30. Listening In

30

Listening In

brAND

I went to find Flor, following the link between us that pointed me to her like an invisible compass needle. Instead, I found something curious: Margarette, eavesdropping outside the kitchen door.

When I approached, she cringed, but held a finger to her lips. I frowned, but her face was pleading. So we both listened to the raised voices coming from the room.

A female shifter whose voice I could not place was speaking. "Of course we couldn't tell the Alpha Mate about the assaults. We all know she and the Alpha are keeping us in our places. Why the hell would we go to her for help?"

Margarette covered her mouth with a hand, but didn't make a sound.

"You're lucky as hell you can get out of here, Flor. Unranked shifters don't get to go to the Conclaves, so we won't ever get the chance to escape."

"What about to find your true mates?" Flor asked. "She's big into that. Doesn't she want you to meet them?"

"Sure, and when the Conclaves are hosted here, we have a chance. My cousin got out that way eight years back. She met an Enforcer from Mountain at our last hosted Conclave. But no one else has in… a long time."

Another voice chimed in. "Being a female here, especially an unranked one, is a silver chain around our necks. Vanessa was a traitorous bitch, but I know why she snapped."

Margarette was holding her breath now, frozen in shock and horror. I held just as still, feeling torn. I shouldn't eavesdrop on Flor, but Margarette needed to hear what her unranked shifters were saying. We all did.

"Why?" Flor's voice inside the kitchen was gentler than I'd ever heard.

"Vanessa was ordered to stay home from the Conclave at Southern. She was pissed as hell. Her true mate isn't at Northern, and she was convinced she'd find him there."

Flor snorted. "If she has one, he probably is at Southern. Almost any of those assholes would be a perfect match for her."

"Well, I think she met a rogue on one of her trips into town for supplies . She took a hell of a lot of trips into town while the Alpha and his mate were away."

Someone else laughed. "Yeah, she spent the pack's money and time getting her nails done, and buying shit for herself and her friends."

"That wasn't all she did. I work in the laundry. She came home smelling like an unknown shifter, more than once. I heard her tell Clara about him when I was serving dinner." A long pause. "Clara was helping Vanessa."

"No shit. Where's Clara now?"

"Not anywhere we've seen. Probably in some ranked asshole's bed. Where we'll probably all end up if we want a bed."

"No, you're not going to have to sleep?—"

"Flor, look around . They have us in tents now, even the young girls. No locks, no doors, no one to stop them taking advantage of the ones who can't protect themselves. The males in our pack aren't all bad, but there are enough of them that are. And now, we'll be even easier prey."

"You're not prey; you've all had training. Do you need weapons?"

"By Alpha command, we're not allowed to handle them outside of the training grounds. We might injure ourselves." There was the unmistakable sound of someone spitting.

Flor's laughter was surprisingly sweet. "Are all Alphas such boneheaded fools? All right, have any of you heard about Southern? The unranked there, especially the women, weren't allowed to be trained at all, with any weapons. But there's always a workaround, ladies. Always."

When the rest of the voices suddenly joined hers in a boisterous explosion of humor and a clatter of silverware, Margarette's eyes widened. "I'm going in," I murmured, and she stepped back.

I'd almost pushed the door open, when I heard a woman say quietly, "I caught a ranked bastard sneaking into the women's shower block early this morning when Daisy was in there with two of the younger girls. Thank you, Flor. This will help."

My lip curled instinctively, my wolf enraged at the idea of the children of this pack, of any pack, in danger.

"Did he touch her? I'll fucking kill him," Flor swore.

"No. She yelled for help, and Sergeant came running."

"Can we trust Sergeant?"

Flor's question was met with a long, heavy silence, followed by what sounded like over a dozen women leaving through the servants' hallways.

Fuck.