Chapter 105: Assholes

Michael’s POV

I slipped the phone back into my pocket. "There is still something I haven’t figured out."

"What?"

"What it was looking for," I said.

Alaric leaned back. "The same problem we keep running into."

I nodded.

"These things are becoming more difficult to deal with," he said. "They are parasites. They take a host, erase the human soul and use everything that person had built around them. Their identity. Their connections. Their access. Their influence."

His gaze hardened. "And they are expanding."

"That is what concerns me," I confessed. This situation was getting tiring.

Alaric turned his glass slowly between his fingers. "Think about Lawrence Park. What could that shapeshifter have gained by taking him?"

I looked at him. "Access to the Park family."

"Exactly." He nodded.

The Park family had money, influence and connections. Lawrence had married into the Hugo family only weeks earlier, which gave a shapeshifter operating through him access to another powerful family as well.

Alaric continued. "It would have had a position inside a wealthy family, with access to people and information that an ordinary host could never provide."

"But Vera Hugo spotted it and ruined the plans," I finished.

Alaric stopped. His expression changed slightly as he considered my words. "Yes." Then he lowered his glass. "I hadn’t considered that part."

I continued, "Once Vera saw its true form, it had a problem. It could not simply continue living as Lawrence Park after killing her. The police already have his fingerprints around her neck. He is the primary suspect, and he is missing."

Alaric nodded slowly. "So the Park family is no longer a useful cover."

"Not in the same way."

He thought about it for several seconds. "Then the creature may already be looking for another host."

"That is what I’m thinking."

He added, "If it finds one, it can abandon Lawrence’s body and disappear into another identity."

I nodded. "And that is why my men have to find him immediately, whether he is still in Lawrence Park’s body or has found another host and possessed it."

Alaric’s expression became serious. "They will need to move quickly."

"They already are."

He gave me a knowing look. "You were never going to leave this alone."

"No."

A faint smile touched his face. "I expected as much."

My phone vibrated before I could say anything else to Alaric.

I looked at the screen. It was a call from one of my men. I answered immediately.

"Alpha."

"Report," I ordered.

"We found Lawrence Park."

I straightened slightly. "Where?"

"About twenty miles from the vacation home. His body was dumped near an isolated service road."

Alaric’s attention shifted toward me.

I listened as the man continued. "There is no sign of the shapeshifter. We searched the surrounding area, but the trail ends there."

"Describe the body," I instructed.

"The body has shrunk considerably."

I already knew what that meant. The shapeshifter had left Lawrence.

Once the creature abandoned a human host, the body could no longer retain the unnatural condition imposed upon it.

The body returned to its actual state, leaving behind the remains of the person whose soul had already been destroyed.

Lawrence Park was dead. He had been dead since the moment the shapeshifter took possession of him.

"Have you confirmed that it is Lawrence?"

"Yes, Alpha. We identified him."

"Good." I glanced at Alaric before continuing. "Now find the shapeshifter."

"We’re already searching."

"Don’t stop until you find it," I further instructed.

"Yes, Alpha."

"And when you locate the new host, don’t assume anything."

The man understood immediately.

"Confirm the presence of a shapeshifter before you make a move. I don’t want an innocent human killed because someone made the wrong assumption."

"Yes, Alpha. We will confirm it first."

"Good. Then eliminate it," I ordered.

"Yes, Alpha."

Alaric broke the silence as soon as I hung up. "If the police find Lawrence’s body, we have a problem."

"I know."

The problem was bigger than the body itself.

Humans knew nothing about shapeshifters. They knew nothing about their existence, their ability to possess humans, or what happened to a person’s body after the creature left it.

A body that had inexplicably shrunk would raise questions no ordinary investigation could answer.

Neither of us intended to let those questions lead humans toward our world.

"We cannot let them discover what happened," I said.

Alaric nodded. "We have no plans to expose the existence of shapeshifters. And we certainly aren’t ready to let humans discover us either."

I looked down at my phone. There was another problem.

"If Lawrence remains missing, the Hugo and Park families are going to turn against each other."

Alaric’s expression hardened. "Exactly."

"Lawrence is already the primary suspect in Vera’s murder. If his body is never found, the Park family will have to live with the suspicion that one of their own killed a Hugo."

Alaric added, "And the Hugos will never forget that."

"It could become a serious feud," I said.

Alaric leaned back and considered it. "We cannot afford that."

I nodded.

The two families were influential enough that a conflict between them would have consequences far beyond their personal affairs.

Neither the Hugo family nor the Park family was insignificant, and a bitter dispute between them could spread into businesses, political relationships and other circles of influence.

It would serve no purpose for us.

"We tell the police where the body is," Alaric said. "They find Lawrence, investigate the circumstances, and come up with whatever explanation humans are capable of finding."

I said to him, "They will know his body was altered."

"They will know something happened to it," Alaric corrected. "They won’t know what."

That was the point.

The police could investigate the body. They could examine the scene, search for evidence and try to establish how Lawrence had died.

They could speculate about the condition of his remains. But the truth would remain outside their understanding.

"The discovery will cause an uproar," I said.

He nodded. "Probably."

"The Park family will have to deal with Lawrence’s death. The Hugos will have to deal with the fact that Vera’s suspected killer is dead."

"And eventually, both families can bury what happened without turning it into a war between them," he finished.

I exhaled slowly. The situation was far from clean, but it was manageable.

"Have someone in your team anonymously direct the police to the location," I said.

Alaric nodded. "I will arrange it."

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the phone in my hand.

The shapeshifter had killed Vera, destroyed the evidence, abandoned Lawrence’s body and disappeared before we could reach it.

Now it had another host, which meant the problem hadn’t ended with Lawrence.

It had only changed faces.

"These assholes are going to have to be dealt with," I said, casting my gaze on Alaric.

He gave a humourless nod. "Of course."

I heaved a deep sigh. There was still a larger operation waiting for us, but my attention remained on the shapeshifter that had escaped from the Hamptons.

It had already learned how easily it could move through the human world.

And I intended to make sure it did not get comfortable here.