Alpha's Thief

Chapter 3

~Julian~

Another vicious roar ripped through the office as Julian watched as everything that had been on his desk go crashing to the floor. He sighed staring at the mess knowing he’d have to pick it up. It was the fourth time in the past thirty minutes. There was something cathartic about knocking the contents of his desk to the floor. It seemed to be the only thing that calmed him even slightly at this time.

“Who would dare?” he growled to himself flaring his angry yet again as he paced his office.

How did they know when to come? How did they know the jewel was there? Most of his wolves didn’t even know it was there. How did they get past the security system? Who were they? Most importantly, why haven’t they been found?

Any one of his enemies could be behind this but the scent was unmistakably, human. He’d ingrained the scent into his mind hoping the thief would dare return to the scene of the crime. He would show the human just how big a mistake they’d made stealing from him. Imagining the human’s smug face, he punched his desk creating a gaping hole through the center.

“Alpha?” the voice of his Beta, Carter reeled him back from his rage.

“What!” he growled at the intrusion pinning the wolf with a gold eyed glare. Carter didn’t even flinch watching his alpha with a measured stare.

“I came to let you know what we found out.”

Julian snorted of course they would send him by himself. No doubt they heard all the crashing from his office. Carter was the only one that would dare approach him when he was in such a mood. The pack would be stepping lightly around him till they found this person. Carters graze trailed away from him and landed on the mess he’d made on the floor.

“Redecorating, are we?”

“Carter.” Julian narrowed his eyes at his beta. Julian was going to force the information out of him if he didn’t spit it out soon. “What have you found out?”

“A couple of things actually.” He stated eyes still scoping the room before falling on the gaping hole in the Oak desk. His eyebrows raised but he said nothing about it. “We’ve discovered that the human was hired which is probably how they knew where the jewel lay hidden. Also, we know how they managed to get in. There is an air vent that leads down into the main lobby.”

“How did they not trip the alarm?”

“We are still figuring that information out. This person is very good at what they do.” Carter shrugged. Julian growled at this. “We also know who was behind their hiring.”

“Who?” He huffed going through a list in his head of people that would have not only the knowledge but the resources to pull a stunt like this.

“My digging shows that King Nicholas of the Dwarfs is pulling the strings of the operation.” Carter grabbed Julian’s arms as he tried to storm past to go pay the dwarf a visit and maybe rip his head off.

“Let go of me Carter!” he snarled glaring at his second in command.

“I can’t do that Alpha and you know it.” He did know it but damn it he wanted someone’s head for this.

“He stole FROM ME.”

“I know.” To his credit there was a note of understanding in his voice which is the only reason Julian wasn’t throwing him across the room and proceeding to his car. “But it is more complicated than that. He went through a middleman and took great care to make sure we couldn’t prove he had any direct relation with the crime. With no solid proof we cannot go pointing fingers.”

He was right and Julian knew it. The logic was sound, but Julian desired to ignore the logic and go for blood. He took a deep breath forcing himself to calm. If he wanted the jewel back, he couldn’t let himself go flying off the handle.

“So do we know who the middleman is?”

“Not yet but we do know form our previous two thieves that there was word going around about a Yang recruiting people to steal the jewel. They didn’t know who took the job though.”

“Do you have any leads on this Yang person?” So, I could shake the answers out of them he added silently.

“Yes and no. Yes our sources in the thief community know who he is, but no one knows what he looks like or how to find him other than when he need a job done.”

“We need to track him down.”

“Already on it.” Carter nodded releasing Julian’s arm.

“I knew you were the right wolf for the job.” Julian clapped him on the arm. He meant it, as much as he wanted to go out and search every home and building in the city, he knew Carter was the best one for the job. Carter was the best at finding people who didn’t want to be found. He could get it done without alerting the whole supernatural community that the powerful jewel was missing. “But when you find them; I’ll break all of his fingers for pointing my direction, gouge out his eyes for even looking at my bank, and snap his neck for breathing a word about the jewel.” He said coldly making his Beta shiver.

“I will go find the culprits.” Carter stepped away and made his way toward the door.

“Carter?” Julian called making Carter pause in the doorway and look over his shoulder.

“Do you think the human knows what they possess?”

“I’d wager not.” Carter said honestly before exiting.

Julian turned his attention to his desk examining the rather large hole he’d knocked into in. It was too large to just patch up.

“Minxy!” He called and in the blink of an eye a short red head bounced into the room.

“Yes?” she looked adorable in her black glasses her hair twisted and clipped to the back of her head.

“Go get me a large black coffee and call for my car, we’re going out.” She nodded and sprinted away. Julian made his way to his car thinking heavily about this Yang person, about the jewel, and about the person who’d stolen it. As if prompted by the thought his cellphone started to ring in his pocket. He pulled the phone looking at the caller’s name growling. He calmed himself before answering Nicholas’ call.

“Hello.”

“Ah, Julian.” Julian bit back a growl at the familiarity.

“What do you want Nicholas?”

“Can’t I call an old friend to see how he’s doing? I heard there was a recent unpleasantness at your bank.” His tone would have sounded sympathetic to anyone else, but Julian heard the teasing note in it.

“Yes, there was.” He forced his voice to stay light though all he wanted to do is shout ‘I KNOW YOU DID IT!’ into the phone. “Someone broke into the bank.”

“Really?” Julian rolled his eyes at the feigned shock. “What did they take?” Julian’s chest rumbled in anger, the Dwarf already knew very well what they took. Julian paused and smiled as an idea popped into his head. Nicholas had hired a middleman, so he really didn’t know what the thief had.

“The thief took a very dear jewel that was a present from the late king I got many years ago.” He huffed.

“You’re lying!” The dwarf yelled before clearing his throat. “What I mean is you were never friends with any king.”

“I thought you said we were ‘friends’ Nicholas?” Julian challenged.

“I hope you find your jewel. I have to be going now very important matters to attend to you know.” Nicholas said quickly.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m going to find it.” He said coolly “Oh and Nicholas” he said before the dwarf could hang up “I know you’re behind this.”

“Prove it.” Then the call ended.

Julian took a deep breath trying to remain calm. When that didn’t work, he threw his phone across the room. He watched it sail then connect with the opposite wall and exploding into little pieces. Everyone in the lobby had stopped to stare between him and the mess. He huffed and started to make his way to the car. Distantly he could hear Minxy on the phone with someone, but he didn’t pay too much attention to what she was saying. His wolves scrambled out of the way as he passed, trying to get out of the way of the power he was giving off.

When he climbed into the car, he felt slightly calmer away from questioning eyes. Minxy clambered into the car holding two cups of coffee. She held one out to him as the car pulled away from the curb and onto the busy street. He sipped his coffee and closed his eyes, all this excitement and it wasn’t even noon yet.

“Here.” she said. He opened his eyes to see a new cellphone being held five inches from his face. He realized she’d been activating it when he’d heard her on the phone.

“Thank you.” he grumbled taking it sliding it into his pocket.

“Remember you have a meeting with the Vampire king tomorrow night.”

“Yes, I know.” He groaned, what a time to have a meeting with Victor. Even though the meeting had been planned months in advance this seemed like the worst possible time for this meeting. He couldn’t cancel then the vampire would really know something was up. He didn’t want to indirectly confirm the suspicions he knew were flying around. The last thing he needed was for someone else in the supernatural world to find the jewel first. The jewel was harmless right now, because more likely than not the thief didn’t even know or understand what kind of power they held. If someone who knew what they were doing got a hold of the jewel it would be a disaster.

“Where are we going?” Minxy asked finally.

“To find me a new desk.”

“What’s wrong with your old one?”

“It has a hole in it.” She stared at him a moment but said nothing. She pulled herself together and started reciting his worklist for the day. He leaned his head back listening to her list everything from lunch to business meeting he’d have to be present for to birthdays of various employees.