Chapter 93

Erin’s POV

Henry returned home a couple of hours after he told me he’d be there. I was able to shower and get dressed in comfortable clothing by the time he returned so I didn’t have to explain to him anything.

He wanted me to order a pizza, so I had it waiting for him at the kitchen table when he walked into the house.

He looked exhausted, not like someone who was about to spend the entire night investigating the vessels with me.

We had a plan to go to Bane’s pack and do a little digging on him. But telling from Henry’s exhausted look, that might have to wait until another day.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, watching as he sat down at the table.

“Yes,” he said. “Just a last-minute client meeting. I wasn’t really planning on staying that late. I’m sorry for keeping you waiting.”

I wasn’t going to tell him about running into Gavin’s sister or anything that happened that evening.

I sat down with him and grabbed a slice of pizza.

“It’s okay,” I said to him. “You don’t need to be sorry. You might be a Moonshadow secret agent, but I know your job as a lawyer is important to you. I don’t blame you for that.”

He gave me a faint smile before taking a bite of his pizza. He sighed in relief like it was the best thing he’d ever eaten in his life.

It was a really good pizza.

“I still want to go to Bane’s pack tonight, though,” he said with a mouthful of food. “We need to start this investigation.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until you’re more awake?” I asked. “It’ll be a long night.”

“No… this is important,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “We need to get moving on this so we can defeat the Slayers once and for all.”

I agreed with him.

We left shortly after we finished our pizza. The plan was to disguise ourselves as part of Bane’s pack. I managed to get a potion that’ll disguise our scent for a couple of hours so nobody would be able to tell that we are outsiders from a different pack.

I also grabbed a couple of wigs and more edgy clothing considering his pack was incredibly edgy-styled.

Once we were in our disguise, we went straight to his pack.

It was in the middle of the night, but it didn’t seem like his pack had ever slept. They were roaming around outside in their wolf forms, hunting and having fun with one another. It was so lifelike and surreal that it was incredible to me.

There was some kind of sporting event in the center of the town it seemed. A lot of wolves were gathering around and watching a fighting match between two strong fighters. It seemed like whoever won the fight would get to challenge someone new.

I had heard that there were packs that partook in sporting activities like that, but I never enjoyed watching them myself. I thought of them as barbaric and not something a pack, who are basically family, should behave with one another.

Henry, on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in what was going on than what we were there for. I had to keep reminding him of our mission.

We didn’t go to find Bane right away; I was worried that he would recognize us through our disguise before we really found anything out.

Instead, we went towards the group of wolves that were watching the fight before them and tried to listen in on their conversation while pretending to be engrossed in the fight ourselves.

Unfortunately, we didn’t hear much. But there were a group of she-wolves that were inquiring about Bane’s whereabouts.

“It’s not like the Alpha to miss a fight,” one of them had said. “He’s usually here participating.”

“He’s been acting strangely lately,” another said. “Maybe he’s tired of the fighting.”

“That’s ridiculous. He could never be tired of this.”

I looked at Henry who also overheard the conversation as well. With one look, we knew we needed to find Bane and find out where he was and why he was missing the fight.

Finding him didn’t take long; we went to his packhouse and immediately saw him leaving with a determined expression on his face.

Of course, we followed him.

He went to a couple of different places, one of which happened to be a coffee shop.

He brought a couple of coffees, though he was by himself, and then took off in his car. I went into the coffee shop and the barista was cleaning her station. It was unbusy due to it being in the middle of the night.

“Was that Alpha Bane?” I asked, stepping toward the barista counter.

The woman frowned at me and nodded.

“Yes,” she answered. “Why do you ask?”

“Isn’t it strange that he’s ordering coffee at this hour? Does he ever sleep?”

“The Alpha’s work is never done. He often gets coffee late at night because he spends most of the night working,” she answered. “I’m used to it.”

“Does he usually get two?” Henry asked, raising his brows.

“Sometimes,” she answered, looking between the two of us. “You don’t look familiar. Are you from here?”

“We are new to the pack,” I answered. “I’m Nora and this is my husband, Charles.”

“It’s nice to meet you both. Can I get you anything to drink?”

Oh, right. It was strange that we entered a coffee shop without a real reason.

“We were just looking,” I answered quickly. “Exploring the town. I just thought it was strange to see the Alpha leaving the coffee shop at this hour. I’m sorry if we bothered you.”

We turned away from her and left without saying anything else.

We lost sight of Bane for a moment, but we were able to find him again walking inside a jewelry store. He still had both coffees in his hand.

Whom could he be seeing?

“I’ll go in,” I told Henry as we stood outside the shop. “It might cause attention if we are both in there. The store is small, and I don’t want him to see us.”

Henry nodded.

“I’ll keep watch out here,” he assured me.

I went into the small shop and instantly noticed the large crystal chandelier that hung in the center of the room; the crystals, mixed with the lighting, made the jewelry look that much more sparkly and I was in awe of the place.

Everything looked so elegant and expensive.

Bane was spotted at the front counter with a gorgeous-looking woman. She was giggling at whatever he was saying and sipping the coffee he had brought her.

“I’ll get the ring you customized,” she said to him in a loving tone, and he thanked her politely.

A customized ring?

She brought out a small black box and opened it, facing him.

I nearly gasped out loud when I saw the big diamond-cut wedding ring with a gold band and smaller diamonds around the gold band.

“It’s perfect,” Bane said, his smile widening. “Exactly how I wanted it to look. You did wonderful work per usual.”

She blushed at the compliment as she closed the box from his viewing.

“I’m so glad you think so,” she cooed. “I was worried it wouldn’t be up to your standards. It sounded urgent on the phone, and I didn’t want to mess it up.”

“You don’t have to worry about a thing,” he assured her, taking the ring and sliding his credit card across the counter and towards her. “I didn’t doubt you for a second.”

She beamed and her smile widened.

“I hope she likes it… she’s a lucky woman…” she said, sounding almost saddened for a moment.

I didn’t even know Bane was seeing someone; let alone getting ready to propose to her. I wondered who she was.

“Erin…we have a problem. I need you out here now,” Henry said through a mindlink.

I wondered what was so important that Henry was pulling me out of the store. But as soon as I made it outside, I saw what was wrong.

Standing in front of him were a couple of guards, along with Bane’s Beta… Jeremy.