Chapter 1 - Kane

Kane wasn"t sure why he stood outside Jack"s office, listening—eavesdropping, even—but his feet didn"t seem able to move. He had been on his way out to stretch his legs, but the scent of human in the manor intrigued him. It wasn"t often the humans of Nightstar dared set foot inside the manor.

Of course, they had no idea that their town was being run by werewolves—nor did they have any idea what had happened to their last ‘mayor', the previous alpha of the pack—but save for a few bumps in the road, things had transitioned fairly smoothly. Most of the humans seemed to have a good sense for staying within their lane.

But it seemed not all did, since he heard the sound of raised voices within the office. "Mr. Ryker promised he would see my debts dissolved if I gave him my daughter."

Bile rose in the back of Kane"s throat.

"Gave him your daughter for what?" Jack"s voice was low and calm, but there was an edge of warning, one that the other man might not be able to pick up. Kane was certain he hadn"t. Humans, especially human men, weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

Kane cringed. Once he had been one of them, though he tried hard not to think about that. It had been an entirely different life, one he did not wish to go back to, and one that he would never admit to his pack. To them, he was just another born and bred werewolf. They need not know any differently.

But having humans in the manor brought back things Kane would rather forget, and he tried to make his way past the door, unsure what was stopping him.

"For marriage, of course!" the human bellowed. "What else for?"

Kane's jaw clenched.

"Mr. Peters, let me make one thing very clear to you," Jack"s tone was deeper now, more aggressive. "Any debt you had to the previous mayor of Nightstar is already dissolved, and any deal you had with him, also."

Silence fell over the room, and Kane hoped that would be the end of it. But then he heard a feminine voice whisper, "Go on, Michael, you got us into this."

Likely the woman hadn"t meant for anyone to hear but this Michael, but what she wasn"t aware of was the fact any werewolf in the house that cared to listen could probably hear what she had just whispered.

"Did you have something more you wished to discuss, Mr. Peters?" Jack asked, and Kane could picture him sitting high and mighty at his brand-new oak desk with his hands clasped before him and an unreadable expression on his face.

Mr. Peters cleared his throat.

"Go on, Michael," the woman urged again.

"Don"t order me about, woman!" Michael snapped so harshly that Kane ground his teeth. The harsh tone of his voice suggested this wasn"t an isolated event. This Michael was used to speaking in such a manner.

He could picture him, too. Greasy, sleazy, and downright trailer trash, a glassy look in his eye and sweat upon his brow. He could already smell the sweat and the fear; it didn"t take much to guess the rest.

"Mr. Blackwell, my debt to the mayor wasn"t the only one I had," Michael said, and Kane"s stomach twisted. "I owe a lot of people a whole lot of money, and Mr. Ryker was kind enough to agree to help me out if—"

"If you sold your daughter to him," Jack growled, and Kane, sensing his alpha"s disgust, was unable to stop from baring his fangs.

His own father had been the kind of man willing to just about anything to anyone so long as it saved his own skin. It had been one of the reasons Kane found himself where he was now; though he was much better off for it, it didn"t change the fact his early years had been pure torment.

"If that"s how you want to think of it, yeah," Michael said, and even through the wall, Kane sensed the tension in the room growing prickly. "And I"ll not be ashamed of that fact. We fell on hard times, and a man has got to do what a man has got to do!"

Kane fought the urge to barge into the room, take him by the throat and tell him that he was no man. No man would try to sell his own flesh and blood.

"Be that as it may, Mr. Peters, we aren"t in the business of buying and selling women," Jack said, his chair scraping the floor as he stood. "I think it"s best you and your wife leave."

"Mr. Blackwell, don"t think we don"t see you," Michael said menacingly.

Kane"s hackles rose. His tone was not one Jack would take lightly.

"Excuse me?" Jack growled.

"Michael!" his wife hissed under her breath.

But Michael did not appear to hear the warning in his wife"s voice. Kane would be surprised if a man like that gave her any acknowledgment at all.

"I am well aware that you and your ‘friends' here are very wealthy," Michael said, and for the first time since their meeting had started, Kane heard Zander growl low in his throat.

It didn"t take much to imagine what he was doing, standing like a loyal guard dog right behind Jack, ready to attack if someone so much as put a hair out of place.

Jack needed no protection from two humans, but he had it nonetheless.

"And I"m no fool, either," Michael continued, unperturbed by Zander"s warning growl. "I know something up here isn"t right. This place reeks. You guys show up out of nowhere one day and Mr. Ryker and his men just disappear, practically overnight. The whole town knows you did something."

"I would be very, very careful with where you are going with this, Mr. Peters," Zander said, and the sound of boots on hardwood suggested he had closed the distance between himself and the human.

"Zander," Jack said warningly before he continued, "Mr. Peters, think what you may, but my men and I only want what is best for Nightstar and we have done nothing to prove otherwise. If I were to accept what you"re trying to offer, how would that look to the town?"

"We wouldn"t tell a soul!" Michael"s wife exclaimed, just as desperate as the husband.

Kane"s nausea grew. His heart went out to the poor girl who belonged to these monsters.

"Mrs. Peters, your husband has just threatened me in my own home," Jack pointed out, "and has proven to me that he is of low moral character already. Why should I even remotely believe you?"

"I…umm…what?" Mrs. Peters stammered, as if confused by Jack"s words. Clearly, they had been too big for her.

"Please," Jack continued. "Allow Zander to show you out. I shall hear no more of this nonsense."

"But I—we—" Michael stuttered, but it was clear Jack was through with their meeting when Zander pulled open the door. He offered Kane only a curious glance before he exited the office.

Nothing more was said until the couple exited the office and Michael snarled under his breath, "I thought you said you"d help me convince them?"

Kane caught sight of the two of them and his blood ran cold. He had gotten the measure of Mr. Peters just from hearing him. Tall, yet hunched as if he spent much of his time slumped in a chair, with slicked back greasy hair and smart, yet disheveled, stained clothing. The woman was much the same, though she appeared to have tried a little harder. The makeup she wore did nothing to hide the bruises.

They really were trailer trash if ever Kane had seen it. And it utterly disgusted him.

He had met far too many of their kind in his life. In fact, he had grown up around the likes of them before he had been bitten. It was a past he"d rather forget. And so, he turned, attempting to slip away before anyone questioned what he was doing there.

Too late, he heard Jack speak from the study doorway. "Kane, I need to talk to you."

Fuck, he thought, wondering if he was about to get his pelt clawed for eavesdropping.

When he entered the study, Jack was already back at his desk. "Please, close the door."

Kane did as he asked, and when Jack gestured to the armchair across from him, Kane sat himself down in it. His nose wrinkled. Mr. Peters had most definitely been sat there before him. The smell of stale sweat and alcohol had soaked into the cushions.

"What was all that about?" Kane asked, deciding it was best to admit he had heard everything before Jack could start questioning him.

But to Kane"s surprise, Jack shook his head and sighed, "Don"t worry about it. We have bigger concerns."

Kane gulped. "Bigger concerns than a man trying to sell his daughter to us?"

Jack looked at him in all seriousness and said, "Yes."

"What is it?" Kane asked, perching on the edge of his seat. "What do you need me to do?"

Jack sighed even more deeply and leaned back in his chair. Running his fingers through his dark hair, he admitted, "Things aren"t quite so quiet as we"d hoped in town. Mr. Peters is right about one thing. The town will start to notice if we don"t clean things up properly."

"What is there to clean up?" Kane asked, raising a brow. "We"ve cleaned up the streets. There"s less crime than ever. You"ve dissolved all the tax debts Ryker put on everyone's businesses for "protection" and wolf god knows what else."

Jack nodded acknowledgment before he explained, "A couple of humans came to my home this morning and notified me there have been some disappearances."

Kane"s chest tightened. "Disappearances?"

Jack nodded. He leaned over his desk and picked up some paper. "One was a Miss Lindsey Coleman who works at the bar. They say she"s well known for disappearing for a day or two at a time. Apparently, she visits family over in Pine Valley, but isn"t great at telling anyone beforehand. Only her family in Pine Valley hasn"t seen her."

Kane bit the inside of his lip before asking, "How long has she been missing?"

"Less than forty-eight hours," Jack admitted, and his expression mirrored exactly what Kane was thinking. Missing persons weren"t usually taken seriously until after the forty-eight-hour mark unless they were children.

"And the others?" Kane asked.

"A couple of teenagers," Jack said, looking at the paper again. "Deneen Mathews and Tommy Lewis. Apparently, their parents weren"t too happy about the two of them spending time together. Seems like a pair of runaways to me, but either way, we need to look into them all and see if they can be located."

Kane nodded. If they were to live peacefully in Nightstar, they had the play the part of the mayor and his team. Protection, law and order were all things that fell under their jurisdiction now.

"Do you want me to take a patrol out and see if I can track them down?" Kane asked, rising from his seat.

Jack shook his head. "I"ve already got Will and Eddie on that. I want you and Hanson to head into town and see if anyone has any information on any of the missing persons that might help us locate them if we can"t pick up a scent."

Kane bit back a groan. He wasn"t much of a talker, especially when it came to talking to humans. He was never comfortable around them, especially with his packmates around. He had worked hard to make himself unquestionable when it came to his being a werewolf. It might have been irrational to believe that any old human might expose him, but it was a fear nonetheless.

"What"s the matter?" Jack asked, as if he had sensed Kane"s hesitation.

Kane quickly straightened up. Clearing his throat, he said, "Nothing, Alpha."

Jack furrowed his brow at that but said nothing.

Shit, Kane cursed silently, knowing he had only encouraged suspicion.