Targeted By Temptation (Between The Greys #3)

Chapter 1

EZRA

Office. Now.

My brother Boaz wasn’t one to waste words. And now he was the pack Alpha, and whenever he said “Jump,” we, as in my brothers and me, had to say “How high?”

Luckily, I was in the pack building. I happened to be in the pack daycare on the first floor visiting some of the kids. It’d been set up by my brother-in-law, Keane, when their little boy Felix was born.

Coming, I texted, and not bothering with the elevator, I hotfooted it up flights of stairs.

Technically, Boaz was the only one of the six brothers Grey who worked for the pack. We were all pack no matter where we went or what we did, but I now worked for our eldest brother Maynard. He was a finance guy, though his side hustle was him being more of a secret squirrel.

Boaz’s door was open, and I charged in, skidding over the polished wooden floor and landing on a chair with what I thought was great aplomb. I loved that word aplomb. I couldn’t really use it to describe myself, but I did my job with a lot of it.

My brother screwed up his nose at my dramatic entrance. “Don’t you ever knock?”

“The door was open.” I was about to add, “And I’m your brother, your beloved brother,” but I held my tongue. Boaz was in Alpha mode, and he was already peeved. I recognized that look from when we were kids.

“Do you want to try coming in again?” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Of all of us, Boaz was the stickler for protocol.

“What? Are you kidding me? You wouldn’t expect that of Lake!” Our youngest brother followed the rules, most of the time.

Boaz cocked his head, and I rolled my eyes before getting up, knocking on the door, and asking for permission. But my brother, the Alpha, was filming me and snickering.

“Thiago and the others will get a laugh out of this.” He sent the video to our brothers’ group chat. “That was so good. I really got you.”

“Yeah, yeah. May I remind you I don’t work for the pack, so why am I here?”

“I need you to do something for me.” He held up a thick file that he probably wanted me to feed into the computer and create a spreadsheet. “A delivery.”

Huh? He had guys on motorbikes or in vans for that.

“It’s a treaty I’ve hammered out with the Stravon pack. It's a new territorial agreement.”

“What kind of agreement?”

“One where we tell them how it’s going to be and they accept that with no questions asked.”

I flipped through the documents that laid out how we were taking over territory on the city outskirts that had been contested for years.

“It’s an old industrial zone. I’m done talking about it, and now I’m doing something about it. The Alpha is aware of what’s in the agreement.”

Hmmm. The Stravon pack had a reputation for being shoot first and ask questions later kinda people, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of a dispute.

“Are you sure they’ve agreed to this? It favors us more than them.”

“Pfft.” Boaz swung his chair toward the window. “Their pack has been bleeding resources for months. Three of their businesses went under last quarter, and the pack structure needs to be revamped. Viktor Stravon is holding things together with duct tape.”

I raised a brow. It sounded as though my brother was taking advantage of the Stravon pack when they were at a low point.

“Having a weakened pack on our border is a liability. Desperate wolves do silly things.” He stabbed his finger on the documents. “This agreement makes a clear division between us and them, and we get what we need.”

He swirled his chair and did a 360. “That’s why I’m sending you. Maynard might take someone out, and Lake would demand snacks. You, you’ll walk in, deliver the goods, and leave.” He smirked. “Besides, you’re an excellent shot, the best of any of us. That might come in useful.”

“What? You make it sound like the Wild West.”

Boaz scoffed at my suggestion. “Not at all. You go in, present the agreement, and leave. There’s to be no negotiations, no meetings, and no back-and-forth.”

Okay.” I shrugged.

I don’t like this. Why can’t one of the Betas do this? My wolf was wary of what we’d be walking into.

They’re not family. The Stravons would lose face if Boaz sent someone not named Grey.

“I’m thinking of you here. The Stravons have a reputation for being brutal, as you’re aware.”

True. We’d had skirmishes in the past, and while our pack always came out of it with a few scratches and bruises, the Stravons were the worse for wear.

“Viktor’s second-in-command is more feisty than him, so if they try to provoke you, don’t take the bait. Up and leave.”

“This is a power play, am I right?”

He fiddled with a pen. “Of course you picked up on that.”

“We’re showing them that we’re confident enough to send in one wolf with the treaty as opposed to an army. Me, the tech guy, suggests we’re secure enough in our position so this doesn’t register as a threat.”

Boaz nodded.

“But what if they don’t accept it?”

“They can’t afford not to.”

“What if they don't?” I needed to know.

He gave me the details of where to meet Viktor or whoever he designated. I was to answer questions about when we expected the agreement to be signed and boundary markers but nothing about the terms of the treaty.

I memorized the address and destroyed it. Perhaps I was being overdramatic, but I preferred that to being sloppy.

“One more thing.”

I was at the door, and I glanced over my shoulder, expecting Boaz to deliver a bombshell or a pithy statement.

“If this goes sideways, let me know immediately and I’ll have people there.”

And there it was. Boaz made it sound like a breeze, but there was the potential for trouble.

“I’ll be careful.”

“Good. Trust your instincts.” His attention was on his computer. “Because I’d hate for there to be five Greys instead of six.”

Same old Boaz. “Underneath that tough exterior, deep down, you do have a beating heart.”

He tossed a book at my head and told me to get lost.

Despite this being a get-in-and-get-out procedure, I’d take my gun. The Stravon pack was unpredictable, especially when cornered. I worried Boaz was overconfident about their reaction to the agreement.

Tonight, I’d check the route and review the agreement so I could answer basic questions if asked.

I bypassed the daycare on my way out, even though I loved playing with the kids.

Maybe a child of ours will be there one day, my beast said, always the optimist.

Perhaps.

When I returned to the home I shared with my three younger brothers, it was empty, so I shut myself in my room and studied page upon page of the agreement.

Walking into another pack’s territory alone wasn’t for the faint-hearted.

If I told my brothers what Boaz had asked me to do, they’d say it was foolhardy and they’d accompany me.

But that was a tactic that would backfire because the Stravons would feel threatened.

And they were getting a raw deal no matter how Boaz presented it.

They would lose access to the river and therefore their shipping routes and warehouse access.

And what they got in return was they were allowed to exist as a pack.

My phone buzzed. Once, twice, three and four times. It was each of my brothers saying they’d heard about my assignment and asking if I wanted backup.

Can’t, I typed into our group chat. Boaz insists I do this alone.

Want me to kick his butt? That was Lake.

He may be a Grey, but he’s also our Alpha, and you can’t go around saying he’s made a mistake.

Take your gun, Thiago insisted.

I’m planning on it.

I don’t trust them, Riggs told me.

Boaz wanted this to be easy, but I suspected some of the Stravon pack wouldn’t see it that way.

And I understood. I’d be more than peeved if presented with this treaty.

Many of their pack members were young and hot-headed.

And while I didn’t expect a shooting match, they might shift and try to bleed my beast.

So I had to be ready. I studied a map of their compound and where I’d park.

Our pack didn’t live together, and we had an office building as our headquarters.

But the Stravons followed the old rules and everyone lived on pack land.

Therefore, it was reasonable to assume they’d be more possessive about some of it being taken away.

I tried to put myself in their position, and I’d be territorial too if that happened to us.

Tomorrow I’d be representing the pack and Boaz as I walked into Stravon territory alone. But something in my gut told me nothing about tomorrow was going to be easy.