Chapter 1

(Dominic’s POV)

I was sitting at the large dark wood table in the Conclave meeting, not really paying attention. I hated these meetings. I had a pack and a business to run. I didn’t want to be wasting what precious time I had being stuck in one of these stupid meetings where Garrett Blackthorn, the Alchemist Guild Master and Master of the Supernatural Conclave, lorded over everyone and commanded us all to kneel before him. Well, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I bet he would try if he thought he could get away with it. 

The room was full of supernaturals, around twenty of us in total. There were at least two vampire clan leaders in here, one coven priestess for the witches, and a master sorcerer. I think I even spotted a few different faeries as well. But what I did notice was that my Beta, Liam, and I were the only werewolves in the room. That didn’t look good. I knew that a lot of the supernatural community thought of shifters as lesser, that we were just out-of-control beasts. But I had seen how some of these clans and covens worked, and they always seemed to be out for each other. At least we had loyalty.  

I had done dealings with a few of the supernaturals in the room, mainly through my work within the conclave. My father, in all his wisdom, had signed me up as a conclave agent when I was eighteen. It was to build connections; he said. And to build strength. But here I was fourteen years later, still being dragged into the dumb meetings once every three months, and wasting my time.

I felt a sharp pain as Liam kicked me under the table and I looked up to see everyone looking at me expectantly. Fuck, I had fazed out and hadn’t heard anything anyone had said.

“Erm…” I hesitated and glanced at Liam for help. He was too busy trying to not laugh at me, fat lot of good he was, the prick.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, “I must have zoned out. Did you say something?” I looked Garrett squarely in the eye and watched as his face slowly turned red with the attempt to not smite me where I was sitting, or whatever these jerks did.

“I asked if you were aware of the werewolf in question,” Blackthorn said and I looked at him blankly. Werewolf? I was totally lost and had no clue what he was talking about. 

“If the perpetrator is a werewolf, then he certainly isn’t one of ours,” Liam said with a cough, “We can check out the rogue community but they aren’t alway forthcoming with information as we like,” he then glanced at me and his eyes glazed over. Sure enough, a second later, I heard his voice in my head.

“There is someone sharing supernatural secrets to the human world, they obviously are blaming us wild heathens, which is impressive because I assumed they didn’t think we were advanced enough to write a book,” I held back a laugh at his mocking tone and returned my gaze to Blackthorn.

“Did your Beta catch you up now?” he said sarcastically, and I held back from rolling my eyes at his condescending tone. 

“Yes, thank you,” I replied with the same level of sarcasm.

“So this supernatural is releasing information how, again?” I asked.

“In the form of fiction books,” Blackthorn snapped.

“Well, if the books are marked as fiction, then why is it an issue? I mean, it’s not like the other tripe that is out there is causing us any harm,”

“Only the information is extremely accurate,” Blackthorn replied, “In the wrong hands, be it supernatural or human, this information could be rather damaging.” I nodded. I could understand that. There had been a couple of instances back in the seventies where some supernaturals had tried to expose the supernatural community to the human world. And several cult-like groups had sprung up. The problem was, of course, that the humans were not equipped enough to know the truth about the supernatural world. They were ants compared to us and it wouldn’t be long before we would be overrun with either worshippers or pitchfork wielding idiots. Both types were dangerous to humans and supernatural alike. So it was the number one enforced rule that humans didn’t find out about our existence. Even the humans working in my company didn’t know their CEO, and most of the management team were in fact werewolves. 

Which meant that this person that was giving away this information would need to be shut down, and fast.

“Okay,” I said, “And why do you think that this is a werewolf?”

“Because the information that is coming out right now seems to be focused around werewolves, and in fact your own pack has been mentioned more than once,” Blackthorn said, and I immediately sat up straighter. If my own pack was being harmed by whoever it was, then I had a duty of care to my people, as their Alpha, to protect them.

“Fine,” I said, “Send me the case file and I will investigate myself.” Blackthorn nodded in approval and turned away onto the next point on the agenda.

The rest of the meeting was pretty much the usual boring crap that I tried to ignore, civil wars with the faeries, casting wars between the witches and sorcerers and territory disputes with the vampires. I had nothing to bring to the meeting, as always. Sunset Rose was the largest pack in the south of England, and as such, the other packs in our surrounding area came directly to us to settle disputes. We didn’t need to bring these disputes to the conclave.

I was finally able to make my escape after two hours of boredom. I could see Blackthorn heading my way, so I made a quick exit with Liam rushing behind me. I didn’t like that there could be a werewolf causing this much trouble. It didn’t look good, and I prided myself on us being able to handle things. 

“Has the case been assigned over?” I asked Liam as I climbed into the driver’s seat of my car. Liam was already jumping in the passenger seat and was checking the database as he was buckling his seatbelt. He knew I hated being at the conclave and wouldn’t be wasting time with pleasantries. 

“Yup,” he said as he flicked through his phone. The joys of modern technology where even an ancient order such as the Alchemist Conclave could streamline business and daily running. Although despite them have been around since the beginning of time and creation, the Alchemists were also the ones who invented most of the technology we saw. Some of the worlds genius’ were Alchemists pretending to be humans and not the god-like creatures they were.

“Okay, get Jamie to do a full search on the information we have and we can go from there,” I said. “I want to get this matter dealt with quickly and smoothly.”

“Yes sir,” Liam said with a smirk. I side eyed him as I pulled out of the Conclave grounds and onto the long ass country road that led to the massive estate. I knew he was mocking me, but also knew it was harmless joking. Liam and I had been friends since we were young and his folks transferred to our pack. His father wasn’t a ranked wolf, but when it came to picking a Beta, Liam was the obvious choice. He was my closest friend and the one I could trust the most.

“I’ve sent the info to Jamie now,” Liam said, “Are we heading into the city?” 

“Yeah,” I said nodding, “There are some things I need to do at the office and I want to get on this thing as soon as possible,” and Liam nodded.

“And avoid your father after his talk with Blackthorn, that he is undoubtedly having right now?” Liam laughed. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. My father and Blackthorn were good friends and my lack of interest at today’s meeting would likely piss my father off massively. 

My father was very much the traditional Alpha type. He stepped down as Alpha two years ago on my 30th birthday. He wanted to wait until I had found my mate, but since I still had no luck in that department, he agreed to pass the title on the basis that I would agree to pick a chosen mate within five years. I wasn’t a fan of chosen mates. A cousin of mine in a pack up north tried to pick a chosen mate a few years back, and the thing had been a complete disaster. But then, his circumstances were vastly different from mine. 

It wasn’t too long before we made it back to civilisation and I was pulling into the underground carpark of Rose Bower International, a financial company that had been in our family for over thirty years. My father had started the company directly from the pack territory before I was born. It had grown so much by the time that I was ten that my father couldn’t just have pack members as employees. He bought this building, and it became the home for the company ever since. I took a management role after I graduated from university and moved into the CEO position shortly after becoming Alpha. I did most of my work from the pack territory, but still had to visit the office once every other week for board meetings. 

I parked the car in the CEO space just as Liam’s phone rang.

“Jamie,” Liam said in the phone and then listened for a bit, “What, already? I’m impressed man, I mean I know you are good but even for you this is impressive.” I gave him a look and he held the phone away from his ear.

“Jamie has a full profile on our naughty werewolf,” he said and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“What already?” I asked. Jamie was one of the pack members who worked out of the office full time, and he was also one of the best hackers I knew. If there was ever a trace of it on the internet, he would find it. He came very in handy for cases like our talkative werewolf and also for digging up dirt on competitors. 

“Tell him to meet in my office straight away so he can brief me directly,” I said and Liam nodded.

“Boss said to-“ Liam started and then laughed “Okay smart ass, see you in less than five,” he then ended the call and looked at me.

“He heard you,” he shrugged, and I nodded with a chuckle. 

“Well then,” I said, opening the car door, “Let’s find out about our chatty friend then.”