1. Darius
DARIUS
“Tell me what needs to be done for the Collective to send us aid. I know you’ve done it a few times before, so don’t try to deny it. I have meticulous records of it. So tell me, why are you holding out on us?” I questioned, trying—and failing—to keep my irritation from my voice.
Able looked at me with disgust. “This mate of yours has ruined you just like your mother did your father. That is the only thing women are good for, destroying strong men, bringing them to their knees so they beg. I never thought I would see the day it happened to you, but here I sit witnessing it firsthand.”
Blind rage filled me at his words, and my wolf howled in anger, clawing to get out. “Able, the only reason you are still alive right now is because we’re related. Now stop fucking around and help me so I can find my mate.” I fumed at the screen.
Abel’s lip curled back into a snarl. “I might be your uncle, but that is no way to talk to the Chairman of the Collective. As we have discussed many times in the past few months, we cannot help you unless you concede and become part of the Collective.”
“Why the fuck would we do that?. The Collective was all gung-ho about having an alliance with us when Viv became Dama—what changed?” I demanded.
This had been the question he wasn’t willing to answer.
It had been five months since the battle at the castle, and shit was falling down around our ears.
There was civil unrest in the pack after losing all the leadership they’d ever known, on top of the Collective pulling all support.
They were refusing to deal with any of our packs, going so far as to remove people from their jobs and sending them back home.
They were trying to starve us out and force us into a place where we had no choice but to come back to the Collective with our tails between our legs.
“Do you really need me to spell it out for you, Darius? You’re a smart man. I’m sure you could think of some reason why we would be doing this,” Able replied, his blue eyes bright with the thrill of the hunt.
In my desperation to locate my mate, I had hoped there would be something left in him that would put family above power.
Having Viv taken from us felt as if Vadik had ripped out our heart.
The seven of us were fighting over the smallest things, while trying to keep this pack running.
Sure, all of us were alphas, but only two including myself, had actually run a pack and not one that was being blockaded from all sides.
“This pack has a leader. Our Dama will be returning to her rightful place. I swear on my life that I will protect it for her, no matter how long it takes for her to return home to us,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at the pompous white-haired alpha.
Able paused and leaned forward from his relaxed position. “You realize those words could bring war, don’t you? Are you sure that’s the move you want to make? Maybe you should seek counsel with your fellow mate brothers before you deign to threaten me or the Collective so blatantly.”
Shooting up from my chair, I slammed my hands down on my desk. “I said what I said. Kursar is the home of Dama Vivianna Beck, and as her mate and head of the Royal Security, I don’t need to consult with anyone.”
“Very well, I will take your sentiments back to the rest of the Collective. Do not contact me personally again. All further communication will need to be conducted with all Collective leadership present. Kursar is now considered an enemy.”
With that, the call ended, and I was left staring at a black screen, my own face reflecting back at me.
My once perfectly maintained appearance had gone by the wayside.
My hair was mussed from my hands constantly running through it, and my beard had grown in, giving me a scruffy appearance.
I couldn’t seem to present myself in a manner that didn’t represent how lost I truly was without her.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I fell back into my chair, letting my head fall to the desk as I came to terms with what I’d just done.
In his last act as my family, Able tried to get me to cool off and talk to the others before I spouted off, but here we were—enemies of the Collective.
Now I was going to have the joy of telling them all the news…
that is, if I could get them all in the same room together.
Grabbing my cell off the desk, I pulled up the group text we used, one of the only ways we actually communicated.
Darius:
Meet me in the conference room ASAP. It’s important.
Bentley:
Fine
Tristan:
Already here, was going to call a meeting myself
Orion:
kldnvciprwna
Koit:
His wolf sucks at texting. In town, I’ll be there in 15. Rik’s with me.
I wasn’t surprised when Tav didn’t answer.
I knew he saw it because my phone told me he looked at it.
Figuring out if he was going to show up would depend on if he was still on the island.
Out of all of us, Tavas handled Viv being taken the worst. It’s like he’d gone feral, spending most of his time out searching for any clue as to where she might be.
The man who was once calm, soothing, and rational was gone, and in his place was the man his father had always hoped he would be—a ruthless killer.
Typically when we found a lead, we tracked it down and then had Orion deal with the situation.
Well, I should say Okami would handle the task of drawing out any information that our victim had.
For a while, Tav would join Okami and lend a helping hand, but once he felt like he’d learned enough from our demi-god of Torment, he left.
I’ve seen him twice in the past three months, and each time the man I’d known most of my life was slipping further away.
Heading out of the office, I walked next door to my assistant Chaz’s office, where I found him at his desk working on something, like always.
His head snapped up as I entered, causing him to shoot up from his seat. “Alpha, what can I do for you?”
“Let it be known across the company that we are no longer working with the Collective and to be on guard in their territories,” I informed him, watching as his face blanched in fear.
He gulped before he nodded. “Of course, alpha. I will make sure to get the word spread and pull our people out where it’s needed.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in a meeting with my fellow alphas in the main conference room if you need me. Notify me immediately if there is any trouble with extraction.”
“Yes alpha,” Chaz answered, diving right into the directive I’d given him.
I might not be able to count on many people at the moment, but I knew that man would do as he was told.
Rubbing my face with my hand, I headed back into the main section of the castle where the conference room was.
We’d been in Kursar less than a month when everything fell to shit around our heads.
Viv had just accepted all her mates, had her first heat, and discovered the plot against her.
I knew it did me no good to rehash everything again and again, but if I hadn’t been such a stubborn ass, I might have been able to see things more clearly.
I kept thinking that if I’d stopped fighting against myself and the love I knew I had for my mate, then I might have been able to change the outcome of this whole thing.
Entering the conference room, I found Tristan at the table with paperwork strewn all over the place.
He’d been sifting through all the financials of the castle and the pack for the past few hundred years, which Sarma had been in charge of.
Tristan felt that there might be clues in the money if she’d been working with Vadik for a long time.
Personally, I thought it was a long shot, but I wasn’t going to stop him.
“You look like shit,” Tristan stated when he looked up at me.
“Have you seen yourself? You look worse than you did when you got here,” I shot back as I poured myself some coffee. We’d replaced the wet bar with a coffee and tea station since someone was always working here at odd hours of the day or night.
Tristan huffed out a laugh as he leaned back in his chair, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Who knew being mated for less than a week would take such a toll on a guy? I mean, I’ve lived as a hunted lone wolf for well over a hundred years and never been such a mess.”
“Look at me, around her for a month, and I’ve never been such a disaster,” I grumbled, taking a seat and grabbing a stack of papers at random.
There were notes and highlights all over the place, talking about stuff I didn’t have the faintest idea about. Give me some computer code and I could build you a program to figure all this out for you—thank god this was Tristan’s domain.
“You said you were going to call a meeting, did you find something?” I asked, setting the papers back down.
“Let’s wait for the others to get here so we can go over everything at once. I have a feeling it’s going to take me a while to explain what I found and how it’s helpful,” Tristan said as he grabbed a plate of food off the tray that had been left for him.
Just when I was going to press him to give me more than that, Bentley walked in the door wearing his white coat and stethoscope.
Since the island hadn’t had a real doctor in many, many years, Bentley had his work cut out for him.
Yes, werewolves were immune to viruses and healed much faster than humans, but even we needed some looking after if it was bad enough.
We also now had Rikkart’s pack and mine to care for, and some of our men had human mates and children.
He was also working with the files that Dr. Faulk had left behind to see if there was a safer way to use his information to help our kind.
“Look what the cat dragged in.” I smirked as he took his seat.