Rogue. Beta

11. MASON

My phone pinged with a new notification. The vibration startled me out of my dream. Rolling over, cautious to not wake the sleeping beauty in my arms, I grabbed the phone off the table.

Meeting by seven. Captured rogue killed himself before questioning. Seems bigger than we first thought.

I paused mid-yawn as I read. He killed himself. Christ, that was a sure sign that it was something bigger than we first thought.

A rogue had been found living amongst wolves. Right in our pack house in Canada. How could that be possible? Rogues had a sharp and unpleasant stench. Violet eyes and a quick temper. Up until a few years ago, we didn’t know rogues could evolve enough to complete a shift.

That was when we found out about Carlo Luciano. The Lord of the Rogue Mafia. Some said he called himself god.

He was something of a myth. A lot of wolves had heard of him but none could attest to have seen him. He ran an organised crime group of rogues and lone wolves. Like a pack. Except they dealt in wolf’s bane and less famous wolf poisons. He dealt arms, sold silver bullets in more quantity than the Werewolf laws allowed. They even say he has a s*x ring with boys and girls he had captured. Girls and boys of different species.

Carlo Luciano had rogues. And his rogues were half sane. Surprise because rogues are considered completely insane wolves.

A half-insane rogue had wandered into our pack. Disguised as one of us.

As a pack with power, we didn’t have a lot of enemies. Not public ones. Yet, we would be stupid to think everyone we broke bread with wanted to see us thrive.

So naturally, we kept tabs on our enemies and our potential enemies. You know, like the Night Howlers. They were friends, kind of, but before our merger, they had been the most powerful pack for centuries. Now we were.

We kept tabs on our enemies but the Rogue Mafia was hard to keep track of. They were everywhere yet nowhere. And they had placed a target on our back.

How did I know?

Simple. A sane rogue had wandered into our pack.

I felt her stir even if she didn’t open her eyes. Indigo Penn. If I were to count my blessings, I would count her a bazillion times. The blessing that came at the right time. Right before I totally gave up.

They say the Moon Goddess knew what she was doing. Her plans were almost always perfect. But I had been close to losing hope.

Because I couldn’t resist, I kissed her eyelids, one after the other, still in a drowsy state. They twitched but they did not open.

“Morning, Princess.” My voice was still thick with sleep. I stifled a yawn. I kissed her again when she wouldn’t open her eyes, before getting out of bed.

We already established a routine. It sucked leading a pack sometimes. Like now, when I left my damsel in bed to prepare for work.

Seven o’clock.

Goddess, this was surely a big deal. None of us were such early risers. Not Dylan. Not me. And definitely not Jake.

I stepped out of the bathroom before she opened her eyes and in the end, I almost did not attend the meeting. But I had to. Raging boner or not.

My body needed a mental pull to leave the room and it wasn’t only because I was horny. I couldn’t explain it but something was different. Something was different with Indigo. I couldn’t place my finger on it but something was off with her.

From the way she pretended to be asleep even though I could hear the gears in her head turning, to the way she had looked at me once I stepped out. She tried to hide it and it almost worked. But I saw it in the restlessness of her eyes. I felt it in the distance she tried to put up. Even the kiss we shared was missing something. Something had changed and it didn’t look like it was something small. Or good even.

It messed with my head that I couldn’t place what had changed. I hadn’t the faintest clue if I had done something wrong.

Our mate bond wasn’t at it’s peak yet. I wished it was so I could know just what was bugging her. But it wasn’t. Yet I could feel from the bond we shared that something was off.

°°

Everyone in the office stared at me. I knew they were waiting for my input but my mind wasn’t totally there. They gave me side glances throughout the meeting. My friends, the warrior, the past leaders. They knew I hadn’t come with my A-game. They needed my A-game but whatever was bugging Indigo was bugging me.

“What do you think, Mason?” Elder Vaughn, the former alpha asked.

“Yeah, it’s a good plan.” I muttered half-heartedly. They still looked expectantly at me. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope it works.”

“Fingers crossed? Are you kidding me?” Dylan muttered to himself, flipping through documents.

They needed me but my mind was elsewhere. There was only one person whose brainpower could match mine in that sitting. Her eyes were dropping from the exhaustion of catering to two alpha kids. Remi Vaughn.

Goddess, when I looked at her now, there was no raging desire or sad feeling. There was only a soft tenderness for a friend. A friend I had crushed on for five years. I almost howled with happiness.

Finally!

“Is everything alright, son?” Elder John’s eyes were soft and tender

My father sat beside him, giving me the same look. Except it was also seasoned with something else. Something like anger since I hadn’t been home since my return. My mum wouldn’t even return my greetings at the mall.

My stomach clenched.

“Yeah, I’m fine. The plan is great. It’s almost flawless,” I rushed out, leaning back into my seat.

“It’s not though,” Jake said, raising his head off the desk. “There are loopholes everywhere,” he muttered and then his face fell back to the table.

“Yeah. Okay,” I muttered

“You don’t have any contribution?” Elder Vaughn sounded so surprised.

“What? No.”

“Son, is anything the matter?”

The concern in my dad’s tone pulled me a little out of the weirdness in my chest. f**k, what was happening to me?

“Uh, nothing. Can you go over the plan again?”

“For the third time?” Dylan sounded incredulous.

“Yeah, why not?”

Elder John sighed before going back to his computer.

“Luciano and his gang were last spotted in Europe. Rumours for the last three months have them to have been in the south for a while now. If one of his members wandered into Canada then it’s safe to assume they’ve moved north.”

“Are we sure it’s his member?” Jake’s groggy voice asked.

“A sane rogue was caught, Jake,” Remi murmured.

“Oh okay. How do we know he’s one of Lucianos? Did he have branding?” He asked again.

“Just sleep, Jake.” My dad said.

“We’ve mapped out the thirty most likely places he could be. Our people at Night Howlers have confirmed that –“ John continued

“Did anyone check the rogue for branding?” I cut in

“Well, no. There’s only one Rogue Mafia in the world.” John answered with pinched brows.

“Check him for branding. Meanwhile, it’s not the safest bet to send a member into a rogues den but it’s a good plan. Where did you say they were again?” I asked.

“We don’t know... We suspect they are somewhere around us. We’ve mapped out thirty packs that have enough territory that they could have –“

“Let me hear their names.”

My brain was working in overdrive then.

“Grey Hounds –“

“No. Their alpha lost his father to a rogue attack. Their patrol is tight. They would not leave room for rogues.”

“Bull –“

“No. Too close to Night Howlers.”

“Screamers?”

“ Not enough territory for even a small gang.”

“Pink Peaches?”

“Hmm. What’s their territory size?”

“Doesn’t matter. They’re too close to us. Luciano wouldn’t risk it.” Remi answered for her mate’s father.

“Moon’s Haven?”

“Still too small.”

“We –“ Jake cut him off.

“Wait. Didn’t Moon’s Haven get wiped out? Their remaining population migrated farther north to join a sister pack.”

“Yeah, that was two years ago. No one knows if they sold their lands. Did they?” I asked

“If they’ve left it unclaimed for two years then it’s soon to become no man’s land. A likely hideout for a group of thugs,” Elder John said.

“Yeah, very likely. And there is a lot of free land between them and their neighbours,” My father agreed.

“Mark that out.” Dylan said. His father started to type away.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Remi said with scrunched up brows, biting her lips.

“A gang would not hide out in a wolf’s land no matter how long it has been abandoned.” I supplied.

“So we’re back to being at a dead end.” Dad growled.

“No we’re not. Luciano is definitely here or in Canada.”

“Canada is more vulnerable though. “ Elder John said.

“How?” Jake asked, wiping sleep off his eyes.

“There’s no alpha, there. A pack without its alpha is an easy target.”

“I was supposed to leave this holiday.” Remi murmured.

“The kids.”

“I’ll go. The kids are too young to be hustled about. It’ll be too stressful for you to move about with them too. I’ll get in touch with Kelly and start preparation.”

“Dylan – I – that’s quite sudden. You’re going to – We’ll talk about that later.” She finished with a faraway look.

“Is that the plan? We still have to find a way into Luciano’s gang. If he can send spies then so can we.”

“I’ll assemble a team of trackers. This isn’t a small threat so we can’t sit back to be taken by surprise. We’ll search the entire north. We'll search the entire continent if we have to,” I said. “Luciano is targeting us. It'd be idiotic to sit and wait for his first strike.”

“I’ll speak to the warriors. We need double the security. All day long. Until we determine how to avert this coming crisis or get it under control, we’ll need all our warriors on call,” Jake said addressing the warrior in the room.

“I’ll get my squad ready. We are ready to work more hours to secure our own.”

“Yes. We’ll have to relay everything to Kelly. Dylan?”

“Yeah. I’ll get in touch with her. I want my mate's protection doubled while I’m away.”

“I can protect myself, D,” She rolled her eyes.

“No offence but you just had twins. Not exactly at your peak right now.”

“We’ll need a lot of trackers if we’re sweeping the surroundings of Canada and here,” My dad butted in.

“Good thing there’s close to four million of us. I’m sure we have enough trackers for the job. Warrior Chan, we’ll need a list of potential and willing squads for this job. Both home and abroad,” I added.

“Yes, Beta.”

Ideas finally started to fly around. We even got Kelly on the line to discuss the issue. Unfortunately, the rogue had been burnt and flushed down the toilet before the idea of checking for branding came.

It was safe to assume the rogue was a member of Luciano's gang. Who else would dare Silver Day like that? Not even Night Howlers could. Having our numbers and powerful beings meant we were close to untouchable.

Shit. Clara. Her mate made sure she had a full squad of warriors guarding her whether she knew it or not. But her hours in the woods exercising her powers as the Earth Elemental were irregular. We’d have to do something about that. But first, I promised a certain person breakfast and it was almost nine o’clock

“Where are you going?” Dad asked as I stood abruptly from my seat.

“To have breakfast with my mate,” I picked my way to the door.

“Dudeee –“ Jake called as I walked out.

I made a mental note to ask Indigo if she would want to visit my parents come weekend.