Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 37 (Patreon)

The financial(need to confirm that) company his brother worked for took the entire ninth floor of a building in the city center. Trembor was alone in the elevator, his low growl having kept anyone else from entering it with him. The doors opened to what had to be a welcoming lobby, but he barely paid it any attention. He stalked past the receptionist, who stood to step before him.

“Sir,” the jackal said, backing when Trembor didn’t stop. “Do you have an appointment? Can I help you? You can’t just barge in like this.”

Trembor shoved him aside, possibly too forcefully, and continued through the rows of cubicles, eyes on the lion standing by one, smiling and talking with the occupant. Bo glanced in his direction and frowned.

“Trem, what are you doing here?”

“What the fuck are you thinking, telling your son to go along with everything they tell him?”

Bo looked around, lips tight. “Let’s take this to my office, where we’ll have privacy.”

“Fuck privacy.” Trembor shoved his brother back. “It’s not enough that you ignored dad’s advice and gambled, but now you’re dragging Herelex down with you?”

“What is that son of mine doing talking with you?” Bo snapped back.

“Who else is he going to talk to when his own father’s telling him to do what criminals tell him to?”

“You have no fucking business putting your muzzle in my family’s business.”

“He’s my nephew, I’m not going to let you turn him into a criminal.”

“Get off your fucking hill, okay? He’s not going to hurt anyone.”

Trembor grabbed his brother by the collar and pulled him close. “How about hurting himself?” He growled deeply. “Do you even know what they want him to do?”

Bo shoved Trembor away, the strength behind his lean brother’s arms surprising him enough to let go. “Whatever the fuck he needs to. You think it’s easy for the rest of us?” Bo motioned to the cubicles. “Not all of us have the benefit of a great job that pays all our bills. Some of us have to take side jobs to make sure we can feed out cubs.”

“Is that what you call gambling your money away?” Trembor saw heads rise over cubicle walls in his peripheral vision. “You have a better paying job than I do, so don’t fucking blame that. You got yourself in your situation, and I didn’t give a fuck about it. I tried to talk to you, your family tried to help. You turned us down.”

“Help? That’s what you call dad screaming at me?”

“Do you even see how much what you did hurt him? You’re following his scent where he never wanted us to go! He did everything he could so we’d known the danger! And what do you do? Strut in a gambling house as if his warnings were bedside stories you were too old to listen to! Of he’s going to scream, he’s terrified of what’s going to happen to you and your family!”

“It’s my fucking family! None of you have any business marking them!”

“Are you fucking blind Bo, deaf? We’re trying to help you!”

“I don’t fucking need your help, I’m handling things fine!”

“By telling your son to let them make sex movies with him? What’s next? They’re going to make him a fixture in one of their sex houses? He’s barely out of his heat. Do you have any idea what kind of damage that’s going to do?”

“Oh, fuck off. You were sleeping with any guy that offered himself days after that female laid you.”

“My choice, Bo. I wanted to. Herelex doesn’t even know what he wants yet. You’d know that if you’d bothered listening to him.”

“Sure, you know my son so much better than I do. You must love that, having all the cubs tell you their secrets, holding that over their parents, must make you feel all-powerful.”

“What the fuck?” Trembor was surprised at the chuckle that escaped him. “Bo, you know fucking well that I always send them to their parents when they have problems. I told Herelex to talk to you when he said that because I thought you’d be smart enough to make sure your son didn’t get buried in your shit. But instead, you’re pushing him in it. That I’m not going to stand for.”

Bo let out a bitter laugh. “And what are you going to do when they tell you to guide my son to that sex house yourself? When they tell you to tell sweet little Dayra she can help her family by parading herself for some hungry males?”

Trembor stiffened. “I’m going to tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Bo’s smile was nasty. “Oh, you think they’re going to do what you want? High and might Trembor Goldenmane’s going to make them see the error of their ways? Let me remind you, you’re in the same shit I am. They have their claws in you just as deep. When they tell you what to do, you’re going to do it.”

“Never,” Trembor snarled. “I will never work for them. I don’t care what happens to me, but I am going to eat the bodies of anyone who threatens my family. You know that better than anyone else.”

“Right,” Bo said with derision, “because it was me you were fucking saving. If that wolf hadn’t been there. You’d have been happy to let me die, were probably looking forward to it, taking in my sons, raise them as yours, since you’re never going to fuck a female and have them yourself. You don’t give a fuck about me, about the rest of us. It’s just you and your wolf. You fucking live to be abused.”

Trembor’s hand hurt. He didn’t remember moving closer, or raising his arm, or striking his brother, but Bo was on the floor, rubbing his bleeding muzzle and Trembor’s hand hurt from the impact.

“Don’t you ever say that about Marlot again,” Trembor growled.

Bo snorted and looked at his hand. “He’s got you fucking well trained. You hated him one day, now you’re hitting your brother to defend him. Even Gorrek never got you to do that.”

Trembor took a step forward before he could stop himself. The growl reverberated through his body. He wanted to eat that male who’d dared compare his wolf to that monster of a lion. He wanted to taste his blood, spread his entrails everywhere as a warning to anyone else who’d think to do the same.

Trembor turned on his heels and stormed out of the office. If he stayed, someone would die, and he didn’t want to eat his brother, not really, he told himself. The elevator emptied itself as he forced his way in. He wasn’t growling anymore, but he expected his scent warned everyone of the state he was in. He wasn’t even trying to control himself.

When the doors opened on the ground floor, a weasel stepped in from outside and waved at Trembor, broad smile on his muzzle. “Hey buddy, I think we need to—”

This time Trembor was conscious of the fist he planted in the weasel’s face. He didn’t know if it was the same one he’s encountered before, but he had no doubt who he worked for. No one else would be this familiar with Trembor right now.

The weasel’s eyes turned angry as he staggered back. “Buddy, you better think about—”

Trembor punched him again, considered striking him with an open hand, claws out. He couldn’t be worth that much, and he did need meat, but he needed to send a message. Trembor grabbed the weasel by the neck before he could recover and slammed him against the wall.

“Tell your boss that I am going to eat her. I am going to eat all of you, and if she even thinks of touching someone in my family, I’m going to eat her alive.” He looked the weasel up and down. “You too.”

He let him go and stormed out of the building.