The inclusion of Wayne, Hunter and Maxwell to his suspect list just scattered up his earlier theory, making him even angrier. Now he had to sieve it and pick out one or two of those on his suspect list to be at the very top of his list, he was not excluding Laura and Cheryl.
He had to cross out Wayne, although the man was built like a warrior, he was weak in mind and probably would not do anything as daring as sending Donna bloodied pictures of her daughter. Besides, to a man like him who had spent time with the girl, it should be disturbing to him, except if he had a twisted mind or was forced and threatened to follow orders made by Hunter.
“Alpha,” Mark called, bring Keith’s attention back to them. “Let us know who your suspects are.”
“Hunter. Maxwell. Cheryl. Laura.” he paused before adding. “And Wayne.”
“Alpha, these people…” Sebastian said with concern as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “Hunter and Max?”
“They couldn’t have known-”
“About the child, yes.” Keith finished Mark’s sentence. “But Wayne knows, and he is a rouge under Hunter. Maxwell has every reason to do this.”
“And Laura?”
“Women, jealousy, issues…” He rolled his fingers around in the air as he said so.
“Jealousy?” Mark exchanged glances with Sebastian, the both of them thinking the same thing. “Are you and Donna…?” he allowed the question to trail away.
Keith shot him a warning stare instantly, forcing him to keep his mouth shut. The mna lifted both hands in the air briefly as a sign of surrender, but it had already leaf an imprint on both Mark’s and Sebastian’s mind that their Alpha was having something with the secretary.
“I gave Laura no reason to be jealous of Donna.” Keith cleared the air, truly he had no affair with Donna, but she was his person. He shut his eyes and turned away from the boys. His heart clenched as he thought of Donna, she was his person, she was his to protect. She was his.
“But Laura as a werewolf and a Luna-”
“Former.” Sebastian correct Mark before he could go on.
“Rght, former.” Mark tilted his head to him slightly in appreciation. “She knows better than to attack a person indirectly or to use her weakness against her. This is an unspoken code among us.”
“And when she had attacked Donna before, it had been directly, I don’t think she did this.”
Keith reasoned that. True, they had a code, though unspoken and unwritten, it was still there, established and everyone in the twelve packs knew this. He sighed.
“But Laura is a rogue now.”
“Alpha you only rejected her yesterday, and you said the pictures were delivered yesterday as well.”
That was true, and that would cross Laura’s name off the suspect list. “Okay, so it couldn’t have been Laura.”
“Okay.” Mark said. “We know Cheryl, she would have been a suspect of mine as well.”
“I agree. I think we should start with her.” Sebastian supported.
Keith sucked in a breath, he could not shake off Hunter and Maxwell from his list, but the boys were right, Cheryl was the only one out of them that could be crazy and daring enough, but out of the people on his list of suspects, Hunter, Maxwell and Laura stood a better chance of knowing Donna’s daughter through Wayne because of the close relationship he had shared with her.
“Start with her, dig up what you can.” He said to them as he turned and walked back to his chair. “I will start off with Hunter and his party of rouges. And Laura.”
Mark and Sebastian stood up to leave but Keith stopped them briefly.
“And speaking of Laura and her…” he couldn’t find the word to use.
“Her dethronement?” Mark helped him.
“Yes, that. I will address the pack tonight. Arrange a meeting at the usual place, everyone had to be present.”
“Including Laura?” Sebastian asked, he felt she should not be there because it would be embarrassing and degrading for her. “Maybe she could be told about it privately?”
“No. Everyone is to be present at the meeting tonight.” Keith’s eyes narrowed and his frown deepened. “Including Laura.”
He watched the two of them nod their head in understanding, then turned and walked out of his office. The frown still remained on his face with his eyes fixed on the box still on his desk, they might have ruled out Laura based on the unspoken rule that existed in the pack, but he was not going to just clear her name off of his suspect list. She was just as capable as Hunter and Maxwell were.
His jaw clenched as he thought of the two men who had once been as close to him as brothers, most especially Hunter. It was his betrayal that had hurt and affected Keith the most because never in his wildest dreams would he had thought or imagined a day would come when he and Hunter would be standing on opposite sides, each one thirsty for a taste of the other one’s blood.
But such was life, not everyone was meant to stay, some would leave eventually at one point in life. He had trained himself to be used to this and that was why he was dependent on no one but himself.
It was also the one thing he admired about Donna. The woman was strong and independent and she was far from being lazy.
The image of her sleeping frame on his bed came to his memories and he felt his body jerk in anticipation.
He groaned and pressed his body into the soft folds of the chair he sat on.
“Fuck.” he cursed.
Keith was not one to fall in love, he was what some might call a “play boy” but he had taste and he had class and he was not in any way that loose, and he would not bat an eyelid if he discovered he was sharing a woman with another man, but Donna was an exception and he wanted to make her his, to claim her for himself alone, not bent over his table like some night club whore as she was not one, but the proper way; laying tangled up in the white sheets of his bed and clinging onto him.
He closed his eyes and allowed the thought to warm him, a smile playing on his lips.