CHAPTER 76

As soon as I got back to the Tahoe I called Aiden. I needed copies of the conversations we had captured.

I hadn't decided the best way to reveal Leanne's treachery. Personal and face to face would be what a friend would do, but I wasn't sure Anthony and I were friends any longer.

Aiden picked up on the third ring.

"Raven," Aiden's voice was worn, but had a hardness to it, an anger.

"What is happening?" I asked, forgetting for a moment my own problems.

"Your vampire friends have honed in on us. They've figured out the death of their first comrade, and the one that had been chasing you and escaped us brought back up to avenge the second. They were very unhappy. I've lost a lot of good men."

I frowned at the guilt that flooded me. Why did I feel responsible for this? It wasn't like I'd done anything to encourage the vampires.

"Do you need my help?"

"They seem to be taking an intermission at the moment. Hoventech is still secure. I assume you are calling for a reason?"

"I hate to ask at a time like this, but do we have anything more to go on with Leanne? Can you send me the recordings that we have?"

Aiden was silent for a breath.

"You are considering confronting Anthony?" His voice was carefully neutral.

"It has to be done."

He sighed.

"I would like a little longer to listen in on the traitor, but I have to admit it doesn't seem like she's privy to any information that's much more than we already got from her." He took a second, I wasn't sure what he was doing but I could hear the clacking of a keyboard in the background.

"If you're going to bring the evidence to light you'll want to be careful. Caroline did an...invasive search of the military files we had access to, the helmet device you mentioned appears to be a sort of mind manipulation device. The patterns of electronic energy relax the brain and make it more susceptible to suggestion. A little like hypnosis. It can't change someone completely in the short term, but over time it could easily rewire brain pathways. She thanks you for the gifts, by the way, the military cameras were particularly interesting."

"You're saying she's be brainwashing Anthony?" That bitch. I was going to kill her. So many things were falling into place.

"I'm saying that Anthony might not be the same person he once was. I'm not certain how you've planned this conversation but there's a good chance he might not react in the way you assume. He might not even see the folly of his recent actions."

I frowned.

"I have to try."

"I understand. Do you want back up?"

Backup would make my presence seem like an invasion. Despite what Aiden was saying I was still hoping Anthony could be reasoned with.

"No. I need to go alone."

"Then I'll wish you good luck. The files are in your phone. She's been silent on Thostchild since the last recording, all her personal conversations involve managing the domestic pieces of the pack."

Aiden hung up first, and I sat for a bit, just trying to process what I was about to do. I started the SUV and the radio blared to life. Which was a little weird, because I hadn't thought it was on. Then again, I'd been a little stressed and distracted.

I reached forward to turn it off but hesitated when I caught the thread of the conversation.

*"...we can't actually judge the content. With today's technology the footage could have easily been deep faked."*

*"But one has to wonder why anyone would deep fake that. I mean, a werewolf? The idea of it is ludicrous. Don't get me wrong, whoever ran into that building was a damned hero. There's no telling if those two people would have died before the fire department figured out how to get them down."*

A third voice chimed in, Amy Sinclair, one of the city's public voices. She was normally quite critical, but her words had a tinge of excitement to them.

*"The witnesses swear that everything in the video is real, they were trapped in the burning building and some man without any firefighting equipment burst through the heavily sealed door using only his fists. He jumped them down from the window almost two stories and then turned into a wolf and hightailed it out of town. There's been a rash of reported and swat operations lately as well, the witness that captured the footage claimed that they've been threatened by the government body...*"

I turned the radio off.

So, Aiden had started his campaign.

I frowned as I tapped at the steering wheel. I couldn't see how that would end well, so I sure hoped Aiden knew what he was doing. If nothing else our lives were about to get a lot more complicated. I hesitated before pulling away from the curb, checking the temporary phone I'd been given instead.

The files were in the email, and I looked them over.

Most of the recordings were labeled with the date and time. Those that were from her handler were starred and labeled as such.

I clicked on one who's date and time were only an hour ago.

*"...I don't care. There's no point holding an entire room for someone uninterested in contributing to the pack. I've given it to Camilla. If you don't like it you can take it up with Anthony*."

*"It's not right*," Martha's accented voice sounded furious, but it was restrained, she was being careful with her words. Leanne's bid for Luna was beginning to take hold. That was her deal the whole time, I realized. She had Anthony brainwashed, but she needed to convince the rest of the pack about her position. That was why she'd gone to his room the night I'd infiltrated the ranch house, even though he'd fallen asleep in the office. Her scent would be all over his bed, especially with the terrible perfume she wore. The rest of the members would easily identify her presence in his room, and they would start to wonder.

*"Careful," Leanne warned. "You never know when positions of the pack will be rearranged. You wouldn't want to be on the outskirts because you refused to accept the inevitable direction the organization is going."*

And she'd just threatened Martha.

The recording cut out, and I let the anger and determination of my emotions overtake the fear and guilt of what I'd done and what Anthony would do about it. It didn't matter any longer what Anthony, or the rest of the pack thought of me. I had to do what I could to save them all from Leanne. And I had to do it before she got her claws in any deeper.