CHAPTER 69

Benny walked through the dining room door at that moment. He froze when he saw me a furious look on his face.

Benny was in his mid twenties and had finally started to fill out. The amount of time he spent at the gym giving him broad shoulders and rippling biceps. He was a reasonably handsome kid. Not that bright, but handsome, and loyal to his mother. His body tensed and my own reacted, ready for a fight if he brought it.

"Ma? You want her out?" He growled in a low voice.

She sighed, flapping a hand at him, and pushed the phone at me. "It's fine, Benny. Get more eggs on, I've got to take this out to table six."

The look he gave me told me that he didn't think it was fine at all, but he did as his mother said and started cracking eggs into a bowl. I looked down at the phone, recognizing Aiden's number

"Hello?"

"Ah, Raven," Aiden greeted, "I've got something for you. Came through this morning."

He didn't elaborate, but a new sound came through the phone. Light static and then:

*'you've ensured the hit?'*

It was a woman's voice, cold and commanding. I didn't recognize it, but she sounded professional.

*A huff of air. 'Yes, tonight at two, dock side. But it's pushing the limits of his willingness, this isn't something he would normally do.' That was Leanne, and my stomach dropped. I was right, something was going on. Somehow she was convincing Anthony to behave unlike himself.'*

*'Don't worry about that, he'll come around, they always do. Change takes time. Any sighting of the rebel?'*

*Leanne snorted. 'No, that bitch is gone for good, I'm sure. She was never one to stick around when things got hard anyway. But I don't like manipulating Anthony...'*

*'You'll do what you're told. You want Luna, you want your mate, you'll keep him in line and you'll let us know the second the subject is seen. Don't confront her, don't try to detain her, she's well beyond your capabilities. Leave that to us, we have units in the area.'*

And suddenly a few things made sense. Leanne *was* the traitor. She was gunning for Luna and that was her price for betrayal. Not only that, but she wanted Anthony as her Alpha. And when she couldn't get him through legitimate means she chose to play dirty.

*'Fine, but I don't want the organization torn apart. What's the point of being Luna if there's nothing left to rule?'*

*'We wouldn't be having this conversation if you'd been smart enough to pick up on her presence to begin with. You had five years and now we are cleaning up your mess. You'll do as your told and be happy with what you're given.'*

There was the sound of a connection ending and heavy breathing for a few seconds.

"Bitch," Leanne growled softly.

I could hear shuffling then the sliding of wood along wood. I imagined the little drawer where we'd found the high tech phone.

The connection clicked again.

"Care to elaborate?" Aiden asked. His tone was careful, but it was obvious he was aware I knew more than I had let on. It must have been killing him to ask me personally rather than find the information by spying on me.

Was it wise to elaborate? I thought about my discussion with Alice and how relieved I was to have an ally. This thing was big, and dangerous. I had vampires looking for me, the entirety of the organization, and now this. As much as I hated it, I needed help.

"From what I can tell, Leanne is manipulating Anthony somehow. It's making him behave irrationally, making him do things he normally wouldn't do."

Across the kitchen Benny turned to stare at me, his expression open with surprise. I sure hoped my calculated risk would pay off.

"I know she's with him constantly and she's been treating his migraines with some sort of machine, connected to a helmet. The electric impulses it sends of sort of twist and spiral around the helmet. She's convinced him that Iron Fist Gunner is in on some betrayal to him and the organization and they've plotted an internal hit on him at two this morning at his dock side warehouse."

Benny paled dramatically, his eggs forgotten on the stove behind him.

"Gunner is the organization's major weapon supplier. He's got hundreds of his own contacts and his team is almost as large as the organization itself, and all loyal to Gunner. If they attack him there's going to be war."

The phone was silent. The kitchen too, Benny just staring at me in disbelief.

"I'm not sure about your helmet, but I'll have Caroline look into it. I do know they're creating internal strife. They want us weak," Aiden muttered.

"We're just one pack," I reminded him. Yes, the organization would be weak if it went to war with itself, but we were far from the only pack around.

"But it isn't just the organization. I ousted an entire subset of my people last night while you were sleuthing. It became horribly violent. You were right when you suggested there were people on the inside at Hoventech too."

Had I suggested that?

"The Lightcrown pack faced a coup last week and Charles and Mei were in a nearly fatal accident two days ago. Even your friend made a call from in our medical ward, there was a fire killing several of the higher members of his pack. We aren't waiting for a war any longer, Raven. It's come for us."

Well shit. At least that explained why Darius had left without word. I'd have been gone too.

"I can stop this hit," I told him, and I hoped the confidence I forced into my voice was warranted. "But I have no power over the rest of whatever this is."

"I've got an idea for that, but it isn't going to be comfortable...for anyone."

I didn't like where I thought this was going. "What is it?"

"It's time for werewolves to go public."

"You'll create a panic, maybe a world wide one," I warned, turning my back to the room and biting a nail. "Humans as a population aren't kind and accepting, they are small and scared. They'll back the government on their plans to hunt down and murder us all. Hell, they'll probably join in."

"Can you think of a better way to distract a government?"

"No, but that's thinking short term, if we reveal ourselves it will be forever, Aiden. There's no going back."

"And how do you think it will be if the government reveals us first? If we go public now the government can't do anything about it without revealing that they already knew and kept it secret from the general population. These are new times, Raven, people's trust in the government is at an all time low. We can use that."

I wasn't going to stop him. He was determined, and that's all there was to it.

"I hope you know what the hell you're doing," I told him and hung up the phone. I was tired of debating things I had no control over. It made me feel anxious, like ants beneath my skin.

My nerves clattered and I decided to take that energy out on the only thing I could control at the moment.

I tossed Alice's phone to Benny, who was still standing there, staring at me, shell shocked.

"You're eggs are burned," I told him. "Also, you should burn that phone and get your Ma a new one, with protection against hacking."

Then I scrambled out the door and into the heat of the afternoon. I had a war to stop.