I turned away from the scene and found work to do.
The investigation continued through the morning and into the afternoon.
I commandeered a private office near the hotel’s administrative wing.Viktor and Dmitri would coordinate our parallel investigation while the police did their work.The room was small, windowless, meant for storage rather than strategy.But it had a door that locked and walls thick enough to muffle conversation.That was all I needed.
Dmitri had arrived within the hour, barely contained violence simmering beneath his skin as he absorbed the situation.He had stood in the doorway for a long moment, nostrils flaring, reading the scents that still clung to me from the crime scene.His eyes had flashed amber before he had forced them back to human brown.
“Let me hunt,” he had snarled.“I’ll find whoever did this.I’ll tear them apart.”
“Not yet.”I had placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling the tension coiled in his muscles.His wolf practically vibrated with the need to act, to chase, to rend and tear.I understood the impulse.My own wolf strained against my control with every breath.“We don’t know what we’re dealing with.Stand down until we have a target.”
“Someone killed a woman in our territory.”Dmitri’s voice dropped to something close to a growl.“In the Vor’s mate’s hotel.That’s an attack on the pack.”
He wasn’t wrong.In wolf terms, Lena was mine, and everything she owned fell under my protection.The pack’s territory extended wherever its alpha claimed dominion.Wherever I claimed dominion.An attack on her hotel was an attack on me, on us.The pack would see it that way.The Pakhan would see it that way.
And the Pakhan was already watching.Already measuring whether I had become weak.
“Which is exactly why we need to be certain before we act,” I said.“One wrong move, one innocent target, and the Pakhan will have the proof he needs that I’ve lost control.Find me a target, Dmitri.A real one.Then you can hunt.”
He had obeyed, but barely.That was Dmitri.Young, fierce, loyal to a fault.A weapon to be wielded carefully, aimed only when I was certain of the direction.Point him at the wrong target and the collateral damage would be catastrophic.Point him at the right one and nothing in this world could stop him.
Reports flowed in through the afternoon.I sat with Viktor reviewing the security logs, cross-referencing access records with staff schedules, looking for the pattern that would reveal our killer.
No forced entry.The security cameras in that corridor had been malfunctioning for three days.Stephanie had told a coworker she was meeting someone after her shift ended, but hadn’t said who.
“The cameras,” Viktor said quietly.“Someone disabled them.Someone who knew exactly which ones to target.”
I nodded.Not a random failure.Deliberate sabotage.Whoever had done this had planned it, had prepared the ground days in advance.
All of it pointed to someone inside.Someone who knew the hotel’s blind spots.
Viktor’s intel confirmed what I had suspected.The Diamantis vampires had been watching the hotel for weeks.One of their men had been spotted near the loading dock last month.Another had applied for a housekeeping job just before the wedding.
“They’re probing,” Viktor said.“Looking for weaknesses.”
“Then they found one.”I thought of Stephanie’s body, the personal nature of the kill.“Someone they turned.Someone already on the inside.”
It made sense.The vampires had been circling since I had claimed Lena, looking for leverage.If they’d gotten to a staff member, convinced them to work as an asset, the hotel sabotage could all be their doing.Everything from the dead dog, to the heating failure, to the blood in the fountain.
Stephanie might have discovered their plant.Threatened to expose them.And been silenced for it.
“I want everyone on this,” I said.“Every piece of intel we can gather.If they’re responsible, we’ll find the connection.”
Viktor nodded, but his expression made me pause.A tightness around his eyes that I had learned to recognize over fifteen years of working together.“What?”
“The Pakhan called this morning.Before the murder.”
My teeth clenched.“What did he want?”
“To remind you that attachments make wolves vulnerable.”Viktor’s voice was carefully neutral, the way it always was when he delivered news he knew I wouldn’t want to hear.“And that his patience is not infinite.”
The Pakhan’s ultimatum had been clear.Kill Lena or marry her.Prove the marriage makes you stronger, not weaker.Prove she won’t compromise your usefulness to the pack.I had bought time with a wedding ring and a contract, but the reprieve wouldn’t last forever.
A murder in her hotel didn’t exactly support my case.
The Pakhan would see this as proof of distraction.Proof that I had allowed a woman to cloud my judgment, to make me soft.He would see the chaos at the hotel and calculate exactly how much of my attention was split between pack business and protecting my mate.
And he wouldn’t be entirely wrong.