Page 194 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

Huffing, the mayor sat on the couch beside Chief Milbanks, who pulled out a tablet and handed it over to the mayor. A few minutes later, the flush on Mayor Spencer’s cheeks had faded to a pasty pale shock. When the video was done, the mayor looked up.

“What is this?” he asked dumbly. “I’m assuming since you’re showing this to me, this man is not a shifter?”

“He’s not,” Milbanks said. “Human.”

The mayor swung his gaze toward me, and Avery’s grip on my hand tightened. “What the hell did I just see? How is this possible?”

“Sir,” I said, “this is a long story.”

The mayor lifted his arms and let them flop back down. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my plans for the day now revolve around you. So, let’s get to it. Why and how did a human in my county get turned into a wolf?”

Between me, Langston, Avery, and Trent, we laid everything out for him—the will and my father’s financial mistakes, Ashton’s kidnapping, Chuck’s murder, and discovering the strange drug or serum Kyle had that could turn a human into a wolf.

When we were done, Spencer and Milbanks stared at us all in horror.

“Let me get this straight,” Milbanks said, resting his elbows on his knees. “You had a murder and a kidnapping, and you didn’t come to the police?”

“Sergeant,” Langston said placidly, “say Cole had come to you. What would the official department policy have been once you knew that both the perpetratorandthe victim were shifters?”

Milbanks looked taken aback. “Well, that’s… uh, as you know, shifter packs are given special consideration. I guess you could say that?—”

“Nothing,” Langston cut him off. “The official policy is to do nothing as long as humans are not affected. Is that or is that not correct? Pack alphas are expected to handle pack matters andpack punishment. At least that’s the way it is where I’m from. I assume it’s the same here, right?”

“Hang on, now,” Milbanks said. “That might be the official stance, but I should still know when a resident of my county has been killed.”

“Stop posturing,” Mayor Spencer growled, nudging the chief with an elbow. “You and I both know he’s right.” The mayor turned his attention to me again. “Tell me, Cole, how in the blue hell did this Kyle Alexander person get this drug? I’ve never heard of or seen something that could turn a human into a wolf.”

“That’s where it gets murky,” I said. “Kyle has a scientist working with him or for him. He created the drug, and Kyle is using it as a way to consolidate his power. Like we said, he’s basically taken control of North Crest. Harbor Mills is next.”

“This seems far-fetched to me,” Spencer said. “I know the mayor of the neighboring county. We belong to the same country club, for God’s sake. That’s where North Crest is, and he’s never mentioned any issues with a mob boss or whatever you want to call Kyle.”

“If you thought you might end up with a bullet in the back of your head, would you say anything?” Avery asked. “Even to your friends?”

Spencer chewed on that statement, then grudgingly nodded his head. “I suppose you’re right.”

“What’s the plan here?” Milbanks asked.

“Right,” Spencer said, pointing at me. “What are you going to do to fix this?”

“The town is already in a panic,” Milbanks added. “Rumors already started swirling that Kolchak was bitten by a shifter, and that’s how he turned.”

“What?” Trent barked in shock. “That’s not even physically possible. We’re not werewolves out of a movie.”

“I get that,” Milbanks said, “but you know how people can be, right? The man’s wife is hysterical, and no one knows where the hell he ran off to. The rumor mill is only going to get worse until this is handled.”

“We’ve been working on a plan,” I said, “but it’s taken a little longer to implement than we’d hoped.” I gestured at my friends and Avery. “It’s only us working on it.”

“That’s all I need to know.” The mayor turned to Milbanks. “You give them any assistance they need. I don’t care what it is. We can’t have this psychopath creating his own little kingdom here. Whatever it takes to get this handled quickly. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” the chief said, though he sounded less than enthused about the prospect.

“We appreciate that,” I said.

“What can me and my men do for you?” Milbanks asked.

“First things first,” Langston said. “As dangerous as Kyle is, this scientist he’s working with is possibly worse. His experiments need to be stopped before he comes up with something worse than what he used on that guy today.”

“And do we have any clue where this man is?” Milbanks asked.

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