Page 44 of Corbin (Wild Wolf Pack from the world of Gallize Shifters #2)
Yes, they are ours , Corbin replied to his wolf.
Adrian lifted a hand. “Now that you know the good part, stay calm while I tell you the rest.”
What could be bad after that? “Lay it on me.”
“At the end of that press conference, SCIS showed up to arrest her. To her credit, she already had an attorney standing by who stepped in and argued that SCIS had no cause to arrest her if you were truly with a pack. SCIS did arrest her and threatened to have police arrest her attorney.”
“ What? ” Corbin moved to stand and cursed.
“Sit back down or I will stop talking.” Adrian turned stern. “I promised Jaz I would feed you and keep you still.”
The food had been important. Corbin felt a lot better after eating, and energy began flowing through him, thanks to Ares. He wanted to shift and run to her. “I can’t stay here with her locked up at SCIS.”
“She was only there for half an hour and is not there anymore. Let me finish.”
“Oh.” Corbin could barely sit still. Adrian needed to give him fast bullet points, but to say that would be unkind after all Adrian, Jaz, and their people had done for him.
Adrian kept explaining. “By then, my people had seen the news conference. My boss called to let me know he had people hunting for you and he’d sent one of our attorneys to Eirene, which is why she did not stay at SCIS.
The best way to gain his attention is to either harm or protect one of ours, especially when someone puts our shifters ahead of their own well-being. ”
“I didn’t want her to wreck her life for me.” Corbin began to think about how detrimental all this would be to her.
“Would you have wrecked your life for her?”
Corbin snapped, “Without question.”
Adrian’s eyes lit up with his grin. “That’s what mates do for each other. She has convinced everyone from my boss to the other Gallize shifters that she’s your mate.”
Emotions swam through Corbin, threatening to take him under. He’d never felt so loved in his life. He had never expected to have a female so selfless and strong to go to bat for him and Ares.
Pixie strong, too , Ares told him.
Yes, our mates may not be dominant, but they are powerful in their own way, Corbin agreed. But now he worried they were in danger up to their necks.
“I know you’re getting anxious about Eirene, so let me finish,” Adrian said.
“When our attorney arrived at SCIS, Eirene’s trustee, Leszek Moore, was shouting about locking up one of the most celebrated shifters in our country.
He held his own press conference, rallying fans around a young woman who had bridged the gap between humans and shifters, only to make a mistake by trying to help a rogue wolf. ”
“What a bastard,” Corbin groused. “He’s taking advantage of his position as trustee.
She told me she hates how he rules her life and fears him.
She said she thought he was behind her father’s death and cut a deal with SCIS after her father died to allow her freedom so long as he remained in charge of her life.
She thinks he may be giving them hush money. ”
“That explains what happened next. Leszek announced that her concert would be postponed while she had time to rest from her ordeal. SCIS agreed to free Eirene if Leszek could ensure that she would not see you again for any reason.”
Corbin tried to make sense of what Adrian was saying. “She’s been ordered to stay away from me ?”
“Yes.”
Ares asked, What is wrong?
Corbin replied, I’m not sure, but I will find out.
Then he told Adrian, “She worried about Leszek doing this, that he’s been looking for a way to hold onto her trust beyond the time limit set.
To remain the trustee forever. This could be a move where he’s using this incident to blackmail her into agreeing to things she never would have agreed to before now.
” What was Corbin going to do? He would not give up Eirene after the declaration she made in public. “I need to talk to her.”
Adrian became quiet.
“Don’t stop there, Adrian. I’m awake and need to know everything going on.”
“You can’t talk to her.”
“Why not?” Corbin roared.
“Please, settle down. Leszek told our attorney that he was jeopardizing her safety, and her label had full control of defending her. My boss called him back to take pressure off Eirene, but he told me that it changed nothing when it came to protecting her. Part of her agreement for being released into Leszek’s care was that all communication from here on had to go through Leszek’s office.
If she’s caught with a mobile phone of her own, SCIS gets to take her back into custody. ”
Those words would not compute in Corbin’s mind. “How could he do that? How could anyone do that?”
“Leszek has assigned a bodyguard to stay with her twenty-four-seven.”
Corbin argued, “She’s gone from being a free shifter celebrated by humans and shifters to a prisoner with no hope of freedom.” Corbin’s voice broke. “I destroyed her life.”
“Does that mean you’re giving up?”
Lifting his gaze to Adrian, he said, “Not a chance in hell. I do need some help. I don’t know where to start.”
“That’s the way to think.” Leaning forward, Adrian’s eyebrows lifted.
“The injured guard, Archie, woke up this morning. My boss sent an attorney to be present when the police questioned Archie. We still had a guard outside his hospital room door. I requested that right after you left the theater to tail Givenchy ... uh, I mean Eirene.”
“Thank you.” Corbin meant that for the guard and in respect for his mate.
“Archie said while Eirene was in her dressing room, Brody knocked him down, then must have had the steel structure set to fall easily, because that crashed down next.”
“Damn! That clears Eirene from being a suspect.”
“Exactly. Our people grabbed Brody before the cops could get him. We pulled information out of him.”
Chills rushed up Corbin’s arms at what that might mean. He hoped they waterboarded Brody before the cops got to him. “Did he give us anything we can use to save Eirene from Leszek?”
“That will depend upon Eirene. We could release what we found out from Archie and Brody, but there is no legal chain of possession. My boss is all about following human laws, but when it comes to humans harming shifters, my boss has his own rules. In the interest of gaining the truth, we had to act fast. However, if Leszek has SCIS and some law enforcement in his pocket, he may have judges on his side as well. He could argue that as a sticking point. If he dragged out the investigation for a long time, he could still possibly skate free. The only way this ends now is if Eirene can trap Leszek into confessing. But if that attempt goes awry, she’ll lose any battle in court about his trustee position. ”
Corbin considered the risk to her. He wanted to be the one to step between her and danger, but he’d told Ares that their mates were strong. With no other option, he had to respect their strength no matter how sick to his stomach he felt about her stepping into a battle alone.
Nodding at Adrian, he asked, “How do we get this rolling?”
“The first hurdle is the most difficult. We have to get a message to her without Leszek’s bodyguard finding out. Leszek is sending her out on tour in a week. It will be virtually impossible to get to her once she’s on the road with more security.”
Everything raced around in his mind. None of it sounded possible, but Corbin refused to let despair kill a plan before getting started.
He and Ares had no life without Eirene and Pixie. He said to Ares, We’re going after our mates.
Yes. Kill anyone in the way.
For once, Corbin said, Agreed.