Claiming Treasure Ch. 16-20

Spider Monkey's POV
Arrowhead Lake House

"So Vegas instead of Orlando?"

"Yeah," Vic said as he started to set the table for dinner. "The good news is that we can leave earlier than I thought we could. Chase and Rori are flying to Dallas tonight; they heard back from Roadkill after he verified it was safe to come back. They will get the twins, and fly back with Roadkill, Possum, Brenda, and Zoe."

I stirred the venison chili as the sourdough bread finished baking. I loved the stuff, and my love of it came with me from San Francisco. I kept my sourdough starter in my kitchen, baking a dozen or so loaves a week. "Why not fly commercial?"

"They don't want to deal with the TSA, or have the passenger manifests showing up anywhere on government databases. We may be all right with the government, but that doesn't mean they aren't watching us." Having money also meant traveling in comfort and not having to change planes and rush between gates with cranky babies. A direct flight to Two Harbors was perfect.

I thought about the people coming back on the plane. The nannies made sense, as did Rori's parents, but that wasn't all of the ones who had left. Heather was not with them anymore, but the guards? "What happened to Brent and Laura?"

"They are packing up all their stuff and driving the two vehicles back," he said. "They should be here in two days, three if they take their time."

"It will be good to see them," I said. "Have your um, bosses left already?" Damn, I almost said, 'Alphas.' I was going to have to guard my words and actions if I was going to keep my secret, which was that I knew THEIR secret, secret. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

"Yes. Rori and Chase should be taking off from Two Harbors any minute now. Ron is in charge, and I'm making sure everything stays safe for their return."

Three months up here while your year-old babies were in hiding. I couldn't imagine how tough this had been on Chase and Rori. "It's safe to bring them back?"

"It is. The people we were worried about are no longer a problem." I stared at him, expecting more, but he shrugged his shoulders. "I can't tell you, baby."

"You and your security stuff," I said. "Speaking of stuff we can't speak about, I gave Rori the last data packet on the Sons of Tezcatlipoca operations. I'm at a dead end with them; the Feds can pick at the carcasses now that I've stripped the meat off."

"Profitable?"

"I'm not going to dip into my retirement savings just yet," I said with a grin. "Stealing from a criminal organization is the best. The Feds don't care, not after the deal Colletta made with them, and not after I've moved it through so many accounts they'll never trace it."

"You're a genius, and I love you," he told me. Pulling me into his arms, he leaned down and gave me a deep, toe-curling kiss.

I wanted him; it seemed like I always wanted him, from the first time he walked into my Silicon Valley condo. "I could use some loving," I said as I moved until my arms wrapped around his muscular torso. "We've got ten minutes before the bread is ready."

"Turn off the burner then," he said.

I let go and turned around to turn the gas off, only to shriek in surprise when he yanked my sweatpants and panties down to my ankles in the middle of our kitchen. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not wasting any time," he said as he dropped to his knees. I held on to the counter as he moved my legs apart, and his tongue licking at my needy pussy. I moaned in pleasure as his talented tongue got me warmed up. It wasn't long before I was begging for his cock like a bitch in heat.

I giggled to myself at just how close to the truth I was.

He pushed the clothes off my legs and stood up. I hopped into his arms, his big hands cupping my ass as he moved me to a spot by the sink. I squealed a little as my bare ass hit the cold granite, but that noise was nothing compared to the scream as he plunged that big cock up to the hilt in one powerful stroke. "VIC," I said as he pulled back out. "Fuck me, baby."

Even with me on the counter, I was still a little too low for my big guy. He put my left leg on his shoulder, opening me up as my hands grabbed his neck. I closed my eyes as he took me hard and fast, just the way I liked it. He was strong and dominant, and I was his helpless fuck toy as he pounded me with that big cock of his.

When I was farther along in pregnancy, we'd have to be careful, but my obstetrician assured me our baby was well protected even during this. I giggled as I thought back to his pleased expression in her office at our last appointment. "I just want to be sure," I had told my Doctor. "Vic is a BIG guy if you know what I mean, and we are very athletic during sex."

"How athletic are we talking," my Doctor asked.

"He bends me like Gumby and pounds me into a puddle," I said proudly. Vic was biting back a smile.

"If it becomes uncomfortable during sex, stop and change positions," she said. "The body is an amazing thing. I would be careful of anything like a table that presses into your belly, but other than that? Have fun." Leaning in, she whispered in my ear. "If I had that hunk at home, I'd be doing the same thing."

My moans just encouraged him to give it to me harder and faster. "YES! FUCK YES," he yelled before he pulled me tight, his cock pulsing as it filled me up. That sent me over the edge, and I came hard with him, squirting all over his stomach with my orgasm. He held me as we waited for our bodies to return to normal; when he could move, he pulled off some paper towels from the holder and got them wet. "We made a mess," he said as he pulled out, keeping the big mess from hitting the floor.

"I don't care," I said. "That was amazing."

"So are you," he said as the buzzer went off. "I'll pull the bread out. You go clean up while it cools."

I held the towels in place as I jumped off the counter, grabbing my clothes on the way. "Wash your hands first," I said as I waddled out to the hallway.

He had pulled his jeans back up and had food on the table when I returned. I'd been shocked to find out how good he was at cooking, and he said this chili recipe he'd learned from his Grandmother. He must have learned the recipe over a cooking fire outside a cave, though.

I'd found all kinds of stuff on the open sections of the Council website after I'd caught up on the trial videos. The website included complete genealogical information on all the world's werewolves, and Pack rosters with matings and birthdates. May 20^th, 1814. That was Vic's birthday.

My big dog was over two hundred years old.

"He'd fuck you to death if he was twenty years old," I said to myself as I used the bathroom. "And you'd let him."

I washed up and dressed as he was bowling up my dinner. I went to sit at my place, but he pulled me into his lap instead. "I like having you close," he said as his hand moved to my belly.

"Are you always going to be this protective of me?"

"No. It'll get worse as you get bigger." I could see the pain in his eyes, and I knew why. He'd lost his mate in childbirth when his daughter was born.

"I'm going to get so fat," I said as he handed me a buttered piece of the hot bread.

"Then I'll carry you wherever you need to go," he said. "When I can't be here with you, I'll arrange for help."

I added shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream to my bowl and dug in. I was hungry, and the chili paired perfectly with the sourdough. "What's the new plan for our trip?"

"We'll load up my trailer with our motorcycles and head south," Vic said. "We'll stay with the Vegas Brotherhood chapter for a few days, then one of their prospects will load up Heather's motorcycle and stuff and follow us up the west coast to San Francisco before flying back. We can grab anything you need out of storage while we are in town. We'll drive north into the mountains, drop off Heather's stuff in Washington, then take the northern route to get home."

"We should have the prospect meet us in the City, and take the Pacific Coast Highway up," I said. "We've got time and money, and I want to ride before I'm too fat and ugly to be out in public with you."

"You have no idea how beautiful you are to me when you are carrying my child," he told me as he kissed my forehead. "I want to ride with you, but I'm not worried about you getting so big you need the whole lane or anything."

"Why, then?"

"I don't want to stop every fifteen minutes so you can go to the bathroom."

I smacked him across the nose with my bread and acted offended as long as I could, but when he started laughing, I lost it too. I loved this man.

He had to go back to work for a few hours, so I went back to my office after he left. I'd hacked into the server yesterday, and had the files transmitted to me and mirrored already. I had all the data on a removable hard drive on my hacking server, but there was a lot more I wanted to do in there.

I inserted a program I'd written into the Council server; every night after midnight, it would check for files that had been updated since the previous night and transmit them to my server automatically. Once that was in place, I went to work on their telephone system. The Council was using a relatively modern system that had Voice Over Internet Protocol connections to the phone system. I used an escalating rights hacking program to break through and get administrator rights.

With that power, I set about configuring the system the way I wanted it. The system could save the audio files of calls from all phones, and I turned that feature on. I pointed it to a new folder I created with a misleading name, on a section of the server that wasn't encrypted or password protected. Combined with the other program, I would know everything they did.

At least I would after I broke through their 32-bit encryption on the personal files of the Council members. I was running a program on my hacking server to do just that, but it would take time.

I heard the garage door open and turned off the screens. The programs would stay running, and I would check them tomorrow.

Right now, I wanted some more loving.

Two days later, I was loading a laptop, portable desk, external hard drive, headset, and portable printer into the back seat of Vic's truck. "We're going on vacation, baby. Why are you bringing that?"

"It's a long drive, and you know I don't like driving your big truck, especially with a trailer behind it," I said. "I've got to keep busy somehow, and I still have work to do."

"You're retired," he said.

"Hacking never sleeps," I told him as I set things up. Before we left, I removed the hard drive with the Council data and replaced it with a blank one. All the updates that came in while I was gone would go on that. If I had high-speed internet access, I could download it remotely.

I was looking forward to warmer weather; in early April, Minnesota could be below zero or in the sixties in the same week.

We were in Texas before the hacking program broke through the encryption, and I didn't have much time to look at it before we arrived at the Las Vegas clubhouse. I begged off the party early that night, leaving Vic down at the bar doing shots with Aces and his Club officers. All of the files were unlocked, and I started doing word searches to find things related to Rori and Chase.

It was going to take days to go through it all, and I was on vacation.

Ch. 17

Rori King's POV
Arrowhead Pack House

I sat in the shallow water of our pool, leaning back against Chase's chest as our babies played with the bubblers. We'd been home and together now for four days, and I hadn't let them out of my sight. When our plane landed, and I finally saw them, I couldn't stop crying. Their little hands kept touching my face as if they couldn't believe I was there.

We'd missed so much in the three months they were gone. Milestones and memories were lost forever for us. I had so much anger for the Council and what they made us do.

I was so grateful to the people who kept them safe while they were in hiding. Possum and Roadkill had made the most of their time with their grandchildren; when Cheryl bumped her head and ran for Possum instead of me, I sank to the ground and started crying. She picked her up and brought her over, letting me kiss her better. "It will go back to normal soon," she said as she sat by me.

It took a day or two, but it did. The Pack threw a party to welcome back the children, their nannies Brenda and Zoe, warriors Brent and Laura, and Betas Possum and Roadkill the night we returned. I couldn't thank them enough. The party had gone well into the night, as Chase and I kept watch over the pair as they slept in the pack-n-play.

"Rori, you and Chase have a phone call you NEED to take. It's your uncle Martin," the security center linked me.

"On my way." I waved Brenda and Zoe forward and told them we'd be back soon. I rinsed off in the locker room and quickly pulled on my clothes, meeting Chase on the other side as we walked to our office. "Transfer the call to my office, please."

"Yes, Alpha."

The phone rang, and I put it on speakerphone. "Martin, how are you," I said.

"Rori, I need you to sit down," he said.

My stomach flipped as Chase pulled me down into his lap on the desk chair. "Go ahead, Martin," he said as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"I got a call from the Coast Guard Sector Field Office in Grand Haven, Michigan, a few minutes ago. A fishing vessel saw something suspicious on their sonar and marked the location. The Coast Guard responded and identified it as a crash site." I was going to be sick. "It's the plane Charles was in," he said. "A salvage boat and divers raised the plane. His body has been positively identified."

My stomach lurched, and I pushed myself off of Chase's lap and grabbed the garbage can. I lost my lunch, heaving it out as Chase held my hair back. When I had nothing left, I sat back, and he handed me a bottle of water to rinse my mouth out. "What happened," I said.

"We don't know yet. The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and FBI are all involved. They won't tell me anything."

I let Chase pick me up and take me back to the chair. "What happens with his body?"

"It will undergo an autopsy, and after that, they will release it to me. I plan to have Charles cremated then spread his ashes at his favorite spot on our land."

"I want to be there," I said. "For both."

"I'll let you know. I'm sorry, Rori. I wish you had more time with your grandfather than you did." I could tell he was barely holding on.

"I will let Ashley and Colletta know," Chase said. "Thank you for calling." He picked me up and carried me back to our home, sending a cleaner to the office to take care of the garbage. He put me in the shower as the nannies returned our sleeping babies to us. I fell asleep with my toddlers by my side, taking comfort in their scents and their breathing.

Brian Steele's POV
Council Headquarters
Banff Pack, Alberta, Canada

Teri, Rick, and I were powering through a scene in Battlefield: V and things were slowing down. I was getting pissed at the freezing and performance. "Dude, what's going on with our Internet," Rick asked over the headphones as he bumped my knee with his.

"I don't know, but you know how bad the internet speed sucks out here. It's probably the server in town." We had a fiber optic line connecting the Pack and Council servers to the telecommunications company serving the area.

"It happens every night at midnight," Teri said. "Annoying."

"It's probably the data backups," I said. "I'll check them out tomorrow."

Five minutes later, the speed went back to normal, and we kept playing until two in the morning. Teri and Rick were mates, and both worked in the building maintenance group for the Banff Pack. Both were in their twenties, and among the few in the Pack who were into computer gaming. Alpha John Coffey was a stickler to isolation from humans; only a few select people allowed to conduct business with them. Gaming wasn't as fun when you were under Alpha orders not to communicate with other humans. Thus, our late-night gaming parties were the only way for me to enjoy multi-player games.

I was the computer guru for the Pack. I had been the Alpha Geek in the pack since I was thirteen, finding computers to be my thing instead of fighting. The Alpha put me in charge of the Computer Room at fourteen. My duties had expanded when our previous Alpha, Jack Coffey, had become the Chairman of the Werewolf Council. The Council now occupied another building, and I had furnished it with a dedicated server. While construction was going on, I added a third data center for backups. The third center was in its own small building, far removed from the others and with its own power supply.

I'd made it this far, reaching low Beta status within the Pack at age thirty-five, because I could handle anything with the computers. As I woke up the next morning, the conversation from last night was bothering me. I ran some diagnostics, finding nothing amiss. I did some disk cleanup and archived some files, knowing these would help, but not finding the cause of the problem. I checked the program for the data backup routine on the Council server, and didn't see anything that would explain the performance. I checked at the third data center and verified all the updates were going on time. I needed to figure out where the problem was, and for that, I went to the Pack server room.

The data backup routine looked fine there too. "Time to troubleshoot," I told myself. I set the backup time on the Pack server to two in the morning, knowing the Council server was at midnight. The only other explanation was the common data line into town. I'd have to monitor performance in real-time and see where the demand was coming from. Tonight, instead of gaming, I was going to be working.

I went through my duties during the day, taking a nap in the afternoon since I'd be up half the night. It worked out well for me because both the Alpha and the Chairman had been in a foul mood since the trials. I kept quiet and in the back at the daily staff meeting, and generally hid out in the computer rooms. I had no desire to feel the anger of a pissed-off Alpha.

At dinner, I found a quiet table next to Rick and Teri. "I can't play tonight, but I want you guys to play without me," I said. "I have some things I need to check to figure out this speed issue at midnight."

"It's not a big deal," Teri said.

"It could be a sign something is wrong, maybe equipment starting to fail or a corrupted program. It's just one night."

"Fine. But don't get pissed when we get this level without you," Rick said.

"Like THAT will happen."

"How long is the Alpha going to stay pissed off about Alpha Rori getting away with it," Rick said over the link. You never EVER talked shit about Alpha John out loud. It was a quick trip to the punishment pole if you did, even the Ring if he considered your words a challenge to his Alpha position.

"It's hard to tell. I know that he's been working the phones with other Alphas. It's got to hurt when two-thirds of the Packs side with a female Alpha over Pack law and tradition."

"Alpha Rori is badass, Alpha Coral too," Teri said. "Really. You wouldn't believe how many Omegas and females are rooting for her."

"Coral's been the Omega Goddess since the Battle of the Coral See back at Bitterroot years ago. The Alphas are not going to allow her to keep that Pack for long. A dominant female Alpha goes against everything they believe," I said.

"I've talked to my sister in the Blue River Pack. They lover their Alphas, and there is no way any Alpha wannabe will get the votes to sustain a challenge," Teri said.