Chapter 8: Lies and Longing

Malcom listened with growing unease as Alistair and Adam, his top lawyer, went through the material contract that Henry Reacher and the council had drafted.

It was nothing shy of a coup.

He had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that the whole point of the mating was to consolidate alpha power. The whole point had been a takeover of all his holdings.

And that might be part of it for at least the council. But Henry and Natalia would make out like bandits. She would receive a 30% share of his holdings and Henry would be given 25%. Which meant they could easily take control of Intercorp if they both worked together. And he strongly suspected that was the plan. Without the company to support the clan, the Galaech Ùr would not be able to continue and would be assimilated into the Forest Run Clan.

And when they controlled the main financial aspect of his pack, they could effectively hamstring any authority he might have as alpha. Between Henry as an alpha himself, and Natalia as the mistress of his pack, their authority would supersede even his own.

How had this been missed?

Malcom growled. The council either did not read through the contract or they agreed with giving Henry the ability to take over another pack without a war or even a reason. He knew that some of the council were on Henry’s payroll, but would they stoop so low as to agree to this? And those who weren’t? Were they that stupid, or did they just not care?

It was tantamount to removing him from his position as alpha without the formality of stripping him of his title. According to the laws of the council, if he was deemed an unfit alpha, there would be a trial, he’d have the right to defend himself, he would have a chance. But this… this contract would strip him of all that without even the pretense of a trial.

“I want to know who was responsible for this draft.” Malcom snarled, “Any intel we can find on how the council voted on this; who wrote it; who approved it.”

“Malcom,” Adam looked over his glasses with a frown; he was one of Malcom’s oldest friends, his second in command, and his top lawyer. He was also the only one who ever bothered to call Malcom by his first name, “You realize you are asking us to infiltrate the council? That could lead to more serious repercussions than an attempted coup…”

“This is not right.” Malcom snarled, “Whoever designed this did so with the intent to rob me of my birthright and our clan of their standing and support. This opens the door for them to do this to other clans in the future. We need evidence and we need to take this to the clans. The council obviously can no longer be trusted.”

“He’s right.” Nervously shifting on his feet, Alistair interjected, “We can’t just let this go. There are three potential options: the council is in on this, they did not fully read the contract, or Henry changed it after approval. None of them are great options, but we need to know what we’re dealing with before exposing this.”

“Oh, I know he’s right,” Adam removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he sighed, “I just want to make sure you clearly know what you are doing. If this gets out…”

“Then it won’t get out until we bring our evidence to the rest of the clans.” Malcom growled, “I want you to chose the best of our cyber security team. Only those who you trust completely, and I want you to start a quiet investigation, now.”

Adam studied his friend for a moment. Malcom was right. The precedent this set would lay the ground work for other clans to be swallowed through a mate pact. He wondered if this had happened on the smaller level already, with clans and packs that were not large enough to hold the same notoriety as the Galaech Ùr Clan or the Forest Run Clan.

He just worried about how the council would react if they found out they were being spied on. They had to be extremely careful. Without evidence, the clans wouldn’t support them, and the council would have a chance to destroy the Galaech Ùr Clan before they could gather what they needed if they were caught. It was a very thin tightrope they had to walk.

“One thing bothers me…” Alistair cleared his throat as they stared silently at the contract in front of them.

“Just one?” Adam quipped dryly.

“Well, more than one, but this really sticks out.” Alistair gave a weak laugh, “Why did the council help the Forest Run Clan? If this goes through, Forest Run would own all of North America and most of Europe, and Henry Reacher would be the most powerful alpha in the world. Why would the council support that? With the kind of power Henry would have between his clan and ours, he could completely control the council, even disband them if he wanted. Why would they willingly support someone who could, and probably would, take their power?”

Malcom didn’t have an answer to that question. But Alistair was right. It wasn’t adding up. The council of elders were meant to be an impartial body, promoting peace between the wolf clans while keeping them hidden from the humans. Most arguments between clans were settled by the council, though a few times, it had come to war. And war between shifter clans was brutal, messy, and hard to cover up from the humans around them.

If Reacher controlled the council, he could control the rest of the clans.

But the council would never willingly give up it’s authority. Would it?

“Let’s get started with figuring out who was behind this contract.” Malcom sighed. He was glad that he had been pushing it off to the last minute and hadn’t signed it when Henry first presented it.

No wonder Natalia was walking around his businesses like she owned them for the last few weeks. She assumed that she would soon be in charge.

Malcom scowled as he thought of the female the council had been trying to force him to mate. While they both came from wealth, they were also both alphas. Any relationship between them would have been too volatile to last. They both would try to assert dominance. It would ultimately end with one of them dead. The more he thought about it, the more likely it was planned that he’d be the one doing the dying. He guessed that Henry and Natalia thought he was too chivalrous to harm a woman. They guessed wrong, but he could understand their assumption. Anyone with half a brain would have known their mating would never last.

He thought of his little human mate. Well, not human anymore, he sighed. She was adorable, the complete opposite of Natalia Reacher. She was soft and submissive. He remembered how she had looked when they first met. Surprise, confusion, desire. She was everything he was not: soft where he was hard, gentle where he was crass. They would compliment each other far more than Natalia and he ever would, power couple on paper or not.

Malcom closed his eyes and pictured her, his mate. He had scented her almost as soon as he walked into the ballroom, a delicious mix of sugar and lavender and vanilla. When he saw her standing with her tray, it had taken every ounce of control not to pounce on her. That short, tight skirt had hugged her ass in the best way. Her little vest had nipped in at her waist in a way the accentuated her curves. And her red hair. She looked both prim and proper and scandalous at the same time. He imagined doing dirty, dirty things to her right there.

She was sweetness and seduction in one tiny package.

“Earth to Malcom.” Adam was waving his hand in front of Malcom’s face.

“Sorry, thinking about my mate.” Malcom felt a stupid grin split his face at the thought of his Poppy. He couldn’t get over how amazing it was that he had found his fated mate.

“Right, go be with her.” Adam sighed and muttered something about mated males as he gathered his papers and walked away.

With a snort of laughter, Malcom turned and headed out of his office and back to the bedroom wing of his home. He had set her up in his bedroom; she was never going to sleep anywhere else again.

Wolf shifters healed more quickly than humans, but they still could be injured. Dr. Prince kept most medical supplies he would need for shifters on site, though if needed they had a wing of the local hospital that belonged to Malcom just for his private use. Even though Malcom didn’t spend much of his time at the North American headquarters of his business, he needed to make sure those of his clan who lived here had access to everything they needed.

Besides Dr. Prince, there were four nurses who were on call at his home. When there was a patient, they took eight hour shifts to help ensure continuous care. There was always at least one nurse on at any given time, though sometimes, they purposely overlapped their time to give breaks. It really depended on how serious the injuries were that were being treated. Usually the medical facilities on his property were used for things like monitoring maternal and fetal health if a pup was due, though birth rates in shifters had dropped significantly in the last few decades. Since the shifters were attempting to remain under the human radar, they made sure to have all they needed medically within their own clans instead of relying on human hospitals.

It worked for them. Even on the rare occasion that there was a life-threatening injury, the very generous donations he made to the local hospital meant they had a private place which was able to serve the clan’s needs.

Malcom found himself whistling as he entered the bedroom wing and jogged up the flight of stairs to his private room. He had rearranged the layout of his the room so that Poppy would have a good view over the woods and gardens at the back of his home. He wanted her to have a nice view when she woke up.

He frowned as he passed through the empty hallways. There should have been at least one guard on duty, one nurse to keep an eye on Poppy.

Breaking into a run, he tore down the short hallway to her room. The door was open and the bed was empty.

Howling, he sank to the floor.

How could he have lost her? He just found her! It was like fate was determined to dangle what he could have just out of his reach.

Vaguely, he was aware of footsteps pounding down the hallway. As he knelt on the cold, sterile floor.

“Mr. Murray, what?” Dr. Prince peered over Malcom’s head to the empty room. “Where is Ms. Wallace?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Malcom stood with a growl, despair turning to anger. “She was here, still in a coma when I left to talk with Adam and Callum. I was gone for no longer than twenty minutes. So where is she?”

Dr. Prince paled under Malcom’s fury.

“Where, where is the nurse? Where’s the guard” He stammered, “Maybe she…”

“Not at their stations. Not on this floor.” Malcom felt himself start to change into his wolf as fury overtook him. He took a few calming breaths. Going animal would not help him right then, even though he really wanted shift and break a few things.

“I’ll go see if I can find the nurse,” Dr. Prince backed away, looking like he would rather be anywhere but there, “Maybe she has some answers…”

Malcom ignored the other shifter’s blustering. He was too angry. The nurse should have been on duty. It wasn’t a hard job; especially when the only patient was comatose. All she had to do was sit in the room and watch his mate sleep. He stormed down the stairs even as he grabbed his cell and punched a number in.

“Owen.” He didn’t even wait for the other male to great him, “Headquarters, now.”

In less than than three minutes, a male, almost as tall as he was came jogging up to the front of the building.

“Boss?” Owen stopped when he saw the furry in Malcom’s face.

“She’s gone. My mate.” Malcom’s voice broke. He was torn between sorrow and anger. Who had taken her from him? How had they penetrated his security?

“Gone? How?” Owen looked startled at this.

“I need security footage. Now.” Malcom snapped, “I need to know where the nurse was, where the guard stationed in that hallway was, who came and went, what happened.”

“On it.” Owen saluted and jogged off, phone to his ear as he barked orders to some of his security team to review the second floor footage.

Malcom paced, running his hands through his hair. Where had she gone? She couldn’t possibly have left on her own. She was still comatose. Someone had to have come in and taken her. He only hoped that by the time they figured out who, she would still be alive.

“Mr. Murray?” A younger male cautiously approached, “Dr. Prince said you might need help?”

“I need to know the shift schedules of the nurses and who is supposed to be on right now.” Malcom snapped. The male gulped and nodded quickly. Malcom stared walking quickly back toward the main mansion, he was going to set up command in his office, the male jogged after him, “Her monitors were taken off. That should have set off some alarms somewhere. Where was the nurse?” He practically shouted his frustration.

“I, I don’t know sir.” The male stammered.

“And I want security feeds, now!” Malcom roared, giving into his anger and fear.

“Right away sir!” The male scampered off. Malcom didn’t bother to tell him that Owen was already reviewing the feeds.

The sooner he got answers, the better.

He stalked to his office and immediately began to pace. Logically, he couldn’t do anything until he knew how she disappeared, but he hated waiting.

It didn’t take long for Owen to come jogging to his office with a laptop tucked under one arm.

“I have good news and bad news.” Owen plopped the laptop in front of Malcom and opened the screen.

He pressed a few buttons and the security feed from Poppy’s room popped up on the screen. Malcom watched as Melissa came in and he left. A few minutes went by then, Poppy began to move.

“She’s awake.” Malcom breathed as he watched her sit up and look around. He couldn’t see her face clearly on the feed, but her body language spoke of fear. He watched as she tore out her IV and removed her monitors before stumbling to her feet. She paused in the hallway and then she jerkily ran out of the frame.

“There’s more, from other locations,” Owen clicked a few buttons and they watched her escape from the mansion.

“Where is she now?” Malcom demanded.

“We lost view when she left through the backdoor. She probably pressed against the wall, which is apparently out of view of most cameras. My guess, she fled to the woods.” Owen snapped the laptop shut.

“Get security, no going in as wolves; we need to be in human form.” Malcom sighed, “She has no idea what is going on. I need to talk to her. And after the attack at the party, she probably would be terrified to be surrounded by wolves.”

“Got it.” Owen pulled out his phone and called in a team.

Soon, Malcom and twenty of his security team were fanning out into the woods. Night was quickly falling around them. He lifted his nose and sniffed. As a wolf, he would have a better read on her scent, but even as a human, he was still able to follow her scent trail.

They were walking through the thick brush, when he heard a faint cry of pain.

His heart froze. It was Poppy, he knew. And he knew that sound. Each shifter had all made that noise during their first shift.

She was transitioning and he wasn’t there for her.

Malcom lifted his head and let out a mournful howl.