Finding a break in the dense CCTV coverage of London's business district had been a challenge. The SIS pride themselves on their digital surveillance coverage of the entire city, especially the portions where big-wigs come through daily.

The alpha of London Jared Bernard, was in deep with the elder Wells Pack in western portions of the US. He was directly linked to the very head of the snake that was the worldwide alpha coalition. Said coalition was the very source of the demands put on Ele for Jenna and me to mate a "proper partner."

The bullet chambered in my rifle was to literally take a well-placed pot-shot at the very source of the corruption of the lycan world. There were hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of sups worldwide that would sleep easier with Jared dead.

On the eastern end of the City. Located around Lloyd's building, is the heart of the London financial district. This is the core of the insurance industry of the capital of the UK. Though, there is a secondary financial district further to the east, this is where the really big fish will come up for air.

Being immortal and powerful does not make a lycan alpha immune to mortal business dealings. Jared might manage to duck most obligations, but he has several monthly meetings in which he is required to attend, lest the London based pack find new means of income. Follow the money and it will lead you to your scumbag mark every time.

****

I made my way from the streets, to an adjacent building. I was posing as an intern from Oxford. Getting in was not difficult, but timing my arrival with the morning messenger services took a little planning. All packages were scanned coming into every building in this district. Folks take their money and power very seriously, lest they lose hold of them.

My plan was simple, but it had been tricky to pull together. The night before, I had posed as an escort. My mark, the head of the insurance group in direct competition with Jared's human counterparts—the man most likely to take a shot at him. I had him well and truly sedated with little recall of the previous night, but I had let him paw me with his filthy hands long enough to assume he had just done his deed and then went on to sleep off the hefty amounts of Scotch he had been downing.

Martin Weaver had special courier packages in his penthouse. I simply mailed my broken-down rifle to the building last night. With one quick scan, everyone in the building that sees that the package is legit, they will not touch it with a ten-foot-pole. Being on the bad side of a billionaire is not a position most people want to accomplish. I just happen not to care very much. It is unlikely that good old Marty will remember the hooker, or connect me to my next move.

Being a lycan means to be one who is used to existing on the fringes of the human world. I am now just planning to take that to a whole new level. So long as Martin does not make me, or corner me, this plan should work. (Not nervous at all!)

My package cleared security, as predicted. I show my glossy new I.D. badge to the guard at the desk and I pick up the package.

"I'm supposed to bring that to Mr. Weaver right away. He is already expecting me."

I exude confidence in my voice and let it leek into my eyes. The best way to make someone believe what you're saying, is to believe it yourself. The guard nods and he hands me the black marked package.

"Here ya go luv, do be careful with him in the morning, yeah?"

I nodded and I give a shy smile.

"And my mum said there were no more good men left in the world."

He smiles wide and he waves me through to the six elevators ahead. I take the first one going up and I stop off on the fifteenth floor. Security surveillance is on this floor. I don't want them getting a money shot of me. I might not be particularly worried about the locals, but I am not in any hurry to be put on any international watch lists either. My faux cellphone is a small EMP device obtained through some back channels.

Phase three of my plan is now underway. I walk into the security room and I feel the two pairs of eyes on me right away.

"What are you doing in here?"

The guard was chubby and balding, not a very appealing combination. I give a shy smile and attempt a dear-in-the-headlights look.

"I...I... this is not the copy room..."

I wiggle a few feet in and I quickly and quietly palm my faux phone onto the huge wooden shelf behind me. Lycan reflexes being what they are, it is unlikely they could perceive the sleight of hand I just pulsed behind my hand.

"This is security miss. I am going ta have to as ya to leave."

I nodded vigorously and say, "Right, sorry, my mistake."

As I retreat through the door, my keen ears hear the chubby man muttering, "Crazy birds mate..."

I growled a little and felt inclined to go redecorate the man's face, but then I thought better of it. Everything is about dominance to my kind, so ass beatings are typical if you offend a strong apex predator. Being in the human world, I keep having to remember not to punch everyone who questions me, which seems to be a lot of people! I never realized just how nosey and obnoxious humans really were. In Grayville, we had become accustomed to them knowing about our kind. Humans had not shown that quizzical side around me much. I was only thirteen when we were out of the closet in my hometown. Our locals were curious, but some families had pieced together a working version of the truth generations before, so we had always maintained a working co-existence among out human counterparts. They had just realized not to poke an angry wolf.

****

I rode the elevator up to the top floor and I casually walked to the second office to my left once the elevator opened. I knew this space would be open, so I had worked out this vantage point in advance. The side of the building was farthest from the best CCTV angles and would make it more difficult to extrapolate my escape route.

I quickly assembled my sleek black rifle and I adjusted my scope. I looked through the scope and I lined my sights up. Across the street, I saw Jared entering the conference room of the board of his insurance company. Even across the street, I could practically smell the greed and lust rolling off him. He was a part of the larger problem—a big part.

I slipped in the magazine and I pulled back on the bolt, chambering my round. I carefully take aim and I amplify my vision as best I can. I could not risk a laser sight, because of lycan reflexes and at this distance, surprise was my only true advantage. I was something very un-lycan. I was acting human. Lycans confront people head on with tooth and claw, but if I planned to have a dominance challenge for everyone trying to get their claws into me, then I would be dead in a few days. That is what the men expected of me. They expected me to fight things head on, not through the scope of a high-powered rifle.

I feel the phantom warmth of my former alpha rush over me. Ele's words ring in my ears, "Don't over think it, just do what you must to survive. That is how Angela managed to keep this pack running for over three-hundred-years."

I exhale a long breath and with it I squeeze the trigger gently. The explosion in my ear is followed by the splattering of the back of Jared's head like a smashed melon.

I climbed up onto the desk fast and I push open a white tile on the celling and I slip the sniper rifle in. That way it will be very hard to locate and give me plenty of time to be long gone before anyone could possibly start to track the weapon. I open the window and the air rushes in like a hurricane around me.

I pull a long length of rope from my bag and I quickly tie it to the window. I lower myself two floors. My goal is not to climb down the side of the building, but to swing over to the duct access of the massive skyscraper beside me. Most buildings are secured from the ground, not form the top levels.

Being small and female has a lot of perks, like escaping into venting shafts to escape an assassination. All around the area I could feel the nose of the angry British pack closing around me. I worked my way through the vents until I crawled out the second floor and landed in the ally two streets over from Jared's body.

I could hear the howls and inhuman sounds coming from his pack mates. I managed to slip right past their net, since they were sniffing for lycan and not particularly sniffing for gunshot residue. Not the brightest bulbs in the drawer, but not my problem either.

Tonight, I truly became the assassin. There was no going back, I had literally pulled the trigger on my whole life. It was more about finding the right way to die to me.