— Kaden —

Ela and I had decided to work through the rest of the weekend to clear as many things off my schedule as possible.

“At this point,” I told her from the chair in my office. “We might have time for a honeymoon,” I said rubbing at my shin.

“We won’t,” she said.

She was sitting on the long chesterfield leather couch at the back of the room.

“No honeymoon?” I asked her.

She looked up at me. “I don’t know,” she said, pensive. “But not at the moment. Maybe later this winter?” she suggested.

I leaned back in my chair. “Does it bother you?” I asked her.

She titled her head. “We cannot always get what we want, Kade. This was rushed to begin with. There are many things underway. I can be patient. I am more than happy. Aren’t you?”

“I am,” I confirmed. “I can wait too, I just don’t want my hectic life to make you miserable.”

“If I could not stand your hectic life, I would not be marrying you.”

I conceded her point in half shrug. “True,” I admitted. “But we could at least try to make it work.”

“We are,” she said. “But something else will take the time we are saving up.”

“Do you know what?”

She shook her head.

Someone knocked on the door.

“I should leave you to work,” she said as she got up to answer the door.

She was still trying to stay out of the way whenever someone came to me for something. She was really trying to adjust, which I appreciated, but I was not pushing her either. It was a lot to adapt too. But I did take her to the office often now, and she was getting more comfortable with helping me, which she did splendidly.

She didn’t always understand the work, but she—I guess—understood me enough to work out what I wanted or needed with this.

Sometimes, she would lay a hand on me to get a read on my position on something, or do similarly on papers, guiding the decision-making process.

I knew that using her gift so often made her a bit more tired.

On the other hand, she had started to read some of the documents, and ask questions about it.

I did give her the rundown on a lot of business and pack-related ventures. The mathematics of the business side seemed to be a lot for her. Which was absolutely normal for someone who never studied or worked in business. But she was good with people, and her insights were valuable.

In other circumstances, teaching a newbie on all this would have been too much time for what I could afford—especially right now—but given all the help she gave me, I still gained time more than I lost.

She paused as her hand made contact with the doorknob, her eyes nothing but slits.

I couldn’t read her well enough yet to know if there was a problem or she was just getting insight. But she finally opened the door to usher whoever it was in, only she didn’t leave and returned to her place on the couch.

A man walked in. He was in his late fifties, well built, with the shape of someone who’s worked with his hands all his life.

I didn’t recognise him, but then again, I didn’t know everyone in my pack on sight, and if he’d been allowed to come to my office by my staff, then it meant he checked out.

I leaned back into my chair and looked a him. I gestured at one on the chair before me.

He shook his head.

“I won’t bother you for long, Alpha,” he told me.

So I signed for him to say what he needed.

“It’s because of my daughter that I’m here. You see, she has been harassed everywhere she goes, but I can’t find out who his stalking her. She can’t sleep, her grades are going down, she’s just a terrified child.”

“How young is she?” I asked him.

“Fourteen, Alpha.”

“What pack are you from?”

“Bluedawn, Alpha.”

“Have you talked to Alpha Van Der Berg?”

“I have, Alpha. He has helped, there is more security near my home and my daughter is not followed as much, but she barely leaves the house anymore anyways. But despite this, she still receives messages, taunts, it never truly stopped. The Alpha is helping however he can, but it’s not enough. I thought that maybe you have better resources. My daughter is not the lively little girl I’ve known all my life and I can’t stand back powerless and watch her life being taken apart like this.”

Elaeya rose from her seat, gave me and him a look, then moved her gaze to the door.

“What is your name?” I asked him as I got up.

“Bakker, Sir. Levi Bakker.”

“And your daughter’s?” I closed my laptop.

“Nikki.”

I nodded. “Lead the way,” I told him.

His eyes widened, but he didn’t hesitate for long.

We walked out, Elaeya next to me.

Levi took his old Ford pickup and Sam drove us to Bluedawn Territory.

As usual, Elaeya had no idea what was going on, other than we should go. I would have normally sent someone, but it seemed, we will take care of this one personally.

The Bakker’s house was a nice one. Nothing frivolous, but exuding the character of the family. It had plenty of pictures and trinkets everywhere, but it didn’t feel like clutter, more like a lot of personality.

I noticed in the distance the movement of a sentry.

I had warned on my way, Tristan Van De Burg that I was coming onto his territory.

I didn’t know exactly what I could do here myself, so I simply asked to see the family and to have them tell me all that they knew.

It didn’t take long though for Elaeya to focus her attention elsewhere entirely, so I raised my hand to stop their chatting and looked at her.

She looked questioningly at me.

I nodded, giving her permission for whatever she needed and she got up from the couch we had been sitting on in the family’s living room, and she started to wander.

I got up to follow her. When I saw them about to interrupt us to ask questions, I shook my head at them and they simply following us in silence.

Elaeya led us to what I assumed was the girl’s bedroom.

She pushed a few things away to get a better view of an air vent. She moved her hands over it, stopping at various screw heads.

“Could I have a screwdriver please?” she asked looking up.

Levi looked about to question her, but when I looked at him, he just complied and left to return not long after with the tool.

Elaeya thank him and set to work on the four screws. I bent down on my shin next to her. She gave me the screws and used the screwdriver to pry the grate off the wall, then put it aside.

She inserted her hand in the darkness inside and pulled an electronic device.

“Well, fuck,” I said.

“What is it?” she asked me.

“Camera. Small, portable, long-range, live feed,” I said.

Levi started to string up lines of curses behind us.

I’ve no idea how I would feel if I’d just discovered some creep had been spying, in my own home, on my teenage daughter. I’d probably feel pretty murderous at this point.

Elaeya gave me the camera, and got off her knees.

I put the screws on a nearby desk and followed her.

She stopped in the bathroom looking up at the ceiling fan right above the shower.

Levi, anticipating what it meant, started cursing once again, but stopped as his wife began crying.

I was glad the girl was in school and not here.

I put the camera I was holding on the counter and took the screwdriver from Elaeya as she would struggle to reach the fan up there. I unclipped the cap, then unscrewed the whole thing.

She oriented me to find the other camera, a similar model. Something, I guessed, that could probably be found online for fairly cheap.

“Is there other’s?” asked Levi.

Elaeya tilted her head and her eyes changed colour for a while, until she shook her head.

I called my tech team and took the cameras downstairs.

They arrived not long after and installed their gear on the kitchen table. It was always easier to analyse from the same Wi-Fi network, and we let them work.

“Is he using a VPN?” I asked them.

“I think so,” said one of my tech.

“What does it mean?” Asked Maud Bakker, her husband still holding her hand.

She was a stocky woman. Not conventionally pretty, but she had pleasant features that looked very motherly.

“It means that he re-routed the signal, which can make it nigh impossible to trace,” said one of the techies.

“Ah!” said the other guy. “The idiot used a tablet a couple of times and didn’t connect it to the VPN.”

“Can you trace its location?” I asked.

“Yep.”

I reassured the Bakkers that we were doing all that was necessary as we left.

Outside, I took my phone out to contact Tristan and update him on this.

Elaeya put a hand on my chest, so I stopped and looked at her.

“Something is wrong about this,” she said.

“Wait up,” I said to the man piling inside their car. “What is it?” I asked her.

“The one who did this,” she said. “Something is wrong. I think something more should be found about him. When you find him. Interrogate him properly, there is more to this story.”

I nodded.

I relayed everything to Tristan and he invited us to his packhouse for dinner.

His wife had taken their children with her to see her family so he was alone when we met him.

We talked about this whole situation, but midway through dinner, his team called him to ask for him to come to deal with a situation. So we wrapped the meal quickly and joined him to his compound where his interrogation cells were.

“Alpha,” said the man who greeted us to Tristan. “Alpha,” he said turning to me. “We investigated the home of the perp and have begun interrogation,” he said with a military cadence.

“His name his Justin Borrowitz, twelve—,”

“What?” Tristan interrupted him. “Twelves-year-old?”

“Yes, Sir,” he said. “We found a lot of disturbing material on his computer. Not all of which regarding the Bakker girl. Because of your tip, we dug in further and questioned him about it.”

“Turns up the kid and one of his cousins are involved into some sort of sexual behaviour with a Bryan Borrowitz and an accomplice.”

“The father?” asked Tristan.

“Uncle,” he said.

“Was the videos of Nikki Bakker for the uncle too?”

“No, Sir,” he said. “We’re not yet sure, but we think there as been long-term sexual abuse in this household. We think the kid acted on his own towards the Bakker girl. I called a child psychologist in town and she said it could be a developing deviancy due to the abuse. You know, the abused becoming abuser, type thing,” he sighed disgusted.

It’s always worse when the victims and children.

“This is not our area of expertise, Sir,” the man added. “We’re not trained in these types of situations. I don’t think we’ve faced those before.”

Tristan nodded. “I’m not very familiar either.”

“I can call Brandon. We have someone for case of domestic abuse. Continue getting information about this. There will be ramifications for his acts, but he should be treated as a minor in all this, and I want the two men arrested. Make sure you get proofs, confessions, track that cousin too. This case as to be solid. Can you handle the parents?” I asked Tristan.

“Yes.” He sighed. “It’s going to be a damn long night.”