AN: Henry Carter is mentioned in my story, Malèdiction du Loupgarou, as being one of the alphas in the state of Oregon.

Jarod Terebessy is an information broker in Malèdiction du Loupgarou.

Kempton is a great Old English name that means warrior but is primarily used as a place name rather than a personal name in more modern times.

Anything appearing inside -()- is meant to be a word that was visably struck through in the letter.

.

.

.

CHAPTER 1

Please Help

Hardison was sorting mail at his desk like he did every day. "One for me. One for the pub. Junk. Junk. One for me. One for Eliot." Hardison tossed the Envelope with Eliot's name on it to the side. He reached for the next piece of mail when he stopped to give Eliot's letter a second glance. That was the thing that grabbed Hardison's attention. It looked like a letter and not a bill or some other mass produced piece of mail. This one had a handwritten address on the front and a quickly scrawled note in the bottom right corner on the back. The letter had landed face down when Hardison had tossed the letter. Picking it up and taking a look at the back he could see the two word plea.

PLEASE HELP!

"El something here I think you should look at." Hardison yelled in the direction of the gym. He could hear Eliot in there beating on one of the big punching bags.

Grunt, slam, rattle.

"I'll take that as a later then." Hardison was about to go back to sorting when a slim white hand shot past him and lifted the envelope out of his grasp.

"Oh. This looks interesting. Do you think he'd mind if I…"

"Yes I would mind Parker. Remember we talked about boundaries and personal property." Eliot had actually given up on the whole concept a while ago but it was habit to growl about it at this point. He pretended that he didn't notice when she lifted his wallet or moved all of his knives around in their case in his room and secretly he was pleased that the little thief still took the time to do things like that. The day she stopped turning his katana upside down on its stand or leaving odd items like a marble or a flower in his boots was the day she didn't care anymore. Eliot wiped his face with the towel he'd thrown over his shoulder. Taking a step closer he snatched the envelope from her hand.

"No fair using wolfy speed!" She stuck her tongue out at him.

Eliot sniffed the letter and checked the post mark. He shifted one fingernail to a claw and sliced open the end of the envelope. Pinching the envelope to bow it open Eliot took a look inside before he snagged the edge of the letter with his claw and pulled it out.

"You want me to get a can of raid or my EMP gun and zap it before you read it?" Hardison rolled his eyes at Eliot's extremely careful handling of the letter. Opening mail was something Hardison took for granted and watching Eliot made him wonder what Eliot had done or had had done to him, that made him so paranoid about opening a letter. Maybe Hardison would talk with Eliot later in case there were precautions that he ought to be taking with the mail that he hadn't considered before.

Eliot gave Hardison a growl of mild annoyance as he flipped open the letter.

Alpha of the Portland City Pack,

Mr. Spencer,

I have heard recently about how much you have helped the wolves in Louisiana. If I understand things correctly from Henry Carter, your pack helps people. I have recently left my pack in Alaska and have gone lone wolf. I am not seeking admittance into your pack or permission to visit your territory. I want you to know that I have gone lone wolf so that you will fully understand when I tell you that I have no one here -(to help me)-I can depend on.

I have moved -(home)- to Wisconsin and have found that things here are more than I can handle on my own. -(My brother)- There is another lone wolf in -(my)- this territory and I am afraid that he is endangering our secret. I don't -(want)- know what to do. If you would please help me -(ki)-. Please write me at your convenience or call. You can get my phone number from Jarod Terebessy. I have told him to expect your call and to give you my number. I have already paid his fee in advance.

Yours Sincerely,

Kempton Foxman

-(Of the Tund)- Lone Wolf

Eliot tore the letter in half and let it drop into the trash can next to Hardison's desk. Eliot was about to go back to his work out when Parker's hand on his arm stopped him.

"What's wrong?" Parker looked confused and concerned. "Did he say something bad?" Parker had decided that they wouldn't avoid jobs just because there might be a wolfy element to them but now she couldn't remember whether she had told the boys about her decision. "Just 'cause Kempton is a wolfy doesn't mean we can't help him."

Eliot sighed and looked between Parker and Hardison before he let his gaze settle on Parker. "We are not going to help that man kill his brother."

"What?" Hardison grabbed the torn letter out of his trashcan and read it for himself.

Eliot went back to his work out, annoyed that people thought he was still a killer for hire, and annoyed with himself that he expected people to have forgotten or forgiven what had first made him famous in the criminal world. He knew he would never be free of the title 'killer' but he wished it wasn't something that always seemed to come up in front of the team.

Grunt, slam, rattle. Slam, slam, grunt, slam, rattle.

Parker and Hardison both stared at the gym door for a moment. It sounded like Hardison would be ordering a new heavy-bag soon. Hardison wrote himself a sticky note and stuck it to his monitor.

"Hardison, find out who Kempton Foxman is and what's going on in Wisconsin."

"Babe you heard Eliot. That guy's just looking for a hitman." Hardison had already crumpled the letter and returned it to the bin.

"No there was more to it. Just look him up. I'm not saying we'll take the job I just want to know what's going on." Parker kissed his cheek and headed for the gym.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

It hadn't taken Hardison too long to track down Terebessy. Hardison had kept tabs on Terebessy long before he'd known the guy was a werewolf. Ever since they'd rescued him from half the mob guys in Eastern Europe.

"Terebessy, my man. This is Alec Hardison." Hardison gave it a beat before he continued. "So I need you to tell me everything you know about one Kempton Foxman and why he wants to get in touch with Eliot."

"Well, um…" Jarod tried to stall for a minute. "It's just that…"

"Ah no man. Don't even try to worm your way outa this one. I already know that Kempton's a werewolf, he left his pack in Alaska and moved to Wisconsin, and now he's contacting my alpha." Hardison was surprised to feel an odd little thrill slide down his spine. He'd never before said that Eliot was his alpha not even to himself let alone to anyone else. "So tell me everything."

"But you aren't a wolf. I can't just…" Jarod stammered.

Hardison put up the image of a jolly-roger, with a skull that bobbed side to side and a jaw that snapped open and closed, on the screen of Jarod's computer and his cell phone. "If you don't want me dumping all of your digital files along with coordinates to your physical location on the dark web you had better start talkin'." Hardison had already made copies for himself of all of Jarod's files and he'd planted a worm that would send him copies anytime something new was added.

"You can't!" Jarrod wailed and made a dive for his keyboard as if he could suddenly find some way past Hardison's lockout by hitting the escape key a dozen times.

"Oh I can, and I will, if you don't tell me everything." Hardison did his best to sound intimidating but it was hard when he was having so much fun.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

"Okay mama. Looks like Kempton is seriously old. Terebessy had a file on him that tracks this dude back to like eighteen-ninety-six or somethin' but it seems like Kempton might have already been around a while by then. I couldn't find any mention of a brother anywhere. His name has changed a bunch of times but he keeps each name long enough that I don't think he's doing anything too shifty." Hardison put up several of the identities on the big screen.

"So not a criminal?" Parker was looking over all the things Hardison had put up. "He's not very good at picking out new names is he?"

"He does seem to stick to a very basic variation over time." Hardison listed a few. "Kempton Fuchshaus; Fox Kemdon; Kemen Fox; Foxly Kemenes. And a whole bunch a others."

"That's strange. Do we know why he keeps using the two names?"

"Because they are related to his original name." Eliot's growly tone rumbled behind them. "What the hell is this? I told you guys to drop this. We're not…I'm not killing anybody!"

Hardison and Parker both jerked around in surprise. "Sorry E. We were curious." Hardison looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"It's my fault." Parker sounded pleased and not at all repentant. "I told Hardison to look into this guy. I didn't say we were going to take the job. You don't do that thing anymore and we would never ask you to. I just wanted to know why he wants you to." Parker looked away and took a deep breath before looking back. Eliot and Hardison both realized that it was because Kempton wanted his brother killed, that Parker couldn't drop this yet.

"I thought you were going to the farmer's market?" Hardison checked the time on his phone. Usually it took Eliot a couple of hours to make it through the local farmer's market.

"I was! But I got a call from Terebessy begging me to call off my pack and not sell him out on the blank space or some other techno thingy." Eliot glared at them.

Hardison couldn't help laughing. The thought of him scaring a werewolf just made his day. "Oh man, I wish I had heard that call! And it's called the dark web by the way." Hardison wasn't sure if Eliot really didn't know the names of some of the 'techno thingys' as he called them or if it was habit at this point and a part of what he used to make people underestimate him.

"Not funny Hardison." Eliot was having a hard time suppressing his own smile.

"Sure it is." Parker smiled and turned back to the information on the big screen.

Eliot pulled up a chair next to her and reviewed the information. "So when was this guy in Wisconsin, before now?" Eliot saw nothing that even mentioned Kempton leaving the state of Alaska.

"I couldn't find any connection to Wisconsin. No relatives, no criminal history, no regular history, not even a layover at the airport. Until a year ago when he moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin." Hardison clicked through several items faster that they could actually be read through.

"So what's been happening in Wisconsin?" Eliot waited for Hardison to put up the next round of information.

Hardison hit a key on his keyboard and the theme for the Twilight Zone played. "All sorts of stuff. I think Kempton is right though. If it wasn't for the fact that 'beast' sightings in Elkhorn, Wisconsin is treated a lot like alien sightings in Roswell, New Mexico there would probably be a lot more people freaking out."

"Beast sightings?" Eliot rolled his eyes.

"No joke man!" Hardison smiled and slid up a comic book wolf-man with the title 'Beast of Bray Rd.' at the top. "He's even got a bunch of websites devoted to finding or debunking him."

"I thought you said the alphas would go after someone who was drawing attention like that?" Parker looked at Eliot who was staring at the screen.

"Well so far it looks like this guy has kept the right balance. People know they saw something but they don't know what it was for sure and it doesn't look like he's killed anybody at least not in a way that would make people associate the kill with this Beast of Bray Rd." Eliot crossed his arms and scowled.

"I noticed that the encounters with this beast guy have escalated. So way back in thirty-six is the first recorded sighting of this guy. He was seen across a field digging in an Indian burial ground."

Eliot's eyes flashed yellow for a second, but he gave Hardison a 'get on with it' hand wave.

"Then there are a bunch of sightings of a wolf-man running places in the distance or crossing roads at night stuff like that, but several years ago…" Hardison slid pictures of a scratched-up car onto the screen. "Doristine Gipson hit our wolf guy with her car on Halloween night. When she stopped to see what she hit he attacked her car. I gather that there was a bit of a hunting party going on for the next few days but no one ever found the wolf-man."

"So you can get away with drawing attention as long as no one believes you?" Parker looked like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"It's not something I'd put up with around here but I can see why no one has bothered to hunt down the knuckle head either." Eliot grumbled. "If someone had just started pulling stuff like this." Eliot gestured at the scratched-up car. "Then I'm sure the alphas near there would have stepped in but since there was already a bunch of other sightings it just becomes part of the legend and people will write it off." Eliot looked at Hardison. "Have you already contacted Sue Northup? She's the only alpha I know about in Wisconsin."

Hardison slid up a picture of Sue Northup. "So far as I could find in Terebessy's files Sue is the only alpha in Wisconsin. Her pack is mostly in and around Turtle Lake in NW Wisconsin, north of Chippewa Falls. So that puts them pretty much on the other side of the state from Elkhorn where most of the sightings have been reported." Hardison slid a map up on the screen. "So how come Kempton wanted you to contact Terebessy instead of just including his phone number in the letter?"

"'Cause obviously Kempton is an old wolf who doesn't understand technology and he doesn't realize how scary you are. He probably thought his information was safe with a broker and he had no idea that you could get to that information through a computer." Secretly Eliot thought that was a mistake that he could have made if he didn't know Hardison, but he'd never admit it. "So did you call Sue?" Eliot leaned back in his chair.

"I did not. I wasn't sure if there was some sort of wolfy protocol for calling an alpha and I didn't want to get thrown to the wolves." Hardison waited with great anticipation for Eliot's reaction.

Eliot rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Do somethin' with your boy." Eliot gave Parker's chair a little shove so that she slid closer to Hardison. Pulling out his cell phone he placed a call. "Sue? This is Eliot. How have things been?" Eliot paused a moment to listen. "Have you heard from a wolf by the name of Kempton Foxman?" Eliot got up to pace a little. "I know he's gone lone wolf in Wisconsin, he contacted me for help with a rouge. I thought he might have reached out to someone more local first." A few more paces back and then forth. "Okay. Thanks. Yah you too." Eliot slid the phone back in his pocket.

"Okay. Foxman did contact Sue and basically she told him not to attract attention and to stay away from her territory unless he wants to formally join her pack. She also mentioned that as long as we followed the same suggestion it was really no concern to her if we happen to visit Wisconsin." Eliot leaned his weight into his palms on the table. "I still don't see a job here. At least not one that we should take." Eliot looked at Parker.

"Why does Kempton care what happens in Wisconsin? Why now? Obviously his brother has been there and causing trouble for a long time. So why suddenly move to Wisconsin and try to kill his brother now?" Parker looked back and forth between Eliot and Hardison and the cartoon wolf-man that was still on the screen.

"Why don't we ask him?" Hardison couldn't see the harm in talking to Foxman. They had consulted with other prospective clients that they had had to turn away.

Eliot sighed but looked to Parker. "I don't think it's a good idea to talk to a guy that wants us to kill someone for him. What do you see in this guy? In this mess…?" Eliot gestured at the screen

"Do you think he'd come after us if we talked to him but told him no? I think there is more he's not telling us. There's just something about this that doesn't…it doesn't feel right." Parker seemed to draw into herself when she couldn't adequately explain her feelings.

Eliot reached out, set a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Parker if you want to talk to this guy we'll do it. You don't need to worry about him coming after us 'cause I won't let it happen." Eliot looked at Hardison and received a nod in return. "So what's our next step here?"

Parker smiled her thanks and straightened her posture a little as she turned to Hardison. "Call him."