Page 7

With shaking hands, Emilio passed the letter to Marco before sinking down to crouch on the floor.

How could it be both so much worse and so much better than he feared?

Fuck his father for leaving him with even more confused emotions.

Gio had never given up on the pack, but the betrayal he talked about, the one when Emilio was just a toddler, was just as bad as what he’d done now.

He had to be talking about the shot that took out Marco’s mate over thirty years earlier.

The one that was traced back to Marco’s uncle.

Marco sighed as he read. “For fuck’s sake, Gio,” he murmured.

“I knew about this already, and I chose mercy. I didn’t talk to him about it because too many of the older generation had done the same thing and I couldn’t afford to be seen as weak when I was still consolidating my position.

Time passed and the right moment never came up.

I would’ve spoken to him if I’d realised he was being blackmailed over it. ”

“You knew ?” Aria gasped, always one for the dramatic.

“The pack elders, what was left of them, all thought I was too young. Darych convinced them to draw me away from the city for a few years by having my mate kidnapped and held. They planned to put him in place as a temporary Alpha until I returned. Gio wasn’t the only one who turned a blind eye.

They didn’t realise Darych was aiming to take the Alpha position for real until it was too late.

The assassination had already happened.”

“Darych thought you’d bonded already and you’d die when your mate did,” Emilio said.

Gio’s Uncle Darych had disappeared without a trace shortly after Marco and Bella went on their murderous rampage, tracking down those responsible for his mate’s death.

His name had since been erased from the pack’s records, but Gio had made sure Emilio knew what happened.

He’d said it was important to never forget.

That loyalty to pack, to Marco, was everything. Fucking hypocrite.

“We’d had the public mating ceremony to try and give the pack some stability after what happened at the end of the shifter war.

Not many realised the bond wasn’t complete yet.

Although why they thought I’d even consider bonding a sixteen-year-old, I don’t know.

Most of the remaining older generation left the pack after what happened.

Gio was one of the few to stick around and try to help us heal.

That’s why our pack is so much younger than most others. ”

Marco had only been eighteen at the time and he’d headed the pack since the devastating explosion two years earlier that took out most of the older generation at the end of the last shifter war.

It was under his leadership that the Supernatural Council had orchestrated handing control of the war ground of a city to the Lunetti Pack, the vampire Cruor Coven, and the then newly arrived Elemental Mayhem MC.

It had been a controversial move at the time that had the pack’s elders arguing Marco was giving away territory he was owed.

It was no wonder the Council was getting jumpy about the magical battle that had broken out when Gio died.

They’d be wondering if history was about to repeat itself.

No one wanted another supernatural conflict like that in this modern age of technology and recording devices.

There was no way they’d keep their existence hidden from the humans if that happened, and the Council’s whole purpose was to keep the humans oblivious.

“Is there anything useful in his notes?” Emilio asked.

Marco scanned the pages, his lips curling up in a snarl as he read.

“Most of this we already knew or guessed. They operate with separate cells, each with their own objective, so if one gets taken down, the others can still operate. He’s listed several property addresses we can investigate.

He was trying to figure out where they were getting their magical support from other than Ethan, especially who the air witch is who’s been helping them conceal their movements.

There’s a list of all the MC witches here with only a couple names crossed off.

He would’ve struggled to investigate them without someone noticing.

The one thing he mentions here that’s new is rumours of some kind of medical experimentation, but there’s not much detail beyond that.

Just a scrawl in the margin questioning if the Cruor Coven is involved in some way. ”

“Is Rocco’s name crossed off?” Emilio asked.

“No. There’s a note next to his name that says ‘ timing ’ with a question mark,” Marco said.

“That’s likely because he’s only been in the city five years,” Luca chimed in. “Which means he couldn’t be the original air witch concealing them if they’ve been around as long as this sounds.”

“Doesn’t mean he wasn’t recruited to come help,” Aria pointed out.

Emilio’s wolf whined inside him at the suggestion their mate might be working with a terrorist group trying to kill their kind.

“It’s possible, but unlikely. The reason he moved here is so tied up in the Supernatural Council. I don’t think someone could have come up with it as a cover,” Luca said.

“Why’d he move?” Emilio asked, curious despite himself.

“He was living with his family in the capital. They all work for the Supernatural Council except him. He witnessed and stopped an attempted child kidnapping, but during his testimony, it emerged that the only reason he’d been in the area was because he was stalking a sexual partner.

The transcript has him swearing it was consensual, but it almost tanked the case along with his family’s re-election chances.

The Council made some sort of arrangement with the MC here to take him in and hide him away so they could do damage control before the last election.

They needed his family’s continued support. ”

“We still can’t rule him out without better evidence,” Aria said.

Emilio sighed, pinching between his eyes where a headache was starting. “I don’t think it’s him. He’s too powerful and skilled. If he was helping the D-2S, we’d be fucked. They’d already have control of the city. I’ll keep an eye on him, anyway.”

Luca smirked. “And he’ll keep an eye on you. Rumour has it the reason he got picked for this marriage was because the MC’s treasurer caught him stalking the Police Chief’s son. He’s a repeat offender.”

Emilio bit back a jealous growl. His mate would not be stalking anyone but him anymore.

Sensing his distress, Marco squeezed his shoulder in reassurance. “Luca’s right. He’s already fixated on you, Emmy. It’ll make it easier to keep track of him, at least.”

As if there weren’t enough things for Emilio to do in the short time he’d be staying in the city. Now he’d need to use his in with the MC to figure out if there was a rogue air witch as well.