Duke Behar paced behind his office desk. That pain-in-the-ass Feral had to go. The damn tiger was keeping him from the gold deposits buried in the mountainside. And the fucking alpha idiot didn’t even know about the lost mine. Which was how he wanted to keep it.

It’s not like the bastard needed the money. With the ski resort and all the successful businesses his pride had, they were set for years, possibly generations. How could he tap into their success to make himself rich?

Everything he’d tried so far had been miserable failures. But he’d tried to be subtle, nice even. His initial attempts at legal claims to the land were laughed at by the Terai pride. More recently, he’d sent teams of his men into their territory to scout where homes were and what the cats were up to.

Coming upon the vacant cabin earlier was a bonus. A little chaos with a blazing fire was just what they needed. But then his own men fucked up the perfect opportunity to take down the alpha. How many fuckers did it take to put out that damn tiger? He lived through several of his tigers attacking him.

The more chaos he could create for Feral, the better. Maybe the cat would get tired of all the headaches and simply give them access to the land. Right. When hell freezes over.

It was time to take stronger action against them. Let the Terai pride know how serious he was about his demands for the land. They didn’t need it. It sat untouched.

He could sabotage the ski resort. The snow would start falling at any time. That would shut down the entire mountain, but that would also free up their security guys to roam the area and ruin any other plans.

Maybe that little brat niece of Feral’s could be used. One of the teams reported back that they saw the child with a human walking in the forest. That was surprising. Feral kept a sharp eye on the girl. And the child being with a human was even more unbelievable seeing how much Feral loved humans. If Duke could get his hands on her, she would make a great exchange.

He wondered if Feral would ever find a mate. That would make a delightful hostage exchange. He’d put a couple of guys on the alpha’s tail to see where he went when he left the pride lands. If the man had a hottie stashed somewhere other than his cabin, Duke was going to find her.

Duke picked up his phone and dialed his strongest man. No answer. Duke dialed his second, then his third best men. Still no one. Where the fuck was everybody? A knock came on his office door.

With a deep inhale, he recognized two of his dipshit men. As a leader, Duke realized not everyone could be the sharpest cookie in the drawer. There was a job for all intelligence and physical levels, some duties definitely not as advanced as others. How hard could it be to follow someone in a vehicle?

“Come in, Tarell,” Duke called out as he stopped to gander out the window. Tarell walked in with his brother, Tarrel. Yes, Tarell and Tarrel were quite the team. Quite the big team. What they didn’t have in brains, they made up for in sheer strength. They were also his nephews and his sister kept pestering him to include more of the family in the leadership. He had the perfect gig for them.

“Tarell,” Duke said as he turned to them, then he was immediately struck speechless. The dumber of the two, Tarrel, had a mullet haircut. Not only that, it was neon fucking blue.

“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” Duke asked, mouth gaping.

Tarrel brushed his fingers through the strands then tilted his head back and shook the length free. “Do you like it? It’s just like Joe Dirt’s.”

Duke’s eyes narrowed. “Does your mother know you did this?”

“Mom says I’m old enough to make my own decisions,” his intellectually-challenged nephew said.

“Obviously, she was wrong,” Duke mumbled. Times like this he was sure that he got all the brains and his sister had enough to function, passing down even less to her children. “I need you and Tarrel to tail the Terai alpha.”

Tarrel gave a goofy grin. “Trick question, right, Uncle? He’s already got a—”

“Don’t say it.” Tarell slapped him upside the head. “He means to follow the alpha, dumbass.”

The brother scowled and rubbed the sore spot on his head. “That’s what I was gonna say.”

Tarell snorted. “Was not.”

“Was, too,” Tarrel shot back.

“Was not.” Tarell got into his brother’s face.

Tarrel raised onto his toes to look down on his sibling. “Was, too.” Then he poked him with a finger in the chest.

“Shut the fuck up,” Duke yelled. And his sister wondered why he didn’t use the family more often. Jesus fucking Christ.

“Is that all you want?” Tarell asked. “To follow him?”

Duke gave that a thought. Just maybe... “You know what?” he said. “I want you two to bring him here to me.”

“How’re we gonna do that?” Tarrel asked. “He doesn’t like you much, Uncle.”

Tarell slapped his brother on the chest. “Shut up, T.” He turned to Duke. “We got this, Uncle. I got a plan. We’ll find him and bring him back.”

Duke waved them out. As the brothers walked through the door, he wondered why they were there in the first place.