Chapter 11: Chapter Eleven

Sarah stretched when she woke the next morning. She was surprised to find the room empty. Sitting up, she wrapped the blanket around herself. On the nightstand on her side sat a small velvet bag. The necklace that slipped into her hand when she dumped the contents into her palm surprised her. Didn’t she see this on Siobhan yesterday?

The door to their room opened to reveal Conor carrying a tray with coffee and scones. He smiled when he saw she was awake. “Morning.”

“Morning.” She held out the necklace. “What’s this?”

“Ah.” He set the tray down and then sat on the edge of the bed. “Me mum wanted you to have this. It’s a family heirloom.”

“I can’t take this.” She held it out to him. “This should go to someone in the family.”

“Consider it a promise gift.” He placed his hand on hers. “Me mum got this from me da’s mum before they mated. It had been given to her when she had found her mate so felt she should pass it down to her son’s mate, and so on. “Mum is just following tradition and you will insult her if you refuse.”

“But shouldn’t your brother get this?”

“It has always passed to the first to mate. Me brother has no prospects right now.”

“I thought you traveled too much to mate.”

“Me mum begs to differ. She believes we will mate and no matter what I say she won’t change her mind.” He gestured to the piece she had in her hand. “That is proof that she thinks I’m full of it.”

“Hmm.” She slipped the chain over her neck. “I tend to agree with your mom.”

“Oh?” He climbed on top of her. “You going to argue with your alpha?”

“Am I arguing?”

He started to tickle her. Her laughter filled the air. “I love your laughter.”

“You have that look in your eyes.”

“What look?” he started to press soft kisses against her throat and collarbone.

“That look that tells me I’m not getting out of bed any time soon.”

“As much as I would like to prove you right your Nana is downstairs waiting for us.” He moved the blanket down low enough to press a kiss between her breasts. “We shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

He climbed off her and stood.

“That’s just mean.” She climbed out of bed and dressed. The room was a little draftier than she was used to. Once she was dressed, she grabbed one of the cups and downed the contents.

Conor held up the scone.

“I’m not hungry right now.”

“You need to eat.”

“I will, but I need another cup before I can do that.” She slipped her feet into her shoes. “I promise to eat if you’ll let me have that second cup of coffee.”

He gestured for her to exit first.

“Thank you.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek once they were on the main floor. “I know you could have demanded I eat.”

“I also know I now have a reason to spank you.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “We did enjoy it the last time.”

She looked up at him, remembering how that had affected their lovemaking. It was something she never thought she would enjoy as much as she did.

“You’re blushing.”

“Can’t help it.” She pressed her hands against her cheeks. “Nana at two o’clock.”

Sarah centered herself as they approached her nana. Conor went to the side table to fill up their cups with coffee. He placed the scone and the coffee in front of her. She smiled up at him. She pitched her voice so only he could hear her. “So, if I refuse does that mean I’ll get two spankings?”

“Oh, you are wicked. We’ll talk about that if you eat your scone. It’s starting to feel unloved.”

She laughed as she picked up her scone. She took a bite while she watched her Nana. She was awfully quiet. “Nana? Would you like me to get you something to eat?”

“No, dear.” She picked up her coffee. “I had something earlier.”

“I don’t mind.” She took the last bite of her scone.

“I’m not hungry.” She took another sip of her coffee. “I wanted to show you our other holdings.”

“There’s more?” Sarah got up to get another cup of coffee. “How do you keep track of it all?”

Her grandmother smiled at her. Sarah noticed she looked tired. She thought about recommending that they wait but knew her grandmother would argue and had learned that questioning your elders wasn’t done in the werewolf world.

“I’m ready when you two are.” She looked at Conor, pitching her voice once again. “She looks tired.”

“I noticed that too.”

“You two talking about me?”

She was still sharp as ever. Sarah decided to distract her. She pulled out the necklace and walked over to her grandmother. “No. Conor gave this to me today.”

“That is Siobhan’s, isn’t it?”

“Me mum wanted her to have it.” He looked at Sarah. “She thinks it should go to my brother since he’s the oldest.”

“I’m sure Siobhan has other heirlooms for Conor’s brother. It’s beautiful and suits you.” Nana stood. “The driver is bringing the car around if you two are ready.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Conor offered Nana his arm. She smiled as she took it.

The day was fun, but Nana was looking worse. They tried to get her to eat something, but she continued to refuse. They had left the small restaurant they had stopped at and were walking to the car.

“We need to take her to a doctor.” Sarah was helping Conor steer her grandmother to the car as she pitched her voice. “Does her pack or your pack have a doctor?”

“I’ll call Max. His doctor is the best and he came back with Max and Alicia.” Conor helped Nana into the car, then pulled out his phone.

Sarah climbed into the car with her grandmother. “Nana, I’m worried. You don’t look right.”

“I’m fine, child.” She scooted back in the car seat, trying to sit up the way she should but it just weakened her.

Conor climbed in on the other side. “If it’s okay I need to stop by my doctor’s office. Mum has asked me to pick up a prescription for her.”

“Of course.” Nana closed her eyes and rested her head back on the car seat.

The driver brought them to the doctor’s office. Conor climbed out and then turned to Nana. “I might be a few minutes. Why don’t you two join me?”

“No, I’m fine.” Nana’s voice was weaker too.

“Why don’t you go see your doctor and I’ll help Nana out of the car?” Sarah was afraid Nana couldn’t walk anymore. She was barely holding her head up.

Conor nodded. He sprinted into the building. A few seconds later he came out with the doctor and one of his nurses pulling a gurney with them.

“She isn’t able to get up.” Sarah felt a fear she had hoped she would never feel again. It was like the one she felt when she heard her mother’s diagnosis.

“It’s okay, Sarah,” said the doctor. “Let’s get her inside and I’ll find out what is going on.”

He and Conor pulled her grandmother out of the car and placed her on the gurney. Sarah followed them into the doctor’s office.

Conor came to her side and wrapped her in his arms, comforting her as they watched the doctor work.

“Did you two notice anything odd before today?” asked the doctor. He drew blood and handed it off to one of his assistants.

“She seemed fine yesterday,” said Sarah. “She was all smiles as we got ready for the gathering last night. And she was very sociable as far as her guests go.”

“She did retire a little early,” commented Conor. “I’ve known her to stay a lot longer, but she could have done that for Sarah since the party was for her.”

“Tell me what you noticed first.”

“She looked tired.” Sarah looked at Conor, who nodded. “She was in the dining room when we saw her this morning drinking coffee. When I offered to get her something to eat, she said she wasn’t hungry.”

“We tried to get her to eat something for lunch, but she wasn’t interested,” Conor added. “We really noticed a difference in her at that point.”

“All right.” The doctor turned to face them. “It’s going to take a little time to figure out what is wrong with her.”

“We’ll wait, Doctor,” said Conor. “I don’t think I could get Sarah to leave anyway.”

“Can I sit with her?” asked Sarah.

“As long as you stay out of my way.”

Sarah sat next to her, holding her hand, and keeping out of the way of the doctor. It took him a few hours before the doctor had any news. “Did either of you drink the coffee?”

“I did,” said Sarah.

“Then you’re the next one I want to examine.” He ran a series of tests on her. “I’m happy to say you have a clean bill of health from me. Nana on the other hand isn’t doing as well. I found arsenic in her blood. A heavy dose from what I can tell, and it was recent.”

“Isn’t that a poison?” asked Sarah.

“It is.” He gestured for Sarah and Conor to follow him. “You have ingested the same poison, but it is a lower dose so it’s not enough to make you sick like her. You are also younger than Nana so you can fight it better. I want to check you as well, Conor.”

“I don’t understand.” Sarah looked at the doctor and Conor. “Why would you find poison? Who would do that?”

“Is there anyone angry with you or your grandmother?”

“That kind of angry?” Sarah hesitated. “The only one that wasn’t happy that I showed up was my cousin James, but I wouldn’t think he would do something like this.”

“How well do you know him?”

“I don’t. Not really.” Sarah looked at her grandma, trying to grasp why someone would want to harm her. “Nana told me things about him, but I’ve only been here a few days. I think I have only been in his presence twice.”

“Sarah, you are the heir apparent when he thought he was going to inherit everything,” said Conor. “That can cause people to do things they normally would never do.”

“Nana put a roof over his head. Gave him an allowance. Isn’t that enough?”

“He’s an alpha, Sarah. He’s supposed to be in control, but he’s not. Your Nana is and that bothers him.”

“Are you jealous of your brother because he will be the alpha of your pack?”

“Of course, I am, but my brother was born first. I’ll be happy for him when he takes over because, with Max’s help, I found my own pack to be the alpha of.”

“And if you hadn’t become a chef?”

“I knew all my life it wouldn’t be me. My family is everything to me, so I accept my lot and move on.”

“How is James different?” asked Sarah.

“He was the only child between your grandmother and her brother after your parents were killed.” Conor looked at Nana lying on the bed. “James thought he would be the one to take over, then you showed up.”

“But Nana told us that she would have waited for a girl to be born. He had to know that.”

“Which is probably why he was poisoning her,” said the doctor.

“So, you agree with Conor, Doctor?”

“I do. I’ve been around a long time and have seen a lot. James is old school. He can’t challenge Beth, so he is trying a different way. What he doesn’t know is that your family has a written covenant that lists the ways to inherit and the things that will ban you from the family if you try to force the issue.”

“We need to see that.” Sarah looked at Conor.

“My understanding is the original copy is someplace safe.”

“Original?”

“Only the original will be accepted in a case like this.”

“And you’re going to tell me Nana is the one who knows where it is.” She looked at her unconscious grandmother. “But we can’t speak to her.”

***

The doctor told them to go get something to eat so Conor drove them back to his parents' home.

“How is Beth?” asked Siobhan.

“The doctor told us she should be fine,” Conor told her. “I do have a question and I might be overstepping my boundaries, but our charter for the alpha, does it have a clause that any disputes or challenges must be handled a certain way?”

“Why?” asked his father as he looked up from a ledger he was working on.

“Nana has a document that lists how their pack handles the inheritance. It also would allow us to punish anyone who tried to do something underhanded. But we’ve been told that only the original document is the legal one.”

“A lot of packs have that in their charters. It’s because of how long we’ve been around. When your brother takes over, he will be able to change the charter to include the technology that now surrounds us.”

“It’s because Nana’s covenant was written before the computer age. I get it.” Conor looked at Sarah. “The doctor said he would call when Nana wakes up. If she wakes this evening, can we bring her here?”

“Of course, but I would think she’d want to go home.”

“I’d rather have her stay away from the house. If James did this, I don’t want to give him another chance to poison her.” He grabbed Sarah’s hand. “We need to call the house and let them know she won’t be coming home. I plan on lying and telling them she wanted to spend time with you, Mum.”

“I will back up anything you say. I’m assuming you don’t want anyone to know she’s been at the doctor's?”

“No. James needs to think she hasn’t been affected by the poison yet. We need to catch him in the act.”

***

They settled Nana in Conor’s old room. Siobhan fussed over her friend, bringing her extra pillows and something to drink.

“Siobhan, please. I’m fine, just a little tired.” She shifted in the bed after Siobhan fluffed the pillows and stuffed them behind her back.

“And my tea will make you right as rain in no time.” Siobhan left the room.

Sarah sat in a chair in the room. Conor stood behind her. She was trying to find the right way to tell her what had really happened.

“The doctor told me I had ingested poison.”

Leave it to Nana to get right to the heart of the problem. “That’s what he told us as well.”

“There is only one person who would stoop so low.” She looked at Sarah. “What are we going to do about James?”

***

James stood just outside of Conor’s bedroom window. He wished he could hear them, but he did see Conor bring Nana into his parents' house. It didn’t take him long to figure out where his aunt was. He wanted to kick himself. He never thought to get Nana to make Sarah stay at the castle. Conor was getting all the time he wanted with Sarah there and he was getting none.

Time to change tactics.

Heading back to his car he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

***

“What do you want to do about him, Nana?” asked Conor.

“Do we have any proof?”

“No,” said Conor. “Has anything like this happened before?”

“No, but he always thought he would take over. I never told him I would stay in control until a girl was born to his mate if he ever found one.”

“Then I showed up,” said Sarah. “Nana, I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because it’s my fault he became so desperate.”

“Sarah, you are her heir.” Conor came around the chair and crouched in front of her. “Sooner or later, somebody would have figured it out. You met Max early in your life and he had already put it all together. How? I don’t know, but he has this way about him.”

“It doesn’t help. The fear I felt when she fell unconscious rivaled the fear I felt when my mom was diagnosed with Dementia.” She looked at her Nana. “I just got you in my life. I didn’t want to lose you so soon.”

“First, I’m a pretty tough old wolf and I’m hard to kill off.” She reached her hand out to Sarah. “Second, if he had been successful, I have in writing what will happen to him.”

“Can you explain that to me?” asked Sarah.

“Every pack has a set of rules. Conor’s pack calls it a charter. Ours is called a covenant. It spells out who can lead our pack. Why we as females can’t be challenged as the leader, the power that the mate of the heir will have, and what happens to the person who tries to harm the heir to gain control of the pack.”

“James has to know about this, right?”

“He never asked to read it, so I never offered. If he had, he would know that nothing he did would change the way we do things.”

“Can I read it, Nana?” asked Sarah.

“Of course. I have the original copy in a safe place, but I can let you read it.”

“Um, the doctor told us that to confront James, if we do prove he’s behind all of this, we need the original. Is that true?”

“Yes. It’s written in our covenant. One of the reasons I have it in a safe place. I don’t know what my brother has told his son, but James had to get this idea from somewhere. He had seemed quite happy with his lot until recently. My brother had caused a little trouble while I was growing up. He didn’t understand this stupid covenant as he called it. It took my father threatening him with using pack justice to make him back off.”

“Pack justice?”

“He would have to fight for his life,” said Conor. “Even if he won, he would lose clout with the pack because of the covenant. It would be up to the heir to choose a champion. She can pick anyone she wants, male, female, young or old.”

“He feared he’d have had to face me da or me mum’s guard. Both were the most powerful of us. He never would have beaten either one, and he knew that. He had to back down, but I don’t think he stopped trying. He begged me to take his son in and teach him how to run the business once you and your parents were thought gone.”

“Do you think he had something to do with the accident?” asked Sarah.

“I have no proof.”

“But you think he did,” said Conor.

“I don’t know.” Nana looked from Conor to Sarah. “When Sarah came back into my life, I did start to suspect it, but why didn’t he get rid of me as well?”

“He didn’t need to make any changes if his son was in control, and he knew one of his heirs would end up taking over because of your daughter and granddaughter’s death. He could wait. He thought his son could change the covenant when he took over, and put the males in charge,” Conor said. “But that changed when Sarah came back from the dead.”

“We need proof,” said Sarah. “What if we’re wrong?”

“And we will get it. We’ll look for other culprits as well.” Conor looked at Nana. “Although your brother and nephew do have a lot to gain if something happened to either of you, we’re going to have to quietly check all of your employees and interview anyone who could be suspicious.”

“I can go through the files tomorrow. It would make sense since I’m going to be the one running everything. If anyone asks, I’m just trying to get to know my employees.”

“I’ll make sure you have clearance,” said Nana.

***

Sarah sat in the small office that Nana used when she was at the factory. It was nothing lavish, but she found it comfortable. It reminded her of Catherine’s office, filled with files and books along with a potted plant here and there.

The files she had been through already were pretty cut and dry. It told of the pack the employee came from, whether they were mated or not. It also gave a little history of their family and their packs. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

The door to the small office opened and Sarah smelled the wonderful aroma of coffee.

“I hope that is for me.” She looked up from her work to see James standing there. Great. Now she would fear that he poisoned her coffee.

“It is.” He stepped into the room. “I thought I’d find your watchdog with you.”

“Watchdog?” She tilted her head. “Are you talking about Conor?”

“Who else?” He looked a little out of sorts in the room.

Was this the first time he had been in the office?

“He’s not my watchdog.” She went back to the files. He hadn’t offered her the coffee and she didn’t ask for it.

“Has he asked you to mate with him?” He kept looking at her like something was wrong.

“What’s the deal with you?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “You just seem different. Has Conor talked about you two mating?”

“That is a private matter, so I don’t see how it’s any of your business. His mother gave me this beautiful necklace, though.” She held it up so he could see it. “Conor told me it’s like a promise.”

He barely looked at it. “Have you thought about the fact he could just be using you?”

“How?”

“He’s the second of his alpha’s children. He can’t be the alpha of his pack. You can give him the chance to be alpha. That might be the only reason he’s been so nice to you.”

“You seemed to have forgotten that we met before anyone knew who I was.” She shook her head. “I understand why you could think that, but I don’t think he could have figured out that I was a long-lost heir to some fortune that could benefit him before anyone knew who my real parents were.”

“Yet he persists.”

“He is no threat to you.”

The door opened again, and the subject of their conversation walked in. Conor’s step slowed when he found James in the room. “Sorry, I thought you’d like a cup of coffee.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at him as he set a cup in front of her.

He leaned forward for a quick kiss then propped a hip on the desk so he could stare at James, who had been glaring, but couldn’t hold Conor’s stare. Sarah wanted to laugh. James just lost his chance to convince her that Conor was using her.

“I’ll leave you to whatever you’re doing.” James gave Conor one more glare then walked out, pulling the door closed behind him.

“How is it going?” asked Conor.

“It’s fascinating. The people I worked with that first day are from three different packs. These files have their entire history like their alpha’s name, what school they went to, who they’re sweet on if not mated to. You can work up a good profile on anyone working here.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I wonder if Nana has these files in a computer. If she doesn’t that’s the first thing that should be done.”

Conor took a deep inhale and touched his nose as he shook his head, letting her know that James was still out there, listening in. “I was surprised that James was here when I arrived.”

“He came to bring me coffee.”

“I don’t see any coffee.” Conor took a sip of his.

“I guess he forgot to give it to me as we were talking.”

“Oh?”

“He was concerned for my welfare.” She picked up her cup again. Sarah looked up at him over the lip of her cup.

He cleared his throat.

She didn’t have to tell him anything. He knew.

“Me mum has invited us to have lunch with her and Nana.”

“I remember her mentioning that.” Sarah checked her watch. “Nana did ask me to get a few things for her. Let’s go to the castle and then head over.”

***

Once they said their hellos, Sarah placed a satchel in her grandmother’s hands then she leaned down to give her a kiss.

“Thank you, my dear.” She opened the bag and pulled out her bible. It was a beautiful ornate book with a thick cover. She opened it to the back panel then pulled the panel off. She removed a folded piece of paper, which was yellowed with age. Nana handed it to Sarah.

She looked at it curiously as she took it from her grandmother. Sarah opened it up and looked at her grandmother when she realized what it was. Without saying a word, she slipped it into a pocket. She was surprised she handed it over so quickly. Conor had told her they were being followed before they pulled in and they assumed it was James. Questions burst inside her but she knew better than to announce her grandmother just handed her the original covenant.