All Novel Sweet
55
I let my teeth go back to normal as I licked the mark, helping to stop the bleeding. I looked at it, it was deep and would scar noticeably. My wolf was happy with this. John was ours, and we would kill any woman who tried to take him from us. The workout, the sex and the sensation of claiming him caused me to lay on him, and he held me as I fell asleep in the late afternoon sun.
Former Alpha David’s POV
I called Alpha Sven on the way up, explaining that I was in the area and hadn’t seen him in a while. He immediately invited me for lunch, and I accepted. I told him I’d be there about 11:30.
It was now pushing eleven, and I was with group staged to the south of the Pack property. The vehicles were parked and most of the wolves had shifted, moving into the trees out of sight of any passing traffic. I was going over the plan one more time. “Nobody does anything until I link you to attack,” I said. “I need to find out if they were involved in Jessie’s death and if they have Beta John. Remember it’s just as possible they helped them, then the two were captured and she was killed after they left.”
“I’m not waiting forever, Alpha. What if they figure out you’re on to them,” Fergus asked.
“If I’m not out and I haven’t called you off by six, come get me,” I said. “They won’t know your close so they won’t expect me to use mind link. I’ve got your phone numbers in case anything happens. Fergus, if I call you, ignore anything I say because I’m under duress.”
“Got it.” I made sure the other group was in place on the east side, then I got back into the car and drove towards Sven’s pack. It was a nice afternoon in the late fall, so I kept the windows down to reduce the scent of the other wolves. It only took five minutes before I was turning off the highway onto the road leading to their compound.
There was a gate just off the road, with a security keypad and speaker. I pulled up to it and waited. “Your name and business?”
“Retired Alpha David Larsen to see Alpha Sven. He’s expecting me.”
“Wait there.”
I didn’t smell any wolves close. “At the entry gate, no guard present, one of the rovers is coming.”
A few minutes later, an ATV pulled up to the gate, driven by a younger man. He opened the gate for me and I pulled through. “Follow me, Alpha,” he said before he started the Grizzly and headed towards the house.
I was led into the main area, then we stopped in front of Alpha Sven and Luna Linnea as they waited in front of their house. “In the compound, Alpha and Luna are here. I can’t smell John.” I got out of the SUV and the man took off, returning to his patrol. I walked up, smiling broadly. “Sven, thank you for seeing me on such short notice. Linnea, you look more lovely with each passing day.”
“Such a smooth talker,” Sven said as he pulled me into a hug. I hugged Linnea briefly as well. “It’s been what, three years?”
“I think so. Retirement had reduced my travel demands quite a bit, as well as my blood pressure,” I said with a laugh. “Stan and Larissa are doing a fine job. With my mate gone, I just didn’t have the heart for it anymore.”
“Come, let’s go inside,” he said. “Linnea made lake trout, we were able to pick up some fresh fish from Lake Superior last week.”
“Oh, you went there?”
“My mate wanted to go to Betty’s Pies one last time before it closes for the winter,” I said. “Pretty soon the big snows will be here and travel will be difficult again.”
“The Alpha is admitting they were on the North Shore recently. I’m going to keep inquiring.”
Linnea led me to the table then disappeared into the kitchen to get lunch ready. We sipped on coffee and caught up on what our families were doing as we relaxed into our friendship. Linnea came out, placing a tray with a fish sandwich and fries before me, her hand on my shoulder as she leaned around me. I was so distracted by the smell of the fish I didn’t see her take the needle out until it was plunged into my shoulder. “They’ve done…” I couldn’t get out more before I felt my wolf being put to sleep. They’d hit me with wolfsbane, making me no more powerful than a human. I got up to attack her, but Alpha Sven expected this. He forced me to the ground, placing silver-plated cuffs on my wrists behind my back before he hauled me up and set me in the chair again. “Why,” I asked him, the betrayal clear in my eyes.
“There are things going on you don’t know, David, and I need to explain them to you before your men go off half-cocked. You do have men here, don’t you.”
“What are you talking about? I came here alone.”
He shook his head. “I know you don’t trust me, David. In your position, I’d do the same thing. That’s why as soon as we found the tracker you’d placed on Ingrid’s car, we were expecting you to retaliate. I figure you are here to distract me and gain intelligence before they come in, am I right?” I said nothing. “Let me give you a head’s up. As soon as you arrived at the gate, we started moving our vulnerable to the safe room where they are protected by a six-inch-thick reinforced steel door and three feet of concrete. Half of my warriors are in reinforced defensive positions around the compound, all are armed with scoped rifles. The remainder are in place, ready to respond in force to any incursion. If your men attack, they will all die before they get to the compound, much less to me. Do you understand? You will kill them if you let them attack.”
My head was spinning, I couldn’t believe it. “You killed Jessie, you piece of shit. You think we won’t come after you?”
He just laughed. “I just told you, I fully expected you to come after me. I also told you that you didn’t know what was going on.” He pulled his chair closer to mine. “David, we go back four decades together. What in all the time you’ve known me points to me taking money to kill a human? Especially one who is mated to a werewolf? Did you think so little of me that you would believe that?”
I looked at him, he was serious. “Twenty-five million is a lot of money. It can make people do things they normally wouldn’t.”
“You know we don’t care about money, David,” Linnea said as she sat down on my other side. “We would never do such a thing.”
“I saw the video,” I said.
“I know. I was the one who leaked it,” Sven said.
I jumped up, uncaring of my bound arms or my inability to reach my wolf. “YOU FUCKING BASTARD, OUR PACKS WILL KILL YOU ALL,” I yelled as I tried to tackle him. He just stepped aside, grabbing my neck he slammed my face into the table before tossing me back into my chair. “You won’t get away with this.”
“It had to be done, David. You need to understand why.”
I shook my head. “There’s no excuse. You betrayed my Pack, we were protecting Jessie, she was becoming like a daughter to our Betas. One of our men has already died protecting her from this bastard of an Alpha in Russia, and you take his blood money and do his dirty work. You disgust me.”
“David, this information is delicate. It cannot get out, you cannot change your behavior or Jessie is dead.”
“Jessie’s already dead, asshole. You killed her.”
“No, Jessie is very much alive, David. We used her magic to make the video, because as long as Yuri thinks she is dead, he is not hunting her.” He took out a key and unlocked my handcuffs. “I can’t let you ruin things now, David. I will give you the truth, but in return you and your Pack have to play along to the script. Jessie and John are safe and hidden right now. Don’t screw that up.”
“How can I believe you?”
“I’ll take you to them, David, but not with all your people around. Send them back home before someone gets hurt. They can’t do anything except die if they stay here.”
I pulled out my phone, looking at the addresses. Selecting one, I made the call.
The phone rang twice before it picked up. “Yes?”
“Abort mission. Return home immediately,” I said.
“Wait, why are you not mind linking? We can’t raise you.”Content is © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.
“I’m fine, we’re just enjoying lunch. I’m going to stay here a day or two, I’ll drive myself home. Pack them up and go home, that’s an order.”
“Yes sir,” he said and he hung up.
I looked up at Sven. “You really screwed up when you blocked my link. They don’t know what to think now.”
“Well, I hope they listen. We’ll know in a few minutes.” He pulled up an iPad and set it on the table; selecting a few programs, cameras came up on a four-wide screen. “Technology is a wonderful thing,” he said as the views toggled through. “Border patrols always were an ineffective means of security; they were good to make sure the border was marked, but easily avoided in an attack. We replaced them all two years ago with a top-of-the-line surveillance system. The cameras as well hidden, giving us complete coverage of the borders. They have normal and infrared capability, motion sensing with alarms, and some are remotely controlled. We replaced half our security patrols with one person sitting in the control room.”
“Impressive. How much did the upgrade cost?”
“It’s actually quite reasonable now. Our whole system cost just over a hundred thousand dollars, but it replaces eight men required to cover 24/7 patrols.” We both saw the alarms come in, as motion sensors picked up the movement of the wolves. “Your orders weren’t followed,” Sven said.
The werewolves were moving fast from the south, two wide and in a line six deep. Backpacks held weapons as they ran hard for us. “Shit.” I called the number again, this time no one answered. I didn’t have my mind link, I couldn’t stop anything. I felt so helpless. “Please, Sven, don’t kill them. They’re doing what they were trained to do.”
He was busy linking his warriors. I watched the screen, it showed an area where the trail narrowed as it passed through large boulders. “Watch,” he said.