“That’s a little naïve, don’t you think?” Royce said pointedly. “Ash and the Pack guards already know something’s up, and now Melony and Nick certainly know you’re not right. Not after hooking up with that minx Trixie. Normally you keep well away from her. However, what do you do tonight? You waltz in here and go straight for her, the two of you disappearing back here for more than half an hour. To top it all she storms out of here calling you some rather filthy names that I’d rather not repeat. So, yeah, boss, there’s more than me that knows there’s something wrong with you.”
Shade continued to pace, his insides painful, his head spinning as Royce watched him warily. “At least I don’t need to worry about this place.”
“Nope,” Royce agreed.
The Den. One of the Pack’s businesses and by far one of their most successful.
It had started out as a plain old Shifter bar for Shade’s Pack, the Silver Lake Pack hence the name, and the neighboring Pack that Trixie was a member of. However, it soon grew to the three-tier nightclub it now was. Open to humans who flocked to it from wide and far at weekends to live on the “wild side” with Wolves. Females seemingly desperate for a night of passion in the arms of a Shifter, hell, the men looked for that thrill too. Whatever, it all meant that The Den made a shitload of money for their Pack. Shade didn’t complain, Royce was left in charge most of the time, with Shade coming in once or twice a week to check things over, or if Royce had a problem he needed his help with.
Tonight hadn’t been either of those. Shade had appeared with the sole purpose of trying to feed this insatiable hunger in another way but had failed miserably.
The sound of Royce hitting his palm against his forehead loudly had Shade turning his attention back to his Beta. “What?”
“The Archives, you don’t need to hunt through them.” Royce looked pleased with himself. “Well, you do, but it’ll be much easier than looking through all those old ledgers. I’ve just remembered that Lana started a project months ago of getting them digitized. She has a ton of them on a disc. She said they were too precious to have on a hard-drive in case we were hacked. Yeah, I know, as if anyone is going to hack us for our history but anyway, that’s what she said at the time. Anyway, she’s been hard at work with some helpers and I’m sure she’s all but finished. You can get the disc, or discs, no idea how many she has, but then all you need to do is load it up and do a search. Far easier than trying to find something in those old tomes.”
“Shit, yes, I remember her asking my permission for that.” Shade nodded. “I told her she could recruit some of the teenagers to help her. They’re quicker with tech than anybody and thought they’d be the best people to get the job done.”
“There you go.” Royce swiped his hands up and down. “Job done. You can start looking tomorrow. For now, I think you should go back to camp and get some rest. No offence, Alpha, but you look like crap.”
“I think you should get back to work,” Shade snapped back.
Royce sidled toward the door. “On my way. Try not to upset anymore of my customers tonight. Please and thank you.”
Shade growled as Royce sped away his Beta chuckling as he left. “Cheeky mutt.” Shade muttered, still annoyed at himself for his earlier actions.
“Never shit where you eat.” He told himself as he switched off the light and left, knowing he’d made a huge mistake. One he was certain would come back to bite him on the ass.
That was something he’d deal with later, right now, he was exhausted, hungry but exhausted. He’d take Royce’s advice. Go home and try and sleep. The bottle of single malt waiting on him might just help in that department. If it didn’t, then the box it came in would certainly be used as a sleeping aid because it held several more that he’d be dipping into.
He needed rest, no two ways about it. If copious amounts of alcohol was the only way to achieve it, he’d deal with the resulting hangover. Anything was better than careening through the forest for yet another night in search of prey that did little to assuage the hunger that gnawed inside him.
Tomorrow he’d begin the search for the answer to what ailed him. Shade needed to find it, fast, before the entire Pack found out their Alpha was on the brink of madness.
Shade rolled over in bed to escape the sun streaming through his window. His head thumping painfully, regretting his binge of his favorite malt whisky the previous night. It was an expensive bender, he’d drank four full bottles in a row. One had not done the job so he’d torn open the others and poured them down his throat quickly in his quest for oblivion.
He was paying for it now. How he wished it were true that Shifters didn’t suffer from hangovers. That was just one of the myths surrounding his species. It took a hell of a lot to get him drunk but it was doable and he went at it like an Olympic sport last night. Hell, he should have won a Gold medal for his efforts. Now he was left with the aftermath; a headache that felt like his head was going to shatter with every movement.
Shade knew he had work to do today. He had to get to the bottom of what ailed him. He was Alpha but he’d certainly not been acting like one lately. He needed to get his ass in gear and sort himself out before the entire Pack realized something was wrong. The last thing he needed
