Claiming a Beta Coyote

by Serenity Snow

  “What is it?” She asked. The contact she’d met at the bar. He’d told her he was getting out of town, so this had to be a setup or an attempt by Carlo to flush out whoever was working with Max.

  “I heard Marco was planning to take out the mayor,” he said.

  She bit back a growl. “How?”

  “I don’t know, but he’s going to do it himself. He likes getting up close and personal.”

  “Proof?”

  “I can send you the file for a price,” he said. “I need enough to get out of town. I have a stash, but I can’t get to it with the scrutiny.”

  “I can get you a thousand.”

  “Now?”

  “I just need an account number and the papers.”

  “I’ll also send you a recording,” he told her.

  “Of what?” she demanded.

  “Carlo arranging a hit on a cop,” he replied.

  “Which cop?” she asked. If it wasn’t in Hartford where Ava wanted him, it wouldn’t be useful. Jenner didn’t look like he was on his Ps and Qs at the moment.

  “Jenner. It’s a cop here. I also have evidence he was behind the attack on the Harford prosecutor, Ava, and her bodyguard, not his father.”

  “How much more for it?”

  “Another thousand.”

  “Send it,” she said.

  “Sending now. If you don’t give me the money, I’ll rat you out to Russo.”

  She’d hunt him down and kill him. “How do I know you aren’t already planning to?”

  “Because you’re my only ticket out of here right now,” he muttered. “I can’t get to my account here because we’re all being watched. If we try to leave, we’re dead. We’ll be suspected as a traitor to the organization, but once I’m gone, I can get a new face.”

  “I thought you were a mercenary.”

  “I was until Russo killed my boss and took over our pack and the business,” he muttered. “I’ll even send you that. Check the Dropbox. Download the files now. I’ll erase the footprint.”

  She checked the Dropbox and downloaded the files. Kyra checked one and deciding it looked legit, sent him the money. The account was a dummy one used for such transactions. It couldn’t be traced to her or the company.

  He called her back as she studied the files trying to decide which to view first.

  “Has it shown up?” Kyra asked.

  “Got it,” he told her. “It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

  “Would you happen to know who killed a guy doing surveillance on Carlo?”

  “One of the guys with Carlo. I think his name is Christian. He caught him nosing around. Why?”

  “Someone was asking. Safe trip.”

  “Happy hunting.” He ended the call.

  ****

  “Russo staged a little attack last night on the mayor,” Carpenter said, and Lena frowned.

  “Why? What’s his problem with her? She’s not an issue yet.”

  “According to Sleepy, she’s the only other woman in the area who can be a threat should he not be able to gain her support or get her to turn a blind eye to this,” her brother replied.

  “What are the chances of either?” Lena asked as she reached for the cup of coffee on the kitchen table where she was having a light breakfast.

  “According to Astor, she’s certain to support Summerfield and Blacklaw.”

  “What about the newcomer, Glory? Where does she stand?”

  “She’s corruptible,” he said. “Just like Pike, but the question is what’s her weakness.”

  “Everyone has one,” she murmured. “Find it before Russo does.”

  “We’re working on it,” he said. “Just like they have no idea Russo’s brother is in their midst, they have no idea one of our men is. That gives us both advantages, but we have to play this close to avoid ending up in the DEA’s crosshairs.”

  “We’re there already,” she replied. “What function is Marco serving?”

  “He’s on the Coalition, he’s taken over Bradley’s pack,” he told her. “He’s been living in that pack for years.”

  She hadn’t known that.

  “No one is aware of our contacts here or our plans for this area yet. We need to move on Carlo fast. How do you suggest we handle him?”

  “We’ll have to kill him and Marco,” Lena said with a frown.

  “We have to be careful,” Carpenter replied. “Russo will just come at us full force, and I don’t want a war with him yet.”

  “Put on your big boy pants,” she said in a steely tone. “We might not have a choice.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “They’re moving a shipment tonight,” Forbes told Russo as he stared at his brother’s tense features in the screen of his phone.

  “Make sure it goes awry,” Russo said.

  “Already planned to.”

  “I heard you arranged for an attack on the mayor. Why? I told you I wasn’t ready to tip my hand on that yet.”

  He ignored the icy anger reflecting in the brown eyes. “She needed it,” he replied. “She’s a threat that needs to be neutralized as quickly as possible.”

  “What makes the mayor such a threat?”

  “She’s going to back Summerfield and Blacklaw. I can feel it. Plus, her land is what we really need. There are tunnels in that den that lead right to the New York border. That’s why our father wanted it.”

  “Do you have schematics?”

  “I’ll send them,” Marco told him. “We need that land, and we won’t get it as long as she’s alive. She’s a strong force in her pack. She took over young from an alpha she killed.”

  “Did she kill my father?” Jeno demanded.

  “According to intel I received last night, that was Summerfield, but it doesn’t make sense. Our father had nothing to do with Snow Fur. His killer could be only one of a few people—Mayer, Jericho or one of Jericho’s people.”

  The long silence that followed told Forbes Russo’s mind had gone down the same track his had when he’d finished going over the file on Mayer. Their father had been slaughtered with his two guards shortly after making a trip here to see both Jericho and the Mist alpha.

  Two of the bodies had been found in a boat washed up in New York. They’d been savaged, something the winter ice hadn’t been able to hide though it had obscured the time of death. They’d been poisoned as well by a substance the medical examiner hadn’t been able to name.

  The third man had never been found.

  “The Carpenters are probably trying to get you to get rid of Summerfield for them,” Forbes said. “With Jericho being dead, getting a real answer might be impossible from his end, but Mayer can still tell me what she knows.”

  “Don’t kill her,” Russo said. “Set up a meeting with her and let her know we’d like her property. She can hand it over or we’ll take it.”

  “I don’t think we should approach it,” he said. He’d do that after the Coalition’s last meeting. “I need to finish up with Summerfield and Blacklaw first. I’ve got a consensus built against them in the Coalition. Once we have the other two coyote packs then we can use them to take out Mayer’s.”

  “I’ll defer to you then, since you and Carlo will be jointly running the area after this mess is over,” Jeno told him. “Will Carlo’s plan work?”

  “I think so,” Forbes said. “I’ve spoken with the men handling it and we’ll be able to pull it off.”

  “What about the town’s police chief?”

  “He’s more in Astor’s pocket than ours, and Astor is aligned with Shadow.”

  “Deal with him later,” Jeno told him. “We don’t need to make a small problem a priority right now.”

  “I agree. We can close things up here in a matter of a few months if we stay on track,” Forbes said.

  “Make it happen then, Marc,” Jeno said with a hint of excitement in his tone.

  Forbes ended the call with a smile. Mayer’s land would be perfect for him to run this part of the business
from. He’d dreamed of having his own pack. With Mist, he’d have his dreams in more ways than one without sharing anything with Carlo.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Kyra glanced back at the building as she leaned against the vehicle mulling over the change the case had taken in only twenty-four hours. It wasn’t just the case that had taken a turn. It was her feelings.

  They were starting to break through the brick wall she had them safely behind. In particular, the ones she felt for the women she’d gotten to know, especially Claudia.

  She’d only known her six weeks and already she felt a stronger pull toward her, a preference for her company than any other woman she’d met here. Kyra knew sex had only intensified the attraction.

  Even if Gravel hadn’t told her to stay here, she had been on the verge of telling him that’s exactly what she was going to do even if that meant acting against orders. She would have checked on Wes and then come straight back here to help.

  Kyra blew out a breath. Could she even do anything to help?

  She and Sam weren’t on the best of terms, but part of that was due to Sam’s attempt at asserting her dominance over her. Kyra’s animal bowed to Claudia’s wishes more quickly, though not without the urge to challenge.

  She wasn’t a dominant, but she was a beta who’d had to kill from a very young age. That made her willing to fight even when the odds were against her.

  “And that’s what I’m going to do,” she muttered under her breath and started to pace as she mentally went over everything she knew so far.

  They had to get rid of Sam and Mallory, but then so did Russo. He wanted to control this town as much as the Shadow cartel.

  She opened the file the informant had sent her and watched it. The video was a brief one, but it detailed Marco’s plan to kill not only Claudia, but her as well. His face was a mask of cold glee as he talked to the man about his takeover of Mist.

  She closed it and briefly looked at the file on Carlo. She decided to wait until she could talk to Wes before mentioning the file. He’d want to deal with this personally. Just as she wanted to take care of Marco.

  Kyra put her phone away and nibbled on the tip of her finger.

  She was certain both organizations were going to do whatever it took to gain the town. That had to mean putting trustworthy people in important places including the Coalition.

  But before Forbes, who had been Russo’s man on the Coalition? Not Bradley. Whoever it was might be playing at being impartial or they might be openly against Sam and Mallory.

  Her phone chimed, and Kyra pulled it from its holster clipped to her hip for a look. There was an incoming message and she glanced at it.

  Kyra smiled and typed in a quick reply just as a shadow fell on her. At the same time, she picked up that familiar hint of cedar and leather.

  “Getting some air?” Claudia asked as Kyra tucked her phone away and looked up.

  “No. I was talking to an informant,” she admitted.

  “Are you going to share?” Claudia asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

  Kyra smiled, their gazes holding. She liked that flicker of warmth in Claudia’s eyes—it made her stomach do flip-flops.

  “There are just too many factors—that attack last night doesn’t add up,” Kyra said. “There was no reason for it. No one had you pegged as a threat at fir—the Coalition.”

  Claudia withdrew her hand and pushed it into the pocket of her pants. “What about them?”

  “Russo wouldn’t make a move without a reason.” She’d been studying him only five weeks, but Kyra was certain of that. “When Sal tried to take over here, did you kill him or anyone in his pack?”

  “Frazier, the former alpha of Mist, was trying to align with Russo. He was going to agree to sell for him, but my father stood up to him,” Claudia said quietly. “Things came to a head and I killed him along with Russo’s man.”

  “Frazier divided your pack?”

  “He was on the verge it,” Claudia answered. “Only they had no idea they’d be dealing drugs. He’d told them it was just imports.”

  “No one wanted to know what kind?”

  “That’s when things got ugly,” Claudia told her. “Most were opposed, but that didn’t stop a fight from erupting that morning. Frazier thought he could take any of us, and he could have.”

  “But not you, you’re a hunter,” Kyra said softly.

  “It was more than that,” Claudia admitted. “My father told me that morning I had the mark of a hunter and an alpha, and he was going to take over the pack and make me his chief of security.”

  “You were young.”

  Claudia nodded, eyes sad. “Instead, Frazier killed him, and one of his people killed my mother and went after my little sister. I killed Frazier and with the help of my commanders, we executed Frazier’s men.”

  Kyra gave Claudia’s arm a squeeze. “Sorry.”

  “Me, too. There are tunnels that lead to New York here,” Claudia said. “He probably wants access to those.”

  “He’d want vengeance for his father’s death,” Kyra said. “But that sounds like a motive if he knows.”

  “His father might have, but they can’t have our den or access to those tunnels.”

  “If they brought the full force of their cartel to bear on the town, could you three deal?”

  “As one, we’d kick ass even with the moles working against us,” Claudia said. “Mallory and I came to be alpha under similar circumstances, and Sam is a shadow. She’s a deadly kick-ass bitch you don’t want to cross.”

  “So, you’d stand against them and come out the victor?”

  “Bloody, bruised, but definitely not beaten,” Claudia said as she frowned.

  “The Coalition—will they get involved in this fight?”

  “Shit,” Claudia let out in a hushed tone. “Yeah. We’d likely be separated, forced to deal with our own issues to stay alive rather than being able to give each other much aid.”

  “But that would force someone to stretch their own pack thin,” Kyra said and bit her fingertip.

  “Yes.” Claudia agreed, eyes on the action. “I might come out of it well enough if you told me who those moles were.”

  “I will,” she said quickly. “The point is you all might come out of it with your packs still in your control.”

  “We might, providing we didn’t take too many hits from two or more packs at once.”

  “They’d have to leave one of you unattended to take down the others and that would be you,” Kyra said. “But they know you’d be a threat. Who do you consider a bigger problem, Mallory or Sam?”

  “Sam hands down,” Claudia replied. “Even with the issues in her pack, they wouldn’t go against her. She’s proven she can not only lead, but fight well. Together, she and Mallory will tear them apart.”

  “That’s why Sam is the primary target and then you. With Mallory wounded, you’re alone and easier to take with two or more packs bearing down on you.”

  “What?”

  “You’d classify you as more dangerous than Mallory?”

  “I can take Sam out. It would be a bloody battle, but I’d win every time. Put our packs against each other, and I’d win because half of my people have attributes hers don’t.”

  “See what I’m saying?” Kyra asked. “I think Forbes made you a target long before he took over Bradley’s seat. This town or even part of it would give him his own little base of operations away from his brother. He’s eager to prove he’s better than Russo.”

  “So, did your source have anything we can use, and how do you know this guy is trustworthy?”

  “He had no reason to lie,” Kyra told her. “He was a mercenary now he’s on Russo’s payroll which changes things.”

  “Okay. You can tell me what he said on the way. I need to get to the office. Can you meet with Mallory and fill her in? You can tell me everything on the way to the office.”

  “I’ll call her and set that up. See if she can meet me.”
/>
  “Here.” Claudia pulled her own phone from her jacket pocket and put in a call after putting the phone on speaker. “Hello, Mallory, I know it’s early, but I figured you’d be up and working.”

  “I am. What’s up?” she asked.

  “Kyra just got some new information. I’m going to send her to share it—does it affect them?”

  “Sam, but I think we just established that any action will affect all three of you.”

  “So we did,” Claudia said giving her a smile. “Can you meet with her without Sam. It’ll just be her and Del.”

  “What about you?” Kyra asked with a frown.

  “I’ll be fine. I have a packmate meeting me there,” Claudia assured her.

  “I’d come to you, but I don’t think I’d feel safe,” Kyra said. “Is my place okay? Or we can meet in Mystic.”

  “Your place is fine,” Mallory said. “I’ll bring Cordelia and Camden. I think after last night Cordelia would prefer to be there.”

  “I have no problem with that,” Kyra said. “Is noon okay for you?”

  “Fine.”

  Claudia ended the call and gave Kyra a quizzical stare as she pocketed her phone. “Can you handle her?”

  “She’ll have to be quick and go for a kill shot, but I don’t think she will unless Mallory’s in danger, and Mallory isn’t as much of a dick as Sam. So, there won’t be any confrontation.”

  Claudia laughed and leaned toward her. “Will you be safe here working against Forbes and Russo?”

  “For now.”

  “It’s only a matter of time before they realize you’re working with someone to bring them down,” Claudia went on.

  “I know,” Kyra replied reaching out to rest her hand on Claudia’s waist. “I’m not sure pretending is a good idea.”

  “You’re afraid of a little danger?” Claudia teased.

  She shook her head. “I live this life. I know I’m going to die violently one day, so it’s nothing to be attacked or even shot at.”

  “You can’t mean that,” Claudia murmured. “You’re so young, you can’t have been doing this kind of work that long.”