Page 76 of A Second Chance for the Beta

“You need to tell us what you know, everything you know,” Dave tells him. “Werewolves are pack animals; their packs are like family, and you are a threat to them now. You were almost responsible for getting one of their pack members hurt. You need to give them something.”

“I will tell you everything,” Richie says. “Fuck, I don’t want a kid to get killed. Shit.” He looks at the folder again, reading through Clyde’s criminal record once more.

Next to me I feel Liam stretching slightly. “Now it’s my turn,” he says, nodding at us. “Good work by the way, Ella. Your intuition proved you right more than once.”

I’m not ashamed to admit how happy I feel at his praise. Friend or not—for the alpha to acknowledge how well I did, it means something. Even more so, however, I’m happy that I finally am one step closer to helping Charlie.

Liam leaves the room and enters the one with Dave, Dante, and Richie in it. Richie looks nervous instantly. “He is the… alpha?” he whispers towards Dave.

“Yes, and now you hopefully know what that means.”

“He is your leader,” Richie mutters.

“Alright,” Liam sits down next to Dave. He looks even more imposing that way. It’s probably clear as day to Richie that he could easily rip him apart if he wanted to. “Tell me what you know and how you joined the cause to threaten my pack.”

Richie swallows nervously. “It’s… during the exhibition,” he stutters. “I’m not good with socializing and all, but Imogen talked to me. She… I knew her from before. Well, knew is an exaggeration. I’ve seen her before.”

“Where?” Liam asks.

“At the hospital,” Richie stutters. “I went there quite a lot. I think she was one of the nurses.”

Liam and Dave exchange a gaze. Dave looks outright shocked, while Liam just shakes his head. “She had set her eyes on you, Richard,” he says shortly. “She knew you grew up in an abusive home. She knew how she could manipulate you, and that’s what she did.”

“She never liked me,” Richie says sadly.

“You started to date?”

“Yes,” he says. “And eventually she showed me what she was. I was shocked at first, but… well… I know how it feels to be shunned for who you are. I accepted what she was without a second thought. And then they told me they are a group of werewolves, living like roommates.”

“They are a little rogue pack,” Dave explains to him. “Rogues mean they aren’t part of a pack, for whatever reason. They probably had a criminal background and were banished for it or ran before they could get killed.”

“They said that they were investigating a group of traffickers,” he says. “That they work for someone in a high position, who funds them to do this work.”

“A group of traffickers? That’s supposed to be us, I assume,” Liam says.

“I don’t know. They never showed me pictures, but then they asked me to help. To spy on the woman with the short hair and the girl with the purple hair. To protect them from being abused and trafficked. That’s why I was in the bar today too.”

Dante looks instantly pissed at the mention of Charlie and me. This is really insane. Next to me Annie shakes her head. “He is gullible, way too gullible, but Liam is right. Imogen knew how to push his buttons. An abused kid who already knew her as someone with a protective job, a nurse. She actually groomed him. This is sickening.”

Richie looks down at his hands sadly. “I thought… she loved me,” he says.

Neither Dave nor Liam have the heart to answer his question.

“The man in the high position, the one they are working for, did you ever see him?” Liam asks.

“He visited once,” Richie says. “When I was with Imogen. She pulled me aside and said it was a private conversation. I didn’t hear anything.”

“Do you know what he looks like?”

“He has long hair, but other than that…” He pauses. “Wait, no, I took a picture.”

“What?” Liam asks.

“Yes, I took photos outside when they left. I wanted to take photos of Imogen, but she never let me.” He chuckles bitterly. “Now I know why. But she let me take pictures of other storage rooms. I didn’t pay attention to the guy anymore, but he is in one of the backgrounds. It’s probably not a good pic, but—”

“That doesn’t matter. Show us!” Liam demands.

Dante hands Richie his phone back, and the young man starts going through his pics. “Here,” he says, showing them a picture of some sad-looking storage rooms. In the background, a man is leaving one. Liam zooms into the picture, studying it. We can’t see the details through the surveillance cameras. “I need this,” Liam says. “You can’t have your phone back until we have done our research. We can’t allow you to leave the pack grounds, Richard.”