The Alpha by Jenika Snow
21
Cian
My skin felt tight, this itch I couldn’t scratch. I knew it was because I’d left my mate back at the house. She’d been scared, worried about what would happen, and her worry was ultimately mine as well. I knew Odhran would guard my female with his life, and I trusted him with my most precious thing… Evie. But still… I felt off. My wolf was restless, and it wasn’t only because he wanted back to our female.
I shook off the unease and focused on getting this organized and settled as fast as possible so I could get back to Evie. Then we’d work on making a solid plan to take down the Assembly, or at least the first steps to ensure they were dismantled.
I told myself never again was I letting her out of my sight. No one could watch over Evie as well as her mate could. As well as I could.
I pulled to a stop in front of the two-story house Adryan was using to do his recon for the Assembly fuckers. I was out of the rental car and striding toward the front door as soon as I cut the engine. I couldn’t see them, but I felt Adryan’s soldiers in the shadows, their gazes a heavy pressure on me.
Right before I got to the front door, it swung open, and the vampire named James stood right at the entrance. We didn’t speak as he moved aside, I stepped inside, and the front door closed behind us.
“This way,” he said and came forward to lead the way, his head cocked toward me, his smirk a flash of his lip curling before it vanished and he started making his way down the hall.
I followed without speaking but took in my surroundings with my heightened Lycan senses. The house was void of furniture, an empty husk with the occasional flash of a nightwalker passing through a room or creeping in the shadows.
I focused forward as I was led down to the basement. Fucking figured the bloodsuckers would want a subterranean base. It was clear this house wasn’t used for living, maybe never had been, not with a lot of it being gutted and with walls torn down, technical and electronic equipment strewn all over the place as we passed what would have been bedrooms.
James glanced back at me once we descended the long, narrow staircase. I didn’t like the fucker, and not just because he was a vampire. The looks he gave me and the air of arrogance that surrounded him told me he was a male who thought highly of himself in the cockiest of ways.
No doubt he thought his kind was above mine. I’d love to see him come face-to-face with me in a darkened ally or deep in the woods. No others to help. Just two Otherworld males doing hand combat and using strength and skill that was known with our kinds. Guarantee the fucker wouldn’t last without backup.
I felt my wolf stir in restrained anxiousness to test that theory.
Where the other upper level of the house had been gutted for the most part, down in the basement was filled with tables and chairs, the technology situated in this massive room impressive. There were two huge workstations, one on each side of the room, rows of computers and TVs, and so much other high-tech equipment that it made my old-school head spin.
There was a long table situated in the center of the room between those two workstations, a map spread out across it, and far too many vampires crammed together with me for my liking. My hackles rose, my inner animal pacing. My wolf knew the danger was present, but I reminded the beast that we didn’t have a choice. We had to go to bed with the vampires to protect and save our female.
Although vampires and Lycans weren’t natural-born enemies, the alliance we had with each other was tumultuous at best and held together with cheap glue and dental floss. Breaking that bond would be disastrous for my kind and would start a war, but I also knew I’d do it without hesitation if it meant keeping Evie safe.
Adryan didn’t bother looking at me. I stood at the bottom of the stairs. But after a second I could hear the conversation that filled the room slowly start to fade out when they realized I was here. Adryan finished whatever he was saying and then lifted his head to look me in the eyes, his smile slow as it spread across his face.
“Bet you never thought you’d be the only Lycan in a roomful of vampires, huh?” His grin held strong.
I didn’t answer, just clenched my jaw and stared at him. He chuckled softly and rose to his full height. No one spoke, clearly waiting for their leader to make whatever move he was going to before they reacted in kind.
“What do you think of my little abode?” He lifted a dark eyebrow and gestured around to the computers. “For a quickly erected base, I think it’s impressive as fuck.”
“Modest,” I said blandly.
He chuckled low and deep. “Not nearly my setup in the city, but it’ll work for the time being while you and your mate are squirreled away and we figure this shit out to take the bastards down.”
“You consider this less impressive than what ye’re used tae?” I prompted sardonically and looked around. Although the Lycans and the Guard back in the Highlands had a state-of-the-art technological system that helped with the security on our territory but also kept us connected to all Otherworldfactionsaround the world, this small outfit Adryan had put together was notable for such a small window of time we’d had, and also from a strategic standpoint.
“Am I picking up some sarcasm in your voice, wolf?” He crossed his big arms over his chest. “Don’t tell me you Lycans back in Scotland are still using chisels and stone to send messages?” He started laughing at his own joke, and I reminded myself that I needed him alive in order to keep Evie safe.
“Let’s get this the fuck over with,” I said low and with a growl in my voice. Being here just pissed me off even more. But he didn’t continue with his arrogant bullshit, which was good for him, because I was pretty sure I would’ve snapped and gone after him, which would put a kink in the entire situation.
He gestured toward the map that was spread out, little red pins marking the terrain in intervals.
“I assume Odhran told you about what those Assembly fuckers said about his female?”
Instantly I felt rage on Odhran's behalf. “Yeah, he told me,” I said and left it at that. I didn’t feel comfortable speaking about Odhran’s female when he wasn't here.
“Yeah, pretty fucked-up. He’s been here a hell of a lot in the last twenty-four hours helping figure this out. Stand-up male, even if he is a Lycan.”
I narrowed my eyes at Adryan, and he grinned, the bastard. I gritted my teeth.
“Impatient to get back to your female?” He lifted another black fucking eyebrow I didn’t bother hiding the menace I felt. “I told you the house was mystically protected from being tracked, not only from Otherworld but from humans as well. We're the only ones who know where it’s at, and this house doesn't have a ward, so believe me when I say your mate is safest there.”
I didn’t say anything, and he exhaled as if annoyed.
“You are one stubborn asshole.”
I turned to face him and bared my teeth, letting my canines lengthen in an act of aggression. It was clear by his stoic expression that he wasn’t the least bit intimidated. “Listen, I would no’ trust ye tae handle my baggage on a flight, let alone the most precious thing tae me. So forgive me”—I grinned, not meaning that last part in the least— for wanting tae get back tae her, because no one can protect my female like I can.”
Adryan was silent for long moments but then exhaled and ran a hand over the back of his head. “What the fuck ever. One day you’ll learn that I’m not this ultra-enemy persona you and your kind like to place over my head.”
I snorted and shook my head, looking back at the map. When I didn’t say anything in return, just kept staring at the terrain, Adryan pointed to the airport where Odhran and I had landed.
“We’re starting here, since we assume that’s where they found you.”
Along with the red pushpins, there was also a red string that connected each pin to the next. From point A to point B. He pointed at the airport pin again, dragging his finger along the red string all the way across the map to where we’d been attacked in the motel parking lot.
“We have to assume they’re working with somebody on the inside, whether a mole within your ranks or in mine.”
The growl in Adryan’s voice told me how much this bothered him, as it should. But I couldn’t think of someone who would betray me or our kind on the Lycan side. I didn’t bother saying that, even if I had a feeling Adryan knew that as well. The most likely answer was that it was somebody disloyal on his end, given the fact all of this was taking place in the States.
“I had James and Matteo do some deep digging on the Darknet.” He tipped his chin toward the two vampires, and they stepped forward. “What’s the new intel we got, James?”
“I sent a team out there to do cleanup and gather any information we could. Got the van the humans used, cleaned up the bodies before the authorities could show up, and dealt with any witnesses.”
I didn’t ask how he dealt with the witnesses, because I knew it wouldn’t matter. They wouldn't tell me, and I could assume the lengths they’d gone to keep things quiet.
“The van was taken to a shop we had close by, and although it was pretty clean and standard, we did get DNA, but there were no hits. It’s clear they wipe the identities of those associated with them, so they don’t even exist in the outside world. We did confiscate two cell phones on their persons.”
I’d been so frantic with panic to get Evie out of there that I hadn’t even thought about the cleanup. Not that I gave a shit, because my mate was the only important thing to me, that and making sure Odhran stayed alive. But I was thankful Adryan had been smart enough to at least take care of all that. The last thing we needed was our DNA getting into the hands of human scientists and the media and the stories they’d spin on that.
“The phones are encrypted, but we have a team that’s the best at cracking and hacking.” James grinned and looked over at Matteo before he turned his gaze to me.
I narrowed my eyes at the jab. It was clear he thought my kind were lowly, no doubt seeing us as illiterate and feral animals, probably thought when we weren’t in our wolf form, we were running around naked like wild fucking beasts. I crossed my arms over my chest and let my eyes flash blue as a grin spread over my face. I stared at James, at the wicked scar across his throat. He was a survivor; that was clear by the fact his head was still attached when someone wanted it gone. But animal or not, I could take that fucker out without breaking a sweat.
“We were able to get a number that was used by both phones,” the vampire called Matteo said. “Although that number was also encrypted, we still unscrambled it. Bad news is it led to a burner phone.”
“Fucking hell. You know how fucking annoying this shit is?” Adryan gritted out.
“Yeah, it sure the fuck is, but the good news is we dug deeper and traced the number and coordinates to a motel room an hour away, then pinged it off another set of encrypted numbers that led to a warehouse a short distance from there.”
“My trackers are fucking good,” Adryan said as he stared at the map. “But even still, if they could crack the numbers and pinpoint where they’re at, that means it’s not the endgame. The Assembly is smart enough to give us the runaround. They have been hidden for decades, if not far fucking longer, so they aren’t fucking dumb.”
“They’re underground.”
Adryan nodded slowly and lifted his head to look at me. “I don’t even know if they are in this state, let alone America, but my gut tells me they are.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe a rural location.” He looked over at a few of the vampires by the computers. “Check large parcels of land, commercial and residential that may have been purchased in the last hundred years. If you don’t find anything, go back further.”
The vampires started checking, the click-click-click of their fingers flying over the computer keys loud.
I stared down at the map again, thinking about how Adryan had soldiers lying in wait at that warehouse. “So what are we waiting for?” I looked at Adryan. “? Why hasn’t the hub been taken down?”
Adryan lifted a brow and smirked. “Wolf, who do you think you’re talking to here? I’ve had a team at that abandoned warehouse since the moment I got the information about the location. We don’t go half-cocked into shit like you Lycans obviously do. We plan, wait, then attack. Fuck, man.”
Before I could ask him why it hadn’t been taken down, he started speaking again.
“We don’t want to let them know we know where they’re at. The ultimate goal is to find out where the main base is. That abandoned building they’re using right now is just a one-off. We need to find out where they keep their little fucked-up petting zoo. If we took down the warehouse and the humans inside, sure, maybe we could torture the information out of them, but I have a feeling they have safeguards in place to keep that information under lock and key if one of them is captured.” He looked back at the map. “These people are loyal, Cian. They’re not going to willingly tell us—the creatures they want to exploit and hurt—simply because we peel off fingernails and cut out tongues.”
He looked back at me, and his grin was slow, his fangs lengthening as he silently told me that yeah, that’s exactly what they’d do to them. And so would I.
“Even though it’s quite fun to do all of that whether I get information or not, I’m not here to play.” His expression grew serious after that. “This isn’t just about you and your mate. This is about the vampires who have found their females, the children, the fact that this organization needs to be taken down in order to ensure all of us aren’t threatened.”
I grunted in agreement.
Adryan and I didn’t agree on most things, but what I could be 100 percent on board with was that taking down these fuckers and ensuring the Otherworld was safe was a team effort. If anybody was going to take our kind down, it was going to be the good old-fashioned way where we battled each other, not become a sideshow attraction because of some humans with a fucked-up sense of righteousness and authority.
“We may have a hit,” one of the vampires said. “Two-hundred acres of residential farmland bought back in 1947. Another purchase for fifty acres of commercial-zoned land purchased a year after that.” The vampire looked over at Adryan. “And funny thing is,” he began, but I could tell by his smile he was eager to tell this part, “both properties are in the same state, and even more interesting is… both are in the same city.”
Adryan grunted in acknowledgment. “And let me guess, the land has just been sitting there? Nothing being built on it?”
The vampire grinned again and shook his head slowly.
I felt my wolf grow even more anxious at that revelation. It may be nothing, but the chances…
I looked back at the map, getting ready to really dive into how to correct the situation with these fuckers, when Adryan’s phone chirped. I was vaguely aware of him pulling it out from one of his pockets, but it was the instant change in the air, the frigidness and tightness in his body that I saw in my peripheral that had my wolf immediately rising.
Before I even looked at him, I knew something was wrong, and his expression solidified that. There was a look of disbelief, shock, and then pure unadulterated rage that covered his face as his eyes flashed red with sadism.
“What?” I ground out, not bothering to hide the distorted quality of my voice as my wolf rose up in protector mode.
Adryan’s eyes were still glowing red, a sign of intense emotion for his species. “The alarm was triggered.”
At first I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, my mind moving slower as my humanity faded. It was then I realized what he meant by the alarm. The alarm that was supposed to keep my mate safe. My Evie.
I already had my cell out, already calling Odhran, then the number to the phone I’d left Evie. No answer from either.
In my head I kept hearing Adryan’s words about the alarm being triggered, but something else nagged at the back of my mind, too low for me to grasp, because I was more animal than human.
Everything else faded into the background as I tipped my head back and roared out hard enough I heard the computer shake against the wall. The violence and danger swirling around me had the vampires taking a step back.
I roared out again, and then I was gone. Nothing else mattered except getting to my mate and slaughtering whoever had just threatened her.
