“I don’t think the wolves are a pack.” Wes shrugged. “The alpha met us alone, he didn’t have the scent of a pack on him…”
“But there are other wolves around,” Cass insisted. “We’ve seen them. The vamps have seen them. That stuck up coven second, or whoever he was, told us that much.”
“A group of wolves is usually a pack,” Ra said slowly, thinking hard. “If the spare wolves you’ve seen don’t belong to the alpha’s pack, then maybe the alpha’s your victim. Maybe the other wolves are out to get him and they’re just waiting for an opportunity. Maybe they plan to kill the alpha and blame it on the vampires to start some sort of interspecies war or something like that.”
“Which would be a bit pointless because we all have to hide our true natures from humans, so what in Hades’ name would that achieve? If any shit goes down, someone calls the police and the wolves and vamps risk getting locked up.” Cass shook his head. “The vamps have the territory, not the wolves. From all accounts they’ve kept to themselves for as long as they’ve been here. No trouble with the council, no rash of bodies or supposed Dracula sightings on social media. And if your suggestion is remotely true, then where did these other wolves come from and why are they trying to take over an established territory? That’s what I mean. None of this makes any sense.”
Ra tapped his lip with his thumb. “You’ve done your mojo thing on the players you’ve seen?” he asked the demon.
“Mixed results.” Cass curled up the side of his lip. “Vamps sent us packing as soon as we turned up on their doorstep, and we’re not supposed to cause any trouble, so it’s not like I could nab one and search his soul. I didn’t see anything in the alpha that’s relevant or fits with any of this. He’s longing for something… but I don’t even think he knows who or what that something is.”
“Maybe he wants to belong in a pack.” Pushing his plate aside, Ra magicked some banknotes and put them on the table. “How about we go and track down one of these other wolves and see what you can see in them?”
“That was our next idea,” Wes agreed. “Do you really think you should…?”
“Come with you?” Ra grinned. “Absolutely. This is a mystery that begs to be solved. You hardly expect me to walk out midway through the first act.”
“Maybe we should call Seth back? He seems very protective.” Wes added a few more notes to Ra’s pile. “A tip,” he added when he saw Ra looking. “To show our thanks for the service.”
“But she didn’t even speak to us.” Ra looked over at the kitchen. “All she did was bring our plates to the table. That’s her job.”
“It’s like I explained to Cass when he said something similar.” Wes pushed his chair back from the table. “Wait staff get horrific wages and rely on tips to make ends meet. It’s after midnight. That poor woman has probably been on her feet all day and is sick and tired of having to be nice to people who treat her like dirt, in the hopes of getting a good tip. So, I don’t tip any differently regardless of the level of service I get; I tip people because they are in a shit job with shit pay, and yet they still turn up for their shifts so the likes of you and I can sit around and chat all night, enjoying good food. Our waitress’s shoes were almost worn right through. She needs the money.”
“My Wes notices things like that.” The fond tone was back in Cass’s voice again.
“I appreciate you explaining things to me. I’ll make a point of noticing things like that too.” Ra rested his hand on the pile of notes, adding a hundred to the tip. With luck that would be enough to buy a new pair of shoes, not that he’d been shopping in the last fifty years or so. “Let’s go wolf hunting, shall we? Do we have any idea where they like to hang out?”
“Usually in the blocks of shops on the road leading to the coven.” Wes linked his arm with Cass. “It’s going to be interesting having you along. Are you sure you don’t need Seth?”
Ra allowed just a hint of his power to come through. His personal appearance didn’t change but Wes’s face went