"Who doesn't like puppies," I sent back. "Niesha, I need to ask you to do something that I know is not going to be easy for you but is very important. I'd like to get your statement on what has happened to you since the day you were taken."
"Surely it can wait, she's not ready," Luna Teri said.
"Right now, her sister is out risking her life to get her son back," I said. "The longer she is out there, taking the search and the revenge upon her alone, the more vulnerable she is. The Council and the Packs will kill her if they find her before we do." I looked over at Niesha. "Please, she's my mate. I know she's not had an easy time of it, but I'm here now, and so is this Pack. We need to know, so we can help your sister, and so we can make sure EVERYONE who was involved in your treatment is brought to justice."
"She didn't tell me where she was going or who the Alpha was," Niesha said as she started to cry. "I DON'T KNOW!"
Bobby put his head in her lap and Teri got out of her chair and hugged her as she cried. I looked over at Alpha Clark. "Alpha, may I talk to you in private for a few minutes?"
"Let's go to my office." We left the crying women alone and I followed him upstairs. He sat behind his desk as I took the chair in front of it. "I can't just sit here and listen to what happened to her, my wolf is going nuts that I couldn't protect her. Now that we know Beta Todd was involved, it makes me even more certain that he was involved in the Alpha pair's death."
"Even more reason to get the statement. Let me do it, with Bobby and Teri there. I'll conduct the interview and videotape it so we have evidence to take to the Council when this all blows up."
"What can I do?"
"There can't be that many Alphas who had males born to their families in that time. Ask you mate to ask Niesha how long it was between when she was taken and when she became pregnant."
He looked off, and a minute later we had our answer. In the meantime, we pulled up a pregnancy calculator on the Internet. Now that we knew approximately the conception date in early September, we took from 34 to 42 weeks gestation and got a range of values. "So that's a narrow range to start with, and we can throw out any Alpha with older male heirs. Not much of a point in kidnapping and raping a girl if you already have your successor," I said.
"I'm going to fucking kill him," he said as he looked at the Council secure website. Every Pack Alpha and their family was listed there, with links to family photographs taken at the annual Council Summit.
I looked at the photograph he was staring at. He was standing behind her, a toddler boy in her lap, smiles on their faces. "Alpha Justin Heranus and Luna Rhoda of the Copper Mountain Pack in Colorado. Son Phillip, DOB 5/20/2016," I read. "Damn. His face and eyes look just like her."
Clark sent to a few people, and the room soon filled with his senior staff. He filled them all in on what we had learned. The mood was tense, and I had to be the one to defuse it. "Before we load up and head west, I'd like to point out that we don't have any proof yet. We don't have DNA evidence, we haven't even gotten an identification out of Niesha yet. Let me do my job and build the case so none of these people get away with it."
"We can't just roll in there," his Beta said. "It would be an act of war. We have to get the Council involved. We lay out the facts, they arrest him and hold the trial, and we get our justice."
"I want his blood in my teeth," Alpha Clark raged as he stood from his desk.
"It's not what is best for the Pack," I said. "Niesha needs her family around her to recover, and it would crush her if you were hurt or killed on her account."
He sat down, clenching his fists as he pushed his wolf down. "Go back downstairs and see if Niesha will agree to interview with you. Meanwhile, I'll call the Council and ask them to fly a team out here immediately. I want all the information we have gathered on Alpha Todd and Alpha Justin in this room by five."
"I'll have it ready," I said.
"Beta, have your men put together information on the Copper Mountain and Tomah Packs in case we have to go in there and grab the Alphas ourselves. I don't mind getting the Council involved, but if we have to we'll take our own action."
"Yes Alpha."
Before I left, I found a photo of Alpha Justin and printed it out along with photos of five other Alphas of similar age and features. Placing them in an envelope, I went downstairs, where the girls weren't there. "Where did you guys go," I sent to Bobby.
"Luna's sitting room on the main floor," he sent back. I followed their scents to a door, hearing their voices inside I knocked softly. "It's Randall," I said. "May I come in?"
"Enter," the Luna said. They were sitting on a couch in the small room, which had needlepoints and photos on the walls and high-backed chairs flanking the couch. It was clearly a female space by the decorations, used by the Luna to entertain other females when her mate was dealing with Pack matters alone. "Niesha has agreed to talk to you about her experience, but she doesn't want anyone else in the room with us," she said.
"Thank you, Niesha. We can keep this just to us, but I do need to record the interview for use in a trial. I'll also ask you to make a short statement and sign it, identifying who did this to you. I was just speaking with Alpha Clark, and he's going to bring the evidence to the Council so we can get justice."