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"Cole on this fine afternoon?"

Trey’s jaw hardened "How’s Drake?"

"He was doing better until I beat his ass for attacking your wolf He knoant an alliance with your pack--such behavior does not help my cause It is in fact counterproductive, and I don’t suppose it’s helped convince you to accept me as an ally, has it?"

"No"

"Maybe this will help Drake has been punished Severely He has also been suspended as Beta When I’m ready to reinstate his position, I will But only if he proves hi a Beta never worked out well To lose his position even temporarily would lose Drake the respect of his pack er consider him an authority, and at least one of thee him for the position In other words, it created discord and resentment and it made the hierarchy unstable

In past instances of a Beta being suspended, they often did the only thing that would regain the rest of the pack’s respect and obedience--they challenged their Alpha If Morelli were a true Alpha, he’d have known that instinctively Of course, there was no saying he truly had suspended Drake Morelli could just be feeding Trey shit to placate hiies to Trick," Morelli continued "He can be assured that Drake won’t bother hiain"

"You positive of that?" asked Trey

"One hundred percent You have ain, I’ll hold you responsible" With that, Trey ended the call

Dominic pursed his lips "Do you think he’s really suspended him?"

"I don’t know," said Marcus "He’ll be pissed at Drake for what he did And if he’s du it would ih to have actually done it"

"Whatever the case, he’ll order Drake to stay away from you," Trey told Trick

Tao nodded "The question is, can Morelli keep that dog on a leash?"

"No," said Trick "But Morelli believes he can, so he won’t watch hih We need to be prepared for Drake towas over, Trick left the office in search of Frankie He found her in the living area, curled up on an arently picked her up and sat down, settling her on his lap "Hey, baby You have a good talk with Iris?"

"Yeah We looked at some photos Check these out" She pulled out her cell phone and showed hihed at the one of the you the balloons wouldn’t make you fly, but you were determined to try" He looked at the photo of her and her parents, wondering how the fuck a fao to shit

"Iris said she thought I should have one of me with them"

"It’s okay to want it, Frankie" But he sensed she felt so a happy moment" Even if that happiness had later evaporated

"I kind of hoped that looking through the albu, which is just stupid, since people rarely recall any e But I hate that there are so many holes in the story"

Trick kissed her forehead "I know you do But you have to stop beingme off"

"Excuse me?" She kept her voice low, so it didn’t carry to the others

"You’re angry with yourself because you think you could solve the mystery so easily if you hadn’t buried the memories when you were a kid But it’s not your fault, Frankie You hear me? It’s not your fault We’ll probably never have the answers You need to learn to be okay with that or you’ll torment yourself, and then I’ll have to paddle your ass because no one hurts my mate--not even her"