Page 14 of Escalating Alpha (Seraphine Thomas #18)

There wasn’t much we could do right away since everyone was asleep in Greece. I did let Eva know and she said it was the right move after all the help Virgil had given us. That she would visit there and handle whichever cousin took over temporarily while we figured out a permanent solution. She accepted my assessment that it had to happen now before Virgil broke.

Or we beat up their whole pack.

Reagan almost snapped someone’s neck after Virgil agreed and the other guy had the audacity to demand to know how much money I would be putting into the pack now. Seriously, these greedy fuckers were too much and needed their heads pulled out of their asses.

Dain was back from DC, so he started on the contracts and got things going there.

After we got all the “elders” and Virgil’s mother to leave, we just had Virg and his Betas to talk to. Freddie came inside from taking a call and looked a bit shell-shocked.

“Dad, what happened?” Ashley worried. “Is Mom okay?’

“Yeah, everyone’s fine,” he told her but then snorted as he found my gaze. “Well, not everyone. The St. Louis Alpha is dead.” He nodded when my eyes went too wide. “One of the Betas took him out.” He wiggled his phone. “That was the call I just took.”

“They took him out and immediately called you?” I hedged, thinking it sounded even fishier after I said it out loud.

Freddie nodded, still looking completely gobsmacked. “The new Alpha let me know and apologized for the rudeness of the former Alpha and hopes there’s no bad feelings towards his pack from Chicago”

“Oh, there’s more,” I chuckled darkly. “But we’re not really welcome there again, right?”

“Nailed it,” Freddie sighed. “Yeah, they don’t want you to take over anymore, but it’s all bygones, and best of luck to us from all the way over there.”

“No, they don’t get to—people are seriously pissing me off,” Reagan seethed, letting out a heavy breath before meeting my gaze. “They didn’t stop him from running his mouth and hurting our reputation, but only when you made it clear you were going to handle it. They need to fix that for real.”

“Agreed, or they need to be frozen out,” Virgil muttered. “We heard the bullshit here, and—apparently, my fuckers were listening and thought they’d just hand me over for money. Seriously.”

“We didn’t hear—we heard St. Louis was talking some of that shit, but they’re stupid,” one of the Betas said. “We never heard people here thought it was really how it went or would go. Why? I mean—Des Moines—we know them. Well. They would…” He shook his head and looked disgusted.

Yeah, he wasn’t the only one.

But I agreed with them. I let out a slow breath and looked back to Reagan. “Call him in the morning and make it clear that my job might take me there and they will be in serious trouble if they ever fuck with that. Also, I’m pissed at the damage their former Alpha and pack did to my reputation and our alliances with all of them running their mouths and we have receipts.”

He nodded. “And if they want us to accept the new leadership and move forward, they better make it clear that it was the former Alpha’s crazy and not the truth or deal with the consequences.”

“Perfect, but actually let them stew a few days waiting for a response because he can’t be stupid enough to think there wasn’t one,” Virgil suggested.

I nodded but then pulled out my phone when it was vibrating. “Thomas.” My eyes burned as I listened to what was being said and the news I was receiving. Reagan came over and hugged me to him, kissing my hair and comforting me. “Okay, thanks. We’re in Memphis, so we’ll be right there before anyone tries to fuck this up again. Not you guys—you know.”

I thanked him again and hung up, moving my hand over my face and trying to keep it together.

“This is about the girl you said you might need me to help out and adjust?” Ashley asked gently. “I was kind of wondering what happened with that.”

“More dirt on too much,” I whispered, wiping my eyes and hugging Reagan’s arm to me. “We can finally get Deanna Maze out of there. The last appeal to—it’s over. They busted her ‘aunt’ and now we can get her out of there. They’ll still need her to testify probably, but we can handle that.”

“Maybe not now that they know they can’t get at her,” Reagan muttered. “I think now those assholes will start taking deals.”

Hopefully, he was right.

Deanna Maze was a powerful clairvoyant I’d found when we’d done the spur of the moment supe outreach event in Alabama. She was sixteen and—it was a mess. A woman claiming to be her aunt came in and took over. A dirty cop facilitated it all and signed off on it, wanting the payout later.

Everyone assumed there was some sort of huge life insurance policy or millions of dollars payout. To go that far to abduct a kid so they could get what she’d inherit at eighteen but couldn’t touch until she was a legal adult in Alabama at nineteen was too crazy if it wasn’t some huge amount, right?

Yeah, criminals stole for way less and got off on it. And they always assumed they wouldn’t get caught. Normal people took the risk into account or weighed the punishment they could face before even considering something bad.

Criminals didn’t. Most times at least. They were smarter than everyone else and especially when they had inside help… Never thought it through.

Part of the perk of this fraud though was the “aunt” didn’t have to work during the years of taking care of Deanna. She got to live off the account set up to support the girl. Her mom might not have had much, but she was smart about what she did. Everything had gone into a trust with a monthly allowance and specific instructions they couldn’t get around.

But the “aunt” did use all of the money on herself besides paying the mortgage. So that was a lot of counts of fraud she’d been arrested for.

That had been months ago though. We’d had enough to go in immediately once we knew for sure the woman wasn’t really related to her but a con artist. The cop being involved made it more difficult and that whole police department was dirty.

They’d had to intervene when the “aunt” started getting physical with Deanna. She was arrested and the evidence was mounting each time I got an update.

That should have been the end of it. I should have been able to pick her up with the deal we made and take her into protective custody until she needed to testify. That was the plan and everything put in place.

Except the local child protective services filed everything they could to stop it and block us. They said there was no precedence to take a child into protective custody for something minor and there was no threat against her, so we were overreaching our federal… Everything.

So they didn’t do their job to make sure an orphan went to actual family and didn’t listen when Deanna had told everyone that she didn’t know that woman, but now they took issue when we were going to keep her safe? Yeah, that wasn’t fishy.

Of course it was. They didn’t want it to get out how badly they’d fucked up, and they thought if she was still in their care, they could control what she said. Well, they could. They could block her from everything—even testifying.

They had to know there was no chance they would win, but it was all so we tipped our hands and announced we were investigating the whole police department, not just that one dirty cop involved. It didn’t take many guesses why.

Yeah, corruption. Didn’t it always just come down to more corruption and people doing what they shouldn’t?

I found it did.

But their tenacity was fucking annoying. We won the first case easily, but then they somehow got an appeal… Whereas we’d been annoyed they’d gotten a case in the first day and the filing hadn’t been tossed. The FBI had every right to take someone into protective custody. This was a kidnapping case along with the fraud. That was all our jurisdiction.

Why did it even go to trial? Probably corruption I couldn’t prove, but hopefully someone would.

So it had been a real fight, but luckily the local FBI did what they should and kept her safe. A few of the agents even gave me updates on her schooling since it was now switched to an online program. The local cops had been looking for her, so it was all… Dirty.

It was so dirty it made me feel dirty.

“Let’s go get her right away,” Reagan said to me, knowing I was at a loss. This had been so much extra craziness that we hadn’t needed and stressed me out. He kissed my hair when I nodded. “I know. I know, jelly bean, but you always keep your promises. None of us doubted this time too.”

“I did,” I finally admitted. “This time I did worry because everything kept being stacked against us.”

Deanna’s house was already packed up and put in storage, so we could leave that for now. I wanted her physically out of the state before something else could go wrong. Fuck the stuff and we could get it later.

Seriously.

“I have to go do this,” I told Virgil. “I’ll be back.” I sighed and looked at my watch. “Yeah, we’ll be back and then she can fly out with the others on the plane.”

“This is going to be a long night,” Reagan sighed.

Yeah, it was, because we’d already planned two stops on the way home. Carefully planned them since it was the full moon.

The plan changed again because Brian had gotten the heads-up first, and he’d sent one of the ancient teams directly to Alabama to make this happen so I could get back on track. Even better because then we could grab some of Deanna’s stuff quickly that maybe she wanted or hadn’t been able to take to where the FBI kept stashing her.

They were there and waiting with a few of the local FBI helping with vehicles and more. They knew how hard this had been, and even getting her to Birmingham to be protected instead of where she’d lived had been a fight.

Deanna threw herself at me when I stepped out of the SUV. “Thank you.”

“I’m so sorry it took so long,” I whispered as I hugged her tightly. “I’m really sorry. We couldn’t have—”

“I know. They’ve kept me updated and everyone was super nice. I got to focus on school—can I stay in touch with one of the agents? She was really nice and helped me with some of my homework,” Deanna rambled before grabbing her head.

“She can’t use that ring you do?” a woman asked me quietly, looking equal parts upset and annoyed—probably with me.

I ignored her insubordination when I saw she was FBI because it was clear she cared about Deanna. “No, it’s magically tied just to me.” Several had figured out that Deanna was a clairvoyant even if we hadn’t told anyone. The corrupt cop and “aunt” had known, so it only made sense. “But the elder who made this for me has everything ready for her. She just needed Deanna.”

“Okay, good. Good,” she whispered, letting out a slow breath. Then she met my gaze and winced.

I waved it off. I dealt with worse all of the time and this was—I understood it. I almost asked for my migraine medicine, but Deanna was human and still a kid. “You can talk to whoever you want. You just can’t tell them where you are. Even the agents. They probably know or guess, but always assume someone is listening and don’t give specifics.”

“Awesome, thanks. The elder person can really help me?”

“Yeah, you have an appointment with Elder Jezebel in the morning,” Reagan told her, smiling when I looked at him. He nodded that he’d handled it.

He was seriously amazing.

I thanked the agents and was glad when a couple suggested they stick with us while we went to Deanna’s storage unit and got more of her stuff. We didn’t grab much, Deanna clearly overwhelmed and not handling it well.

I realized it was because she was scared to be in that area, and she hadn’t packed it all up, so she didn’t really know what was in the boxes. So it was a bit of a wasted trip.

I sent Noah the details and asked to borrow a truck and some of his movers to work with my ancients and get the place cleared out and brought up to Chicago. Maya could help Deanna go through it all and decide what to do with things. It could even be cathartic and a nice project for her.

I smiled at her when it was time to send her off. “I have a few more stops before Chicago. This is my buddy, Sander. I swear to you that you’re in good hands and just chuckle if he makes lame jokes.” I bit back a smile when he snorted, Deanna easing down a bit too. “Being around old vampires will help. I don’t get much from them.”

I ended up giving that agent my and Reagan’s cell numbers so she could get in touch with us directly if she needed to. The relief in her eyes was thick.

“I got attached. She’s a great kid and—it’s hard to be an orphan.”

Because she had been too.

“Clearly, I did too,” I chuckled, not holding it against her.

The moment the plane took off, I thanked them all again and we climbed in the chopper. I took the time to leave a message for the division chief of Birmingham that I was impressed with his agents and was a bit jealous how well his area worked together.

And I also let Perez know the same. We hadn’t had one problem with them and that was rare. Too rare, but that was a whole different story.

It was late when we landed in Louisville. I wasn’t surprised when we had some ancients with vehicles waiting.

What did surprise me?

That the Alpha was still partying it up with the pack. It was a Monday night. Didn’t these people work?

The bile that came from his sober mouth didn’t need to be repeated. It was the same vile sexist crap I got too often from men and wolves. Basically, that I was pathetic for bothering to show up and act like my opinion mattered because it didn’t. On and on for a few good minutes.

Oh, but with a new twist that it was my fault that I couldn’t keep a man happy so his wolf could have a chance to steal him.

Clearly, I hit my limit at some point because I didn’t even comprehend why he’d gone quiet at first… Until I realized there was liquid on my arm.

Yup, my hand was in his chest. I had killed him without a thought.

This is why supes terrify people and you constantly push to be careful of who we turn.

I acted like it was nothing and easily handled the Betas who attacked next, Reagan and Freddie both able to handle themselves as well.

I turned and smiled at the woman who had gone after Carter, relishing at the fear in her eyes. “Now I’m your Alpha. And yes, I will absolutely punish you for what you did now that I can. I’d start making lists of ways to pay penance before I have time to make lists of how you’ll make this up to me.”

Just to drive my point home about how serious I was, I threw one of the dead Beta’s hearts at her.

She was completely clear that her ass was grass.

After I cleaned up, I was at a bit of a loss of what to do since this really hadn’t been the plan.

“The council sanctioned this, right? They hoped you might even?” Freddie checked, relieved when I nodded. “I thought there was a list of who they hoped you handled.”

I snorted the same time Reagan did but then explained. “More like a list of who not to touch or I would piss them off. The rest, yeah, pretty much fair game if me.”

“That’s disturbing on so many levels because there’s no way they really know those Alphas or packs,” he muttered.

“Yes, something my adopted uncle is making clear at length and no one should have given me a list for the wolves besides him ,” I drawled. “Fucking all the fuck and fucked up.”

“Sums it up well. Thanks for sending Ashley back with Deanna.”

I nodded but then decided to be honest. “I realized sending a sixteen-year-old on a plane full of men she didn’t know would be terrifying.”

“Yeah, figured that but still glad with how things turned out.”

Fair enough.

“Time to wake people in Greece?” Reagan checked, nodding when I snorted. He gave me a quick kiss before barking at someone that they were dead if they acted stupid or flinched.

“We’re going to need more local wolves and help. It will be half a day until Greece gets here,” I told him and Freddie. Freddie got on the phone too, but I decided there was a call I wanted to make. Setting the record straight and giving transparency had worked well for me if done the right way or with trusted people.

And I was pretty sure I knew the right woman to help me with what I wanted.

“You really want to see behind the curtain and see how bad things are for shifters, Summer?” I asked when she answered. I realized it was super late for us but probably only an hour early for her since she had a morning show.

“I assume this is a drop everything and fluid situation?” she hedged.

“Yeah, like I’ll have my private jet ready for you in New York as soon as you can get here with or without a crew. But it has to happen fast because Melicent will be sending people to help me.”

She was quiet a moment. “You took over a pack and are going to show me how it all really works? How the transition and —yes, I’m in. I don’t think—my crew was through the network and I’ll have to take at least a week’s leave to do this. We’ll have to get freelancers or something to do this before we get the HBO deal.”

“I’ll put you on a text with Melicent. She’ll manage all of that and probably have to see the final footage before even HBO because of secrets and our rules. Understand there will be some things you can’t ever tell that you saw, Summer. I want the truth and to be more transparent but not at the cost of the lives of wolves.”

“I’ll take it. I might even know the freelance crew we can hire that I can talk to tomorrow so HBO doesn’t pressure us. I want this chance to show the truth. I swear it.”

“Good, and I won’t screw you even if contracts and stuff aren’t signed.”

She snorted. “You don’t have it in you to screw anyone over.”

That wasn’t true. I still had blood under my nails from what I’d done. So yeah, things were never that easy.

It turned out that one of the NYC wolves was a film student. Melicent said she would handle it and put the wolf on the plane with some others who could help for now. Me and the filming.

Awesome.

I went right for the wolf who had tried to trap Carter. “You say one word about what happened and you’re dead. We don’t tell humans about that, and this is not the time to push my buttons. I will hunt you down and end you with a smile if you give me any excuse.”

She swallowed loudly, not meeting my gaze with her throat bared to me. “Yes, Alpha. I will make sure to even refrain from being involved as best as I can.”

“Wise.”

A lot of people arrived after people who were excited for my takeover helped get vehicles and coordinate rides from the airport.

I greeted everyone but held them off until Summer and the camera were set up. “I took over the Louisville pack. Just now. The night of the full moon. It was a council-sanctioned invasion and he’s dead. Legally. So are a few of his Betas that tried to take me out even after I said all of this.” I met Summer’s gaze. “I know you have a million questions as to why I was allowed to.

“What would have made the council rule this way? All of it. I’m not answering that.” I nodded when she frowned. “I’m not answering for other people. This is to show how it works for us . What I do and the truth. Too many lies are out there from my buying Alphas to murdering half of the pack because I’m a sociopath.

“So please accept that and know it was valid. I am not going to be the only one to say that. There are checks and balances to this.” I pointed to the council team. “The decision and approval were not given to me by my adopted uncle, the elder of the wolves. That could be a conflict. I have…” I glanced at Reagan. “Four?”

“I think two for this one and four for different ones,” he hedged. “I’d have to check.”

I nodded. “At least the approval of two different council members to take over this pack. I did not come here to do it simply to handle a situation but…” I shrugged.

“It’s going to be HBO or YouTube. You can swear,” Summer teased.

“Yeah, but people might say kids can’t see it then, and more of them need to see the truth. There needs to be less fear.” I pointed back to the council team. “They were put on a plane to come here and check on the situation the moment we reported it. At my request. I have done this for every pack I’ve taken over. Peacefully by their request or because of circumstances.”

“People are going to ask for verification of that,” Summer informed me.

“I think the council will gladly verify that one of their most trusted Alphas is always open with their communication and utilizes the council as it’s meant to be,” Tanner said easily.

Oh, he was the right person to send for this. I’d seen mostly the surly side of him, but I’d been floating ideas with Haton for a while. She told Reagan she would send the right person no matter how we needed him. I hadn’t understood what that had meant, but clearly she was on the same page as me.

She usually was.

“Normally, when there was a wolf pack takeover, one of the teams of wolves was dispatched,” I continued. “And while I want to make it clear that no one did anything wrong and the council teams have always exceeded my expectations, I asked them to change that. As a matter of checks and balances, it should be a team of other species.”

“You are too fair sometimes,” Summer praised? No, probably chastised.

“I have nothing to hide. Just because I won’t let people inspect me doesn’t mean I’m hiding things. No one just lets others inspect without a valid reason. It’s stupid.” I gestured to the wolves from NYC. “For now, one of my other packs sent help to stabilize the pack until we can get teams from Greece here in the short term. From there, we will decide the long-term plan.”

“You mean put in another Alpha like you have in multiple packs,” Summer clarified.

“Yes, and I’m very particular who I will let be the leader and shield to wolves who now are mine,” I said firmly. “It took months and months to find the right fit in South Dakota. Dozens of interviews and background checks—both here and in Greece. There were several possible Alpha families I considered.”

“I don’t think people knew that,” she admitted. “I didn’t.”

“Too many don’t care, and others fill in the blanks or give answers for me that are incorrect. That’s why I wanted you here. I want you to see first-hand how this all goes down. I want you to see the process and how many problems we’ll uncover these wolves didn’t deserve. And my people will clean it up and handle it—help in their free time.”

“I thought the FBI brought in a team last time?”

“For the crimes part, yes,” I clarified. “The harassment and more we’ll find. But a lot of it—the FBI can’t afford all of the hours. The non-human office has put in countless extra hours to help their fellow supes—fellow citizens who have been unfairly treated. Even the regular FBI. Several offices have helped us. It’s why Chicago also always helps them.”

“I’ve heard whispers that your office is the office to go to when any sort of intelligence translation is needed.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but we help other offices with transcripts and interviews. I have ancient vampires who receive no extra pay or monetary compensation but immediately video call in and translate for witnesses and more. That’s a community, and we do it all for the right reasons. Not corruption. Not money. Not—whatever the lie is this week.”

Something hit me and I sighed, looking over at Harris who was coming in for the FBI side of this. He nodded. “I already left a message with IA that they’d need to interview you and get it out of the way.”

I opened my mouth to say something snarky and to not kid himself that it would be one of our nice Chicago IA agents and not someone from DC. “Since I did this as Alpha Sera, Special Agent in Charge Harris will be handling the FBI part. I do not play both sides and use my badge to enrich myself. I have a life besides the FBI. I can’t help that.”

“No, but you do your best to make sure that everyone is crystal clear they’re being treated fairly and much better than a lot of us have in our lives, Alpha,” Harris said firmly. “I do need you to walk me through what happened and she can record and we’ll see if it will get cleared later.”

“Even the gore?” I checked. I shrugged when he nodded. I couldn’t say he was the one in charge and then overrule him.

And Harris had wanted us to do something like this for a long, long time. He hated the way I got beat up all of the time. He said I tried too damn hard to always take so much abuse.

I was a very blessed woman with a lot of good friends.

Except I realized that I didn’t have a good excuse as to why I’d killed the Alpha. I mean we weren’t going to tell Summer either way, but… I kinda needed one for the FBI. Either way, it was legal through the council.

But for my sanity, I needed a real fucking reason besides I had a bad temper.

Reagan held off Summer for a minute and brought Harris and his team off to the side with Freddie and the council guys. “The Alpha was being ridiculous and sounded so unhinged—”

“It was really disturbing,” Freddie added. “But it was when he threatened the Alpha’s son that she killed him. He said he was going to come to Chicago and take him to be raised under a real Alpha so he could grow up a man, not a pussy. She killed him then.”

Had that been what he’d said? Did I even realize that?

No, but my wolf had. She filled me with the same anger I’d felt before I’d killed the Alpha.

There were perks to having other sides to me. They paid attention when I needed to tune out.

“Sera?” Harris checked.

I opened my mouth but then sighed. “My wolf is saying yes. Me, Sera—it was like my ears were ringing and—ya know?”

Tanner snorted. “Yeah, we know.”

Summer came over and I walked them all through what happened from taking the Alpha’s heart to what happened with the six Betas. Mostly.

I looked at Reagan and Freddie a few times. “You get that guy or me?”

“If they’re tossed that far away, you did, Sera,” Freddie drawled. “I’m not that coordinated to punt a person.”

Good to know. Though I thought he was being modest.

Next, I went back to the wolves who were all gathered by now. Some had gone home because of work or whatever and were now called back. We probably had a few we’d have to track down or go after because they were bad but… That was to be expected.

“None of you have to be on camera if you don’t want to,” I told them firmly “And this doesn’t change what you’re allowed to say as a wolf or by council laws. I’m not risking loose lips making us targets. So think before you speak. Always.” I gave them a moment with that. “This is a chance for you to tell your story if you want .

“No one’s pushing you. This isn’t part of my Alpha agenda. It won’t be held against you if you opt out. The kids’ faces will all be blurred, yours can be too if you’re not out. It’s completely up to you.” Again, I let that settle. “The rest isn’t up for debate. You will work with the FBI team and my people to go through everything.

“I work for the federal government. That protects you in a lot of ways, but it makes us sticklers to the rules. It means you follow the fucking law or—I think everyone knows by now what I did to those kids from Wisconsin. I do not fuck around when your actions can risk the safety of all of us. So if you have an unregistered weapon, late taxes, or any issues—tell us.”

“Please just tell us because we get fucking pissy and discuss tossing you out when we find out later,” Reagan added. “And we always, always find out. Each one of you will be interviewed with us and questioned—almost like an application process. But also to get your resumes and see how we can turn around this pack and help Louisville.

“You don’t want to tell the council all of it? Fine. You don’t want to tell the camera team? Not a problem. But you have to tell us . We won’t tell the FBI if you’re late on your taxes. If you have a warrant out, they will know, so just tell us and we can handle it. The easier you make this on us, the faster we can focus on making things better.”

That seemed to put them at ease. I couldn’t even get mad because Reagan was good at that. He didn’t fuck around, but it was his conviction that made people secure it was the right path.

I tended to get too pissy and cuss, so it wasn’t as… Hell, I wasn’t sure. But I didn’t blame people. There were so many rumors about it sometimes I thought it was a miracle that anyone ever listened to me.