?' I kept my tone bland.

She wrinkled her nose. ‘He hit on me, started talking about us having a good time together. Ethan rescued me when I sent him a panicked look. He came over and draped an arm across my shoulders and we walked away together.'

I frowned. Elena was strong and forthright. ‘Why didn't you just tell him no?'

She licked her lips and shook her head. ‘You didn't grow up in a toxic pack.' She looked down at her hands. ‘You don't tell men like him no; it's not an answer they listen to. I might not have thought he was into the black tourneys, but he had another reputation that was just as dark.'

Rage flared in me, hot and raw; it was compounded by Esme's rage and together we were an inferno. It took me a minute to wrestle down our emotions. I suddenly wished I'd let Ares eat the fucker's body.

Meanwhile Elena was frowning. ‘If I'd known that was my last chance to speak to Larsden, I'd have rolled the dice and gone with him, risk be damned. Now I've missed the opportunity to question him about his co-conspirators.'

‘I'm sure it was for the best that you didn't go with him,' I said firmly.

She grimaced. ‘Yeah, I expect you're right. It's just frustrating, I was hoping to bring him down myself.'

‘I get that. Thanks for your time, Elena,' I said evenly. ‘You can go.'

‘You want me to look into Aitken or Walker some more?' she asked eagerly.

‘No, that's okay. Leave it with me,' I ordered firmly. She nodded, but I wasn't sure that she'd drop it.

She does not look like she has done wrong, Esme observed as Elena slipped from the room.

No, but maybe she doesn't see it as wrong. Larsden was part of the group that caused her brother's death. Maybe she sees it as justice.

Perhaps , but neither does she look triumphant.

No, she didn't. If anything, Elena had struck me as annoyed that she'd lost her chance to expose Larsden and his lies. That was part of the reason I was concerned she'd continue to dig into Aitken and Walker.

But my real concern was that if bodies kept dropping, I didn't want hers to be next.