Gray Bishop by Kelly Meade Read Free Book Online Page A

before thinking. They go in without an exit strategy.” The only calculated part of this slaughter was the chess piece.
    Next to him, Jillian made a soft noise like she’d been struck by a stray thought.
    “What is it?” Father asked.
    She looked at him, her face uncertain. “If we believe the triplets are extremely impulsive and lacking in planning, we could potentially ambush them.”
    “Go on.”
    “If they saw a legitimate opportunity to abduct Knight again, they would likely jump on it.”
    Father’s face hardened. “No. We are not at a point where I will consider using my son as bait. We still have other options.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Bishop glared at her, pissed that she’d gone with that particular line of thought. They were doing everything possible to protect Knight from the triplets and their desire to breed with him. He would not go along with any plan that dangled Knight in front of them like the proverbial carrot.
    For her own part, Jillian looked slightly relieved, and that thawed some of his initial anger. She’d been asked to share her thoughts, but it didn’t seem as though she liked the plan to begin with. Father was right. They weren’t that desperate.
    “Is there anything else?” Father asked.
    Rook glanced his way, but Bishop ignored him. The chess piece was still in the car. “What should we say about what we found, if asked?” Bishop asked.
    “For now only the enforcers know there was an issue today,” Father said. “I don’t want it spread all over town and panicking anyone, but no one has to lie.”
    Good. That would make talking to Knight a fraction easier now that he had permission to mention where he’d been.
    “Dismissed, then. I have phone calls to make.”
    Calls to the other run Alphas, no doubt. They needed to know about this.
    Bishop retrieved the chess piece from his car before heading back home. He wanted to shower before he did anything else today.
    ***
    For someone who was supposed to be with another person at all times, Knight had become very difficult to locate over the last few days. If he wasn’t tending to Shay, or to the needs of other loup around town, he was simply . . . gone. Bishop had half a mind to inject him with one of those veterinarian tracking chips they gave dogs, simply so he could always know where his brother was.
    After searching the house and coming up empty, Bishop gave up and called him. The line almost went to voice mail before Knight picked up with a terse, “What?”
    “Where are you?”
    “Doing my damned job, Bishop. Michelle Barnes was in false labor earlier today, probably from stress, so I’m over here keeping her calm. Anything else?”
    Bishop pinched the bridge of his nose, telling himself to not snap back. “No, I’m sorry to interrupt.”
    “I gotta go.”
    “Hold on a minute. I want to talk to you when you’re done. It’s about what we found in the woods today.”
    Silence. “The triplets?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I’ll be maybe another hour or so.”
    “Okay.”
    He hung up, a little sorry for interrupting Knight when he was doing his duty as their White Wolf. Michelle Barnes was still a month away from giving birth to her second child, and he couldn’t imagine the stress of a false labor. No matter what else was going on around him, Knight’s duty was to the run.
    Bishop wandered into the conservatory at the back of the house and gazed at his array of plants and flowers. Botany was a sort-of hobby he’d dabbled with for years. Plants relaxed him. They didn’t attack or bite. They simply existed, and so many of them were beautiful, flowering or not. He checked his bonsai tree, then his kaleidoscope orchid. He also had a bromeliad, a Medusa ornamental pepper, a money tree, a crab cactus, and more than a dozen varieties of potted rose plants. He loved roses. They had been their mother’s favorites.
    He maintained a collection of plants and flowers outside as well, but he liked being able to see them all year