Burden Read online

  “How far does this go back?”

  “At least five years, I haven’t looked beyond that.”

  I scoured it for an hour, jotting down notes, questions that I had but every month something was happening. Tarrow was wrong, the records went back twenty years and they were in stark contrast to the written records.

  “Who was in charge of the finances before Tarrow?” I asked no one in particular.

  “His name was Pine, and his father, Oak, handled them before him. Pine married a girl from the LaFourche clan, and they both moved there shortly after.”

  “What is this,” I pointed to a constant payment going out of the clan’s account.

  “It’s the electricity bill, Coeur.”

  “How many in the clan?”

  “Just under one fifty,” Hawke answered me.

  “Is there some machinery or something that I haven’t seen—because this bill is nearly one thousand dollars a month, has been for five years. There were almost the same amount of bears in my old clan and their bill was only six hundred, at the most. Something is going on here. Not to mention this—“I pointed at the screen after isolating a steady five thousand dollars was being paid out to a business every month and had been for over ten years.

  “I saw that as well,” Tarrow spoke up. “I called the electricity company last month. They said they sent an employee out to check, and our meter was fine. It must be correct.”

  “Where is the meter? Did you see them check it?”

  “No, Alpha, they said it was off site.”

  And the more I picked the records apart, the more I became very suspicious. But I wanted to tread lightly. Walking into a clan and accusing members or former members of treachery wasn’t something I was ready to do, Alpha’s mate or not.

  “Do we have a fax number or an email?”

  “Yes,” Tarrow answered and wrote it down on a slip of paper.

  “Alpha mine, can I use your phone,” I’d called him mine but tried very hard not to make a big deal out of it. I didn’t even know where it came from.

  “Of course. Here.” His smug grin was back in full force.

  I’d looked up the number for the power company and called them. I gave them the information but Tarrow ended up having to give permission to speak to me. I asked for a list of all the addresses to every home under the account. Soon, an email came through, and the first three pages rang true, all clan addresses. I began to close the email, defeated, but Tarrow stopped me.

  “There are more, skip ahead.”

  I did and after two blank pages, a whole new slew of addresses appeared. They were all in another city.

  “Those are LaFourche addresses. You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  “There are hundreds, Alpha. You’ve been paying the electric bills for two clans for over ten years.”

  We sat in shock and Tarrow reached across me and printed the list. Hawke bowed in jealousy and I mouthed ‘chili’ at him, knowing he would get my drift. He smiled and backed off. That would have to be our secret word, ‘chili’.

  “I will go to the company myself tomorrow, Alpha, on my lunch hour, and straighten this out.”

  “I’ll do it. I wouldn’t want you to spend your lunch hour working.” Hawke intercepted.

  “Thank you. They’re going to have to credit us for all those years. We won’t have to pay an electric bill for a decade” The Beta grinned from ear to ear.

  I huffed in aggravation, “That was easy. Now there’s another issue and I’m afraid to ask.”

  “Ask anything. You’ve just saved us thousands, maybe over a hundred thousand dollars. I didn’t even see it.”

  “Well, is there—is there a clan member who can hack into computers?”

  Hawke and Tarrow looked at each other, “Yes, but he’s so far removed. He doesn’t participate in clan affairs.”

  I shut the laptop, frustrated with the constant barriers, “Clan is clan. There are no degrees of membership. I’m sorry.” I immediately recanted. “I need a break.” I propped my elbows on the table and rested my face in my hands.

  “Come back later, Tarrow. I will call Rev and see if he will help us. He just might. My mate needs to eat, and she has a headache.”

  “Yes, Alpha.”

  He left immediately and suddenly a bottled water was placed before me.

  “You’re thirsty—and hungry, which is why your head is pounding. How about you and I get out of here, eat, and then come back. I swear you’ve done more in a few days than I have in a year.”

  “We should talk about that.”

  “About what?” I felt a lightning bolt of fear strike in him.

  “About your father. I have the feeling there were some issues. I need to know it all, Hawke.”

  “I promise to tell you if you let me take you to eat.”

  “Ok, let’s go.”

  We hopped in his truck and after meeting some more clan members on our way out, we left the gates and got on the road. I could hear the faint sound of music and I reached to turn the knob. Piano chords flowed through the speakers and he shrugged, “George Winston. Keeps me calm,” he defended.

  “There was no music allowed in the other clan. No TV either. Sounds fantastic to me.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Some of the kids got in trouble for listening in their cars one time. Horace pulled their radios from their vehicles and burned them. He was a little on the dramatic side.”

  He laughed and took my hand in his. We arrived at a place called Mulatte’s and I wondered if the rumors about Louisiana were true. Was Hawke about to make me eat raccoon or something?

  We entered the brightly lit, homey place and sat at a table. I let him order for me since I could neither understand nor pronounce half of the things on the menu.

  “I thought he was the best,” Hawke began, “I thought he was the Alpha to set precedence for all other Alphas. Everyone obeyed him. Things seemed fine on the surface. And then he died last year and the more I learned, the more I was buried in the hole he’d left for me. He obviously never checked his accounts. The Principal of the school said he constantly paid fines for clan members who were truant. He was an excellent father, I know that for sure. But did you see Blake’s face when you invited their daughter to see you? Do they not think they are welcome there? I’d like to get to know the clan, really know them. I feel like maybe they were held at arm’s length from me. I have my Betas but when I think about it, we hung out at school but unless I snuck out, we didn’t do very many things together. Maybe it’s just me.”

  “Have you asked them?”

  “Who?”

  “The Betas. Ask them their take on your father and you when you were smaller. Give them permission to be truly honest. I bet they have the answers. And are there not clan activities? You said that Rev guy doesn’t participate, but what are they?”

  We got our plates and my stomach growled at the scent of shrimp and chicken.

  “What is this?”

  “Gumbo, kinda like stew. Eat.”

  I closed my eyes, overcome by the succulence of the dish as I put a spoonful in my mouth.

  “It’s amazing. What?” Hawke wasn’t eating, instead staring at me.

  “I love that look on your face.”

  My cheeks burned hotter than the soup in the bowl, “Thank you.”

  “The only clan things we do are mating ceremonies and Easter and Christmas things for the kids.”

  “So no clan dinners, no celebrations for babies, graduations, nothing?”

  He put his spoon down and sat back, “No.”

  He was upset. There was a disappointment in himself and where he’d come from brewing inside him.

  “So start.”

  “Where?”

  “Your home.” Immediately I knew I’d fouled up again. “Our home.”

  He came back to life, “Let’s have the whole clan over for dinner on Sunday afternoon,” he grinned ear to ear.

  “Good, I’ll co
ok. I am a pro at cooking for the masses. You can get to know them and we can make sure they feel welcome.”

  We finished eating in a comfortable silence. My brain was exhausted but I knew our day was only half over. But, minute by minute, I’d gotten more comfortable rising to my calling and my mate. I also recognized how well everything I’d gone through came into play. All of my experience and knowledge that I thought didn’t matter to anyone and would never be important, had become useful. We drove back home, and as we parked next to the house, I noticed that a man sat on the porch steps. His appearance was menacing, his statue and posture demanded his presence be known. Truth be told, he scared the ever living crap out of me.

  “Tarrow has done my job. That is Rev.”

  I’d never been told why the male chose to stay distant. He’d never had a mate. He lived in a cabin on the outskirts of the clan and used no electricity. He ran his patrols every night without fail, sometimes taking over the others’ schedules if they couldn’t make their shift.

  “Thank you for coming, Rev,” Echo was trailing behind me. I could feel her fear trembling through her.

  “This is the already famous Coeur?”

  “Yes, this is Echo. Echo, this is Rev.”

  She smiled at him, “Hello, Rev. I’ve been told you have some skills on the computer.”

  “I might.”

  “Well, it is my opinion that someone, somehow, is siphoning money out of the clan account. But it would take a pretty skilled hacker to find out who, and then clean them dry.”

  He squinted his eyes at my female not in defense but because in less than five minutes she’d bested him. “What’s in it for me?”

  “A home cooked meal,” she bargained. “Anything you want me to cook. Make it good.”

  “Deal,” he slapped the tops of his knees and followed behind us into the house.

  “Here’s the problem,” she pointed at a single figure repeated over and over on the computer but not in the books.

  “Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, salad, and lemon cake.”

  “You got it big guy. Hawke, I don’t know where the grocery store is. Can you take me or point me in the right direction?”

  “Of course,” we headed out towards the store and she made good time getting all of the ingredients for our hacker’s dinner. I took a silly sense of pride pushing the cart as she filled it. We got back, and Rev was hunched over the laptop, screens and logins popping up everywhere. He didn’t even register our presence. I helped chop up the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers for the salad while she prepared the rest of the meal.

  “Rev, can I get you something to drink?”

  He nodded but didn’t give her the response I thought she should but Echo stopped my fury, holding my hand.

  “He’s trying to save all of our asses. Give him a break. He’s in a zone.”

  She fixed him a tall glass of lemonade and placed it next to him—he downed it in one gulp and slammed the glass on the table, never blinking.

  I watched her make the cake, and she stuck her finger into the batter and tasted it, purposefully taking her time. She flickered her gaze up to mine and smiled the smile of a female who knew exactly the effect she had on me.

  “Not nice, Coeur.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Mmmhmmm, we forgot to look at the van.”

  She scoffed, “I’m going to have to start making lists. There are so many things to do. It feels good to do work for the good of the clan,” she scrubbed her neck, “especially without the collar. I can still feel it sometimes.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you before I did.”

  “You got to me just in time, Alpha mine.”

  I pulled her against me, so damned sexy wearing a pink apron. “You snuck that in on me today while Tarrow was here. That was a dirty trick.”

  She kissed me quickly, “It just slipped out. It’s so natural to call you that.” We both clenched the other tight as a chill crept up both of our spines. So caught up in our new claim, we’d forgotten the clan mate in the room. She looked over to him and blushed, “I’m sorry, Rev.”

  “I’m glad,” the gruff voiced male stated. “It’s about time this clan turned around.”

  She nailed me with a shocked expression.

  “Care to explain?”

  “Things have been snowballing in this clan for some time. The best place to start over is with a newly mated Alpha pair—one where the male doesn’t treat his female like shit.”

  I rushed him and he stood before me, unfazed by my aggression. We were equal in height but neither of us relented our ground even though he should’ve submitted.

  “I mean no disrespect, Alpha. And dishonesty is the greatest form of disrespect for another person, especially the Alpha. But we all know your father didn’t treat your mother as the Coeur of the clan should’ve been treated.”

  Pulling at the roots of my hair, I took a step back, acknowledging the validity of his statement.

  “So much was hidden from me. But it seems you are the only one around here who will stand up and tell me the damned truth. You will tell me everything you know.”

  “I’d love to. My family has been keeping journals for a hundred years.”

  “The Scribes? I was told they weren’t necessary—they’d gone away—stopped keeping up.”

  “That right there,” he put his hands on my shoulders as a father would do to his son. “is why we are necessary. We were told to stop taking records. But history has told us when we are commanded to stop keeping the histories is the exact time we should double our efforts.”

  “You will help me.”

  “Us,” my mate reminded me from across the kitchen.

  “Of course. I will be over first thing in the morning with the written words. We were denied technology but we are sneaky. We have ways to get computers. They may be older, but they work.”

  I nodded at him and took my place next to my female who had dinner ready.

  She made us sit down and served us regardless of my defiance. Rev ate like a maniac. And after almost every morsel was eaten, he sat back and began to tell us the depths of the deceit he’d only scratched the surface of.

  “That money is going to a bogus company. The addresses and accounts are dead ends, all tunneling into a single account. They all go back to a pseudo name. I’ve never heard of any bear with such a simple name. But I will check the records when I get home. But they were stupid. They left a trail a mile wide, and spotlighted. As we speak, that money is being filtered out of their account slowly, back into the clan’s account. I’ve already recovered fifty grand and there’s plenty more.”

  “How much did they take and over how long?”

  He scrubbed the top of his close shaven head, “Over a million dollars in the span of twenty three years. The way I set it up, in a few hours, we will have all of our money back. And then I will close all trails. By the time they find out we’ve stolen our money back, it will be too late.”

  I leaned down, shoving my eye sockets into the heels of my palms. “He should’ve paid attention. How could he let this happen?”

  “There are many things you should know about your father. I must be going home. These things weigh heavy on my soul. I will be back in the morning. Anyway, our Coeur looks like she needs time with you. Goodnight.” He got up abruptly and then spoke over his shoulder before leaving, “I will help you in whatever I can to make sure you don’t repeat the mistakes of your father. But it will not always be easy to listen to me—and it most certainly will not be without grief. I will, however, always tell you the truth.”

  And then he was gone.

  I didn’t know what to think, my mind was muddied with things I’d never wanted to face. I sat at the table for an hour while Echo cleaned around me. I felt weak. I felt useless. I felt like quitting.

  I looked back on my childhood and for the first time, realized it for what it truly was. It was a saga of preparing me for
nothing. He hadn’t prepared me for anything but some cushy life, telling others what to do and how to do it. He never trained me to be an Alpha—he simply trained me to be the ignorant son of a pompous and faulted father. I’d have to learn the hard way.

  “Come on, Hawke,” she pulled me up and led me upstairs and repeated my efforts from nights before. I was in shock, the hole my father had left me to crawl out of had finally caved in on me.

  “Undress, I’m gonna run the water. You have to relax.”

  You hurt—she hurts—my bear called to me, knotted in a nest of worry. But I did her bidding, undressing down to my boxers, sitting on a chair next to the tub.

  “He’s right. I never saw my father show my mother affection. Not even a handshake. I swore that if I ever found a mate, I would treat her as she should be treated.”

  “And you do,” she knelt before me and rested her head on my knees. “I think that’s why I’m here. All of this stuff would’ve come to light anyway and you needed me to be here to go through it with you. It’s nice to be needed.”

  “I do. I need you so badly,” But I was no longer talking about her role as the Alpha female. I spoke to her now as a male speaks to his mate.

  She looked up at me and then surprised me, “Tomorrow, mate. Tomorrow. That way we will be as strong as we can. I have a feeling we’re gonna need it.”

  I waited until she left before peeling my shorts from my body and sunk myself in the tub. The sooner I calmed, the sooner she would. I thought about how our clan had struggled to make ends meet. How some of the things we needed had been neglected because of lack of money. And one of the reasons so many children were missing school, was because the mothers of our clan weren’t home anymore to see to it that they attended—because they were working. I slunk down further in the hot water and let the realization roll over me that my legacy, the only thing my father had left me—was broken and battered, much like my female when I’d found her. And now I had to rebuild it.

  Like starting from scratch.

  The bastard.

  Hours later, she opened the door and put two towels on the chair next to the tub.