Chapter 4 The Lycan King

Charles

I hung up the phone and reclined in my seat, feeling victorious. Over fifty percent of Sharpe Medical Supplies was mine. Wolfe Medical would have no choice but to do business with me now, and that would be my chance. The longevity drug they were developing was going to take off in the market like a rocket, and I had to be on the ground floor. The thrill of winning, of going after a goal and achieving it would never get old, no matter how many businesses I flipped or how much money I made.

It was almost enough to lift my dark mood. Then, I caught sight of myself in the artfully arrange mirrors on the far side of the penthouse suite’s office. I hated this fucking haircut. I looked like a werewolf, and while that would serve me for all the business I planned to do in Mooncrest, I couldn’t wait for my hair to grow back to its original length. I should have gouged Silverstone’s Chief’s eyes out for challenging me in the first place, let alone cutting my hair with that illegal move. While taking more than half of everything he owned for losing the challenge and the jail time he would serve for his attempt on my life was nice, it was minor compared to naming another family chief family of his ancestral city. I’d made an example of him.

I smirked at the memory of the horror on the older clan chiefs’ faces. They would be hiding in their dens and rethinking their next moves for a good long while. It would give me enough time to figure out the best course of action to get a piece of Wolfe Medical. Due to the Werewolf-Lycan Ordinances, I wasn’t allowed to buy stock in any pack’s main business. Wolfe Medical was the main business of the Mooncrest Pack, and I couldn’t buy their patent rights when they got them either. Even if I could, Lycans didn’t have a single company that could do anything with it, and the drug wouldn’t have been as well received coming from a lycan company anyway. All I could do is invest in their business and make them a deal they couldn’t refuse. The investment I planned to make would be enough to get it through trials and onto the market quickly, my position on the board to help steer the company would make it fly off the shelves, and we’d all be making money hand over fist.

A knock sounded on the door. “Your Majesty?”

“Come in, George.”

George had been my assistant for over ten years, a loyal, powerful beta lycan who had proven to be one of the best assets I had.

“Something wrong?”

He gave me a thin smile, picked up the remote, and turned on the TV. Devin’s face filled the screen, the focus of an exclusive interview. I frowned and sat up, narrowing my eyes at the screen.

Devin had a serene smile on his face. The woman beside him was unrecognizable. I knew that he’d gotten married, but he hadn’t invited me. At the time, it had been reasonable. He was marrying a werewolf, and the tension between our races hadn’t cooled enough then. I went still as I shifted in my seat and watched the way the woman leaned into his side and the adoring look she gave him.

“She’s a lycan,” I said softly. “George?”

“Her name is Amy Greenvalley, an omega lycan from one of the eastern clans. I’m still looking into her and her family.”

I narrowed my eyes as Devin started to speak.

"Thank you all for coming. I wanted to take this moment to express my deep gratitude for finding my fated mate, Amy. As every lycan and werewolf knows, the mate bond is near impossible to resist.” He smiled and turned to look at Amy. “From the first time I laid eyes on Amy, I was captivated, knowing I would spend the rest of my days with her."

Her eyes lit up, and she clung a little tighter to Devin. Her expression was open and honest, hopeful. Her hand drifted to her stomach in an unconscious gesture that made me go still.

“Devin’s going to be a father?”

“It would seem so,” George said. “I thought it would be of interest to you, among other things.”

I cocked my eyebrow at George’s tone. It was humorless and a little angry. Devin kept talking as I focused on George.

“What is it?”

“I imagine he will be contacting you soon regarding the wedding arrangements again.”

I frowned. “Why would he do that?”

He had an inheritance to which he had full access, and as far as I remembered, he was working in his wife’s pack. What would he need to be contacting me about it? He hadn’t even bothered to tell me he was getting married before going on television about it.

“He’s nearly emptied it.” George swiped across his tablet and offered it to me.

The account was just as he said, and I almost laughed.

“I suppose his wife cleaned him out during the divorce?”

“I don’t believe so,” George said. “I am looking into the circumstances around it based on some reports regarding his relationship with Amy starting while he was still married.”

Adultery. I set my jaw and looked back at the television.

“I want to know as soon as you know something.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” He took his tablet back. “As for the woman you met at White Claw, I have not heard anything.”

I growled. My power stirred in my chest with frustration. When I called the number she’d given me and got a rejection hotline operated by the Mooncrest Pack’s Police, I had been stunned. She had been so willing, melting in my arms. The look in her eyes, as I was about to pull that little scrap of lace down her thighs and devour her, had been full of heat and wanting. She’d wanted me, so why blow me off?

Maybe I had been too forward and spooked her. She had young children and was just out of a divorce. Maybe she’d felt embarrassed. I wouldn’t know until I found her again. My blood was still burning with desire for her even several days later. I hadn’t been able to get the scent of her out of my mind. Every instinct was pushing me to scour the city for her. As an alpha lycan, my senses were several times more powerful than a beta lycan, let alone a werewolf. I was stronger and faster, too. It would have been the work of a day or two to catch even a whiff of her scent in Mooncrest’s city and find her, but I hadn’t. That wasn’t how I wanted her. I wanted her willing, but I was a damn impatient man. I’d find her in good time, and approach her properly, gently. I’d romance her to seduce her if I couldn’t seduce her to romance her.

“What about Wolfe Medical?”

“That was the primary reason I came in,” George said, swiping through documents. He handed it back to me. “Wolfe Medical and, by extension the Mooncrest Pack is in dire straits. I believe the original investment amount will be over-offering.”

I frowned and looked down at the tablet, and hissed as I saw the loan amount and terms. Why would Mooncrest and Wolfe Medical have signed a loan with the Lycan Clan Bank? How would they have even known about it? It wasn’t as if werewolves knew much about how the Lycan Clans’ economy operated. They generally just knew Lycans to be a source of protection.

I opened the original documents and frowned at the name attached to the application.

It was Devin, signing as the alpha of Mooncrest.

“Leave this with me for a moment. I want to make some calls.”

“Of course.”

I started to call the other banks throughout the Lycan Clan lands and my contacts within the Werewolf States. Within a few minutes, reports started to flow in of every loan originator I’d had at least some contact with who was willing to sell me Mooncrest and Wolfe Medical’s debts. The amounts owed with interest and all totaled more than the assets that had been listed for collateral. A lot of the properties had been listed twice over. How the hell could Devin do this to anyone? Let alone his wife? I made a note to get the Lycan Clan lawyers to start drafting a case against him under my rule and the Werewolf States. It would lead to more additions to the Ordinances, but I didn’t care.

It was unfortunate, but it was an opportunity to get a stake in Wolfe Medical with ease and starting to undo more of the old lycan clans’ way of doing things.

Especially my uncle and his cronies. Thoughts of him brought up more thoughts about Devin and Devin’s parents. I owed them so much for laying their lives down for me and thwarting my uncle’s coup, but I couldn’t allow Devin to get away with insulting my care for him all these years and his parents’ honorable memory. I couldn’t allow him to undo all the work me and my father had done to ease our relationship with werewolves.

We have to stand together, son, he’d said to me once. We have to stand together, or we will all fall.

I still didn’t know what he meant, but I believed him. I started to compile notes for whom to pay off and how when I found an old article covering Devin’s wedding nearly five years ago. I could hardly breathe from the shock. There, in his arms, smiling and looking so very happy was the woman I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind.

Grace Wolfe, Alpha of Mooncrest…

My adoptive son’s ex-wife.