Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella
Chapter 40

EVAN

Claudia would be all right. She was being stubborn about taking the rest she needed, but she slept peacefully now with some timely help. Evan left her bedroom with a smile so he could wash up and prepare for Peelle's visit. Osborn had had to stay behind in Dark Moon to make sure nothing happened while they were away, but it would be good to have even one trusted companion back. It was past time for a real face-to-face meeting.

Evan's good mood melted away at the thought, and the stern coldness of his usual demeanor returned to its customary place. He had taken the day off to take care of Claudia since he trusted no one else to do so like he could, but the same went for this business with Dark Moon. Things were too entangled for him to step carelessly. He had entrusted the basics to Peelle and Osborn for now, but he would be giving this his undivided attention tonight.

"Peelle." "Evan."

When no one else was around, they were like this, friends before anything else. Alpha and subordinate they might be in front of others, but Peelle had always been by his side, supporting him even when his arm seemed weakest. Evan let him into his bedroom and gave the other man a one-armed hug and a nod.

"How's Claudia doing?" Peelle asked as he dropped into one of the armchairs, unwittingly betraying his fatigue. He had been going back and forth from Scarlet and Dark Moon often lately; that was no surprise. "She must have been in bad shape to have you running around so crazy."

"She exhausted herself. She doesn't know her limits."

"Well, she's hungry for life. Don't fault her for that. Remember what I told you about giving her some space?"

"I'm trying. When you told me to stop having her watched on campus, I did that."

"Which is good, but make sure you don't fall back down that rabbit hole, and even deeper this time. You two... are you?"

Evan raised and lowered one shoulder. He already knew Peelle would disapprove. Better to say nothing and only confirm the bare minimum so he wouldn't be lectured. Tonight was not a night to humor Peelle's forwardness. They had business to handle. "When is Osborn going to be ready?" he asked. "He's late."

"He just texted me a few minutes before I got here, they're running late because of some false alarm on the perimeter. They thought someone sneaked into the territory, but it looks like it's just the storms messing with everyone's visibility." "They need to stay on their toes. This is not the time to be careless."

"You got it. He'll be dialing us any second now. And oh, there he is. I'll put him on speaker."

"Lower the volume so it doesn't go through the walls." Evan nodded to his right. "Claudia's sleeping."

"All right." Peelle raised his phone. "Osborn, you're on speaker. Give us the report, what's going on with the perimeter issue? Found anything yet or nothing still?"

"Nothing. But I've doubled the guard just in case around the office we set up. Don't need any slip ups. I'll be ready to send out the most recent reports in a couple days when we have enough compiled. Things are hard going but the investigation is moving forward." Evan grimaced. Osborn's voice was crackling a little. Was the storm so bad that it was disrupting the reception? "What about the greenhouse issue? Do you have confirmation of narcotics in the stores?"

"Yes and no, Alpha. If they were synthesizing drugs here then we have yet to find them, but we found at least five plants being grown in Greenhouse Four that would make up a potential narcotic base. It's nothing we can pin on them yet, but it's pretty suspicious that they have so many of them just sitting around in pots and plots. We're hunting down the rest as we speak." "Narcotic base?"

Peelle took over. "I had some physicians with me who could give me a better explanation about it. Apparently, there are alternative medicines for certain illnesses, since werewolf genes can be unpredictable and standard medicine isn't really one-size-fits-all. But these alternative medicines are substandard, they can be addicting and have side effects that can be almost as bad or even worse than the thing they're meant to cure." "So Dark Moon has been peddling in these alternative medicines?"

"Might be. No sound proof of that quite yet but at this rate, we're going to find it real soon. And some of the substandard medicines are illegal anyway, so once we pin this..." Peelle paused. "Well, there isn't anyone left in Dark Moon to blame, really, since you executed most of them. But it'll help us find the connection between them and the other families and packs who've been trading with them over the last few decades."

"Good." Evan settled into his armchair and tapped the armrest, frowning. "I want the full write-up on findings by the end of the week. And I want all trading of these medicines stopped. If they can be called medicine at all. Dark Moon must have been at the hub of whatever illegal trading was going on, but they weren't acting alone. They also represent a sizable power vacuum right now since we've dismantled their base. There must be other packs scrambling to fill the void. Find them, and dismantle them too. "You got it. Osborn, did you get all that?"

"I did. Alpha, I'll have all my reports send to you by the end of the week without fail. But there's some pushback you should know about. The neighboring packs are starting to get overconfident. They're interfering in subtle ways that are just irritating enough that it's slowing down our work."

Evan clenched his fists over the armrests. "If they keep it up, I'll show up personally and teach them why that's unwise. What happened to Dark Moon can easily happen to them all if I say the word. Are they the ones trespassing on the territory?"

"It might be, Alpha. I want to think I'm being jumpy because of the bad weather, but strange things are happening. Shadows here and there, unexplained noises. Things going missing, like I said. I'm being careful to keep both eyes peeled, but whoever is messing with us has the home field advantage."

"And whoever it is won't be acting alone. It could be all of the neighboring packs and families who were affected by Dark Moon's fall all banding together to reap the windfall. Or to protect themselves by eliminating information. Proof." Evan looked to Peelle. "Get back as soon as possible. I was going to ask you to check on the situation in Briar Moon territory, but this is more urgent."

"I had a feeling you were going to say that. I would have stayed there and done this over phone like Osborn, but I wanted to come back here to find an herbologist in the city. The doctors can pick apart most of the findings as long as they actually know what they're looking at, but they're stymied with a few of the weird plants we found in the hidden greenhouses. We need more experts, I'm taking one back with me who should be able to help."

Evan nodded. "Get everything and everyone you need by morning and go right back to Dark Moon. If that herbologist says they can't make it, offer to double whatever salary they're making right now, and offer them a provisional job with us on a semi-permanent basis, something they can afford to leave their job for on a moment's notice. We'll probably need them for a while yet."

"Understood. I'm taking some more Deltas back with me, too. We need to increase the security around Dark Moon territory, but also, the smaller packs in the area that might be involved in this need to be policed harder." "How many do you need?"

"Spare me about twenty of our men, they don't need to be disciplined like our own Scarlets. Any loyal ones from the annexed packs should be fine."

"Take whoever you need. Osborn, do you need more men too?"

"No, Alpha. I'll make do easily with what we have. I've already taken some precautions and adjusted the watch shifts. I just can't spare anyone to be sent over to the other territories."

"Tell me if anything changes. I'll have men standing by ready to go if they're needed." Evan tapped his armrest again. "I should be there now. But I have business to take care of that will take almost a week so I won't be able to make it there until Wednesday. I'll be waiting for your report."

Dark Moon. Evan had expected treachery from them even if he'd had no hard evidence of their wrongdoings before all of this happened. But if they were truly dabbling in something as dire as drug trafficking, this was far larger than Evan had guessed. He should have avoided the formalities of pack annexation and just gone for them right away a long time ago.

Too late for that. But he was handling it now.

Dark Moon's misdeeds would come into the light, one way or another.