Chapter 14

Monday night, as the sky was robed in darkness, the moon hidden by clouds and a coming storm, Leif Olson stalked toward the home belonging to the mayor of some dilapidated town called Copper Creek. Behind him, his males were fanned out, snarls and low growls echoing in the darkness.

The rumors in Marin were spreading like crazy now that his half-sister and her dog boyfriend had decided that the future of the pride was going to be in this…place. She’d spent the day talking with Liam and the heads of the pride families. His grandfather had stayed out of the talks because he didn’t want the pride to move and didn’t want Thyme to take over.

Leif had his mom and her side of the family on his side, and friends who supported him becoming alpha, but the majority of the pride wanted to move away from Marin even though it was their people’s heritage, bad hunting grounds be damned.

He had a plan for when he took over as alpha, he just had to stop his sister from making it to the ascension ceremony on the next full moon.

In the meantime, he was going to fuck up her plans to move the pride to Copper Creek, because no way in hell was he going to allow it. He was the rightful alpha, not her. Never her.

“Spread out,” he hissed to his males. “Break windows, doors, ruin everything. If whoever is in that house tries to run, hurt but don’t kill. We’ll make sure the mayor and anyone else in that place knows if the pride comes here, that there will be hell to pay.”

With an encouraging yowl, Leif charged for the front door, claws and fangs ready.

On Tuesday morning, Thyme and Remy walked into the coffee shop where she’d spent the better part of her youth learning how to make various drinks.

Whatever chatter had been going on stopped suddenly when they walked in, and the eerie silence was enough to give her a chill.

“Hey, Marty,” she said as she and Remy stepped up to the glass case.

“Thyme,” he said.

She glanced up from the pastry case to see the strange look on his face. His tone was so cool and detached.

“What’s going on?”

His eyes darted to the side and then he forced a smile. “Not a thing. What can I get for you and your friend?”

“This isn’t my friend, it’s my mate, Remy.”

Remy snorted and she realized what she said. “Ah crap, I mean yes he’s my friend. But he’s also my mate.”

“You can move on,” Remy said gently, his tone laced with humor.

“Right. Remy, this is Marty, he and his wife run the coffee shop and gave me my first and only job.”

“Nice to meet you,” Remy said.

“Sure,” Marty said.

“Something’s going on,” Thyme said. “What’s wrong?” She looked around the shop and found everyone studiously ignoring them.

“What can I get for you two?” Marty insisted.

Remy nudged her and she looked up at him. He shrugged and she let out a frustrated grunt.

They placed their order for iced coffees and Danish, which Marty made at lightning speed, not accepting payment and asking if they wouldn’t mind taking it to go, because they were full.

When the door shut behind them, Thyme stepped off the concrete stairs and onto the sidewalk and looked inside the shop. Every eye was on them.

“I don’t get it,” she said.

“That was like something out of the twilight zone,” Remy said.

“Yeah.”

As they walked back to the car, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong with the scene in the shop. She’d always been welcome there as the alpha’s daughter, and now that she was the future alpha, nothing should have changed.

Someone hissed nearby, a psst sound.

She leaned forward a little bit and saw Marty’s mate, Mila.

Mila motioned her over. Thyme and Remy walked to the edge of the building where Mila was hunched over like she was afraid to be caught.

“It’s your half-brother,” Mila whispered.

“My half-brother what?” Thyme asked.

Mila shushed her, her gaze darting around wildly like someone was coming for her.

“Sorry,” Thyme whispered. “What about Leif?”

“After you met with the alphas and family leaders yesterday, his grandfather started spreading rumors that you were trying to destroy the pride by moving us to a dilapidated town where all the businesses would fail and our people would die out. He also said that you mating a wolf was against our laws and it means that you plan to bring wolves into the pride.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Thyme said. “Copper Creek is perfect for the pride, and Remy’s joining us by himself, not bringing a pack along too.”

Mila nodded. “I know. Marty knows that too. He stood up for you against Leif’s grandfather. And then this morning, we came into the shop to find it had been broken into. The cash register and safe were emptied, most of the equipment was destroyed. It was just lucky that we had some equipment at the house to bring in so we could open today.”

“It was Leif?” Remy asked with a low voice.

Mila nodded and brushed at tears on her cheeks. “He showed up when we opened with some of his buddies and made sure we knew that worse would happen if we supported you two as the new alphas.” Mila grasped Thyme’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s why Marty rushed you two out, he’s afraid to take chances. I’m scared for you, honey. You’ve been like family to me and Marty, and he’s just sick over what happened. But he’s afraid we’re going to lose everything if we don’t go along with Leif. If…you aren’t able to take over as alpha, we’d be screwed.”

Thyme looked up at Remy helplessly.

It was one thing when it was Leif and his mom messing with things, but an entirely different thing to bring in one of the more influential families in the pride to cause trouble. Brilla’s family could definitely turn people against them.

Remy’s gaze hardened. “Thanks for letting us know, Mila. We’ll take it from here.”

Mila nodded and hurried back into the shop.

Thyme followed Remy to the car, neither of them speaking until they were back at the house.

“This is bullshit,” Thyme said as her cell buzzed in her pocket. She looked at the screen before she answered and a knot formed in her gut. She just knew it was going to be bad news. “Mayor Applebaum?”

Remy listened in stunned silence as the sweet Copper Creek mayor told on them speakerphone that someone had broken into her house the night before and trashed it.

“Fortunately, I wasn’t home, I was visiting my sister and away for the night, otherwise who knows what I might have encountered.”

Thyme looked at Remy with wide eyes. “Holy crap, I’m so sorry to hear about that! Do you have any idea who broke into your house?”

“Well, I do have security cameras, but they were broken right after the people appeared. Most of their faces were covered and the two police officers we have on staff weren’t able to use facial recognition.” There was a long hesitation, and then the mayor said, “I’m really sorry, Thyme, but it appears that whoever did this is trying to discourage me from allowing your pride to move into town.”

“What? What makes you think that?”

An image appeared by text, which showed that someone had spray-painted across the front of the garage, “Keep Copper Creek Shifter Free or Else!”

“I’m so sorry that happened,” Remy said. “We’d like to come help clean it up.”

“Absolutely not,” Mayor Applebaum said. “My husband had an adopted sister who was a wolf shifter, and he very vehemently supported shifters’ rights. I’m not about to let anyone tell me whether or not your pride can come into this town. I called an emergency meeting in town already and everyone—honestly, every single adult in Copper Creek—wants the pride to come here. It’ll be good for the town and good for our economy. So I don’t care who it is who wants to keep you out of town. I’m positive it’s not anyone in town, but other than that I don’t know who it is. The garage is already being painted over and I didn’t lose anything of value so don’t give it another thought.”

“We’ll still be bringing the heads of the pride families on Saturday,” Remy said. “But in the meantime, we’ll investigate on our end. It’s possible a pride family isn’t happy.”

“Well, make sure they know that I’ve got a registered handgun and I’m well- trained and not afraid to use it.”

Thyme smiled at Remy. “We’re glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks, dear. You two keep each other safe. I’ll see you and the families on Saturday around lunchtime.”

The call ended and Thyme dropped the phone into the cup holder with a groan. She put her head in her hands and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Remy rubbed her back in slow circles, his wolf snarling in his head.

“It was obviously Leif or his buddies,” Remy said.

He was really beginning to dislike the male.

“Or his grandfather or mom. Gracious, I didn’t realize how many enemies I had until I was in a position to take over the pride.”

Remy thought over what had happened, then said, “Okay, so first his grandfather went to the pride families and lied, putting pressure on them to not support us as alphas. Would that even matter?”

“What do you mean?” She sat back and looked at him.

“Does it matter if the pride doesn’t support us? Like could they vote to overthrow you as alpha and put Leif in as alpha instead, with whatever female he cajoled into mating him? I’m trying to recall what was in the law books.”

“I don’t think so,” she said slowly, like she was thinking over what she’d read recently. “The alphas decide where the pride lives, period. If there are pride members who don’t want to move, they can leave the pride, it’s really not a huge deal. I just don’t get why they’re so insistent on staying in Marin.”

Remy didn’t know either.

The day before, they’d met with the heads of the pride families. Of the sixty-five pride members, they’d met with thirty-some adults, some mated and some unmated, some with grown children and others with young ones, and everyone seemed happy with the news, excited to get out of the depressed area with no hunting and polluted land and water and start over.

Then it turned out that Jacob went behind their backs to dissuade the families from supporting him and Thyme, and then Leif attacked not only Marty and Mila’s coffee shop, but also the mayor’s home.

He saw Thyme reach for her cell and he knew she was going to call Liam. He put his hand over hers and said, “Let’s leave him out of this for now.”

“He told us to keep him looped in on anything,” she pointed out.

“I know, but he may be sharing things with Jacob out of habit, with them both being elders, and he’s proving to not have much real power in the eyes of the pride. Everyone seems to be afraid of Jacob and Leif. I think we should handle this ourselves.”

“How can we handle things that don’t happen when we can witness it? We didn’t see Leif threaten Marty and Mila and nearly destroy their business, we didn’t see who slashed our tires, or who went after Mayor Applebaum.”

“Look, once we get to the full moon and the ascension ceremony, Leif has no standing to try to take over as alpha. But I think he and his family might be trying to undermine us in the eyes of the pride, to set the stage to take a run after you. If he can prove you’re not fit to lead before the ascension ceremony, then maybe there’s some loophole in the pride laws that he knows about, and he can challenge for the right to be alpha. Without the pride’s confidence in your ability to lead, he could easily make the case that you’re not fit. I doubt Liam would be able to stop him.”

“Damn it.”

“Yeah. But the good news is that we can follow him. I was thinking that we could put some trackers on the vehicles of him and his friends, including Brilla’s family. Then we’d know what they’re up to.”

“That’s a good idea,” she said, brightening. “Where do we get trackers?”

He put the truck into reverse and backed out of the drive. “I know just the place.”