Page 81 of Assisting the Alpha
I’ve been quietly impressed with Teo’s people, even if I’m still suspicious that they’re involved in some sort of organised crime. They’ve stepped up without complaint, and I really fucking appreciate it. “That’s good confirmation to have. All right, what’s at that address?”
“A warehouse,” Vittorio says, frowning at his phone. “Lexie should be there any minute.”
Kit pulls up a satellite image of the area. “A large one too, from the looks of things. It’s in an industrial area but is the biggest property there.”
“No neighbours to question comings and goings at night,” Raj says, studying the screen.
“But what does the coven leader want with a warehouse in vamp territory? A place to hide the bodies?” Teo says.
I glare at him for even daring to mention bodies when we’re searching for Ayo. I have to believe he’s alive. “There’s been a three-day gap between each disappearance and the victim’s body turning up, although that was shortened with Irving McEwan. Doctor Payton confirmed that the time of death for each victim was only a couple of hours before they were found in every case.”
“So this is our best bet,” Zaiden chimes in. He turned up with a couple of wolves to help comb through the data while his brother and several other wolves formed the search party for their territory, just in case there was something to find. “What are we waiting for?”
“Lexie’s report,” I say sternly before anyone gets any bright ideas to go rushing off.
Raj, diplomat that he is, attempts to smooth the frayed nerves in the room with a better explanation. “There’s no point racing up there only to find it’s just a storage facility or something equally benign and we have to all come back here to start again.”
Zaiden clenches his fists but releases them again, looking and smelling every bit as worked up as I feel. “We have to find him before it’s too late.”
“We will,” I say firmly. I can’t consider any other possibility.
Zaiden isn’t calming down though, and I start to worry about him being unable to control his shift in a room full of supes and equipment. Although I’m not his alpha, as an alpha I can still help him keep his human form.
Before I get more than a couple of feet towards him, Teo is already there. They’re of similar height and Teo looks him right in the eyes, expression fierce. “Get it together, pup. Ayo needs you to have your shit under control.”
Zaiden’s eyes flash with his wolf. “Not a pup, kitty cat.”
Teo narrows his eyes. “No? Prove it. Because his mate over there won’t take you on the rescue mission if you can’t guarantee you’ll follow orders.”
“Of course I can follow orders,” Zaiden scoffs.
It might have been too much to expect that people who usually hate each other would get along in an emergency situation, but thankfully Vittorio’s phone vibrating with a call breaks the tense silence before the pair across the room can come to blows.
Vittorio swipes then taps. “You’re on speaker.”
Lexie’s voice comes over the line. “I don’t know how the hell we missed this one, V. Some of our people are on guard duty, sofrom the outside it looks like one of ours, but there’s some sort of sticky ward, and I can smell cats and wolves all over the place.”
“It’s Ethan. How many?”
“Twelve vamp guards. I don’t have a shifter’s nose so I can’t tell you exact numbers, but more than ten shifters at a guess. None visible.”
My heart, which hasn’t been beating right since I discovered Ayo was missing, picks up its pace. “That has to be it. All right, everyone, you have your assigned teams. Let’s move out.”
It takes no time at all to split into various vehicles and get on the road. I keep my pack in one vehicle to make it easier for us to prepare en route, since each of us will lead a team at the warehouse.
We chose to put a mixture of species on each team, and while that’s risky in Birchester, it’s the best way to go when we don’t know what we’re going to find inside. So far no one has objected to a member of my pack taking charge of each team, and that way we can maintain better communication since we have earbuds already set up to talk to each other.
As Skye floors it through the dark neutral zone streets, Cal, Raj, Kit, and Jet do their jobs brilliantly as always, easily coordinating the other vehicles and the search teams, and alerting Doc P to be on standby. All the while, their scents are full of determination.
I appreciate their quiet support more than I can say. There’s only one way I can think of to show them how much they mean to me.
When Skye’s sat nav says we’re only a few minutes away, I clear my throat. “I just want to say…” Fuck, this shouldn’t be this hard. I’ve known every single one of these people for years. I take a deep breath and try again. “When this is over, I’ll file the paperwork for us to be an official pack.”
There’s absolute silence except for the road noise. Raj is the first to break it, his scent cautious. “For the contract?”
I suppose I understand why he’d think that, why they’d all be wary. With Nyoka identified as the murderer and the task force guilty of wrongful arrest, we’re most definitely back in the running.
I take another deep breath. “No. Because… I think maybe we’ve been a pack since Kit was forced to retire. It’s time I acknowledged that.”
