The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

“They need to do an autopsy, so I wouldn’t expect them to release the body for a few days. Liv can make arrangements with one of the funeral homes in town.”

So much to do. “Jacob, am I off the hook?”

“It was a righteous shoot, Leo, and your permit was valid. Liv confirmed your story and said you saved them. They can’t arrest you for not listening to Dispatch and stopping them yourself, as much as they would have liked you to wait. I can’t see the District Attorney charging you with anything. I’d get a new gun because it could be months before you get yours back.”

Metro area Sheriffs loved to take in guns, but they slow-walked them back to the rightful owners. “I’ll do that today as well,” I said. If I could get down to Red Wing, I could have one today. “Let me know what they say about Liv’s things. They don’t have a change of clothes of their own, so I need to get her in there.”

“I’ll do what I can.” I hung up and called Brent up to my office. “You’re with me, I need to pick up my truck from impound in Lakeville. Are you carrying?” He turned and showed me the pistol on his right hip, a Glock. “Good. You’re driving too, here’s the address.” I slept most of the way there, paid to get my truck back, then followed him back home. It was lunchtime by the time I arrived home, and everyone was already up.

“LEO,” Vicki yelled as she ran towards me.

“Your hands are all sticky,” Liv said.

I picked her up and hugged her back to my chest as I entered the dining room, keeping her hands away. “How are you?”

“Grandma gone,” she said.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“I know.” I carried her back to the table, where she had been eating French toast and bacon. I looked into the kitchen where Connie was cooking up a storm. “That smells great,” I said.

“Here, go sit down Alpha,” she said after scooping food onto the plate. “You’re too skinny.” Brent came in behind me and got his plate next.

I sat by Vicki, with Liv on the other side. “Girls, this is Brent Lawrence. He joined my Pack this morning, so you’ll be seeing a lot of them. Have you two been introduced to everyone else?”

“Most of them,” Liv said. “Vicki is a little jumpy around strange men.”

“Our Sharkbait will get used to them. I will never bring anyone into this house who would hurt you. There are a lot of people here helping now because we don’t want anyone taking you from us.”

My phone rang in my pocket; it was the Sheriff. “Leo Volkov,” I said as I stood up.

“Mr. Volkov, it’s Detective Clark. Your lawyer contacted me about Ms. Andersen’s personal effects. I understand she is with you?”

“Yes, just a moment.” I handed the phone over. “Detective Clark.”

I ate and talked with Vicki as Liv spoke to him on the phone, hearing both sides of the conversation with my wolf hearing. She would not be able to visit the crime scene until tomorrow, and her grandmother would not be released for three more days. She hung up and handed it back. “Do you have what you need until then,” I asked.

“Connie picked up a few things for us already,” she said. “I have questions, though. Should I get a hotel room or something? I don’t want to impose.”

I couldn’t believe she’d ask that. “Liv, I want and need you two here. My wolf and I need to know you are safe and protected, and I can’t do that elsewhere. You are no imposition at all.”

She blushed a little at that. “What about the funeral? Her school?”

“School will have to wait unless we can provide adequate security. As for the funeral, we’ll need to plan carefully. If they want to try again, that’s one place they can flush you out.” She didn’t look happy. “Whatever you need, a lawyer, money, it’s yours. What are you worried about?”

She glanced at Vicki and shook her head. “LuAnne, can you take Vicki and help her clean up,” I asked.

“I need to tell my parents her mother is gone,” Liv said.

“They don’t know?”

“I was her next of kin. When Grandma took me in after Mom and Dad disowned me, they didn’t talk to her either. I haven’t spoken to them since I told them I was pregnant. I need to tell them before the police release her name.”

It was going to be difficult. “Do you want me to call your parents for you?”

“I’d like you to be there when I call, in case it goes badly.” I had finished eating, and Connie took the plate away as I stood up. LuAnn took Vicki to watch television while we went into the office.

She sat in my lap as she dialed the phone on my desk. “Hello?”

“Mom, it’s Liv. I have some bad news.”

“I have no daughter,” the woman said before hanging up.

That was enough to cause Liv to break down; I held her as she cried. When she could breathe normally again, I asked her to go to Vicki. As soon as she was gone, I called the number back using my cellphone this time. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Andersen, my name is Leo Volkov. I’m a friend of Natalie’s from the Hastings area.”

“Why are you calling me, Mr. Volkov? I don’t associate with either of them anymore.”

“I’m informing you that Natalie was killed last night in a kidnapping attempt on your daughter and granddaughter. You should be able to read about it in the news, or you can contact me directly if you have any questions.”

“Mom…”

“I will let you know when funeral arrangements are made.”

“Why?”

“Because you never know when you’ll lose the chance to repair the damage you’ve caused,” I said. “Olivia is a wonderful young woman and mother, and your granddaughter is special. You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“It’s none of your business, Mr. Volkov. Do not call me again.”

“As you wish,” I said as I hung up. I just shook my head; they had no idea what they had tossed aside.

Liv didn’t hear back from the Sheriff until late afternoon. The FBI had released the scene, and they would have deputies there to turn over the property to her. “I don’t know if I can see where Grandma was killed,” she told me as she hung up. “I’ll never be able to sleep there again.”

“Can I show you something?” I’d been busy setting up security and organizing the help, while she had been sitting in the living room with Vicki and six others, all watching movies on Netflix.

“I guess,” she said.

“Sharkbait!” Vicki looked up at me, as everyone else in the room answered with “SHARKBAIT, HOO HA HA!”

“Yes, Unky Leo?”

“Come on, I want to show you something.” I opened a door in the back of the dining room, one they’d probably figured was a closet. Instead, it opened up to a staircase. I started up, with the two following me. “When Catherine and I bought this land and started to build, it took a long time to finish the house. My company had to do paying construction jobs first, and it took a lot of nights and weekends to get it done. The first thing we built was the garage, and above the garage, we built this to live in.” The door opened into a large apartment that ran the length of the four-car garage. The roof came down sharply at the front and back, with dormered windows letting in lots of light. The ceiling was twelve feet tall in the middle, and the ceiling sloped down until vertical walls intersected at about four feet tall.

“This is nice,” Liv said as she walked into the kitchen and dining area.

“The master bedroom and bathroom are at the end of the hall, and there is a smaller bedroom to the left on the opposite side from the kitchen,” I said. “A laundry closet is on the left, past that is a three-quarter bath for the main area and guest bedroom. It’s completely private; the only entrance is the stairway we came up, although the bedrooms have emergency exit ladders under the windows. I’d like to offer you this apartment for as long as you need it.”

“It’s more than we need,” she said. “I can’t possibly afford it.”

“It’s not about affording anything, it’s about keeping you two safe. Someone wants both of you so much, an innocent grandmother got killed. It’s not safe for Vicki to return to school, or for you to work right now.”

“So, this is our new prison?”

I couldn’t let her get defensive. “This is your new refuge. You’ll have a place of your own, and you can involve yourself with me and the others in the main house as much or as little as you want. If you want to cook your own meals, the kitchen has everything but food. The apartment is furnished and ready to move in.”

Vicki had moved off, looking out the window in the dining room over the back yard. “My room?”

“This way,” I said. I opened the room; it had a twin bed with side tables, a dresser with a mirror, and a small closet. Vicki bounced on the mattress before Liv pulled her off. “The master is right here.” Inside was a queen-sized bed with a vintage cherry bedroom set. I opened the door to the master bath.

“Momma, look at the TUB,” she said. Inside was a two-person whirlpool tub near a window overlooking the back yard. “Bubble bath!”

“It’s nice,” Liv said.

“It’s yours for as long as you need it,” I said. “Brent is taking a small room in the basement of the house, and Mike and Anita are moving into the larger bedroom downstairs. The others won’t stay on after we stop the threat.”

“Is that normal? For your Pack to live in the same house?”

“It’s common for smaller Packs. When you have more than a dozen in the Pack, you need a mansion, or you start building or buying multiple homes close together. When I was Alpha, I helped them buy the land and build their homes.”

“Is that why your home is so big?”