A Fraudulent Death, Draft 02, CH 37 (Patreon)

Bo’s department took the entire ninth floor of the city management building in the city center. Government finances weren’t a small thing. Trembor rode the elevator alone, his low growling had kept anyone from entering. The doors opened to the lobby, and he immediately headed for the open door on the left of the reception desk.

The jackal stood and stepped before him. “Sir, do you have an appointment? Is there a problem I can help you with?”

“Move out of my way,” Trembor growled.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go in without knowing who you’re seeing and why.”

Trembor shoved him aside. He wasn’t dealing with subordinates. He walked through the rows of cubicles. His brother’s office was at the back. But he saw Bo, leaning against a partition, talking with the occupant. The lion laughed, looked up, and saw Trembor.

All humor left his brother. “Trem, what are you doing here?” Bo looked around. Inside the cubicle, an anteater looked at her screen, her ears folded back.

“What the fuck are you doing,” Trembor growled, getting in his brother’s face, “telling your son to just go along with everything those bastards are telling him to do?”

Bo stepped back, lips tightening into a line. “Alright, Trem. This isn’t the place.”

“The place? You think the academy is the place then?”

Bo looked around, and Trembor saw people looking over their partitions in his peripheral vision. “Fine, then let’s go in my office so we can talk about this in private.”

“Fuck privacy,” Trembor snarled. “You gave up all right to it when you turned your back on us.”

“You’re the one who turned your back on me!” Bo snapped. “Deal with your problems yourself, do you remember telling me that?”

“And I still tried to help you, but you shut me out! Instead turned to those criminals and now you’re handing them Herelex.”

“What the fuck is my son doing talking with you?” Bo yelled, stepping forward, teeth bared.

“Who else is he going to talk to when his own father won’t protect him?”

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

“He’s my family too!” Trembor roared. “I’m not going to let you turn him into a criminal like them!”

“Oh, get off that fucking hill, will you?” Bo replied. “Nothing they’re asking him to do is going to hurt anyone.”

Trembor grabbed his brother by the collar and pulled him until they were muzzle to muzzle. “Except him,” he snarled. “Do you even know what they want him to do? Or were you too busy working for them to listen to your son?”

Bo shoved Trembor way, the strength in the push surprising him enough he let go. “Herelex is going to do whatever he has to survive. You think it’s easy for the rest of us?” He motioned to the cubicles. “Those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be the oldest, to get all the special treatment? The perfect job, all the benefits. We need all the help we can get to pay our bill! And I fucking sorry if sometimes that help comes from people you don’t like.”

“Is that what you call gambling your money away? And don’t tell me it’s just to relax, that taste went rotten a while ago. You accuse me of having all the benefits?” Trembor motioned to the large room. “You’re in charge of this entire place. Tell me that doesn’t come with enough money to pay all your bills. Don’t fucking come and blame me for your addiction. Dad warned all of us of the dangers. We would have helped you if you hadn’t been more interested in hiding how deep in trouble you were. We’re Goldenmanes! We stand by our family! You wouldn’t let us help!”

“Help? Being screamed at by Dad isn’t being helpful!”

“Of course he screamed. Do you have any idea how painful it is for him to see you like this? You’re following the scents of his mistakes despite him doing everything he could to keep us from going there. He’s terrified of what’s happening to you.”

“What I do is none of his business, or yours. I’ll fucking raise my family the way I want to. So don’t even think of marking them.”

Trembor stared at his brother, surprised he could think that. “Are you deaf, Bo? Blind? I’m trying to help you.”

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

“By telling your son to let them record him having sex?”

Bo seemed shocked. Then he snarled. “There’s a good market for that.”

“You can’t mean that, Bo. Come on. What if they want him to be a fixture in one of the sex houses? Are you just going to say ‘there’s good money in that’?”

Bo snorted, “oh, the high and mighty Trembor who took every male that offered himself to you to bed days after that female laid you.”

“My choice, Bo,” Trembor said, fighting to keep his anger under control. How could his brother be this blind? “I knew what I wanted as soon as I was out of my first heat. Herelex is still figuring himself out. You’d know that if you bothered listening to him.”

“Oh, you know my son so much better than I do,” Bo said with derision. “You must love that, getting all the juicy secrets from the cubs. Holding them over their parents. You like having that power, don’t you?”

“What the fuck?” the chuckle that escaped Trembor was as unexpected as Bo’s comment. “You know I always send them to their parents when they come to me with a problem. I told Herelex to speak with you about it because I thought you’d put your son above whatever those criminals want.”

Bo laughed. “And what are you going to do when they tell you to take my son to that sex house yourself? You think I don’t know that you’re working for them too? Come on Oh Hypocrite, lay your wisdom on me.”

“I will never let them do that to anyone in our family!” Trembor yelled.

Bo’s laughter turned nasty. “You think you’re going to have any more say in what happens than I do? What? You’re going to make them see the error of their ways? You have the same shit in your fur that I do, so stop telling me you smell so clean. When they tell you to convince sweet little Dayra she can help her family by parading herself in front of perverted old males, you’re going to do exactly what you’re told.”

“I’ll destroy them first,” Trembor snarled. “I’m going to eat anyone who threatens my family, you know that better than anyone else.”

“Right,” Bo said with derision, “because I was the one 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 so you can take my sons, raise them as your own since you’re never going to fuck a female and get one for yourself.” He grinned. “Surprise. My memory of that day cleared quite a lot, so you can fucking stop lying about why you did it. You don’t give a fuck about me. You fucking live to be abused.”

Trembor’s hand hurt and Bo was on the floor, rubbing his bleeding muzzle. He didn’t remember anything after the accusation. The memory of it was enough to make his blood boil.

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

Bo snorted, looking at the blood on his hand. “He’s got you fucking well trained. You hate him one day, you hit me the next defending him. Even Gorrek never got you to do that.”

Trembor took a step forward before he could stop himself, the growl reverberating through his body. He needed to eat that grinning male who’d dared compare his wolf to that monster. He wanted his blood going down his throat, for his entrails to serve as a warning to anyone who might consider saying the same.

A hand grabbed his arm, and he spun, ready to make the intruder pay. He saw golden fur, spots, a uniform, and then the floor.

“Sir, I need you to calm down.”

Trembor roared. He needed to—the pain in his arm pierced his anger.

“Sir, do not force me to be any rougher than needed. You’re not a savage. I understand this is just an argument that got out of hand, but I will not have you eat any of our employees.”

The carpet was dusty, and Trembor sneezed. They needed a deep cleaning.

“Sir, I need you to speak so I know the bloodlust has passed.”

“I’m okay,” Trembor said. He couldn’t believe he’d been ready to kill Bo for insulting Marlot.

“That’s good, now count down from twenty.”

“Is that really needed?” he asked.

“Standard procedures in cases of bloodlust. Having to think back forces you to be rational, which puts your emotions back in place.”

It sounded like something someone with too high a productivity rating had made up to justify it, but the male had his arm in a painful grip, so Trembor complied. When he reached one, the male loosened his hold without letting go. He helped Trembor to his feet. A few cubicles away Bo was being looked after by females, but instead of being happy at the attention, his brother looked scared.

“Sir? Look at me.”

Trembor looked at the jaguar in a security uniform.

“I need you to leave. We might press charges for how you acted, but I’m certain they won’t be as harsh if you just let me escort you out of the building.” Trembor nodded and headed for the elevator, the jaguar not letting go of his arm. Once they reached the ground floor, he released Trembor and remained in the elevator, while Trembor headed for the exit.

He was still angry, but at himself now. He couldn’t believe he’d almost eaten his brother. He had more self-control than that. Bo hadn’t been a real threat, he was just angry too, probably scared of the situation he was in.

Outside, the brisk wind cooled his temper further. He and Bo needed time to cool down properly, and he had to go to the academy to resolve that situation. Tonight he’d call his brother and see if they could talk in a neutral place. They were family, they could put their anger aside and work toward fixing the problem.

“Hey Buddy!” a weasel called to Trembor as he exited a car that had just stopped at the curb.

This time, the decision to deck the male was a conscious one. Trembor didn’t know him. He didn’t remember meeting him before, but he knew who he worked for. He wasn’t certain of what he’d screamed at his brother, but words would have made it back to Maoma, and since they were already here, it had been fast.

The weasel glared at him from where he was sprawled on the sidewalk. “Buddy, you better think about—”

Trembor kicked him in the stomach. He’d considered the head, but he needed him conscious. He grabbed the male by the neck and pulled him to his feet, then slammed him against the building’s stone wall.

This was a mistake, Trembor knew it, but he didn’t care. She’d declared war on his family. “Tell your boss I’m going to eat her for what she did. We had an agreement. My family was off-limit. Now she’s going to pay.” He tossed the male aside and headed for his car.

The academy, then Derimak. He had to let her know he’d screw up her plan before Maoma responded to his threat.

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