Ranmo Smith's POV
LaCrosse Pack House
Niesha, the poor child who had been taken captive at fourteen and suffered four years of unspeakable hell, was my little brother's mate.
Fuck.
He had to come back here, we needed to talk. "Come back here, we need to tell them about this and I'm not going to do it." I looked over at the room. "Bobby went for a run. His wolf gets upset when we talk about what happened and he needed to let it out."
Alpha Clark stood up, his wolf was forward as well. "I think it would be good if all our wolves got out for a few minutes. Please, join me for a short run. We have much more to talk about, and my wolf is making it difficult because he just wants to run to Tomah and kill that bastard right now." I followed him and his leadership out of the room, and we pulled off our clothes and stacked them on the porch before shifting. My wolf shook out his fur, he was silver-grey with a black saddle and muzzle. Bobby ran up as I jumped off the porch, his wolf had more black coloration, but it was clear we were brothers. The Alphas took off for the woods, setting a fast pace. As guests, we ran in the middle behind the Alphas and Beta pair. We ran hard for about thirty minutes before we returned to the home and dressed again.
We all felt better as we returned to the conference room and closed the door. "What do you need to find out what happened, Ranmo," the Alpha asked as we sat down.
"I want to interview as many people as I can who were around Niesha at that time. I also want to interview each of you about what you remember about those days surrounding her disappearance through Nisha's exile. Essentially, I'm treating this like a cold case, taking a fresh look at all the evidence and re-interviewing all the witnesses to see if I can find anything new."
"You'll have our full cooperation," the Alpha said. "Beta Lori, please set him up with a room and clear your schedule, you'll be working with him while he is here. I need you to ensure he gets access to any Pack members he needs."
"If I may, Alphas," I interrupted. "The last thing I need is for word to get out on what I am investigating. I would request that all of those who are interviewed be given an Alpha order not to talk about it, and we have a cover story for what I am doing."
"We can do that. Any ideas for a cover story?"
"It's not unheard of for Packs to arrange for exchanges of people, you can be here to determine if such an exchange would be profitable between our Packs," Luna Teri said.
"That would work," I said. "Especially if it was six months long and we came up from May to October, and your wolves came down from November to April. It would be easier to get volunteers in each Pack that way. We could be interviewing young people and leadership on what they would like to see in such an exchange."
"I'll handle that part," Bobby said. "I'll make it a real project, and once Ranmo is done with them I will take over. That way if they are asked what we talked about, they can answer honestly."
There were a few more things we talked through, and I handed the Alpha a list of the people I already knew I wanted to interview. "If you know anyone else who would be of help, please add them," I said.
He looked at the list. "Michelle joined my Pack a few months after Todd took over along with her family, she is going to the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse now. Everyone else works on Pack lands, so they won't be a problem, except Erica. She was outcast as a traitor, and we haven't seen..."
Luna Teri was glaring at him. "They need to know," she said.
They carried on a conversation over the bond before he let out a long breath and looked at us again. "Beta Brad will take you to see her while his mate works with Bobby to set up an office."
I suspected they were helping her somehow, despite Council laws on those outcast as traitors, and I was glad for it. "Was a missing-person report filed with human authorities?"
"I filed one three days after she disappeared," her grandfather said. "The detective came out and interviewed some people, but nothing ever came of it."
"That's curious," I said. "Did they take DNA and fingerprint evidence as part of the investigation?"
"I'm sure they did, why?"
I took a deep breath, this was deeper than I thought. "When we ran Niesha's fingerprints from the room she was in, they didn't come up in the FBI database. If a missing person report was filed, her DNA and fingerprints would set off all kinds of alarm bells."
"That FUCKER!" Her grandfather figured it out first. "He paid someone off!"
"Or he swapped out the fingerprints and DNA with someone else," I said. "This is good for me, I'll swing by the local Sheriff and find out about this case. I can say I'm following up on the missing woman from my Dallas case."
"What do you need from us, Ranmo," the Alpha said.
"Let me do my job and uncover evidence that can prove who did this. Only then can we capture and try the people responsible. If you go after Todd now, you could spark a war."
"It will be so," he said as he looked at his leadership. "We don't do anything or say anything until he's had his chance."
I had one more thing they needed to know, and it wasn't mine to say to I linked Bobby. "Tell them who Niesha is to you," I said. "There is one more thing you should be aware of." I turned and looked back at Bobby.
"I apologize for running off earlier, but I was more than a little shocked. When I scented Niesha's clothing, I recognized her as my mate."
"Oh Selene," Luna Teri said before breaking into a wide smile. "Oh my, the Goddess has been busy. Two brothers mated to two sisters."
Bobby grinned, thrilled to know who his mate was. "Yes, I am certain of it. I would humbly ask to be allowed to stay here, because if Niesha returns to a Pack it will be here with her remaining family. I want to be here for her if she shows up."
"She's human," Beta Brad said. "Your brother confirmed it in Fort Worth. You recognized the wolf in her scent from when she still had one, will she still be your mate without a wolf?"
"My wolf does not care," he said. "He has recognized her, he wants her, and he wants blood on his teeth as well for what happened to her. If she cannot fight for her revenge, he will do it for her."
"I will have to speak to your Alpha," Clark said. "You should talk to him first."
"I am calling him as soon as we are done here," I said.
Luna Teri looked at the clock. "Lunch is in ten minutes, you should join us there. We will let the Pack know about your cover story. I think everything else, including your mates, should stay quiet." Lunch was a quiet affair, but the potential for an exchange to spend winter in Texas was well received. I'd told my father about it in our short conversation, and he could see a few Texas pack members wanting to escape the summer heat to go to Wisconsin. He'd been shocked to hear about Bobby's mate, and it made my own investigation even more important to my Pack.
After the meal, Brad and I got in his pickup and drove to the southern edge of the territory, where a small cabin overlooked the river valley. The cabin was surrounded by gardens and greenhouses, and the scents of herbs and flowers filled the air. A young woman appeared at the door, her beauty marred by a scarred "T" on her left cheek. "Erica, this is Ranmo Smith of the Sulphur River Pack in Texas. The Alphas would ask that you answer some of his questions."
"Of course, Beta. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Smith. Please come in."
"Thank you. Call me Ranmo, please. It's an honor to meet you, Erica." I followed her into the cozy cabin, and as she walked in front of me I could see the crisscross pattern of whip scars on her back and shoulders.
She must have felt me staring. "They don't bother me, Ranmo. I don't regret a one of them, and this Pack has accepted and protected me." She had us sit on her couch, then brought over a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses. The windows were open, letting the summer breeze through. "No air conditioning here, it's off-the-grid power only," she said.
"I'm used to worse humidity in Texas," I said as I accepted a glass. "You need to know a few things before we start, so you know why you can trust me," I said. I explained about my job, the murder investigation, and the discovery that Nisha was my mate and Niesha was my younger brother's mate.
"Wow," she said. "Nisha rescued her." She sat back in her chair, trying to process it all. "What do you need?"
"I don't know how to track down Nisha, but I'm trying to figure out what really happened with Niesha and their parents. I have my suspicions."
"You think Beta Todd was behind it all." I nodded. "Nisha didn't trust him, she thought something was wrong and she didn't want to mate him ever." She went through everything, from the day Niesha disappeared to the Alpha challenge that resulted in Nisha's exile.
"Why did you help her when the Alpha was clear about how it was forbidden?"
"Nisha was getting no help from anyone. The Pack didn't back her claim to Alpha, the Council dismissed her as a girl, and she didn't deserve her fate. All I wanted to do was to give her clothing and money so she could get away and make a life. She was my best friend, and I had to help."
"You're a loyal wolf," I said.
"Michelle was too, but her parents would have suffered if she did it. My family was gone, so I took the risk and lost." She traced the scar on her cheek. "The Alphas collected me from the woods after I was cast out and brought me to their Pack. The healer used a cream to remove as much of the silver from the wounds as possible, but it was only enough to reduce the scarring from how bad it could have been. I stay here mostly, raising my plants and joining the Pack when there are no guests."
"Did the police talk to you?"
"A detective talked to me and a few other girls who were at the beach, before Nisha returned. We didn't know anything. She did a cool backflip off the rope swing, went back to her towel and we never saw her again."