The Blood Pack (book three)

Chapter four

"What have we learned?" asked alpha Ash, moving Cassy subconsciously closer to him in a protective manner, placing his hand on her stomach.

"Well the she wolf was hired to find out what we knew, which as you all know was not much." sighed Trev, obviously beating himself up over his lack of knowledge up to this point. "But we have been making a lot of noise about what we have been looking into, getting the council and the lead alpha involved, and it seemed to have made them nervous."

"No offence, but I know this part." Alpha Ash sighed impatiently.

"Right alpha." Trev said, straightening slightly. "So the she wolf has been in contact with them over this message board. Now I can see why they chose it, anonymous IDs and scrambled IP addresses, it makes the users practically untraceable."

"Practically?" Niomi asked as Luke grunted.

"Yes." Trev smiled. "You see the issue is that they scramble the information using the same method every time. It is like mixing up a Rubik's cube the same way you end up with the same result."

"Meaning that you can unscramble them?" asked Jonny, who was now on the edge of his seat.

"Exactly." said Trev, bringing up a new window. "I used the IP address of me logging in to analyse the pattern that they use to decode all the others. Now the down side is that although I have the IP addresses of each of the people that have accessed the site in the last few weeks, the IP addresses do not link up to the usernames used to access the site or the screen names used so anyone of them can be the ones belonging to the people that contacted our mercenary."

"But there is more." said Ste eagerly.

"Yes." Trev snapped slightly annoyed to have been beaten to the punch. He brought up another page that looked like an online bank account. "The she wolf was paid half of the ten thousand dollars up front." he said highlighting the transaction for five thousand dollars. "Now, when we have followed the money in the past, it has always lead to shell or shelf corporations..."

"What is the difference?" Asked Jen, as she rubbed her own baby bump.

"A shell corporation is what is says on the tin. It looks legitimate from the outside, like it belongs to someone and is a legitimate organisation, but when you look beneath the surface there is nothing there. A shelf corporation is one that is created years ago and put on a shelf, building a history and paper trail and then it is taken off the shelf to be used to perform certain transactions but it is just as empty as a shell corporation it just takes longer to figure it out." explained Trev.

"But they didn't use one this time?" asked Jonny.

"No, they f****d up." Trev smiled, bringing up yet another page. "Tallen Corp. They are a massive conglomerate, with fingers in every pie imaginable. Someone from that company transferred the funds. The issue is that they are stationed all over the world and it could have been anyone from the company who made the transfer, but it does cut down our list a little. I will cross check the IPs with known workers and associates of the Tallen Corp and hopefully that will yield some more names. It is going to take a long time, first to find the IP addresses and then to cross check them with the list here."

"Now the question is, what do we do about the information the she wolf was meant to deliver?" asked alpha Ash.

"She won't be delivering anything." said Ste with a snarl, obviously the she wolf had pushed way too many of his buttons and he had ended her.

"Where was she meant to make the drop?" Asked Cassy.

"Train station, leaving a bag in locker 123 at noon tomorrow, leaving the key in a plant pot near the exit." Said Ste.

"Okay, well chances are that they don't know what the woman they hired looks like if all this stuff was sorted out in line. We can make the drop, and capture them when they come to collect, or follow them to wherever they go next." offered Cassy.

"I could do it." said Sanna, making the whole room snap their heads to her.

"Sanna..." started Cassy.

"You and Jen are pregnant so you can't do it. They probably know that she was a she so that leaves me and Niomi. Niomi no offence, I know that your wolf is more dominant than mine but I have the training from Cassy not to be commanded. We don't know if they are shifters or humans, and if they are shifters and they try to take you in and command the truth, you will have to tell them it is all a lie. I won't, unless they have an alpha on their side, but I don't see why they would feel the need if they think that my wolf is submissive. Also, what alpha in their right mind would side with these psychos."

"Would they believe that a submissive wolf would be a hired gun though?" asked alpha Ash.

"I can be convincing, I was really good at acting in school." Sanna replied proudly.

"Yeah but this isn't playing the bossy Christmas fairy in the school nativity, this is convincing god knows who that you are a kick ass assassin who would do anything for a quick buck regardless of the consequences." Cassy said pulling her even closer. "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you."

"Nothing will happen to me. Set up a tail for the tail. Have whoever may be following me followed." Sanna shrugged.

"I don't like it." I growled. My wolf agreed with me. Sanna was too sweet and too vulnerable to do this, she would get herself tortured and killed if she stepped one foot out of line.

"Me neither." Agreed alpha Ash. "But she is right." he sighed. "If Trev's search leads us no where then we will need to have something else to follow. This may be our only chance to find people who know more about what is going on or how far spread this thing is." he mutter to himself as much as to the rest of us and rubbed his head. "I know you don't like it my love, but it may be our best chance to find out what we need to know." he said to his mate who looked about ready to rip his head off.

"You want me to put my best friend, my sister, in the line of fire." Cassy snapped in a wobbly voice, her emotions obviously getting the best of her. "If I wasn't the size of a tank I would be able to go. This baby needs to come out now!" she cried, actual tears falling down her eyes.

"Cassy, even if the baby came today, would you really want to leave him or her to go chasing after these guys?" Sanna asked in a calm tone.

"Yes!" she screamed." I have been side lined way to much recently. I am the alpha female of this pack!" she stated trying to get to her feet.

"Where are you going sweetheart?" asked alpha Ash, carful to use a measure tone not showing his annoyance at his mate's irrationality.

"I need Cheetos!" she snapped.

"We don't have any Cheetos, remember. I will go to the store first thing and get you some." said alpha Ash, rubbing his mate's back.

"But I need them now." Cassy flopped back on the sofa, crying her heart out that there were no Cheetos in the house.

"How about I rustle you up a snack? Then we can all go to bed and everything will seem better in the morning." offered Jen, her mothering tone ever so soothing as always.

"Can it be a cheesy snack?" asked Cassy with hope in her eyes.

"An extra cheesy snack." smiled Jen as she waddled to the kitchen.

"I love you!" yelled Cassy as she seemed to regain her composure and wipe her tears away. "What were we talking about?"

"Me taking the place of the mercenary tomorrow." said Sanna, rubbing her back, hoping not to send her off again.

"Are you sure you can do it Sanna? I really don't know what I would do without you." Cassy sighed.

"I am sure. I can do this. I can't fight and I am no good when you all go off on your secret meetings. I know that no one minds that I am pretty much a spare part around here that is only here because I am your best friend and you came to get me from Liam's evil clutches. But I care, I need to feel like I fit in here."

"Sanna, no one thinks that." Niomi quickly interrupted, leaning over and rubbing her shoulder.

"No but I do, I want to show you all that I can handle myself too, maybe not in a fight but I am useful." said Sanna, I could see the conviction in her eyes from over here. She pushed up off the sofa and started towards the door. "I am going to head to bed, let me know what you come up with as the fake information to drop off in the morning."

I followed her out and up the stairs grabbing her wrist as she turned to head to the next floor where her room was. "You don't have to do this Sanna." I whispered in a low tone, needing her to understand that I did not like her putting herself at risk.

"I know I don't, I want to." she whispered back, moving closer to me. "I see the strain that this has put on you, everyone does. If I can elevate even a fraction of what is baring down on you, I will." I stood, not sure what to say as Sanna gave me a shy smile and stepped back, turning and heading to her room. I just stood there like an i***t watching her walk away. All I could think was Harrison really is an i***t, if I had Sanna as mine, I would never let her go.

~Sanna~

I woke up early and showered before raiding my wardrobe. I needed something tough. Something that screamed don't mess with me. I pulled out outfit after outfit, wondering if I owned anything kick ass enough for the job. Finally I settled in my leather pants and tank top deciding that this was the most kick ass outfit I owned. As I dressed I questioned my decision to volunteer for this. I had been honest when I said I wanted to prove myself. Most of the wolves here were from the lead alphas pack and already proved themselves time and time again. Cassy was the alpha female, the twins helped with the businesses, Jen cooked and Niomi could f*****g heal. What could I do? Make the garden look pretty. I needed to show them that I belonged, even if they didn't see it. I knew part of their acceptance of me was due to my relationship with Cassy, even if they denied it.

As I looked in the mirror and ran my hands up and down the side of my body I thought about Theo's hands and how they felt on me yesterday. Was I a slut for trying to jump in bed with him only an hour after Harrison? Probably. It was a good thing that he stopped us, I didn't want to be the source of more pain for him.

Theo had always been so nice to me, when we were afraid of Damien and his men coming after us he had offered to come to work with me and literally followed me around all day without complaint as I tended to the flowers at the gardening centre. I thought he would become bored and demand to take me home, but he didn't. I smiled to myself when I thought about the look of worry in his eyes when he told me I didn't have to do this. He was a good guy and he did not deserve to live with the guilt for what those monsters made him do. I really did want to help him, in whatever way I could, it was the least I could do.

Unsurprisingly, Harrison had not contacted me at all. It stung a little. Like he had met his mate and now the last six months meant nothing to him. That I meant nothing to him. I pushed those thoughts out of my head as I could not let them take over again and leave me red eyed when I went for the drop. I dried and straightened my hair and applied a heavy dose of eyeliner and mascara. I slipped on my knee high leather boots and headed down stairs to get my briefing on what I needed to do, walking with a confidence that I was not sure that I fully felt.