CHAPTER 11

I was a little lost over the next two days. The organization was in chaos, wolves came and went from the manse with Anthony, Jacob, Mark and Martha handling the inquisitions, security and funeral arrangements. There were many, many people who'd have loved to take down Rob. His list of enemies was not a short one, which is what happened when you ran a crime syndicate. And if he'd been attacked by any normal means any one of those enemies would be suspect. The problem was the jaguar sniper. Not only that, but it had been discovered that the bullets used in the rifle were filled with silver nitrate, which was set to boil on impact. Essentially, the bullet had entered the body, released boiling fluid at four hundred and forty degrees Celsius, which killed a large mass of tissue and then rapidly cauterized the vessels in the area so that they couldn't heal. Rob had been hit in the heart and the abdomen. The amount of damage had been catastrophic and though his body had tried for several long, painful, minutes to heal the expanding damage it had been too great to overcome.

Basically someone had invented wolf killing ammo, and it made Martha's new shipment look like a child's toy.

The pack was alarmed, and frightened, as they should be, and now without a leader. I'd spent the time in my room nursing my wounds, both physical and mental.

Rob was...while not exactly family, he'd been...something, and now he was gone. An echo of the pain I'd felt when I'd lost my parents had washed over me. I felt lost and anchor-less for the first time in years.
What did this mean for me? I hadn't even had time to look into the symbol we'd discovered, or track down the shipper. Now I wasn't sure if there weren't bigger things to worry about.

Like the jaguar. I'd thought a lot about it over the last few days and I was now certain he'd either had no scent at all, or he'd been hiding it. Just like my wolf.

All my life I was certain I was an anomaly. That my wolf's talents were some kind of weird, freaky occurrence. Now I wasn't so certain. The other thing I'd come to realize was that if he'd wanted to the jaguar could have killed me easily. He'd had the element of surprise, got the drop on me. He was stronger than me, and at least as fast. So why was I still alive? Part of me thought it might be because he was as surprised to find me as I was to find him. My wolf had been surprisingly quiet about the entire matter, her pride wounded.
Someone knocked at my door and I looked up from where I was fiddling with my phone, trying to line up candies just right to blast the block of chocolate that had been annoying me for the last half an hour. It helped to numb the pain and the worries, but I hadn't really been focused, which was probably why I kept losing.

"What?" I yelled, not bothering to invite whoever it was in. I wasn't in the mood for company.

"Anthony wants you out of the room. People are asking questions, the other packs are sending representatives. He says we need to make a show of unification or we'll be drowned in attacks and challenges by the end of the week. There's a meeting in an hour and he wants you there."

I groaned. I didn't feel like socialization. I didn't feel like anything except wallowing in my own self pity and fear. He didn't really need me there. No one actually knew what I'd done for Rob except Rob himself, and a few of the higher wolves in the organization who'd pretty much figured it out, one of which was Anthony. I guess if you spend enough time around someone hiding their scent and sound, or using their expanded senses you kind of started to wonder. But no one from any of the opposing packs or smaller gangs knew any of that. They'd mostly just seen me around. I really, highly doubted they noticed I was gone at all.

"He said if you made that noise I'm to tell you that Rob would be very upset if you lost what he'd built up because you were too busy pouting."

A flare of anger flashed through me. It was the first time in two days I'd felt anything except for numb desolation. Pouting. I wasn't pouting, I was mourning. I swear to God when I found him I'd show him the difference.

I was feeling so much better after a shower and fresh clothes that I realized he'd antagonized me on purpose so that I'd be forced to do something. So I guess I'd hold off on kicking his ass.

I realized that he'd been right too, when I made it down the stairs and found the main hall full of pack members, most of which had a look of relief upon sighting me. Which was odd, because it wasn't like I'd ever really been involved with most of them. They would have seen me here at the manse, coming and going from my tasks for Rob, but they would have no idea what they were or how I was integral.

I chewed on that a little as I worked my way through the room, giving sad, sombre nods as I went. Pack dynamics were complicated, and given that my wolf was a bit of a loner, being so uniquely developed, I'd never quite understood them fully. My best guess was that because they'd assumed I was important to Rob, given that I had my own room at the manse and he tended to keep me away from most of them, that I was deemed somehow important to pack structure.

It was an uncomfortable feeling. I didn't want anyone here depending on me for anything other than doing my job when necessary. And honestly, with Rob gone, I wasn't certain how much the organization could still do for me. They would need a new Alpha, and whoever it ended up being might not uphold Rob's promise.

"Raven," Anthony's voice rose to greet me over the hushed din of the room. He was waiting near the foyer doors, dressed smartly in a button down shirt that highlighted his physique, tie and tailored pants that probably cost more than my apartment for the year. Leanne stood beside him, her brunette hair in a perfect french twist. A smart black dress highlighting her willowy figure, and a frown of distaste on her red lips directed at me. "Let's go, we're going to be late."

The announcement surprised both Leanne and myself and Anthony found himself the target of two unhappy females.

"That's a mistake..."

"Where are we going?" Leanne and I spoke at the same time, she cut off, giving me a little growl. I ignored her. She'd gotten on my nerves the night of the run, but things had changed since then. I had bigger things to worry about than her petty jealousy.

"Dynasty. The packs have called an assemblage, I'm taking you with me."

My frown deepened. "Why?"

An assemblage was a meeting between the heads of every pack. It was incredibly risky and fraught with tension and so hardly ever occurred. The expense of the security it took just so that the alphas could gather without fear of assassination was astronomical. They called one and we had to send representation. It was a test of how strong the organization would remain. They were wondering if they could push us out. But it still didn't explain why he'd wanted me to attend. I thought the meeting would be something small, our mid-level operators or something. Or maybe somewhere where he'd need my senses. This...this wasn't for me.

Anthony's face was hard, but it softened at my obvious confusion.

"It's important we set the right tone going forward," he told me. Which still didn't make any sense at all, and had Leanne turning a shade of red that bordered on alarming. I looked down at my clothes. I hadn't dressed for an assemblage. I wore what I usually did. The closest thing to a t-shirt I could find, a white piece with only one shoulder that didn't quite meet the waistband of the sort-of jeans I'd fished out from behind several pairs of pants with the label Macca, which I'd googled and nearly threw up in my mouth. These were Lemaire, which weren't much better but didn't break the four digit price tag. That, and the same boots I'd been wearing forever. I'd bought them at a thrift store and they were nice and broken in. It still wasn't anything like the suit he was wearing, or even Leanne's black dress. Maybe he should take her instead....

"You look fine," Anthony insisted, holding out a hand, "let's go."