Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

"There's nothing you can do to me, Blake. Not anymore."

I should have known better than to tempt fate like that. I really should have.

"If you do not stop this instant," he said softly, "I will kill you mother." I stopped.

How could I not? I might not have seen my mother since we'd been thrown out of the pack at sixteen, but that didn't mean I didn't love her. Didn't mean I wanted her dead.

She was my mother, for Christ's sake.

I swung around. "Trust me, Blake. You do not want to go this route. It's a very bad thing to do."

His smile was arrogant. Confident. "There's nothing the Directorate can do to me. I'm well within the law to chastise my pack as I see fit. If a pack member dies during meted justice?" He shrugged. "The law will not intervene unless the event is reported as something more than fair punishment. And no one in this pack will report it."

"I can report it. I can investigate it. And trust me, you would not want me or Rhoan anywhere near that pack. We're no longer the helpless cubs you booted out."

"And we are no longer the dying pack you remember. We've grown stronger, richer. More influential."

Yeah, and I knew exactly how. My ability to shadow had provided a means of learning more than a few pack secrets. And if the pack was now rich, it certainly hadn't been via hard work and good money management.

I shook my head. "You really have no idea who you're dealing with, Blake." No idea what he was dealing with.

"I want this problem dealt with. Then I will leave you, your half-breed brother, and your mother alone."

I shifted from one foot to the other, the need to run fighting with the need to wipe that cold look of satisfaction off his face. The twin desires made my muscles twitch. "And Konner? What's he got to say about all this?"

Blake's grin was gloating. "I defeated your grandfather in battle one year after you left. His ashes were scattered across his favorite hunting trail, as he requested."

I stared at him for a moment, not sure what to think. What to feel.

There'd been no love lost between our grandfather and us, and he'd turned his back on much of the trouble we'd had with Blake and his get. Yet he'd housed the three of us, fed us, made sure we never wanted for anything basic, and had never allowed the games to go too far - except for the one time Blake had thrown me off the mountain. And even then, his hands were tied. Pack rules gave the second-in-command the right to punish as he saw fit - at least when it came to matters of insubordination.

And now my grandfather was dead, killed in a battle for leadership. I closed my eyes, and tried to fight the bloody images that came to mind. I'd only ever seen one fight for dominance in a pack, and it hadn't been pretty. Such fights were always done in wolf form, and almost always ended in the death of the old leader. Such were the ways of our wild cousins, and they had always been ours, too.

And the law allowed it, because it came under the title of religious beliefs and customs.

Which was just another way of sanctifying murder, if you asked me. Unfortunately, no one was ever likely to do that.

"If you've got a list of names, send them to me tonight," I said. "I can check them against the island's records."

"I've already done that."

"And I intend to redo it, because I may see something that you missed." I crossed my arms and stared at his ethereal form. "I don't want you harassing my every step, Blake, or I will have the full force of the Directorate brought down on the pack's head."

"Patrin wants regular reports."

"I don't give a - "

He held up a hand. "Yeah, I know. Tough."

I glowered at him. He stared back. For several seconds neither of us moved, then he sighed and rubbed a hand across his eyes. "What is your phone number? I'll send you the list of names and whatever other information I have."

I gave him my cell phone number, and added, "Have you got any recent pictures of Adrienne?"

"Yes. I'll send a couple."

At least with photos I could ask around, see if anyone remembered her. See if they remembered who she hooked up with. "What about the families of the other victims? Send me their contact details as well, if you have them."

"I will."