6. Rikkart
RIKKART
“Koit, you with me?” I asked when I saw him starting to stir.
“Where the hell are we?” Koit groaned, taking in the room.
“The only place that we could afford on the cash I found in our wallets,” I answered, disgusted with the situation. It looked like something out of that Austin Powers movie that he’d made me watch one time.
“Guess that makes sense,” Koit said, sitting up slowly and rearranging the pillows to prop himself up better. “What the hell happened to me last night? I can’t remember much after I beat the Russian wolves’ asses.”
“I don’t have much to tell you about what happened in between you calling me and me finding you, but you’re one lucky bastard, that’s for sure,” I said as I ran my hands through my hair, sweeping it out of my face. “You managed to find yourself a guardian angel that patched you up quite nicely.”
He looked down at his chest and noticed the marks where the stitches had been before I removed them. They’d healed enough to be angry red welts—the only evidence of the fight he had last night. “Damn, she did do a good job. So I didn’t dream her then? She’s real?”
“Yeah, she’s real,” I said, remembering her defiant sea-colored eyes.
“Did something happen?” Koit asked, sounding a little worried.
“No, nothing really happened. I just haven’t met a human woman who could boss around an alpha like he was a pup,” I said, a smile tugging at my lips.
“She what?” Koit asked.
“Let’s just say that if she was a wolf, she would be a beta for sure.
I would bet money that she might even have alpha potential in her.
She was pissed that you wouldn’t let her take you to the hospital and made damn sure that I looked after you properly,” I explained, running my fingers over my beard.
Koit let out a whistle and grinned. “How do I always miss the good shit?”
“You would’ve liked her for sure. I’m kind of pissed that I didn’t get her name or learn anything else about her,” I said, frowning.
“Do you still have the bandages? I’m sure I could lift her scent from them and find her if you wanted me to,” Koit offered, I’m sure for his benefit as much as mine.
“No, we need to get out of the city and fast. We have to inform The Collective about this,” I said, standing up and pacing around the small room.
“So, did you book us for the night or just a few hours?” Koit teased, trying to ease the tension.
I didn’t answer, just gave him a disapproving look and continued pacing.
“We need to get out of London. The airport would be too easy to track with customs, so we’ll take the train to Paris and fly out from there. If all goes well, we’ll be on Collective territory in five hours, give or take,” I said, stopping to look at Koit and get his thoughts on my plan.
“I think it’s a smart choice. It would be too easy to track us with a rental car. Bus could be an option, but it would be a long, slow process. Train to plane sounds like the best course for us to take.”
“Are you feeling well enough for this? We still have a few hours till we need to check out,” I said, looking at him with a critical eye.
“No, alpha, I’m ready. Let’s get back home so we can stop these fuckers.”
The process of getting back home was long and tedious.
I hated to leave the Silver Mountains where my pack lived, and flights were just bearable enough for me if they were short.
Having to sit on a train with other people so close, coming and going, children screaming and crawling all over the seats, just set me to my limit.
I loved pups, but those were family to me, and we all taught them how to be respectful and to care for one another.
These wild human children had no concept of respecting anyone’s space.
Koit slept through the whole train ride, showing me that he hadn’t recovered as much as he would’ve liked me to believe.
Once in Paris, I contacted The Collective, letting them know the basics of what had happened.
I could only imagine the uproar that would take place once they heard everything Koit had to share.
The Collective was a peaceful group of werewolves, but cross us and face the consequences.
I’d seen the destruction they’d brought in retribution to enemies past. Russia was the only country with enough wolves to put up a fair fight against us; all the others had been beaten and were more than willing to sign a treaty.
I tried to read on the flight, but my thoughts were scattered, making it hard to focus on the words.
Finally, I gave up and pulled out a notebook and a pen, writing down everything we knew.
One, the ambassador had turned on us. Two, Russian wolves were in London and wanted me for some unknown reason.
Three, there was a small pocket of wolves living in London.
I wasn’t sure that really mattered, but it was new information.
Now for the much longer list of things I didn’t know.
Why did the ambassador flip on us? What did he have to gain from it?
I could understand not wanting to fight our battles, but that didn’t add up to why he would help the Russian wolves.
What did they want with me or whatever alpha showed up for the meeting?
I sighed and leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes.
I had to be missing something that connected all of this together.
At some point I must have fallen asleep, since I was being woken up by Koit shaking my shoulder. “We’re home.”
I nodded and grabbed the one bag we had between us and headed down the aisle and off the plane.
We walked in silence to the baggage area where the driver was supposed to meet us.
Sure enough, I saw the familiar face of Tavas, the youngest member of The Collective leadership.
Tav was a strange mix for such a strong werewolf.
He’s one of the few who didn’t like or want to be a werewolf.
His father was old school in how he raised his boys, encouraging fights amongst them to toughen them up.
Tav was a strong wolf and could hold his own, but from what I could tell, he would much rather be working his farmland, cooking, or making his handmade furniture.
Which is why his father was still leading the pack, with Tav as his second.
The only reason Tav was on the leadership committee was because under that mop of wavy blonde hair was a brilliant mind.
He could tell just by watching someone if they were lying to him.
He also had a very high prey drive that led him to be amazing in strategy; he understood how the brain worked and could counter them effortlessly.
If he ever truly accepted his wolf, he would be a force to be reckoned with.
“Glad to see you’re both back home safe,” Tav said as we grabbed forearms, a typical greeting between werewolves.
“So are we. Koit had a close call, but we managed,” I said, following Tav out to the waiting car. “Was Darius able to find out any other information?”
Darius was our secret weapon. Through his multinational technology and security company, he made friends in all the right and wrong places all over the world.
He was unique in the fact that he ran a multi-million dollar business while also serving as alpha to his pack.
Most alphas treated leading their people as their full-time job, but Darius somehow found the time to run both his business and his pack successfully.
“As Darius would put it, you guys are some lucky sons of bitches, because the leader of the Russian werewolves was in London at the same time,” Tav said, watching our reactions.
“Are you telling me the fucker was there this whole time and we didn’t know about it?” I snapped, my anger spiking at this news. “How could Darius miss this kind of thing?”
Tav just shrugged his shoulders, unaffected by my outburst. “You’ll have to ask him when we get to headquarters. Darius tried to explain it to me, but I couldn’t follow all this techno jargon.”
That was Tav for you—smart as a fox, but when it came to technology, his eyes glazed over. I took a deep, calming breath, knowing that it wasn’t Tav’s fault—he was just the messenger.
“There’s something else strange we picked up on, too. Looks like the ambassador made some deal with him, and it involves the ambassador’s daughter,” Tav shared.
Koit snapped to attention at that, having zoned out through most of this conversation.
“Oh man, that’s fucked up to involve an innocent.
Doesn’t he know what that means? He is practically killing his daughter in doing that.
There is no way that Vadik the dick would leave her human; he’s going to try and change her. ”
“Yes, that’s what we fear as well,” Tav said, grief shadowing his face. He had a big heart, and things like this hit him harder than most.
“Do we have any plans to extract her before it can happen?” I asked, knowing that the likelihood The Collective would vote to do something so risky was very slim.
“Undecided as of right now. We just got that information early this morning when they went digging after why Vadik was in town,” Tav said, not meeting my eyes, telling me he had his own thoughts on the matter.
“Has Darius pulled information on her?” Koit asked. I was surprised; normally, he didn’t like to involve himself in the politics of The Collective.
“Between us, yes, but he’s holding off presenting it until we find out for sure what the plan is for the girl.
I have this feeling that there’s more to the situation than we can see right now.
I smell something off about it. Why bring you out when Vadik was going to be there?
Just doesn’t make sense,” Tav commented, leaning back and combing his fingers through his long hair.
“If it doesn’t make sense to you, then there must be something we’re missing,” I said, looking out the window and taking in the city around us.