Page 27 of Found Objects

Standing up slowly, I moved forward, walking toward the intruders but also shielding Narah. I wasn’t sure what I would need to do.

“What are you doing here, Tuss?” Abel asked, stalking across the room, passing me by with Justin and Cole flanking him, sounding both angry and surprised.

The guy in front, who was smiling all cocky, crossed his arms. “We’ve come for our tribute, just as we do every month.”

Tribute?

Abel shook his head. “No. We left New York and settled here. We owe no more tribute to the Haviland Pack, as we don’t reside in your territory.”

“When did my father tell you that?” Tuss asked, shaking his head like Abel was nuts. “You’re still indebted to us whether you live in our territory or not. We gave you protection for years without payment, and my father is still owed.”

“No,” Abel told him. “I went and saw him before we left, and he agreed that the Swann Pack offering tribute was done. We left no one behind, so all our ties are cut.”

“I’m sorry, Abel, but you’re wrong, and just like last time, I’ll make you the same offer I did then. If you don’t have the money, we’ll take a wolf in payment.”

Like last time? A wolf in payment? What the hell?

If I’d been the alpha, I would have roared at him, ordered him off my property, and told him that if he wanted to fight, he and I could step outside and settle the misunderstanding one-on-one. I’d met enough alphas in my life to know that they always offered themselves first. It was how they were made. They led and protected; it was in their blood.

Abel shook his head. “No, no. I spoke to your father, and he gave us permission to leave.”

Arguing, being rational, logical, was not what an alpha did. Abel sounded weak, and everyone, I thought, could hear that. But perhaps these wolves, his wolves, could not. If they weren’t used to a powerful alpha, this, the bargaining, was probably normal for them.

“My father told me last night, after I finished collecting tribute from all the other packs in our region, that I would need to fly out here to this piece-of-shit little town to collect yours.”

“No, he⁠—”

“Listen.” Tuss held up a hand. “To show you our appreciation for years of loyalty, my father has decided to grant you his hand in kinship. No more tributes need be paid if only you part with either your son, Justin, or your nephew, Cole. My father will accept either, as both are of pure lupine blood. This way, we will have a blood pact between our two families.”

I understood immediately. This Haviland Pack from the city must be as spread out as Abel’s pack had been. An infusion of pure blood was, I was guessing, desperately needed. The wolves had probably been mixing their blood with humans’ for years. That was great if you wanted a large pack, but wolves who weren’t pure lupine couldn’t shift. I suspected that in the city, with no one monitoring the matings of anyone but the sons and daughters of the alphas, the larger packs had very few shifters. There were still heightened senses, they were stronger and faster, but they could not transform into animals. I’d been surprised when Justin, Reggie, and Fletcher had told me they would be hunting on their land. It was unusual to have enough wolves in a pack to make that happen anymore.

If you were going to demand tribute from gods knew how many packs, you needed to be the strongest of all. The Haviland Pack needed wolves, and both Justin and Cole could give them what they needed. If they were smart, they would have just asked for Cole. I had to wonder what Abel would have said in that case.

“Listen, Tuss, be reasonable. I could no more⁠—”

“Joining the Haviland Pack is a privilege,” Tuss announced as the men behind him fanned out. “And either your son or your nephew will become my brother.”

Abel just stood there, stricken, staring at the man in horror.

I could see this going sideways so very quickly.

“You expect us to give you my son or my nephew?” Narah asked Tuss, her voice icy as she slipped around me to go to her mate’s side. “You demand the blood of my family even after the cowardly way you took three members of our pack?”

She nearly screamed the last part, and I had a moment to think that she made a much better alpha than Abel before I parsed her words. Justin had lied to me. He’d told me that three deaths had led to his father thinking about moving the pack and eventually concluding that it was for the best to foster community and have many sets of watchful eyes on the children. In reality, they’d been driven away from New York when they’d been attacked.

Knowing what I did now, I had to wonder if the Haviland Pack had poisoned the wolf who died of an overdose. Easy to exchange an expected drug and turn it into a hot shot that would kill.

I could imagine a young woman kidnapped and murdered by these men now standing menacingly in Abel and Narah’s home, and just thinking about a toddler run down in the street made my heart hurt. They were monsters, and I understood why Abel had moved his pack to get everyone out of harm’s way. But that had been a mistake. They’d run, so of course Tuss’s father had sent his son to demand what they’d always been given. Abel should have challenged the alpha of the Haviland Pack. That was what an alpha did. I had to wonder if the pack knew that the deaths hadn’t been accidents.

Worse was the fact that Narah clearly knew that her pack members had been murdered. That meant that among the packs in New York, everyone knew that the Haviland Pack was more like the mob than a family. They preyed on their neighbors, demanded payment from many, and had probably used the deaths to intimidate others. They had targeted not the strongest in the pack, but the most vulnerable, and had probably flouted their crimes to drive fear into everyone they collected tribute from. The Haviland Pack had done it for leverage, and that was an abomination that any true alpha would have made them pay for in blood.

“Be quiet, bitch,” Tuss snarled at Narah. “You owe the Haviland Pack your lives.”

“You took money from us, and you killed our children,” she rasped. “We owe you nothing.”

“You’ve always been a mouthy whore, Narah,” he growled, “but go ahead and run your mouth. We know you won’t do anything about it because you can’t.”

“You’re a coward, Tuss, and you’ll end up as all cowards do,” she spat at him.