Page 6 of Mating Season
“I don’t want apologies. I want answers.” I was fuming and barely holding back my beast, trying to let logic guide my actions. This was Ivan. I trusted him with my life. What I couldn’t understand was his disappearance today without telling me where he’d gone. It didn’t make sense.
Trust no one.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to push away the darkness edging at the sides of my vision. When I opened them again, I took a hard look at Ivan, noticing the redness around his eyes and what could only be tear streaks down his cheeks. I sniffed the air, finding no scent of drugs.
Damn it.
I was an asshole for thinking the worst.
“Ivan, I…”
“It’s okay, Alpha.” He swallowed hard and reached for the laptop on the passenger seat. “I failed her.”
“No, I failed her.” I took a step back, giving room for him to extract his large body from the tiny car. “I shouldn’t have gone to the fight. What happened? Where did you go?”
Ivan coughed to clear the emotion from his throat. “I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I swore to–”
“That’s enough.” I rested my hand on his shoulder, soothing him with my strength as only an Alpha could do. “We’re wasting time. Where did they take her?”
“I should’ve looked sooner.” Ivan dragged a hand over his face to compose himself. “When our Luna was packing, she mentioned her Gram’s chest. I assumed they moved the crates to a storage facility, so I started searching for the shipping company to find the drop-off location. That’s when I saw the work orders put in to clear out the production control room this morning.”
At my growl, Ivan looked up. “It happened so fast and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I didn’t want to bother you until I had hard data. I sent the guys back home a link to the live feed so they could monitor the fights while I tried to scope out what was going on with the producers. They sent the stylist teams out by bus and I was following them when the helicopters flew overhead.”
“Did you see where they landed?”
“No, Alpha.” Ivan hurried to the front of the car and opened the laptop. “But I was able to pinpoint the general location for the nests.”
“If they’re in the same area, it shouldn’t be too hard to scent them out.” I rubbed the ache in my chest, trying to tamper down the wave of hope.
“There’s more.” Ivan sighed.
Of course there was.
Ivan looked around.“I finished checking the footage from the cafeteria. The only people in or out that morning were the production crew,”conspiracy laced his tone as he spoke through the pack link.“And I think one of the audio guys slipped the roofie in Aspen’s drink.”
I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the wolves and shifters edging closer to the driveway surrounding us as my wolf snarled and paced in my mind. “None of the show staff are here.”
Which was probably a good thing.
I’ll hunt them down. Make them suffer…
“No, but Chad still is.”Ivan motioned with his eyes to the trees behind us.
I pressed out with my senses to get a feel for where he was. The Tulias had gathered with the Fraziers and Scott Killian, but none of them were making moves to do anything more than listen to our conversation. Mattox had my back anyway, defensively posturing as he stared them down.
“What does Chad have to do with Aspen?”As if I needed another reason to hate the guy. But Ivan’s paranoia was making me nervous.
“I’m not saying he does,”he rushed to explain.“But the Tulia Alpha has provisions on the show stating all conversations concerning his son need to be run by his legal team before airing.”
Son of a bitch.
I dragged my hand through my hair. We had backups of the footage from the fight thanks to Ivan’s quick thinking, but would it be enough?
“I should’ve killed him.” I grit my teeth, reining in my wolf so he wouldn’t take charge and follow through with erasing the regret.
Ivan glanced over his shoulder again as a camera drone buzzed overhead.“Not on film. You have to be careful. If you can get more footage of his promises, we can make it all public. Even the Tulias wouldn’t be able to cover that up. But the show is in his back pocket. I know it. Which means our Luna isn’t safe.”
I studied Ivan as he spoke. He looked rough with bloodshot, glossy eyes and he swayed on his feet. Yet I knew him and despite my earlier concerns, he wasn’t high again. He was working too hard. For days he’d been monitoring and hacking their systems and taking guard shifts.