All Chapters of Fight like a mother : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Daggy had no idea how much time had passed when the cell door opened again.She'd been curled up on the bench trying to sleep but her mind wouldn't shut off long enough to let her drift away from this nightmare.Every time she closed her eyes she saw her mother's blood spreading across the carpet or heard Britty screaming from somewhere she couldn't reach.The woman who entered was immaculately dressed in a cream-colored dress that probably cost more than everything Daggy owned, her blonde hair pulled back in a perfect chignon and her makeup flawless even in the harsh fluorescent lighting.Daggy recognized her immediately from pack gatherings she'd attended years ago, back when she'd still been foolish enough to think she had a future here.Mary Charles Hemstrong, the alpha's wife, stood in the doorway like she was surveying a particularly distasteful piece of furniture she was considering throwing out."You're even more pathetic than I imagined," Mary said, her voice pleasant and con

The house was small and set back off a gravel road that hadn't seen a plow truck in years, the kind of place people drove past without really seeing.Victor Stone had chosen it because nobody would think to look here, tucked between an abandoned auto shop and a stretch of woods that belonged to nobody in particular.He hadn't planned on keeping the girl this long. It was supposed to be two days, maybe three at most, just enough to rattle the mother and collect the rest of his payment.But Mary had gone quiet on him after the first wire transfer, and now it had been almost a week and Victor was starting to feel less like a hired hand and more like a man holding something he didn't know how to put down.Britty sat on the floor of the back bedroom with her knees pulled up to her chest, wrapped in a blanket that smelled like mothballs and somebody else's house.She'd stopped crying sometime yesterday, not because she felt better but because her body had simply run out of tears to give.Th

The council chamber smelled like old wood polish and something underneath it that never quite went away, decades of decisions made within these walls leaving their residue behind.Dynan sat at the head of the long table with his hands folded in front of him, listening to Elder Judith Kane speak in that careful, measured way she had, the kind of tone that made every word land heavier than it should have."Three staff members detained, a kidnapping under investigation, and now questions about tampered inventory records," Judith said, not raising her voice because she'd never needed to. "The council has concerns, Alpha. Legitimate ones.""The investigation is ongoing," Dynan said, keeping his own voice level despite the tightness building behind his ribs. "I won't rush conclusions before we have facts.""With respect, Alpha, facts are precisely what's missing here." Another council member, an older wolf named Harmon who'd served three alphas before Dynan, leaned forward with his elbows o

Nina Wallace had known Mary Charles Hemstrong since they were both new wives navigating pack politics together, back when Mary still laughed easily and hadn't yet learned to calculate every word before she said it.They met for lunch at the same café they'd been going to for years, a quiet place tucked away from the main square where nobody important tended to eavesdrop, though lately Nina found herself wondering if that privacy had always worked in Mary's favor rather than hers."You've barely touched your food," Mary observed, swirling the ice in her water glass with a straw she wasn't using. "Something on your mind?""Just tired," Nina said, pushing a piece of lettuce around her plate without much interest. "The whole palace feels tense lately. You must feel it more than anyone."Mary's expression flickered, something quick and controlled passing behind her eyes before the pleasant mask settled back into place. "It's been a difficult few weeks, yes. But things will calm down once t

Foster's office wasn't what Beth expected. She'd pictured something colder, more intimidating, but instead found herself sitting across from a tired-looking older man in a room that felt more like an accountant's office than anything belonging to pack law enforcement."Take your time," Foster said, his recorder already running on the desk between them, though his tone suggested patience wasn't necessarily his strongest quality. "Start from the beginning. What did you see, and when."Beth's hands were folded so tightly in her lap her knuckles had gone pale. "It was the same afternoon everyone's been talking about. I was walking my dog, just past the edge of my yard, and I saw a man carrying a little girl toward a car.""Can you describe the man?""Medium height. Dark jacket. I didn't get a great look at his face, it was getting dark." Beth swallowed hard. "But the car. I remember the car. Dark blue, older model, and there was a dent on the back bumper, like it had been in an accident a