Most Alphas ended up dying while defending their packs or stepped down once they were into their seventies. We lived in a dangerous fringe of the world most people didn’t know existed, and Alphas needed to be strong to keep the families in their care safe. Werewolves didn’t age as quickly as humans so if he avoided dying in a battle for dominance, an Alpha in his seventies could pass for a human in his fifties.
Mathias Munro was well into his nineties now.
He had served in WWII, one of the first shifters to serve in the military as far as I knew. I skimmed the e-mail.
Sloan—
I have learned from the local coven that dark magic is once again flowing in Salem, powered by our blood. I know you’re no longer part of the military machine, but we need your help to control this. I fear my pack is fading without a new generation to carry on. Every full moon, they hunt us.
You and I may be able to help each other. Find me the person responsible, and I will find your leverage against the senator.
The future of our kind weighs in the balance.
Children of the moon must continue.
Mathias Munro
I zeroed in on the line about the hunter and the leverage, rereading it over and over. I wasn’t sure how Mathias knew it was one person. Maybe there was only one scent? Either way, this was my best chance to stop the senator. I’d been searching for months for some kind of secret to use to influence him to no avail. Maybe I’d have better luck tracking down the person hunting the werewolves in Salem. The only thing holding me back was the carrot Mathias was dangling. If I hadn’t been able to find the leverage we needed to control the senator, could an elderly Alpha of a dwindling wolf pack deliver it?
I was running out of options—and time. I swiped through my contacts and pressed his name.
“Sloan?” Mathias answered. “I wondered if you would ever call.” His voice was husky, as if he’d been a lifetime pack-a-day smoker.
If my father was still alive, he’d be about the same age as Mathias. And if I’d stayed home, like my father had begged me to, instead of joining the military, my younger twin brother would probably still be alive, and Senator Hanson wouldn’t be threatening me with video footage that could lead to all werewolves being hunted.
I ground my teeth, bottling up the unwanted memories of what could have been. “If you’ve got something I can use to keep him quiet, I need to know. He’s planning on releasing everything at the end of the month.”
His laugh was deep in spite of its hoarseness. “I don’t make a habit of trading something for nothing.”
“If we don’t stop the senator from exposing the super soldier research, we’re all going to be locked up like lab rats. Stopping him benefits all of us.”
“My pack could be dead and mutilated before that happens.” Mathias lowered his voice. “Find the hunter, and I’ll give you all the leverage you’ll need.”
Mutilated? I wasn’t sure I understood, but I didn’t have time to keep doing this dance with him. “I need more than your word.”
He didn’t answer right away, but I could hear his raspy breathing on the other end of the line. “The senator had a personal interest in Dr. Harlow’s research at Evolution Defense, and if it ever came out that he awarded them defense contracts for his own personal gain, he’d be ruined politically and potentially face criminal prosecution.”
I raised a brow as I scanned the horizon. “And you know what that interest is? How?”
He chuckled. “You’re not the only one with powerful friends in Washington, DC.”
He could be lying to me, but if anyone had connections within the Pentagon and maybe even inside the Capitol, it was Mathias. Harry Truman had awarded him a Purple Heart for his work saving infantrymen during the Battle of the Bulge. He’d almost lost his life that day.
Thankfully, medical science hadn’t been able to map DNA at that time. Mathias had undergone surgery that we’d never attempt today for fear doctors would stumble across the gene that gave our male children the ability to shift our form once a month during the full moon.
After he’d recovered, Mathias had stayed active in Washington’s powerful circles, lobbying for the soldiers returning home until his own pack had needed him. Then, after his father’s death, Mathias had ascended to become the Alpha of the Salem Pack.
My father had filled my head with all the stories of this werewolf hero, but he’d never expected me to volunteer for the military myself, nor to convince my twin brother, Malcolm, and six of our pack brothers to join with me. Our father never forgave me for that.
One in a long line of bridges I’d burned in my life.
“Okay.” I clenched my jaw as I picked up a pen. “Tell me what you know about this hunter, and I’ll contact you once they’re neutralized.”
He sucked his teeth and cleared his throat. “It’s not so simple I’m afraid. You’ll have to come to Salem to get the full picture.”
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. “I don’t have time for this. The senator is about to pull the trigger on declassifying all the super soldier files.”
“This isn’t just a punk hunting werewolves.” Mathias growled, and my own wolf clawed his way to the surface of my consciousness. “Someone is carving up my pack and selling parts on the black market. The covens use our livers, tails, teeth, bones, and fur for dark magic.”
“Fuck.” Unlike in the movies, if we died in our wolf form, we didn’t shift back into men. Bile stung the back of my throat. “How long has this been going on?”
“It started six months ago. At first we had no trouble fighting them off, but one of them changed tactics. He abducted one of my pack the day before the full moon, caged him until he shifted, and then carved him up.” He cursed under his breath. “He mailed me an ear with a warning that none of us were safe. This isn’t something I can take to the police.”
I closed my eyes, wrestling with my emotions. We were stronger and faster than humans with heightened senses, especially smell and hearing. Usually, we were at the top of the food chain. This fear twisting up my gut was new and unwelcome.
And the next full moon was in ten days.
Shit.
“All right. I can be there in a couple days. Let me make sure I can hold off the senator, and I’ll be in touch.”
“Tell him it would be tragic if he lost hope,” Mathias whispered.
The call ended, and I stared at my phone. What the hell did that mean? What was the senator hoping for more than annihilating werewolves from the country?
I had plenty of time to think about it, and Asher wouldn’t be back until four o’clock. Until then, I’d go work out some frustrations at the gym.
The Oak Creek Rock Climbing Gym boasted eight different climbing walls on one side and a traditional gym and weightlifting machines on the other. I scanned the building as I came out of the locker room. Other than a woman with headphones hiking the stair machine, I had the place to myself. I carried my towel and bottle of water over to one of the treadmills and got started. I usually ran a mile for a warm-up and then scaled the walls.
I’d never rock climbed before arriving in Sedona, and it had kicked my ass at first. Being a general, I’d prided myself on staying physically fit, but climbing the rock walls forced me to use muscles I hadn’t known I had. It worked my mind, too. Visualizing my path to the top and problem-solving when one of the toeholds ended up being too far away helped me hone my mental and physical self. Other than sex, I’d never had so much fun while sweating.