Chapter 3
THREE
“You’re certain?” My packmate Sebastian’s voice crackles through my headset. “They’re keeping him there?”
“Well, I can’t know for sure until I go in there.” I can hear the frustration in my voice, and I try to rein it in. It isn’t Sebastian’s fault we’re in this situation.
Since Atlas went missing during the Prism takeover last month, this is our first genuine lead on him.
Sebass blames himself for not getting to Atlas before Tyler did, but it’s not his fault. None of us could have predicted this. The plan was as solid as any of the others we’ve executed.
If this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine.
I’m the one who put him in Kieran Cobb’s hands. I’m the one who is responsible for him.
When my brother Will was taken from me, I nearly burned the world down to get him back. It’s why we do what we do now. And Will has helped us get many Omegas acclimated to their new lives.
He knows Atlas from school, and they’ve been buddies for a while. When he told me Atlas wanted to help, I was hesitant but ultimately trusted my brother’s judgment.
And he’s been an excellent asset for the last few years.
It’s been helpful to have a Beta on the team, because some Omegas don’t want to be near Alphas after what they’ve gone through.
Having Atlas around to help soothe them has been a boon.
He has fit into our team as if he’s always been a part of it.
So when he was taken, I took that shit personally. This is my team. That was my mission, and I failed.
I failed him.
The whole situation has triggered Will, and he has barely left his bed since it happened. I can’t stand to see him wasting away like he is. I need to get his friend back.
I need to get Atlas back.
“Okay, come back. We’ll regroup, make a plan, and head in.”
“Why can’t I just go in there now?”
I’m not an idiot. I know why I can’t go in there right now, guns blazing. But fuck, I want to. I want to bust through the door, collect our Beta, and get him to safety.
Our Beta?
He’s not our Beta.
He’s our colleague. Our friend.
But not our Beta.
I don’t think I’ve slept properly since he was taken, and I know I won’t until he’s safe.
But going off all half-cocked ain’t gonna save the guy, so I pack it up and head back to regroup.
I enter through the back of the dog grooming salon, Pet Paradise, and throw myself into the fake leather desk chair. It’s cracked and squeaky, but after hours of crouching behind a bush, it feels like heaven. That ride back was not long enough to rest my weary ass.
My pack purchased the groomer a few years ago to funnel the funds we receive from some of our more questionable work through legitimate means.
Cleaning the money, but Charles won’t call it that. No, it’s diversifying our income stream.
Harvey’s leaning against the wall in his dirty denim and cut.
He’s part of the Hawks, and because of his rank as an enforcer, we work closely with the motorcycle club to rescue trafficked Omegas.
They may fuck around and do a lot of stuff on the other side of the law, but so do we, and they protect kids and Omegas fiercely, so on that, we’re aligned.
Harvey was in a bad wreck when he was younger, and skin grafts left half of his face, neck, and shoulder scarred.
He lets everyone believe Harvey is a road name he uses because his scars give him a two-faced appearance, but he hadn’t been given his name yet when the accident happened.
Harvey is his government name, and it fit.
“Sebass said you think you found it?” His voice is gravelly from smoking too many cigarettes. He runs his fingers through his light brown hair, making him look like a greaser until gravity takes the locks down.
“I think so.” I pull a piece of gum from my pocket and pop it in my mouth. “Worth raiding, anyway. Something shady is happening there.”
His pale eyes light up with curiosity. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“I’ll tell you when the rest get here. I don’t wanna repeat myself.”
He grunts and leans back against the wall, closing his eyes. I’m not the only one who hasn’t slept well this last month.
Ten minutes later, our other two packmates, Sebastian and Charles, come in from the front of the shop. Charles wears a suit, as always, having come here directly from the office.
To the world, Pack Lupine runs a successful private detective agency, Lupine Investigations. We even have franchised branches. Charles manages all that, including employing actual private detectives to take legitimate, above-the-law cases that will help fund our more covert missions.
Charles keeps our appearance squeaky clean, Harvey is logistics, I’m the muscle, and Sebastian is the brain.
The big guy is always looking several steps ahead, making connections between things that no one else can see.
All he has to do is give Harvey the bullet points of the situation, and Harvey can figure out how to execute our goal flawlessly.
Then I run through and kick some ass.
Sebastian is towheaded with bright blue eyes. He blows a few errant strands from his face and crashes into a chair. He’s wearing real pants for once, typically favoring pajamas since he does most of his work at our pack house.
He’s smart, but also one of the most scatterbrained and unserious people I’ve ever met.
“Alright, sorry, I got distracted.” He was probably reading a book. “I was reading this book, and holy shit, the magic system is insane! Like, okay, so magic has to have a cost, right?”
“Not the time,” Charles says in a near bark.
The blond Alpha rolls his eyes. “Fine, fine. But it wasn’t like I was ignoring the mission. I can multitask. I got these for you, Wyatt. Tell us what we’re working with.”
He hands me a set of plans he dug up from the permitting department, and I spread them across the desk.
“Alright, from what I can see, there are only two available exits.” I mark each one with an ‘X.’ “The others look decommissioned, with boards on the outside, but we’ll still want to have someone placed there, just in case. ”
Charles wrinkles his nose. “You speak as if raiding this place is a given.”
“It is,” I bark. “I watched this place for twenty-four hours. If I didn’t think this was the right call, I wouldn’t send us in, alright?
” I look back down at the blueprints. “I feel it in my gut. This is the place. Obviously, I couldn’t get inside, but I sent a drone over it to get heat signatures.
It showed two figures roughly here,” I circle a room towards the rear of the facility.
“And two here that moved around regularly.”
“So we think four people are being contained?” Harvey asks, peering at the drawings like they’ll come to life.
“Nah, I didn’t say that. Watch this.” I pull out my phone and press play on the recording of the drone footage.
“See here? These two figures split up; one goes to the other two, and the other moves to another room. Then two leave the rear room, enter this third room, and return to the rear room after a couple of hours.”
Sebass’s confusion is evident on his face. “Okay, and?”
“And I think the rear room is where Atlas is being kept, and I think there’s someone there with him.
The other two figures are the workers. I didn’t see anyone leave in that whole time, so they must have a bunk or something and plenty of supplies.
” I put my phone down and map out the heat signature paths in pen.
“They did this pattern eight times during the time I was watching them.”
“So, we need to target the rear of the building?” Charles asks, finally getting with the program and accepting that we’re raiding this place.
“I think so.” I take off my ball cap and scratch my head. “But we need to ransack the whole place. Having only two captives is strange, considering how many have gone missing lately.”
Harvey props his ass on the side of the desk and pulls out his phone. “How many people are we going to need for this?”
“No idea. I think we can handle it, and we’ve got Pack Manson if we need them,” I remind him.
Charles’s nose wrinkles in distaste. “I don’t want an Omega on a raid with us.”
“I don’t know what your problem is with her, man,” Sebastian says. “She’s tough, and she and Atlas care about each other. If we leave her out of this, there will be hell to pay, and do you want to be on Puck’s bad side because you pissed off his Omega?”
Puck Bellamy has been with us for a few years. He was deep undercover, working alongside Kieran Cobb of the Conglomerate in an attempt to rescue some Omegas that were being trafficked. With his help and the actions of his Omega, Crystal, we were able to raid Prism and defeat Kieran Cobb.
Defeat is a nice way of saying Crystal brutally murdered him. Harvey said that place was a bitch to get clean after she was done with him.
Atlas went missing while helping us during that mission, and Crystal feels as responsible as I do for what happened to the Beta.
“It’s not Crystal,” Charles says to Sebastian. “It’s Omegas in general. They’re not made for stuff like this. They’re delicate. Fragile. She should be at home, nesting, not raiding a trafficking ring.”
I roll my eyes. I bet anyone on the street would think I’d be the one with the “barefoot and pregnant” Omega ideals, but nope, that’s Charles. “We’ve talked about this,” I tell him, “you can’t just go writin’ off all Omegas ‘cause you think they’re supposed to be princes and princesses.”
“Why not? Any Alpha worth his salt would worship the ground his Omega walks on. They deserve easy lives. They should be cherished! What happened to Crystal was criminal, and we shouldn’t be encouraging her to continue living a dangerous life.
She deserves better than this kind of life.
It’s why we don’t have an Omega of our own. ”
“Boy, boys,” Sebass interrupts. “We disagree on this, but that’s okay.
It’s not our choice to make. Crystal is her own person and can make her own choices.
Besides, Puck would never put his Omega in danger, so if he’s cool with her helping, we let her help.
It’s not your responsibility, Charles, to police Omegas. ”
Charles rolls his eyes but relaxes back in his chair and closes his mouth.
“Alright,” Harvey picks back up, “Manny and Maverick Manson, huh, what an alliteration that is, aren’t good raid partners.
Sorry to say it, but Manny is too gentle, and Maverick is too…
Maverick. Gage isn’t trained, so we’ll need to stick with only Crystal and Puck from the Manson Pack.
Wyatt, we’ll search the rear room. If an Omega is there with Atlas, we’ll need to call in Crystal from where she, Sebass, and Puck are searching the other rooms.”
“Shouldn’t we have more backup?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. My gut churns at the thought of this operation going wrong. “It doesn’t feel like enough people.”
We can’t send Charles in. He’s not trained, not like the rest of us. There’s no way we’ll be able to talk him into staying behind, so he’ll need to be the coordinator, making sure no one is running in guns blazing.
“You want some Hawks there?” Harvey asks, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
When I nod, he makes a call. “Nitro, you got a few bodies to spare in case things go south at a search and rescue? …. Slime? Yeah, he’s fine if he has the stomach for it.
Can I get Quarter, too? …Excellent. Yeah, those guys will work.
Tomorrow.” He pulls the phone away from his face.
“What time were they stationary for a beat?” he asks me.
“Meal times.”
“Hey, Nitro,” he says into his phone. “Raid is going down at six. We’re going to get in position at five.”
We all release a little tension when he hangs up and stores his phone in his pocket.
We will get Atlas back and, hopefully, save someone else while we do it.
Hold on, buddy. Just one more day.