The Alpha Target

Two

Cora dragged her feet along the corridor leading to Rocco’s office. Many would say 8:30am was a perfectly reasonable time to be out of bed and up for the day ahead, but for Cora… 8:30 seemed like the middle of the night. She was not a morning person, hence why she’d decided to make minimal effort for the meeting with Blaise Hendrick at this ungodly hour. She’d merely scrapped her thick, pink locks into a high ponytail and thrown on her black training attire – a pair of leggings and training jacket – before determining she was ready. She was on time – wasn’t that the main thing?

As she halted at the end of the corridor on the far west side of the HQ, right outside Rocco’s office, her drowsy eyes landed on a grinning Darca leaning against the wall, who looked much more presentable than Cora in her black jeans and white vest. She chuckled, shaking her head at her friend. “Dressed up for the occasion, huh?” Darca, like Joni, was one of those ‘early bird catches the worm’ types. By the time Cora was awake, Darca had usually gotten out of bed, gone for a run, showered, got dressed, done her makeup and had breakfast. Cora, on the other hand, was a night owl.

Darca grinned. “Woke up for the occasion, huh?” It was a known fact that Cora was very rarely on time, many meetings had been postponed thanks to her timekeeping skills.

“Touche,” Cora smirked, sipping her coffee as she leaned on the wall beside her friend. “Any ideas?”

“I’ve heard whispers about a trafficking business, but as far as I’m aware they were just rumours. No concrete evidence could be found,” Darca shrugged. “Must be big for Blaise to come down here himself though.”

“No kidding,” Declan agreed as he joined the pair. “I’m surprised he managed to find time away from being wrapped up in his precious jewels to instruct us.”

Blaise Hendrick, King Rex’s younger brother, wasn’t seen by the public very often, usually choosing to stay behind the palace walls so he can bask in the luxury life his parents provided for them. No one knew much about Blaise, unlike Rex who was a man of the people. On the rare occasion Blaise was spotted, it was usually when the Crown were holding a ball or the Royal Family were being celebrated. Though the King’s second-hand man, Blaise often kept to himself and had managed to build a rather mysterious enigma around himself.

“Or managed to spare an hour of bedding the palace staff,” Trey countered, joining Declan’s side. Another rumour. Supposedly, the Prince was quite the Casanova, having made his way through most the maids and omegas. Women had stepped forward in the past, claiming to be carrying Blaise’s baby, but for some reason nothing ever came from the claims.

Joni tsked, shaking her head at Trey. “Those are just rumours, the pregnancies were never confirmed.”

“Or the women were just sent away,” Declan argued.

Finally, Bishop joined the group. “Who can blame the man when he has all those beautiful women working for him? I wouldn’t mind a day in his shoes.” He shrugged, earning a scoff from the three women. “What? I’m just saying,” he held his hands up in surrender.

“You need a new hobby,” Cora reprimanded him.

Bishop smirked, winking at Cora as he took her coffee cup out of her hands and took a generous swig. Cora gaped, “hey!” she tutted, before the pair began their usual bickering.

A few minutes later, Rocco opened his office door and cleared his throat, capturing their attention. “Blaise will be here shortly, so quit your bickering and get your asses inside.” He rubbed his temples as the team piled into the room and found their seats. He wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somewhere along the way he’d found that he’d become a father to six highly-strung, adult warriors. At his young age of thirty-one, he was already finding grey hairs and he’d put money on it that it was these six who were responsible for that fact.

But he loved each of them dearly, how could he not? Although every warrior within the Viper HQ had experienced a troubling past, they had all applied for their positions at Viper. These six, however, Rocco had found when they were nearing death and he had saved them. In a way, they were his children. He’d watched each of them grow from timid, fragile outcasts to the strongest warriors he’d had the privilege of managing. Though the death of Rocco’s mate left a hole nothing could truly fill, these nutters did a good job at filling most of that space and as he watched the six of them bicker amongst themselves while he sunk into his desk chair, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

Reading the text he’d just received, he set his phone down and addressed the group. “Blaise is here, time for squabble club to end.” His eyes then landed on Cora who had swiftly changed her expression from an irritated woman to a professional, determined warrior who was ready to be tasked with her next assignment.

Though he admired each of them equally, he’d always had a soft spot for Cora. He’d seen how hard she’d worked to overcome her past and become the woman she is today. Sure, she was sharp-tongued and most certainly had anger issues, but she was a far cry from the omega he’d found who’d barely utter a word to him for the first two months. She was his caterpillar who had flourished into the most incredibly butterfly, demolishing every obstacle in her way. Rocco had never had the luxury of children, his mate had died very early into finding each other, but if he had a daughter, he would have been proud if she turned out like Cora.

Cora sat straight in her chair as the knock on the door indicated their guest had arrived. Her gaze landed on the towering blonde who shortly followed afterwards. He had a stocky build and was easily six-two, six-three. He had a small mole under his left piercing gray eye, but his eyes were cold and unsettling, seemingly keeping many secrets.

He was fairly attractive, with his coiffed golden hair and sharp bone structure, but he wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, at least to Cora. Even when he flashed them a friendly smile, it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Even her wolf didn’t feel completely at ease around him, stirring within her, but Cora put that down to the power exuding from him. He was a prince, after all.

He held himself with grace, like a member of the royal family should, with his chin high and his back straight. His thick, bushy brows furrowed as he inspected the group, while they inspected him. Then, leaning against Rocco’s desk, he rolled the sleeves of his white dress shirt to his elbows and cleared his throat.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all, although I wish it was under better circumstances. I’m sure you’re all wondering what I’m doing here, so I’ll just get straight to the point,” his gruff voice began. “Our team has been investigating a s*x trafficking ring for quite some time, yet we were unable to lead the investigation to the culprit. It’s the biggest organisation we have seen and somehow, they’re able to function without leaving a single trace. Omegas from across the country are being kidnapped, held hostage and then sold to the highest bidder in auction houses for breeding. Once the omegas have served their purpose, they’ve been… disposed of.”

Everyone remained silent as the prince continued. “They hold auctions up and down the country, never in the same place and never on the same date. They’re careful not to leave a pattern which could lead us to them. Entry to the auction is invitation only and it’s incredibly exclusive. By the time our team has managed to track down the next location, they’ve already up and gone. At this point, they know we’re onto them and have put in extreme measures to distract us from finding them. We had someone tracing every inch of the dark web to find the details of the next gathering, but what we found ended up being a decoy to stop us from locating the real event. Whenever we find the real location, the building has already been burnt down and the evidence has been destroyed. The organisation is exceedingly smart, nothing like what we’ve ever encountered before and the longer this goes on, the more women are being kidnapped and abused.”

While Cora had every intention of helping the prince and finding these evil bastards, she had a burning question which deviated from the irritation huffing in the prince’s voice. “But something has changed, hasn’t it?” Something had to have happened for them to involve the Viper Association, she wasn’t naïve and neither were the rest of her team. For them to hand over the reigns of an investigation they had been running on their own for years, it would surely hurt their pride and the reluctance was written all over the prince’s face. Something had happened which meant Blaise was unable to – or scared to - get his hands dirty.

Blaise set his lips into a fine line as he contemplated Cora for a moment, before finally nodding his head. “Eight days ago, a witness came forward claiming a certain Alpha and his men were at the last auction. Except, they were not there as guests, the witness claims. Instead, when the guests had left, they demolished the building and evidence by burning it to ashes, like the other locations. Myself and some men investigated the location the witness came to us with and they were indeed correct, not only was the warehouse demolished, but the remains of female bodies were also found. Omega females.”

“Who was the Alpha?” Trey urged, the anticipation was driving him wild. Why couldn’t the prince just spit it out already?

Blaise reached into his trouser pocket, before pulling out a shiny black business card and held it in front of their faces. “This was found at the scene.” Cora frowned, squinting her eyes as she leaned forward to read the card. Upon reading, her eyes widened and her heart stilled momentarily, unsure of what to think. It wasn’t very often Cora found herself rendered speechless, but this was one of those moments. She blinked repeatedly, ensuring she was seeing the writing on the card correctly, but there was no mistake. It was there in front of her eyes. In italic, blood red writing read the one name that would have any shifter freeze… KNOX.

Alpha Lucien Knox.

Knox was notoriously known for being vicious, cruel and ruthlessly dangerous. He was a man many dared not even speak his name, supposedly a reckless psychopath who didn’t fear anything, not even death. Perhaps death feared him. There was no escaping him if you crossed him, only surrendering and praying for a swift end, though it was likely to be horrifically gruesome. He was a predator, even the thought of him could cause the blood to drain from your face. His presence apparently crackled the air with power and dominance, suffocating those before him with the kind of fear that came with the threat of destruction with no escape.

But that wasn’t all. Five years older than Cora, Lucien Knox’s appearance was said to be so alluring that a mere look at his face was enough to cause most women to swoon and men to turn green with jealousy. Though, Knox was usually swarmed in a circle of his own men, only allowing a few blurred glimpses of him from time to time.

Yet, as Cora stared at the small piece of card that wore his name as a lethal warning, she didn’t feel fear or death lurking, she felt… anticipation, intrigue.

“You must be out of your mind,” Bishop scoffed, waving his hand dismissively before the card. “That’s a suicide mission and I can’t speak for the others, but I’m too pretty to die.”

“How does this fall out of your jurisdiction?” Darca question, wearing the same cautious expression as Joni and Trey. Declan, on the other hand, seamed unfazed. A job was a job.

Blaise sets the card down on Rocco’s table. “Let’s just say the Royal family cannot be seen as interfering in his demise,” he simply explains, earning questionable glances. “Since looking further into the claims of the witness, we have found that a substantial number of the women taken have been from Knox’s hotels, bars and clubs. It seems as though women are lured to his businesses, only to be drugged and taken discreetly. We must put a stop to this.”

Rocco frowned, picking up the business card and inspecting it. “You realise Knox isn’t going to be easy to bring down? Perhaps nearing impossible.”

Blaise sighed. “I’m aware,” he confirmed. “Which is why you need to gather up as much evidence on Knox as you can, my brother won’t simply take anyone’s word where Knox is concerned. He and Knox have history. But Knox is the top of the food chain, you bring him down and as a consequence, the organisation falls down.”

“Team?” Rocco asked, waiting to see if six of them were willing to take the job. Typically, willingness didn’t matter when it came to a target, but when Alphas like Knox were involved… willingness was necessary.

The group exchanged glances, before ultimately settling on Cora to take the lead as they always did when they were in this position. She merely shrugged. Lucien Knox didn’t scare her in the slightest. Strangely, even her wolf didn’t cower from his name. Perhaps it could be said that Cora no longer had a flight response since the incident with Kai and Dion, but that only made her excel further in her job and she was determined to catch this fucker. “We’re in,” she confirmed without ammunition.