“Dad, you need to see this.” Markus waved the piece of paper under his father’s nose and the older man grunted disparagingly as he adjusted himself in bed, pulling himself up and putting aside his newspaper. He snatched the fluttering item from Markus’ hand and held it away from his face to read, his face contorted very quickly into an expression of fury as he realised what he was looking at.

“I’ve seen this file, Markus, I bloody wrote most of it!” He snapped, “And I’m pretty sure this was in the confidential filing cabinet I keep for my eyes only.” he sat up straighter and glared Markus down.

“I know, but there’s something in here that we didn’t know was important before, sir!” He did his best to plead with his eyes. His father sighed and waved his hand to signal him to both continue and hurry up. “That vampire with the light hair, Charles, his last name is Godfry!” Markus should have been embarrassed at how excited he was but he was too focused on taking down that skeevy vampire to care. His father took a frustratingly long time to process this information.

Finally, he said, “Like the name in the notebook.” with raised brows.

“Yes!”

“How do we know without a doubt it is referring to him?” His father asked. “It could be another vampire’s first name, you would need to be able to prove it is him without a shred of uncertainty before I could look into him,” He sighed before continuing, “we don’t want to cause any ripples in this alliance if we don’t absolutely have to.” he handed the paper back but Markus wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“In the notebook it said it was a vampire getting close to the omega, that’s Charles!” He insisted, “He has been buzzing round the omega like a fly on shit since he arrived, sir.” he tacked on the sir to try and negate the curse word, and apparently it worked as his father’s interest finally seemed piqued.

“How do you know that?” That piqued interest had very suddenly become suspicion and Markus felt his face grow hot.

“It’s hard to miss it,” Markus scoffed, he hoped his father couldn’t tell it was fake. “he’s even been buying him gifts, sir.”He added with the hopes of brushing the heat off. His father considered his words for some time, his hands pressed together in front of his mouth.

Eventually he sat back with a sigh, “Very well, I’ll have someone look into this, try and get some more information on this man.” Markus couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that split across his face, finally, he was being taken seriously. His father gave him a stern look, “For now, you say nothing and for fuck’s sake, do nothing.” he raised his brows for confirmation and Markus nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course, sir!”

~

A low growl startled Cassie as she dozed in the window-seat of Karliah’s office, she lifted her head sleepily and blinked to clear her eyes.

“Karliah?” She mumbled, pushing back her fluffy hair. A sigh came from the leather chair in front of her and Karliah’s ponytail swung as she spun round to face her.

“Yes, baby?”

“Is something wrong?” Cassie asked quietly, “Are you mad at me?” she tried to put together a list in her mind of all the things she could have done to make her mate growl like that but couldn’t come up with anything serious… she had ‘borrowed’ another pair of Karliah’s fluffy socks that morning when she couldn’t find any of her own but Karliah had never complained in the past - she always said liked it when Cassie wore her clothes and they looked ‘all oversized and adorable’… last night she had used Karliah’s back to warm her cold feet but Karliah had just tickled her until she moved them… at lunchtime she had stolen a bite from Karliah’s pear but Karliah had snuck a couple of grapes out of Cassie’s lunch box first…

“No, sweetness.” Karliah scooted herself forward and put her hands out, Cassie climbed into her lap and snuggled into her chest. “I could never be mad at you.” She kissed the top of her head gently, “you can be incredibly annoying sometimes but I would always tell you if you were getting on my nerves.” she chuckled.

“So why do you seem frustrated?” Cassie asked, lifting her head to gaze up at her mate worriedly.

Karliah paused, pulling a disgruntled face before answering. “I was catching up on my emails and I came across one from Alpha Murphy.”

“Markus’ father?”

“Mmm…” She brushed her fingers through Cassie’s curls, “He says Brandon’s mother turned up at his door just over a week ago, she’s angry they haven’t found his killer yet.”

“Oh.”

“And now he had received a letter from their alpha, also demanding results. He advised me not to speak to anyone from the Timber Fang pack, supposedly I’m his mother’s main suspect.”

“But you were here with me when it happened!” Cassie said indignantly and sat up higher.

“I know, sweetness, I’m not worried about their accusations.”

“So why are you worried?”

“I just… I feel frustrated at how long it’s taking to find the culprit, I can’t imagine what this strange interim of silence must be doing to you, I just want closure for everyone.” She wrapped her arms around Cassie’s hips to keep her balanced on her lap,“I can’t say I felt any sympathy for him or his family when I heard the news but I would like this situation resolved,” she kissed Cassie’s forehead gently. “we don’t need any unnecessary drama, especially when the alpha and alpha female of Timber Fang are on the guest list for our bonding ceremony.”

Cassie took Karliah’s hand and pressed it between both of her own, “You can feel my wolf’s emotions, right?”

“Yes?”

“Am I worried about it?”

Karliah took a long moment to think before answering, “No, not that I can tell.” she said.

“Exactly, because as far as I’m concerned, the biggest threat is gone. His family can hound and holler at us all they want but they can’t make a real accusation without proof and they won’t find any on you,” She smiled confidently, “and they can’t cause a scene at our bonding ceremony or risk being looked down on by every other pack that attends.” she waggled her brows and Karliah’s mouth split into a grin too for just a moment before she turned back into serious-alpha-Karliah.

“But you’re assuming the killer did this because they knew he was crazy and dangerous,” Karliah countered, “this could have been a random murder, there could be a killer on the loose right now in Scarlett Moon, just waiting for their next victim.” she said solemnly.

“You can’t get into the underground prison by chance, it was planned.” Cassie said without hesitation, “This killer knew exactly what they were doing. Plus, it’s been over a month since his death and no one else has been harmed since.” she lifted herself up to balance on her knees and rested her hands on Karliah’s shoulders.

“You think you have a guardian angel watching over you? Ready to smite your enemies at a moment’s notice?” Karliah pressed their foreheads together, raising her brows in disbelief.

“Are you jealous?” Cassie laughed.

“Nope.” She smushed her lips against Cassie’s plump cheek, smothering her in wet kisses. “I don’t need to be an angel to protect you.”

“But you would look so good in white!”

“Yes, yes, weren’t you busy napping?” Karliah pulled back, looking embarrassed, Cassie had discovered her mate could only take compliments maybe fifty-percent of the time, but she enjoyed the cute, flustered reaction she got when one of her compliments hit her too hard or on a subject she wasn’t used to being flattered in. Her clothing and her femininity were the two main areas that Cassie had found compliments caught her off guard in. “Maybe you should get back to that.”

“Maybe I’ll finish my nap here.” Cassie replied, snuggling in closer. Karliah sighed and swivelled the chair round to work over Cassie’s head, tapping her keys softly.