Chapter 11 - Jasper
Camden snarled, tossing the pages on the desk, scowling down at them as if they had personally offended him.
“This is useless,” he growled. “How the hell is this asshole still eluding us after all this time?”
“Tell me about it,” Cillian huffed. “The last time it took me this long to track a guy, I was a kid who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. I haven’t taken this long to find someone since the early days in the military.”
He sounded personally offended, as if Lucas's managing to avoid him for this long was a grave personal insult. Knowing Cillian and his pride when it came to tracking people, Jasper wouldn’t be surprised if that were actually the case.
“The guy is a ghost,” Franco muttered.
“He’s smart,” Camden clarified. “There’s a reason Sier picked him as his second in command. But he’s also arrogant if he’s bold enough to try and snatch someone from town. He’ll make a mistake soon enough. And when he does, we’ll be ready.”
A mutter of agreement rippled through the shifters clustered in Camden’s office, though it might have come across a fraction half-hearted.
Jasper glanced down at the map again, staring at the wide circle that spread out from the town at its center.
Several X’s were scratched into the paper at various locations.
Different elevations, different density of forest, different terrain—they had looked into all those facets in their hunt for Lucas, but so far, none of the places they had searched had shown any sign of the asshole.
At this point, they had scoured the easy places for Lucas to hide, followed by the slightly more difficult.
They had gone through practically everything in a five-mile radius.
The only places they hadn’t searched were the places that were nearly impossible for them to get into in the first place.
“If this were any other situation, I would say that we should expand the search radius,” Jasper said. “That’s the only explanation I can think of at this moment.”
“That’s a ways out, though,” Camden said. “Do you really think he would try to kidnap Nikki if his hideout was that far away?”
Jasper shrugged. “It’s either that, or we start trying to dig into some of these overgrown areas on the off-chance Lucas has been living in the bramble for the past several months.”
Tapping the map, Camden considered, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
“We should look into both options. Cillian, have a couple of people start expanding the search radius. Get another couple of your guys to start looking in those hard-to-get spots. Use people who aren’t going to complain about getting twigs in their fur and who know how to handle saws. ”
“Easy enough to do,” Cillian said. “I can think of a couple of guys who fit the bill.”
A knock sounded on the door. All four of the shifters turned toward the door, the conversation dying.
“Come on in,” Camden said.
A tiny figure peered around the door. Alice, Camden’s secretary, gave a nervous smile. Jasper couldn’t tell if the anxiousness came from intruding or because of whatever she had come to tell them.
“A Mr. Clark is here to see you, Alpha Hughes,” she said in a small, lilting voice.
“Clark. Donovan Clark?” Camden asked.
Alice nodded.
Cillian, Jasper, and Franco all looked at one another, not bothering to conceal their surprise. Donovan Clark might have been making a lot of noise in town, but he hadn’t ever come to the pack house to complain to Camden at his office.
Camden let out a low groan and rolled his eyes. “Just what we need right now,” he muttered. “Yeah, go on, let him in.”
Alice disappeared. A moment later, the door opened again, and Donovan strode into the room.
He was large, even by shifter standards.
His burly frame barely fit through the doorframe when he stepped into the office.
His dark hair and beard were both peppered with gray.
Scars laced his forearms and hands, gained from both hard work and from scrapes in his wolf form.
Dark eyes glittered with shrewd intelligence, and his lips were pressed into a thin line.
Donovan gave Camden a respectful nod. That didn’t stop the crackling unease and tension that seemed to saturate the room as the two men sized one another up.
“Alpha,” he said.
“What can I do for you, Donovan?” Camden asked, keeping his tone neutral but polite. “If you’re here to talk to me about the training sessions again, you have my answer, and it hasn’t changed.”
To everyone’s surprise, Donovan waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not here to talk about that,” Donovan growled, folding his arms. “You’ve got far bigger problems going on than me and a few guys not liking one of your policies.”
The atmosphere changed, a different type of tension from before permeating the air. Franco snapped to attention. Even Cillian, normally lax and carefree, had turned alert. They had kept the threat of Lucas a secret from the pack. If Donovan was talking about Lucas, then how had he found out?
For the first time since Donovan strutted into the room, Camden gave him his full attention. His eyes narrowed, turning fully to face the other shifter.
“What are you talking about, exactly?” Camden asked.
Donovan scratched the stubble on his neck, considering Camden.
“A guy came up to me the other day. Said his name was Lucas. He was trying to suss out how I felt about the pack. Guess someone must have told him I wasn’t happy with all the policies, because he said he had a plan to ‘make some serious changes’ to the pack.
Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he meant. He asked if I wanted to join him.”
A stillness had fallen over the other shifters in the group, all of their attention locked on Donovan.
It was Jasper who found his voice first. “What happened next?”
Snorting, Donovan turned his attention to Jasper, one eyebrow raised. “I told him to get lost, of course. Do you think I would have come here if I said yes?”
Jasper studied Donovan, looking the man up and down, searching for any sign of deception. There was every chance it was a double bluff. Only Jasper had gotten good at reading people over the last several years. As far as he could tell, Donovan was being entirely sincere.
Both Jasper and Camden glanced over at Franco, who was even better at sniffing out lies. Franco examined Donovan for a long moment. After a moment, his attention flicked to Camden, and Franco gave a short, brusque nod. Donovan was telling the truth.
Camden twisted back to look at Donovan again. Suspicion still lingered in the air, in Camden’s posture and the caution in his gaze. But the hostility that had permeated the room the second Donovan had strolled into the room had ebbed to a background hum.
“You said a couple of days ago,” Camden said. “Why only come to us now?”
“Because I didn’t know what to make of the guy at first,” Donovan said. “Thought he might just be blowing smoke, and I didn’t want to bother you with a load of bull. The more I thought about it, though, the more I decided you needed to know one way or the other. So, here I am.”
“When you say he approached you, what do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Camden shook his head. “No, I mean, do you have any idea how he knew to approach you? I mean, it’s no secret around the pack that the two of us have friction, but I can’t imagine an outsider having that sort of knowledge.”
Donovan shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “He hinted that I’d come highly recommended, which makes me think he’s already gotten to others in the pack.”
Silence fell over the group, alarm and unease rippling through the room for a brief moment. If Lucas already had people inside the pack, things were worse than they thought.
No wonder Lucas knew exactly where to find Nikki, Jasper thought.
“Any idea who?” Franco asked.
Donovan shook his head. “I’d tell you if I did, but the guy was smart enough not to name names—even if he wasn’t smart enough to be more subtle when trying to recruit me. He seemed desperate, if you ask me.”
All of this tracked with what they knew about Lucas.
Jasper wasn’t sure he agreed with Donovan’s assessment of his intelligence.
Lucas was smarter than they gave him credit for—otherwise, they would have found him by now.
If Jasper had to guess, Lucas’s brazen recruitment attempts had more to do with Donovan’s final point: desperation.
Camden remained silent for a long moment, regarding Donovan. It wasn’t with hostility, but with a calm interest. Something had changed between the two men since Donovan had stepped into the room.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Donovan,” Camden said. “But I’m honestly surprised. I know you don’t like most of my policies, and that’s not including the fact that you lost your position once my uncle died. I wouldn’t have been shocked if I’d found out you jumped ship.”
The implication was clear: Camden wasn’t ruling out the idea of a double bluff.
Donovan shrugged. “Good. You should be. But just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I’m going to go against the pack.
At the end of the day, this is my home, and you’re my alpha.
I’m not going to betray my pack like that.
Besides, you’re doing a decent enough job, all things considered.
I’m not going to go with some unknown variable.
For all I know, the guy’s a raging psychopath. ”
“He is,” Cillian said. “Trust us.”
Snorting, Donovan bobbed his head. “I care about this pack,” he said.
“I’m not gonna put it in jeopardy. That doesn’t mean I’m not gonna argue with you or speak up when I disagree.
” He raised an eyebrow. “Or are you gonna tell me you’d rather be surrounded by a bunch of yes-men all the time who don’t tell you when your ideas are shit? ”
Camden’s lip twitched upward. “Fair enough,” he said, inclining his head. “Thanks, Donovan. I appreciate it.”
Donovan gave another nod to the group, then strolled back out of the office.
“Fuck,” Franco muttered once the door had closed.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Cillian said.
“We don’t have time to dwell on that,” Camden said. “Right now, we need to find out more about what Donovan told us. We need to figure out if he’s telling the truth, and who might have joined Lucas.”
The others nodded, and they went to work, figuring out how to handle the new revelation.
As they began sketching out a plan, Jasper’s thoughts strayed to Nikki.
If there were spies in the pack, then how the hell was he supposed to protect Nikki?
She wouldn’t stand for him stopping her from talking to people, and he didn’t want to go to that extreme, anyway.
Do I tell her? he wondered. If she knew, she could keep an eye out. She could be aware of the situation.
Despite that knowledge, something held him back, some hesitation. He thought back to the other night, before the kiss, how frustrated she had been at not being able to defend herself in front of those pack members. How safe or comfortable would she feel if she knew Lucas had men in the pack?
His mind wandered from Lucas and his theoretical goons to Nikki.
They hadn’t spoken about the kiss, either, though his mind kept straying back to it, replaying it in his head.
It had come from left field. After weeks of animosity and keeping her distance, some barrier had finally shattered.
He couldn’t understand it, but he didn’t need to.
He felt the want and need driving that kiss.
He recognized it because it was identical to the way he felt about her.
Then, as quickly and bafflingly as when the kiss had started, she’d stopped, looking confused, as if she’d surprised herself. He had wanted more. He still wanted more. It had taken all of his willpower to step away when she had broken the kiss, to let her walk away.
He could still feel her lips, the taste of her lingering there.
He blinked, dragging himself back to the present.
He had other things to deal with right now, like figuring out what Lucas was planning.
If he didn’t know who Lucas’s men were, he’d just be worrying Nikki over nothing.
Best to keep it to himself until he had something substantial to tell her, not vague rumors and speculations.
I’ll tell her eventually, he thought. Once I know more. Until then, I’m not going to worry her.