"Nisha says the council is not to be trusted. They are after her."
"The Council cannot ignore this, we won't let them. The trial of an Alpha has a jury made up of other Alphas. I'd rather you not worry about that, I just want to find out what happened. I'll make this as easy as I can for you."
"All right." I asked her to sit up on the couch, with Snacks laying with his head in her lap, and moved Teri to the chair next to her. Placing my phone on a stand on the coffee table, I adjusted it until it just showed her from the chest up. There were no clues as to where she was located, and you couldn't see Bobby's head. Her hands were both in his fur, nervously petting him to stay calm. I started the video, then sat back with my notebook. After stating my name and the date, I smiled at her and started slow. "Can you tell me your name, birth date and family?"
"Niesha Stillwater, born June 18th, 2000, formerly of the Tomah Pack. My parents are, I mean were, Johann and Rosa Stillwater, Alphas of the Pack. I have an older sister, Nisha."
"So, you were Alpha blood but not the Alpha heir."
"No, my sister was, she had faith that the Goddess would give her a strong mate to lead with her. It didn't quite go that way."
"I see. Can you tell me about the last few days you were at the Tomah Pack?"
She closed her eyes for a moment, then started. "Mom and Dad had a meeting with the surrounding Alphas, it was being hosted by the La Crosse Pack. I didn't want to go, one of my friends was having her birthday party. Nisha had to go, she was sixteen and it was time to start looking for her mate. You know, all these Alpha get-togethers are chances for high-ranking wolves to look for their mates," she said as her eyes rolled. "We were down at the beach, playing on the rope swing. I had just gotten out of the water and was drying off when I got a link from Beta Todd that my parents were on the phone."
"Beta Todd Aldrige?"
"Yes. He told me to shift and run up to the road, he was waiting in his SUV with the passenger door open. I jumped in and shifted, but instead of handing me the phone, he injected me with something."
"What's the next thing you remember?"
"I woke up in a basement, chained by my neck to a post." She described the basement, the conditions, and the Alpha who raped her and left her pregnant.
"Niesha, I'm going to lay out some pictures for you. If you recognize the man who held you captive, let me know." The photos in the envelope had been shuffled around; I showed each to the camera before I handed it to her. She shook her head no three times before I handed her the next photo.
"It's him," she whispered. She was shaking and started crying.
I took the photograph back from her and set it aside. "I need you to look at the other photographs, just to make sure." She told me no to the rest. I collected the photographs with Alpha Justin on top. "The photo lineup identified Alpha Justin Heranus as the kidnapper."
We continued on through the injections and rapes, which took a while to get through and we had to suspend the interview twice when she broke down. During one of the breaks, there was a knock on the door. It was Alpha Clark, with more photos. "These are photos of the senior leadership of the Copper Mountain Pack," he said. "Teri told me she identified Justin."
"She did," I said. "Can you have the kitchen send in some drinks and snacks? We may be here a while."
"I have to go into the woods or shift and use the bathroom," Bobby said.
"I think it's a good time for a break," I said. "We're getting some food and drink brought in, but if you need to use the bathroom you can." Teri walked Niesha out, they were both still crying, while I walked to the front door and let Bobby out to run.
Ten minutes later, I had a muffin and a coffee in hand, and we started the interview again. She told of her baby being taken, being starved, then a new man showing up and taking her wolf. "I think he was supposed to kill me, but he took my wolf instead," she cried. "He knocked me out and that's when I was sent to the slave auctions."
"Slave auction?" Shit. We'd been looking for these people for years but had never found them. "Can I show you some pictures and see if this man who took your wolf is one of them?"
She nodded. I did the same exercise, except all the men were senior leaders in the Copper Mountain pack. "That's him," she said when the Beta's picture showed up. "He took my wolf from me."
Nisha's POV
Copper Mountain, Colorado
I had left my motorcycle at the LaCrosse Regional Airport. Marcy and I had driven her Mercedes sedan straight through to Denver and its coven.
The unique nature of Alpha Justin's pack was also its weakness. Most Packs were insular, living and working inside the Pack borders. The Copper Mountain Pack lived in a gated community in a remote canyon, but almost all of them worked at the sprawling resort fifteen miles to the northeast. The familiars had been monitoring the Pack for a few days now and noted how the majority of the Pack left during weekdays for work, including the Alpha.