Lessons in Love

Chapter 40: A Search

POV: Delta Rick Wallis

I got the patrols started and headed back up to Ben’s office. I was happy he’d found his mate, that finding her was helping him, but a part of me was jealous too. I’d always wanted a mate and a big family. Maybe because mine was small and now scattered. My sister found her mate at eighteen and moved away. My father died ten years ago, and when the war started, I sent my mother to live with my sister, Bethany.

I wasn’t lonely. I was happy with the chosen family I had around me. Ben had always been like a brother to me, and Sam and Katherine were great friends who continued to be exceptional supports to both me and Ben. Maybe it was just that I was the only single one left. There hadn’t been much opportunity to leave the pack with all the rebuilding. There wasn’t likely going to be much opportunity in the coming months either.

Truthfully, I mused, I wasn’t in a place where I could take care of a mate. I barely slept. The nightmares made sure of that. I thought about the war more than I thought about anything else, and it was affecting every aspect of my life. In a way, I realized as I reached Ben’s door, I understood Ben’s reluctance to be mated. I knocked twice and let myself in.

Ben’s face was red, and I noticed him adjusting the potted plant on his desk. “You two need a minute?” I teased him.

“Shut up.” He grumbled, the blush getting deeper, and his smile widening. “Any word from Tyler? My father should be there by now.”

“Not yet. We have time to get up to shenanigans I’d wager.”

“The suite or the succession plan?” He asked.

“Both?” I shrugged. “I think we should start with Marcus and Eleanor.”

“Agreed!” He stood up from his desk. We headed up to the fourth floor and found the two guards standing silently on either side of the suite’s door. Neither of them moved as we approached.

“Gentlemen,” I greeted them.

“Just leave the mail.” One of the growled.

“We’re here to see our Alpha and Luna.” Ben said firmly. “Step aside.” He added in a menacing tone. I had to give the mate bond credit. Ben was a whole new wolf thanks to that simple touch he’d described this morning.

The one in front of Ben stepped forward, leveling a menacing growl of his own. “No one goes in.”

“No one comes out either, and that’s the problem.” Ben said plainly. “You either let us in, or we go by force. I’m good with either.” Ben growled, letting his aura out slowly toward the guard. I actually saw the guard shudder.

I’d felt Ben’s aura a million times before, but standing in front of that door, there was something different to it. It didn’t scare me or hurt to feel it. Ben’s aura had always held a bit of desperation and fear that were missing suddenly. I still felt the rage that had always been present, but there was something new to that, too. A righteousness I had never noticed before.

Ben stepped forward, and the guard took a step back. Both of George’s men seemed to feel that righteous rage from Ben’s aura, and it was scaring the crap out of them. “Open the door.” Ben growled low.

The two guards exchanged looks. I stepped forward and pushed my aura toward them as well. Mine wasn’t as powerful as Ben’s, it never was, but it was enough to add to their discomfort, and they started to sweat.

“Sir,” the guard in front of Ben licked his lips, like he didn’t want to speak. “There’s no on in there.”

“What?” Ben’s aura flexed harder.

“There’s no one in there, sir. Alpha George had them moved last night. They aren’t here.” The guard spewed quickly.

“Open it.” Ben growled. The guard in front of me turned and unlocked the door. The smell hit us instantly. It was filthy and reeked of silver in the suite to the point Ben and I both covered our noses as we went in. Ben moved toward the bedroom. He opened the door and put his hand over his mouth as he gagged. The smell of the silver coming from their room was intense.

“Silver shavings.” He said, pointing to the nightstand. Ben backed out of the room and took a deeper breath.

“Where were they taken?” He demanded.

“We don’t know.” One of them said. Ben continued to interrogate them as I walked around the room. There was blood on sheets of the bed. Not enough to indicate a serious injury, but enough to suggest one or both of them had been punched or nicked by a knife. The doctor had said Eleanor had been injured. The bowl of silver shavings sent a shiver down my spine. Ben’s torn up wrist was as fresh in my mind as I was certain it was in his.

I came out of the bedroom as several more of our warriors arrived in the room. “I want this place ripped apart. Any clues or evidence comes directly to me or Delta Rick, understood?” Ben said sternly. They all nodded and got to work. The two guards were in silver cuffs and being led away. Ben motioned for me to follow him. We went downstairs to his office. Ben paced the space silently for a moment.

“We let the doctor go, and the same night, Eleanor and Marcus are moved.” He growled.

“You think Dr. Wilder lied to us to save himself and his mate?”

“It certainly feels that way.” He growled again, raking his hand through his hair.

“You spoke to him in the afternoon at the hospital, too.” I reminded him. “If George had found out about that, or that you were snooping in the Alpha’s office – his office, then he may have told the guards to get them ready to go. I wasn’t with George for most of the day yesterday. I don’t know if he was texting anyone or made any phone calls.”

“The guards said George wasn’t there last night but had told them that Marcus and Eleanor were being moved mid-afternoon. It’s possible he caught wind of me talking to the doctor.” He said. “Text Tyler and Andrew. See if they remember him being on his phone a lot. A man his age doesn’t play with a phone for just anything. He’ll have been productive.” Ben gritted out.

I pulled out my phone and asked for an update from Andrew and Tyler. “In the meantime,” I said. “It’s almost lunchtime over at the school. You seem like you could use a minute. I’ll go back through the Alpha’s office. I know you went through it yesterday, but a second set of eyes won’t hurt. Maybe there’s something there that will stand out to me.”

Ben nodded. “I should come with you, though. We need to find that succession plan.”

“Ben, I can handle it. Go sniff your mate so I don’t walk in on you making out the with plant again.” I teased him. Ben laughed and shook his head. He wrote down the safe combination for me and headed off.

I went back upstairs to the Alpha’s office. I didn’t know what I was looking for. I sat at the desk and opened the drawers one by one. Blank stationary, folders with old financial returns filed with the council, and old ledgers, were all I found. I opened the safe and found exactly what Ben said I would. The DNA test paperwork and a leather-bound diary. I opened the diary.

It was birth and death records, along with some disciplinary decisions Marcus had made over the years. I flipped through the book until I found my father’s name. I ran my fingers across the scrawled penmanship. Marcus had written out the date and cause of death. I read cause of death twice because it didn’t make sense. ‘Rogue attack at MAP’, the diary read. Maybe Marcus used a shorthand for different sections of the woods, but MAP didn’t mean anything to me.

I photographed the page. I put my phone away and stared one last time at my father’s name. I flipped through the book, looking to see if MAP showed up anywhere else. There was only one other place it did. There was an entry that read ‘Henry Sloan, stripped of title as Gamma, MAP’. With this entry, though, MAP was written later. The ink was fresher, like it had been written recently. Maybe the shorthand had to do with his officers. I snapped a photo of it and texted the photos to Ben.

‘Does MAP mean anything to you?’ I asked in the message.

I stood by the door and looked back across the space. The office was sparse, with no paintings or pictures. Painted drywall with no chance of secret panels, I thought. I moved to the bathroom and took a look around. I moved the mirror and removed the toilet tank lid to find nothing. There was nothing in this office that was out of place. I sighed and took one last look around.

I went to the Alpha’s suite to see the warriors finishing up their search. “Find anything?”

“The silver smelled really strong. Might be pretty high quality, but it will need to be tested.” Ken, one of my top warriors, replied. “We also found maps of Sapphire Lake.”

“Maps?” I questioned. “Show me.”

“Beta Ben was up here about twenty minutes ago and took them back with him, sir.”

“Thanks, Ken.” I headed downstairs to see about the maps.