Butterfly Assassin

by Annabelle Jacobs

  With a pack outside of London now involved, inviting the council to be fully part of the investigation would facilitate much quicker response times than they could manage on their own.

  “What do you plan to do now?”

  “Well.” Arlington glanced at Frank and then Michael. “I’m not convinced we should stop looking into Daryl White just yet. So as well as searching for Wilson—”

  “Who?” Alpha Wallace interrupted.

  Arlington frowned. “Daryl White. The guy we’re looking at who runs the illegal fights and gambling.”

  “I thought you said his name was Mr Smith?” Her tone was a touch accusatory, and everyone in the room bristled. “That’s how you referred to him the last time we spoke.”

  “That’s the name he goes by in his nightclub businesses and fights, but his real name’s Daryl White. Do you know White?” He sounded incredulous, but Michael was positive she’d recognised it.

  “Yes, Detective Chief Inspector, I do.” She paused, and the sound of papers being leafed through filled the silence. “Daryl White, age thirty-six, applied to the council two months ago.”

  “For what?” Michael asked, although he had a feeling he knew what she was going to say.

  “To be bitten and accepted into any pack that would take him.”

  “Jesus,” Arlington hissed, then slammed on the mute button. “Why the fuck didn’t we know this?”

  Hesitant to add to his bad mood, Michael said carefully, “I think it’s safe to assume they refused him, considering he’s still human. And in that case, the council aren’t required to report it to the human authorities because no bite takes place.”

  “Fucking hell.” Arlington unmuted the phone. “Alpha Wallace, why did White request to be bitten and when slash why did you refuse him?”

  “We refused him because when we interviewed him, he was… not someone we wanted to give enhanced strength and senses to. It wasn’t a sense of belonging, of pack, that Mr White was after, more the power that comes with it. A man like that doesn’t want to be part of a whole; he wants to rule it.”

  “That’s not why he came to you, though, is it?” Arlington asked. “At least that’s not the reason he gave you.”

  “No.” She sighed. “Mr White came to us because he’s dying.”

  Silence.

  Michael reached forward and hit the mute button. He gestured to the phone. “Are we discussing everything with the council now?”

  Arlington grunted. “Under the circumstances, I think we’d better.”

  Hitting the mute button again, Michael leaned forward, his forearms resting on the table. “Alpha Wallace, this is DS Archer. Is it reasonable to believe that Wilson could’ve been taken by Smith and forced to bite him? How likely a scenario is that?”

  Shifters were quick and strong. Could they be captured easily and forced into doing something against their will?

  “We’re like anyone else, Detective—if you have the correct means at your disposal, then it’s certainly a possibility. I don’t know how resourceful your Mr Smith is, but shifters aren’t some magical creatures that are immune to everything. It might take a much larger dose than for a human, but sedatives and tranquillisers will work long enough for a shifter to be subdued if you act quickly. As will a serious injury. I imagine Smith and his associates aren’t short of weapons.”

  “No.” Michael ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the too-long strands. “They certainly aren’t.” Fuck, this morning had taken a huge turn for the worse. “Can a shifter be forced to bite someone against their will?”

  He could almost hear the raised eyebrows in her tone. “If someone held a gun to your head, Detective, would you bite them?”

  “Point taken.” In retrospect, it had been a stupid question, but for fuck’s sake. How was Smith becoming a shifter something they had to worry about now? He was bad enough as a human. How bad would he be after getting a power upgrade? “If he’d already been bitten and gone through the change, Aaron would’ve known, right?”

  “Yes. If Mr Smith changed at the last full moon, then both Mr Harper and Mr Nash would’ve smelt it on him if they were in the same room.”

  Aaron had sat next to him in the back of a car. There was no way he wouldn’t have known. Would he have told you, though? Would he have turned on one of his own? He dismissed the thought as soon as it appeared. He trusted Aaron. He’d been as appalled at the murders as everyone else. No way would he protect a killer.

  “If they’ve captured Dale Wilson,” Alpha Wallace said, “isn’t it possible that they’re somehow using him to commit these murders? Forcing him somehow?” The line went silent as though they’d been muted this time. “I’m not clutching at straws, Detectives, just offering ideas. I want to stop these killings as much as you do, but I want to ensure the right people are held responsible. Just because the deaths were inflicted by shifter claws doesn’t mean they did it willingly.”

  “I’ll take that into consideration, Alpha Wallace, of course. For now, I’d like to concentrate on finding both Smith and the shifter before the full moon tonight in case our assumptions prove to be correct.”

  Michael quickly dug his phone out of his pocket and did a quick search. “According to Google, technically the full moon isn’t until 7.09 a.m. Tuesday morning. If Smith’s been bitten, is that when he’ll change?”

  “It’s not an exact science, Detective, and the change—if it takes place, because not all who’re bitten will become shifters—is different for everyone.”

  “How different?” Frank glared at the phone, appearing as frustrated by the turn of events as Michael was.

  “The change itself can begin as early as ten to twelve hours before the exact time of the full moon itself—the instant when the sun and moon are aligned on opposite sides of the earth—and can take as little as an hour or stretch to several for the change to complete. But come 7:09 a.m. tomorrow, if he’s going to change, he will have.”

  “So, saying he’s left it till the last minute to get bitten, we need to find him tonight?”

  “That would be preferable, yes,” Alpha Wallace replied. “If we can get to him before the change—if he’s been bitten—then I can arrange to have him taken to Krillick Hall where he can be properly contained.”

  Arlington met his gaze, then Frank’s. “Do we have a list of all Smith’s known businesses and his home address?”

  “Yes.” Frank produced a folder Michael hadn’t noticed him bring in. “He owns two nightclubs, a pub, and two cafés slash coffee shops. And also two rental properties as well as his permanent residence.”

  “If he’s expecting to change into a shifter within the next few hours, then he’s going to need somewhere private and secure to hole up for a while. Check all the properties he owns, starting with his home address.”

  “Do we have search warrants?”

  “You will by the time we have everyone together.” Arlington looked ready to end the call and get things rolling. Michael was right there with him.

  “Curtis and I will be there as soon as we can,” Alpha Wallace added.

  “Don’t you have your full moon run?”

  “While we do enjoy a good run on the full moon, the mandated two hours are required by human law. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually lose complete control and turn into mindless animals if we don’t do it.” She sighed. “But I don’t want to find myself on the wrong side of the SCTF, so we’ll have our run early and join you this evening. If that’s acceptable?”

  Michael didn’t think she was actually asking for permission, but Arlington replied with the expected. “Of course. Your help in this will be greatly appreciated.”

  “I realise you and your men might be wary of working with shifters on a full moon night. But in light of what you might find in your search, I would recommend involving the members of the Clapham Common pack who you’ve been working with. Alpha Thomas is an excellent alpha. His control will be good, as will be that of his pack.”


  “I’ll take that into consideration.”

  “See that you do, Detective Chief Inspector. If Wilson has been held captive for all this time, there’s no telling what state he might be in when you find him.”

  “Understood.”

  “We’ll let you know when we’re on our way to London. Please keep us updated in the meantime.”

  “Of course.”

  They ended the call.

  “Fucking hell.” Frank blew out a breath and sat back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head.

  “Quite.” Arlington glanced between Michael and Frank. “Get hold of the whole team and have them meet downstairs in the biggest room we’ve got. I’m going to get us some non-shifter help.”

  “Miller?

  “Yes, among others. We’ll pair them off with SCTF officers because I don’t want anyone underestimating what we’re up against.”

  Michael hesitated in asking his next question. Not sure what he wanted the answer to be. “What about Alpha Thomas and his pack? Are we involving them in this?”

  Frowning, Arlington drummed his fingers on his desk. “I tend to agree with Alpha Wallace. Wilson could be in any state by now, and I’d rather have a couple of shifters with us if and when we find him.”

  Michael knew there was a but coming.

  “But I can’t see anyone we get from the City or Met being keen to work with shifters on a full moon. Can you?”

  Since Michael wasn’t sure how he felt about it, and he’d worked alongside shifters a lot in the past few years, he couldn’t see others being too keen. “Probably not.”

  “Our priority is finding Smith before he changes. And according to the council, that could be anytime from seven this evening.” All three of them glanced at the clock on Arlington’s wall. “That gives us just under seven hours to try and find him, because I don’t want to have to deal with Smith as a shifter.”

  Neither did anyone else, he’d hazard a guess.

  “So,” Arlington continued. “For now, call Thomas, update him on where we are with the case, and ask if he’d be willing to assist us if we locate Wilson. See if he can get Harper and Nash to do their run early. The Met and City boys might feel better knowing they’ve already run it out of their system.”

  Alpha Wallace’s words rang in his head. Aaron was probably no more prone to violence during the full moon than he was any other time, but public perception was a hard thing to alter, and those laws were there for human peace of mind more than anything else. “Yes, sir.”

  Arlington gave them both a look, which was as good as a dismissal, and they hurried out of his office to get things in motion.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Aaron stretched out his arms, working the muscles, but the tension in him refused to ease. The days of the full moon weren’t usually this bad; there was just something about today that unsettled both him and his wolf. Something in the air that wasn’t quite right.

  “For fuck’s sake, sit down.” Harry lounged on Aaron’s sofa watching him pace. “We’ve got hours yet.”

  “Don’t you feel it?” Aaron snapped, spinning to face him.

  “Of course I feel it.” Harry jabbed a finger at the window. “Sunset’s about six hours away. Everyone’s feeling it.”

  Sighing, Aaron marched over and sat down next to him. “That’s not what I meant.” He let his head fall back onto the cushion behind him. “There’s just… I don’t know. Something not quite right.”

  Harry didn’t roll his eyes, but Aaron knew he wanted to. “That’s probably you pining after Michael.”

  Aaron scoffed. “I’m not pining.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  Raising both eyebrows, Harry began to list things on his fingers. “You’ve moped about your flat ever since Friday night. You barely ate anything yesterday when I came round.”

  “I cleared my plate!”

  “Yeah, but usually you’d have seconds too.”

  Okay, that might be true. “I was full.”

  “Because you’re pining.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Harry grinned at him. “All this business with Detective Archer and the—”

  “Detective Sergeant.”

  He did roll his eyes this time. “My mistake. Anyway, all that coupled with the full moon messing with your senses, you’re bound to feel out of sorts.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You know I’m—”

  The familiar ringtone on Aaron’s mobile silenced them both.

  That was their alpha calling.

  With dread pooling in his belly, Aaron answered the call. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Aaron, is Harry with you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good. Put me on speaker.”

  Aaron set his phone on the coffee table in front of them. “We can both hear you now.”

  The sigh that followed didn’t bode well. “I spoke with Detective Sergeant Archer an hour or so ago.” Aaron swallowed down the disappointment that Michael hadn’t called him instead. “It seems there’s been some developments in their case.”

  “Oh?”

  “Two months ago, Daryl White applied to the alpha council for permission to be bitten and join whatever pack would take him.”

  “Bloody hell,” Harry mouthed, and Aaron wholeheartedly agreed.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “He’s dying.”

  “I’m assuming the council refused? And why is this only coming up now?”

  “Yes, they refused—he didn’t interview well, apparently. Too power hungry and not pack material.”

  Aaron stifled a laugh. The man who ran illegal boxing matches, threatened people, and had bodyguards with guns came across as power hungry—who knew?

  “Alpha Wallace wasn’t aware that Smith and White were the same person,” Sam said.

  Hadn’t they mentioned it in that meeting? Obviously not.

  “What does that mean for us?” Harry asked. He glanced at Aaron, who shrugged—he had no idea.

  “The SCTF believe this is connected to the missing shifter.”

  It took Aaron all of two seconds to connect the dots. “They think Smith took Wilson?”

  “That’s the theory. They think because he couldn’t get bitten the legal way, he’s taken it into his own hands.”

  Harry grimaced. “What about the murders, though?”

  “Yeah,” Aaron chimed in. “Are they saying he did those as well?”

  “That’s still a grey area, I believe, but as you can imagine, they’re desperate to find Smith before tonight.”

  Oh fuck. “Before he changes.” Aaron shuddered at the thought of Smith with shifter strength and enhanced senses.

  Alpha power laced Sam’s voice, whether from the impending full moon or the gravity of the situation, Aaron wasn’t sure. “If Smith’s been bitten and if it takes, who knows what he’ll be capable of. He needs stopping before the change can happen.”

  “What do you want us to do?” He was already up and heading to get his shoes when Sam’s voice stopped him.

  “We wait.”

  “Wait?” Frowning in confusion, Aaron slumped back onto the sofa and stared at the phone, “I thought you said he needs stopping.”

  “He does, and the SCTF are searching for him as we speak. They have help from the other forces.”

  “They don’t want our help, though?” He heard the disappointment in his voice, but he couldn’t help it.

  Sam sighed. “It’s the full moon run tonight, Aaron.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean—”

  “The SCTF might be okay with us being there on a full moon, but the regular police aren’t used to dealing with shifters; they won’t feel comfortable with us working alongside them, especially not tonight.”

  Objectively, Aaron knew it wasn’t personal. It wasn’t him they didn’t trust; it was the whole idea perpetuated by the legal requirement for full moon runs. He wasn’t going to kill anyone if he d
idn’t run tonight. For fuck’s sake. Yes, he might be short-tempered and restless, but that wasn’t a threat to anyone’s life. Unless they attacked him.

  If he was totally honest, it stung that Michael hadn’t called or texted to tell him any of this, let alone ask for his help. “What are we supposed to wait for?”

  “They’re searching Smith’s businesses and home addresses for both him and Wilson. If they locate Wilson, they’d like our help in bringing him in.”

  Aaron scoffed. “Oh, so we’re not good enough to help with the search, but when they don’t want to risk their officers tackling Wilson, then we’re suddenly okay?” His hackles rose the more he thought about it. “We just wait around for their call and then go and do their dirty work for them?”

  “Aaron.” Sam’s tone wasn’t laced with Alpha command this time. It positively dripped with it. That one word alone was more than enough to snap Aaron back to his senses.

  Glancing down, he saw the hole marks in his jeans that his claws had made. Maybe the regular police weren’t all that far off the mark. “Sorry, Alpha.”

  “I know it’s hard to sit on the sidelines and wait, but under the circumstances, I think it’s the right decision. Emotions are high tonight, and this case only exacerbates that.” His voice softened. “Don’t think of it as doing their dirty work. Wilson is one of us, and who knows what he’s been through in these last few weeks. I would much prefer we get to him first rather than leave it to nervous police officers armed with guns. Wouldn’t you?”

  When he put it like that, shame washed through Aaron, and he sighed, letting his head fall back. “Yes, Alpha.” In his selfish need to see Michael again, to be involved in this case, to be needed by him, he’d forgotten there was a missing shifter in the middle of all of this. Three humans were dead, killed at the hands of a shifter, and Aaron wasn’t naïve enough to think anyone on that search party thought that Wilson didn’t do it. Sam was right, they needed to get to him first—he deserved the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. “Should Harry and I wait here?”

  “Yes, but I’ve moved both of your full moon runs up to 8.00 p.m. In case they don’t have any luck finding them before then, I want to get our runs out of the way if we can.”