Page 14 of Flesh and Fury
“Marshal Eoghan Sapphire from Los Angeles. My partner and I are in Bishop, and we wanted to touch base with you about the Hawthorne pack.”
“Yes, Deputy Chief Washington told us you’d be here tonight or tomorrow. He thought we should meet before you talk to Alvin Walters.”
“I’m sorry but we met with him tonight,” Eoghan replied. “It was our intention to call you before that happened butwhen we went out to dinner tonight, we walked right into his brewery.”
“Oh.” She hesitated. “Your deputy chief didn’t tell you he owns the Mountain Rambler Brewery?”
“No. Perhaps she didn’t have that information. In any case, my partner and I were sitting at the bar when an altercation began between Oscar Garcia and Edward Walters. They were sitting with Garcia’s granddaughter, Carmen, when it took place.”
“What kind of an altercation are we talking about here?” she asked.
“He appeared to be very drunk and when he stood up, he was shouting that he expected Edward to do the right thing and marry Carmen. She started crying when Garcia called her a whore, and Edward took offense to that along with aspersions on his own family and his grandfather, the Alpha.”
“He called his own granddaughter a whore?” she asked, sounding incredulous.
“Yeah, it was pretty ugly. It devolved from that to punches being thrown and then my partner and I rushed in to pull the men apart. Of course, we had no idea they were werewolves. Though we should have from the shouts and the namedropping going on.”
“Oh, my. Was anyone hurt?” she asked.
Eoghan glanced over at Ari who reached up, touching the sore spot just under his eye. He knew it was probably going to bruise. He was getting used to being hurt on the job even though it was probably a stupid thing to do. Then again, getting hurt and letting down his guard always served to remind him he was an idiot. Every time he found himself in one of these situations, he figured he was going to have to utilize more common sense in the future. Clearly, he wasn’t doing so well when he jumped into melees or madeassumptions about cuttlefish run establishments. Eoghan still hadn’t stopped laughing and wouldn’t let him forget wanting to discuss James Bond and cuttlefish culture with a poisonous, ringed octopus shifter or her marine life, white trash siblings.
“My partner got punched in the eye, but he’ll live. It’s more like our egos were bruised when we realized we were facing down a bunch of werewolves possessing much greater strength. Fortunately, no one shifted or there might have been bloodshed.”
“Good. Well, I suppose now that the diplomatic overtures have failed, we should prepare ourselves for a war,” Rusch said.
Eoghan frowned at Ari, looking across the expanse between the double beds. “No, ma’am. I don’t want to give up. We can’t have war. We need there to be a peaceful resolution to this. If not by making Edward accept Carmen as his bride, then in some other way, but I don’t want to give up until we’ve exhausted all angles. I definitely don’t think it serves either pack to be at war either, especially when we can still demand that the two Alphas get in a room with each other and sit down like civilized men.”
“They’re werewolves,” she said.
“You know what I mean. Those two Alphas used to be friends. If they weren’t, why would they have pledged their grandchildren to each other before they were even born?”
“You’re right. I agree. Evan and I will update our deputy chief and let him know what happened at the brewery. I just wish we could get Edward to be reasonable about it. Pregnancies happen and it’s not a reason to reject a future mate. Werewolves adopt unplanned kids all the time, just like humans. I just wish there was a way to deal with this on a purely adult level.”
“It’s our understanding that it probably wouldn’t have happened that way, ma’am. Carmen Garcia wasn’t exactly willing to give up the name of the child’s father either. Maybe she still wants him.”
“First, please don’t call me ma’am. It makes me feel like I’m a hundred and thirty instead of thirty. Call me Carly. Second, I don’t know why she’s refusing to tell who the father is unless it’s not another werewolf. Maybe she’s conceived with a human or another shifter. That could spell disaster especially if Oscar is the asshole you say he is.”
“You’ve never met him, ma—ah, Carly?”
“I haven’t, but Evan—my partner—has. Come to think of it, he says he’s kind of a jerk. I don’t know what that means but either way, if he’s an abusive asshole, then, yeah, I might just want to keep things like the identity of my child’s father under wraps. If I give a crap about him, that is.”
Ari made a hand signal for him to wrap up the call and waited for Eoghan to make his goodbyes as he stood up and walked across the room, grabbing his duffel and pointing to the bathroom.
Eoghan nodded. “Let’s meet for breakfast somewhere, Carly.”
“That’d be good. Where?”
“You know the best places in town. Do you want to come to Bishop or do you want us in Hawthorne?”
“We’ll come there. If things go the way I think they’re gonna go, we might have to start with Alvin Walters who seems to be the more reasonable of the two Alphas.”
“Good enough. Text us a place and we’ll be there.”
Ari smiled at Eoghan and slipped inside the bathroom, closing the door as Eoghan grinned at him, making a shooing motion. He listened as Eoghan made pleasantries before hanging up the phone and then walked over to the counterand set the duffel on its surface. He slowly slid the zipper open so that he wouldn’t damage the garment packed on top. Ari smiled when he saw the large, flat, paper wrapped package. He pulled it out and set it down on the counter before he heard Eoghan at the door.
“Babe, can I come in?”
“Not unless you need to use the facilities,” Ari replied.