Third Person
The triplet alphas had every pack member on high alert. Every warrior was scouring the pack lands for Chasity. The pack lands were on lockdown. No one could enter or leave without explicit permission from the Alphas. There was a curfew mandated by the Alphas. Beta Keaton was displeased. Something very upsetting had made his way to his desk this morning, the first morning after Chasity’s disappearance.
“What is this, Alpha?” Said Beta Keaton, beseeching his former Alpha Romeo handing him the list.
Alpha Romeo scanned the list of suspects. He sighed.
“Roxie and Moxie are suspects!” Whispered Beta Keaton fiercely. “We’re friends, Romeo. Our children are friends. Felix and Roxie used to date. They were at her party last night.”
“That’s why the girls are suspects, Keaton,” said Romeo tiredly. “It’s nothing personal. The party was the last event Chasity was seen by many at. And all of the triplet’s exes are suspects. Even the party planner, Ronda, who they never dated! She just kinda envied Chasity.”
Keaton took a deep breath, arms akimbo, displacing his blazer backwards.
“The triplets even accused us,” said Romeo exasperatedly.
“You and the Luna?” Asked Keaton.
Romeo nodded sadly.
“Losing a mate is tough. It’s…there’s nothing worse than that…” said Keaton his voice cracking up. He had had his daughters with his second chance mate. His original mate had met an untimely end.
Romeo clapped Keaton on the back. “They’re not real suspects. They’ll just be interviewed.”
*****************************************
“I have a mate!” Snapped Roxie, glaring at the private investigator flanked by pack warriors.
He had brought in because he was the best. His name was Danny Saunders. He was almost as tall as the triples with chiselled features, a five o’ clock shadow, an impressive moustache, dark eyes, thick eyebrows, full lips and shaggy wavy brown hair. He was in his mid-thirties. He had been a P. I. For the past decade and a pack warrior for seven years before that, from the day he turned eighteen.
“Ok, Ms Roxie, I know, just answer the question, please,” said Danny.
“I would never be jealous of Chasity. Felix and I were happy for each other when we found our mates,” Roxie said, sniffing.
“The question was did you tell Chasity to go to the landing bathroom knowing full well that Sandra, Tonya and Avery were waiting there to confront her?” He repeated getting tired of this.
“Well…yeah,” she admitted.
“And why would you do a thing like that, Roxie?” Asked Danny.
“Because I…I don’t know. Chasity was never popular before and now she’s like this…superstar or something. It was annoying. I just thought it’d be funny if the girls ruffled her feathers. They were not gonna hurt her. No violence. Just bitchy insults. And well she vomited on them so she got them pretty good,” Roxie said, snickering.
Danny looked at her like the moron he thought she was.
“Ok, thank you, Ms Roxie, send the next person in,” said Danny.
Roxie strutted off in her five-inch heels while Ronda stalked in, on her six-inch heels. Roxie gave her a scowl. Ronda gave Roxie a smirk. Cattiness abounded in this investigation. Ronda sat down, flinging her new platinum hair extensions, gazing intently at the handsome P.I. There wasn’t three of him but he was eye candy nonetheless.
“How would you describe Chasity?” Asked Danny.
“She’s…great,” said Ronda, older and wiser than Roxie. “She’s pretty, very smart. She’s a bit shy. Can’t fault her for that. She’s young. She’s growing into her personality,” said Ronda with a smile.
Danny grinned. “Do you think Chasity loves the triplets?”
Ronda twitched a little. “Yeah…yes…they’re all very in love.” She took a deep breath rocking on her chair a little.
“Calix called Chasity his goddess, isn’t that cute?” Asked Danny.
Ronda narrowed her eyes but quickly smiled. “Aww,” she cooed.
Chasity’s POV
I had to pee on the stick. I wanted to know too. It had a price on it. I gasped and then a huge smile spread on my face. My kidnappers were amateurs. They did not remove the price sticker which contained the name of the pharmacy they ran out and got this from. Divine Lupine. An overpriced store that sold everything: hair and makeup products, snacks, perfumes, feminine products and it contained a mini-pharmacy in the back. There were only two branches of Divine Lupine on our pack lands. One was in the main town area. It was super busy with long lines and she-wolves shoving each other over bargain beauty products. I couldn’t picture Dante going there. The other was in the more secluded suburbs where rich pack members lived in a mall. The mall outlet was much emptier. No lines really. Friendly staff. No shoving. I was in driving distance of that mall most likely. I highly doubted Dante had a pregnancy test just lying around unless he was a humungous ladies’ man and even then a pregnancy test was a stretch. He must have bought it after I started vomiting. That meant I should be able to mind-link my alphas but I couldn’t. Hmm. Had I been injected with wolfsbane or silver or something. Were the walls in here specially designed to prevent mind-linking? Did that technology exist? My head hurt. My pregnancy test was ready.
I was so nervous. I wished my alphas were here. I pictured them here with me. Felix would pace up and down, anxious but hoping I was pregnant, anything that tied me to him forever was great in his book. Calix would be looking at me with his big blue eyes wide and trying to peak at the test before I was ready to say what it said. Alex would scold Calix for peaking and would tell me to announce it whenever I felt comfortable and whether I was pregnant or not they’d be happy. I almost cried thinking about their would-be reactions. I looked at the test. I sank onto the floor, my back and head against the cold tiles. We were kidnapped. I was pregnant. What had I gotten my baby into?
Third Person
Felix broke down the bar nailed to the doubles doors of The Lucky Toad, the Casino where Chasity’s parents had ranked up a huge gambling debt. He knew they were in there. He and his brothers didn’t need back up. They were the triplet alphas. He walked into the place through the double doors, Calix and Alex flanking him. The gamblers stiffened. These were regulars, with bleary eyes and empty wallets. The dimly lit casino held about two dozen people though it seemed shut down from the outside. Perhaps, they knew the alphas were coming.
A lady in a tiny server’s outfit came scampering over, teetering over the edge of her platform heels. She had a tray at her side and an elaborate undo, her bleached blonde hair piled on top of her head. She looked mid-forties but she was a she-wolf, she could literally be one hundred and still look like that.
“What can I get you fellas?” She said in a croaky voice that betrayed decades of heavy cigarette smoking.
Felix smirked. “The boss! Get me the boss!” He said, leaning closer to the waitress who recoiled and almost fell over in her high shoes. She scurried away, going up the stairs at the back as quickly as she could. Felix and his brothers sat at the bar. A skinny man with huge eyes and gleaming dark skin stared at them, wiping the same glass with a dish towel over and over clearly nervous.
“I think it’s clean, buddy,” said Calix, smiling.
The guy dropped the dish towel, and then the glass. It shattered. The guy flinched and hurried to pick it up. Alex looked at the staircase in the back. The waitress was picking her way down carefully. She looked dissolved. Her piled up hair was coming down all around her. Her mascara was running. Her uniform was askew. She’d been manhandled, not badly but still. Alex already hated the boss. Maybe he needed to be manhandled.
“The boss will see you know, Alphas,” she squeaked.
They nodded at her and headed up the stairs. There was a long hallway and only one door had a name on it, etched into a gold-plated plaque. Chance.
Just one name.
They didn’t know. The office was crowded. A huge desk was filled with knick-knacks and papers, some yellowed and coffee stained. There were lucky charms everywhere, the superstitious kind, not the cereal. Although Calix would not have been surprised if there’d been cereal lying about somewhere. The office was crammed with stuff and the floor was dirty and sticky. The alphas were disgusted. They heard squeaking. Mice.
A huge man was behind the desk. He was tall and broad with a huge moustache. He was wearing sunglasses in a dark office in a dark casino. He had salt and pepper straight hair and wore white shirt with a black tie. His blazer was too small for him, straining over his protuberant stomach. He did not evoke a sense of fear or malice or evil. He seemed like a middle school principle or something with a dirty office.
“Chance?” Asked Felix.
“Alpha Felix!” Said Chance as though thrilled.
“Sit!” Said Chance.
“We’d rather stand,” said Alex.
Felix immediately noticed the tattoo on the back of Chance’s hand. The moon with the snake curled around it.
“What does that tattoo mean?” Asked Alex.
“Snakes shed their skin. The moon waxes and wanes. Renewal. Death and life. Life through death. You have to fall apart, die almost, to be renewed, reinvigorated, reborn,” said Chance.
Alex had not been expecting all that.
“Look, you already know why we’re here. Chasity is missing. She’s our Luna. This is the second kidnapping. The first was unsuccessful. Someone has been after her ever since we started asking questions about her parents who fled town running from someone. All of her parents’ old friends and people at their old haunts have that same tattoo. So save me a lot of trouble and just tell me everything you know,” said Alex.
“The tattoo is from a…group of like minded individuals. A coven if you will. Werewolves who practice witchcraft. The group is called the Furina Ornata after the moon snake. All members have the tattoo. There’s about two hundred members last time I checked. There could be a million reasons why someone would kidnap a Luna. The most farfetched being related to my tattoo. And most importantly, I would never harm Chasity,” said Chance, taking off his shades and looking at us seriously. “I’m her grandfather.”