Lessons in Love

Chapter 48: Proof and No Proof

POV: Beta Ben Westlake

I reached the dungeon to find the guard at the door missing from his post. I opened the door and immediately smelled blood. “s**t!” I muttered as I hurried down the stairs. “Sam!” I called out.

“In here,” he yelled from the cells. I hurried down the corridor and met him at the open door of a cell. “Their throats have been slit.” He said, gesturing inside.

The guy I had scared this morning stared up at me with a shocked expression frozen on his face, not that his eyes were capable of emoting it. “The guard is nowhere to be found.” He added.

“You think the guard did it?” I asked, bending down to look at the wound. It wasn’t made by claws. The cut was too clean. Claw marks left jagged edges on the cut.

“I don’t know, but whoever got to them had the keys. Rick is sending some warriors over now to help collect evidence. We’ll have a better idea after that.” He said, sounding unimpressed with the situation. “The guy Rick brought in is in the interrogation room.” He added.

“Any sign of a knife?” I asked, standing up. Sam shook his head as the sound of footsteps in the hallway rang out. The warriors rounded the corner. “Your new Gamma has your instructions gentlemen,” I said firmly as they came into the cell block. “I’m going to check on our other guest.”

“Are the silver cuffs necessary?” The guy in the interrogation room growled at me as I entered.

“Yeah,” I said, sitting across from him. “I’m sorry, I know how uncomfortable they are.”

“I’m not talking.” He growled again.

“That implies there’s something to talk about.” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“You saw those guys, right?” He glared at me.

“Yeah, I did. We hadn’t even interrogated them yet.” I said, shaking my head. “It’s a shame, really.” I paused, letting that information sink in. “It doesn’t matter if you talk or not. He’s going to have you murdered.” The guy looked nervous, but he was trying to play it off like he didn’t care.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“What does it matter?” He growled.

“We’ll need a name for the tombstone.” I shrugged.

“f**k you!” He practically spat at me.

“Give me a name, I don’t care if it’s your real one. I just need something to call you while we talk in here.” I said with a sigh.

He didn’t speak at first. It was clear he was thinking of a name. “Aaron.” He finally decided.

“Aaron, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt or to die.” He gave me a dirty look. “I’m serious. We just fought a war,” I said sincerely. “I don’t want to bury anymore of my pack members. You can help me. That would put me in your debt. I’d owe you something pretty substantial for the lives of my people.”

Aaron eyed me cautiously. “How substantial?”

“Keep you out of his reach, get you somewhere safe without turning you out.” I shrugged.

He scoffed at that. “You don’t have that kind of power.”

“Actually, I do. I already got two people out of the territory and away from him. You’re not even one of mine,” I added. “It’ll be even easier.”

When he didn’t respond, I kept talking. “Do you have family? A mate?” He shook his head. “Maybe you find one if you live. How old are you? Twenty?”

“Twenty-three.”

“I can get you out of here.” I said firmly, leaning against the table. “I just need to know what you know.” Aaron shifted uncomfortably in his seat. I was getting through to him.

“Do I get to choose?” He asked after a long silence. “Where I’d get to go, do I choose?”

“Maybe,” I said honestly. He rolled his eyes. “I’d have to check with my network to see if they can get you where you want to go. I don’t want to promise you something I can’t deliver. Was there somewhere you wanted to go?”

Aaron shifted in his seat again. “Home,” he said, looking down at the table. “Dehavlin Falls.”

I pulled my phone out and texted Riley. I asked her to reach out to her father and see if he would help us again. I texted Rick, too, and asked him to reach out to Andrew and Tyler at Ridgeline. Someone had to be able to help us get this guy home.

“I’ve reach out.” I said. “Now we wait.” I leaned back and tried to get comfortable. “You’re not working for Dehavlin Falls, they’re pretty small.” I said. “How long since you’ve been home?”

“A while.” He growled.

“How’s your head?” I asked. “I can get someone to bring you something if it hurts.” There was a bandage on it, and it was clear he’d been cleaned up.

“I’m fine.” His growl persisted.

My phone buzzed, and I looked at the message. “Merchant River,” I said. “That’s a close as my network seems to be able to get you. You’d be on your own from there, but Merchant River is close enough, you should be able to get to Dehavlin Falls with little trouble.” I said to him.

Tyler had a cousin in Merchant River and was able to guarantee safe passage. Aaron thought about it a little while longer in silence. It wasn’t exactly what he’d asked for, but he knew there wasn’t going to be a better offer than that.

“Alright,” he said. “When would I leave?” He asked.

“As soon as you’ve given us everything you have in a sworn statement.” I replied.

He let out sigh. “Fine, but can we lose the cuffs.” I gave a nod and mind-linked Sam to bring me the keys, a pen, and some paper.

In the end, he’d given us enough to incriminate George, but not enough to convict him of anything. Aaron, whose real name was Shelby, was a member of Vine Valley. He’d moved there from Dehavlin Falls when he’d found his mate, but she and their child had died in a car accident a year ago. He’d bounced around and ended up in Flain River for a while before George hired him.

He had been hired as private security for George 8 months ago, during the war. George had visited with Flain River’s and Vine Valley’s Alpha’s often. Always closed-door meetings, so he couldn’t say what the meetings had been about. He’d added Ridgeline to his circuit a month later but couldn’t say what the meetings were about either.

What was useful, albeit circumstantial, was that my father had made them take him to several places in the woods around Sapphire Lake, Ridgeline, and Vine Valley. According to Shelby, my father would make the guards wait while he wandered off in the woods. When my father had returned, Shelby said he stunk of Rogues and booze, even in his wolf form.

Shelby had nothing on Marcus and Eleanor. He had gone upstairs earlier to relay information to the two guards who were supposed to be at the door of the Alpha’s Suite. The message simply being, hold firm. Shelby had no idea what that meant, other than to say it was likely orders for them to continue guarding the door. Shelby’s partner from that morning, Steven, hadn’t returned with them. Shortly after leaving Ridgeline, George had made them pull over, and Steven had gotten out.

The rest of that story I knew. Andrew and Tyler had tracked Steven through Ridgeline’s territory to our borders. They had lost track of him shortly after our patrol stopped them from entering our territory. The search continued, but Steven had led them in circles, making it impossible to get a clean scent to track him. Our patrols and a small contingent from Ridgeline were continuing to search, but Andrew and Tyler were on their way to our packhouse for the night and would drive home tomorrow.

Shelby was moved from the dungeon secretly around two in the morning. We locked him up in the packhouse cell, and Rick had agreed to take the watch so no one would kill him. I’d given Rick the highlights of Shelby’s statement.

“Where does that leave us?” Rick questioned. While Shelby’s account confirmed everything to us and would be enough to strip my father of his title, without Marcus or his succession plan to promote us, our pack would be without an Alpha.

“I don’t know,” I raked my hands through my hair. “It leaves us wide open to attacks if we lock him up, but if we don’t, he’s absolutely coming for us.” I said. This was not how either of us had wanted this to go.

“We’ll figure this out.” He said.

“We don’t have a choice.” I said dryly.

Rick gave me a half smile. “I know, but we’ll find a good solution. Go get some rest. Your father left the pub an hour ago and went home. The fact he isn’t banging down the doors here looking for Claire is, as horrific as this sounds, a good thing.”

I growled a little at that. He was right, though. The best stroke of luck we could have had was him getting wasted and passing out at home for the night. We still had the advantage. “We’ll arrest him in the morning.” I growled. “I want him locked up here, 24-hour guard.”

“It’ll be done. Andrew and Tyler will smuggle Shelby out in the morning with them. They’re planning to leave at dawn, sooner if they can.”

“He’s come through for us.” I said, meaning Tyler.

Rick knew exactly what I meant. He gave a firm nod. “I like him. I talked with him a bit when they came to the packhouse. He seems genuinely upset that George has dragged him into something that could have started a war. He’s sorry, too. He wanted me to tell you in case he didn’t get the chance.”

“For what?”

“For the way he acted during the war. George was in his ear, saying Marcus wanted to get rid of the land. He stood there and put his hand through his hair the same way you do and said had he known the full connection he would have come to you. I get the impression George told him you weren’t really his son.” Rick told me.

“Wishful thinking,” I snorted. “Why don’t I take over watch? You haven’t slept properly in days. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m good.” Rick looked down at his feet.

“Mind-link me if you get tired. I’ll come down and relieve you.” I said. He nodded. “Take tomorrow off.” I told him.

His eyes snapped up to mine, and he shook his head. “Ben, tomorrow we have …”

“Sam and I can arrest him. You get rest, and we’ll regroup after school tomorrow.” I said firmly.

“I want to be there.” He growled at me. I understood that and nodded. “Fine, but then you’re done for the day.” I demanded. He agreed, but I didn’t believe he’d get the rest he needed tomorrow.