The Alpha’s Catharsis

4

I sat on the couch, with Beck and Silas on either side of me, and with a clear view of the spot in front of the window where Claude first appeared. I was persuaded to join Reid, Beck, and Silas at the packhouse to discuss the meeting with Waning Moon.

I didn’t particularly care to return to Reid’s office. We’d replaced the couch that Claude had died on—the bloodstains just wouldn’t come out—but it was still eerie, considering the unknown element of his death.

Beck and Silas were ravenous, after a long day of travel followed by a long night of unusually busy patrol. They had picked up breakfast from the kitchen downstairs, but I insisted I wasn’t hungry. Rather, I was hungry, but I had no appetite whatsoever. The last six escapees of the thirty we had been told to expect were discovered by the time we arrived at the packhouse, not twenty minutes in to the next patrol group’s shift. Six, plus two extras.

We had disposed of a grand total of thirty-two rogues from Waning Moon, all over the course of just a few hours. I had a feeling that soon enough, more would come.

I had a sinking feeling about whatever was happening at Waning Moon.

Still, I was burning with curiosity, and so there I was, with a clear view of the spot in front of the window where Claude first appeared.

Reid was searching for something hidden away within the bookshelves along the back wall. I watched him idly, admiring the way the muscles in his arms flexed and contracted with every movement he made. Beck and Silas were chatting about nothing in particular as they ate their breakfast, but they both fell silent and put their silverware down when Reid found what he was looking for, and came to sit on the couch opposite us. He held a blue folder in his hands, the edges frayed and one corner torn.

“This is all the information I have on Waning Moon.” He set it down on the coffee table. “Thanks to Damon.”

Silas set his fork down. “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“What sort of information are you looking for?” I asked.

Reid shrugged. “Whatever I can find. Waning Moon has kept a low profile forever, probably because they’re small and they’re weak. I’d never met Alpha Nicholas before yesterday. He’s f*****g deranged.” He paused and his brow furrowed. “He’s worse than me.”

Silas cut in, “I’m not sure if his behavior was entirely…him. He called Alpha Reid, quote, ‘a little b***h’, and then he started crying.”

I gave him a look of both confusion and amusement. “And he’s still alive?”

“As far as we know,” Reid said. “Whatever was waiting for him back home seemed far worse than anything I could’ve done to him. So, I sent him back to it.”

“His men were following us through the woods when we were on our way to the meeting place,” Beck interjected, “but there was something wrong. They were moving like really fast puppets. They didn’t blink.”

I remembered the panicky feeling that was strong enough to translate over the Mate-bond. “That was when you felt nervous,” I said to Reid. “I felt it, too.”

“They were saying weird shit.”

Beck and Silas both seemed unsettled.

“What were they saying, Alpha?” Silas asked.

“You couldn’t hear them?”

Beck and Silas both shook their heads and stayed silent, staring at Reid expectantly, concern plain on their faces.

Reid stared back, his nonchalant demeanor never faltering. His eyes narrowed a fraction, and then he replied simply, “Weird shit.”

I frowned when he didn’t elaborate any further, and the sinking feeling in the pit of my belly deepened.

“We’ll circle back,” Silas said with obvious uncertainty. One quick glance between him and Beck, and I knew they both felt the same creeping anxiety that I did.

“During the meeting,” Beck continued, as he turned back to face me, “Alpha Nicholas’s men all just stood there. They didn’t move. They didn’t talk. They just stared off into space.”

I repeated his words, “Like puppets.” I frowned again, my gaze falling to the coffee table. I studied the woodgrain as the gears in my head turned. “Sounds like the purple-eyed woman is fond of mind-control.”

“Mind-control?” Beck asked.

“Black magic bullshit,” Reid said.

“Did Alpha Nicholas talk about your declaration at all?” I asked him.

“He had brief moments of clarity. Even then, it was clear he didn’t have the same intentions I had.”

“What was said?”

“Begged for help, promised he wouldn’t turn me over to her if I came back to his territory just to help free his pack members. But mostly, he did his best to insult me and tried to use Grady to tug on my heart strings.”

“Mind-control is somehow a very believable explanation for his crazy mood swings,” Beck mused.

“It was like a switch flipped,” Silas cut in, “with every other sentence out of his mouth. He’d go from pleading and crying to f*****g ballistic in a split second. Didn’t answer any of Alpha Reid’s questions. He had moments of clarity, yes, but he was still a wreck.”

Reid picked up the folder from the table in front of him, and as he opened it and settled back into his seat, he said, “I found it interesting that he didn’t lay a hand on any of us. Ballistic, but did not move.”

Beck and Silas continued to discuss Alpha Nicholas’s strange behavior amongst themselves. My mind was racing, processing the information I’d been given, and revisiting my vision.

I couldn’t imagine why the purple-eyed woman thought using Alpha Nicholas and his pack would be effective in obtaining Reid. What disturbed me most of all, of course, was her desire for my Mate in the first place. Silas said Alpha Nicholas hadn’t answered any of Reid’s questions. I was sure he’d asked about the purple-eyed woman, but Alpha Nicholas sounded too far gone to be of any help.

I looked at Reid. His multicolored eyes skimmed the contents of the folder. His left eye was the same rich, deep brown it had always been. His right eye was the dull, lifeless blue it had been since Willem’s death. Sometimes, I missed the striking, icy blue it was before.

His eyes flicked up to meet mine, and they softened. I hadn’t realized how rigidly I was sitting until then, when his knowing gaze alone brought me enough comfort for me to relax, at least a little bit.

“Anything worthwhile?” Silas asked, and Reid turned his attention back to the folder.

“Nothing at all. Nicholas Avery, firstborn son of Alpha Steven Avery. Has three brothers and a sister. He’s Mated. Didn’t have an heir as of nine years ago.”

“If I remember correctly, he has a son now,” Silas interjected.

Reid shrugged. “I don’t keep tabs on neighboring packs because I don’t give a shit.”

“Why should you?”

“Exactly.” He closed the folder and tossed it back onto the table. “Alpha Nicholas has never challenged anybody, and he has never been challenged. As far as I know, nobody is Waning Moon’s rival. The only thing that Damon found worth noting were the countless rogue attacks, but that’ll happen when you’re as weak as Waning Moon.”

“The most recent thing in this folder is from nine years ago?” I asked.

“Nine-ish,” Reid confirmed. “February 2013.”

“You haven’t added to it at all?”

“No.”

“What if Waning Moon has been more active in the past nine years, and we just aren’t aware?” I suggested.

“I wanted to check Damon’s records because I don’t remember hearing a damn thing about Waning Moon, ever. I bet you fifty bucks that they’ve spent the past nine years doing absolutely nothing.”

“Fifty bucks?” I scoffed. “Make it a hundred. I want people looking into Waning Moon today.”

Reid glanced between Beck and Silas. “You guys want in on this?”

Silas shook his head. “With all due respect, Luna, you’re wrong, and I can’t take your money. I’m out.”

“I’m in. Easy money,” Beck agreed enthusiastically. “I’m with Alpha.” As an afterthought, he hastily added, “Sorry, Luna.”