Alpha Killer Ch. 26-30

Talia's POV

I was practically shaking, the idea that someone I trusted had betrayed us had my wolf prowling in my mind. I pulled out my phone and dialed. "Uncle Clark, there's a problem," I said. I told him what had been reported to me about the behavior of the Copper Creek pack, leaving out who told me and why they were watching. "Alpha Justin Heranus and maybe two dozen of his warriors are flying to Minneapolis. Someone gave up that I brought Luna Rhoda and Phillip to you."

I heard a crunch, then the phone went dead. "I hope my Uncle has replacement insurance on his phone," I said. Randall was signaling for an offramp, getting ready to turn around.

"Put him on speaker when he calls back," my mate said. I looked over at him, warm feelings coursing through me over the bond. "We're a team now, you don't have to do it all alone."

The phone rang, and this time I put it on speaker. "Sorry, Talia, the phone didn't survive the wall."

"It's all right. You heard what I said about Alpha Justin coming our way?"

"I did. Are you sure you didn't leave a trail for them to follow?"

"Pretty sure, I flew out of a private airfield and the flight plan was to Kansas City. I trust my pilot, he's human but discreet."

I heard him tapping on his desk. "I have to say I'm pissed; only a few people here knew about your flight in, and I trust them all. The only other people who know are the Chairman, Counselor and Lead Enforcer of the Council. They all seemed upset as they watched the video of Tania describing what Alpha Todd and Alpha Justin did to her."

"You just showed them the edited videos I provided, right?" Randall had pulled back onto I-90 east now.

"Yes, it doesn't show anyone but her. There's no way of knowing where she is."

"There's nowhere else they would expect her to be," I said. "They know I took my nephew and the Luna, and my only family is with you. Whether they know for sure or are going on a hunch, they're going to land in an hour and could be at your land two hours later."

"Good."

I looked at the phone, wondering what he meant. "What do you mean good?"

"They want to come for me and my Pack, bring it. We'll battle on my Pack land, out of sight of humans. I can do whatever I want with them after I capture them on my lands. I don't need permission from the Council or anyone else."

"He's right," Randall said. "If the Council is compromised, we can't depend on them to take care of Justin and his men. He probably figures that if Tania is dead, and he kills the rest of her family rescuing his Luna, he can find a way to survive the storm that will come from her story coming out."

"Tania is the key here," Clark said. "I thought she would be safe with us, and we will protect her, but we can't risk failing. He's not taking that boy back."

"Can you move her somewhere safer," Randall asked. "Evacuate her with the non-combatants in your Pack to an allied Pack or neutral location?"

"Perhaps. My problem is that if we truly have a mole in my Pack, I don't want him to know where she went to."

I had an idea. "Have Aunt Teri drive Phillip, Snacks and Tania to the airport. We'll meet you there. I'll make sure she gets to a safe place," I said.

He quickly agreed. "Take Teri with them. I'll feel better knowing she is somewhere truly safe if the worst happens, and Teri can help them with the boy. He's awake now, confused and asking for his Mommy. His wolf did establish a family bond with Teri, though. He's Tania's son, no doubt about it."

I smiled. If his wolf had been awake, I would have loved to feel him make that connection with me. Maybe soon he would. "Deal. You have my word, they will be safe and protected. You take care of your Pack," I told him. I didn't want to lose him now that we had begun to re-establish our relationship. It felt good to have family again. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to arrange a warm welcome for them," he said. "I've got to get Luna Rhoda away, they can't find her or her scent anywhere on my property."

"Erica's not known to be in your Pack," Randall said. "Keep Rhoda drugged and have her take her somewhere out of mind link range. If you can get her to break the Pack bond, so much the better. Then you can honestly say you don't have her and no one in your Pack does either."

"That's a good idea, when this goes down the Council is going to be all over the place. We'll need to clean her scent from the cell and the car, she's been nowhere else," Clark said. "We have time, I guess. I just hate to break the bond with Erica, she's gone through so much in her young life."

"True," I said, "But she's never been able to fully embrace Pack life here, because her story is too widely known."

"I'll send her to my parents," Randall said. "They will take her in, and we can see if a change of scenery helps her come out of her shell. If she doesn't like the North Texas landscape, I'll bring her to Fort Worth where she can go to college. She's wasting away here, unable to move forward with her life."

"I know," Clark said. "I just didn't know what to do about it."

"Tell the girls to pack for a week or so, if it goes longer, I'll make sure they get what they need," Randall said. "We'll be at the airport in an hour."

"You got it," Clark said. "Congratulations on your mating, Talia, but you could have told me instead of having Alex notice your neck at the restaurant," he said. "Randall is a good man, so is Bobby. You two are in good hands."

"Thank you, Uncle Clark. I better let you go, we need to make some phone calls." I hung up, then made a quick call to the pilot. I told him to get the plane gassed and ready for a long flight. I'd call him in a few minutes with a destination.

"Where should we send them?"

He looked over at me, love in his eyes. "I have an apartment in a Fort Worth high-rise with a spare bedroom. We could stay there, I'm sure there's another apartment available I could rent for a month or so."

"We won't be with them all the time there. They would be safest with my Coven, but I don't want to involve them," I said. "Last resort."

"What about my Pack?"

"Would they take them?"

He chuckled. "Of COURSE they would, we're talking about an allied Luna, a trusted friend of my mate, their daughter-in-law and their newest grandson," he said. "Mom's been over the moon since finding out about Bobby's mate, she's been threatening to come up to La Crosse since he first called her. Luckily, I convinced her to wait until Bobby has the guts to change to human form and tell her himself," he said.

"Does she know about me?"

"She knows you are my mate, and she's concerned because of who you are, but she already considers you family. Doing this will not be a hardship."

I thought about it, I would feel better if they were out of the way and under protection I couldn't give right now. "Call your Mom and Dad and ask. They are taking a risk with this, since the Alpha Killer abducted the boy from another Pack."

"It's their blood relative, they will protect him." He pressed a button on the steering wheel and told his phone to "Call Dad."

The phone rang over the stereo system, hands-free. "Hi Randall, how is the mate hunt going," his father asked.

"It's over," he said.

"Hello Alpha Meechum," I said. "Randall marked me a few hours ago." I could hear a woman scream in the background, that must be his Mom.

"Congratulations, Talia. Welcome to the family, and please call us Brent and Patty."

"OH MY LUNA I have another daughter," the excited woman said. She must have sat in his lap from the 'oof' he let out and the rustle of fabric. "Was it romantic? Did he treat you right?"

"He was wonderful, Patty. More than I had hoped for. He marked me after kissing me senseless as we sat on a scenic overlook of the river valley."

She squealed in delight. "It's going to be so much fun, two sisters mated to my youngest boys! I can't wait until all the little pups are running around underfoot!"

"MOM!" He heard her shushing her mate in the background. "I know you're happy, but we have a situation here we need help with. Are you alone?"

I heard the door closing then she sat down. "We are now. What's going on, baby?"

Randall filled them in on what was going on; Tania's rape and removal of her son, Talia snatching him from the Copper Mountain Alpha's house, the Council, the mole and the war party coming to Minnesota. "We need to get Tania, Bobby and Phillip somewhere safe until things are resolved with the Council. I thought about my apartment, but Talia and I have business up here first. We wanted to know if you would take them in."

"You don't have to ask, son, they're family. They are ALWAYS welcome," Brent said.

"It's more than just the three. They will be traveling with Luna Teri, my Uncle asked that she be kept safe while he deals with all this. My best friend Erica may be coming on her own later."

"I'd love to meet your family and friends, Talia. We have a huge house here, lots of space for them and not near enough pups running around."

"I'll send them to the Clarksville airport then," Randall said. "I'll give them your number and they can call when they have an arrival time. And Mom?"

"Yes honey?"

"Try to remember that Tania is only a few days out of a really bad situation, and she is trying to bond with a son that she hadn't seen since he was born. She doesn't like crowds or strange males. It would be best if she had a room just for them, and everyone is mindful of her adjustment."

"I understand. I'll go up there personally to pick them up, and we'll keep things quiet on this end."

"Thank you. Hopefully Snacks has fessed up by then or you'll have a big puppy running around the house," I said.

"That boy hasn't told her she's his mate yet?"

"Nope," Randall said. "Don't spoil it for him either, he's got to do this on his own."

"Oh, I will," she said. "He'll be eating dry kibble until he can sit at the table properly."

Randall and I laughed, it was fun thinking about my sister in a good way. It had been way too long. "Thank you for this. Randall probably told you I have a blood vow to avenge my family, and that takes priority over everything else for me, even my mate. Soon she will be avenged."

"Randall, you keep my daughter safe for me," his mom said. "I love you, and don't worry, we'll take good care of them."

"Thanks, Mom," he said. "I love you." He hung up, then took my hand. "That went pretty well. My mom gets a little excited as you can tell."

I called the pilot back and gave him the airport so he could file a flight plan. The nine-hundred-mile flight should take about three and a half hours.

They were already loaded onto the plane in the hangar by the time we arrived at the airport. "Tania," I said as I rushed onto the plane. She was sitting in one of the leather seats, a napping Phillip in the seat across from her. I hugged her, crying a little.

"You're mated!" She pulled my shirt aside, looking at the red bite mark. "Congratulations!" She hugged me again. "Where is he?"

"Talking to the Alpha," I said. "He wouldn't let me push him away."

"Good, you deserve a mate more than anyone." She was genuinely happy for me. "I wish I had what you do."

"Who knows," I said as I scratched Snacks' ears while he sat in front of Phillip. "I think you'll find your mate when you least expect it."

"I've no wolf, so no mate," she said. "It was taken from me."

"Think about something for a moment," I said. "Our mate is made to be our perfect match, both for our wolf and our human parts, right?" She nodded. "So, your mate and his wolf still have half of you they can find. Do you think he would rather find your human half that is perfect for his human half, or never find you at all?" She didn't know what to say, so I just kissed her forehead. I quickly hugged Erica goodbye, then Aunt Teri. "Help her with this," I asked her.

"Of course, she'll get all she needs. Finish your vow, Talia, then come back to us." I gave her a goodbye hug and stepped back off the plane. The pilot boarded, pulling the door up with him, and we drove out as he was starting the engines.

I looked at Randall as we drove away. "We have a plan?"

"We do. Feel like letting the Alpha Killer run amok?"

"Hell yeah, I do." I looked out the window and smiled before looking back at him. "This time I want my mate by my side."

"Let's get ready then," he said as he pulled back onto the interstate.

Ch. 27

Chairman Lewis Wolfe's POV

The private aircraft had a television on the front bulkhead, and Kendall hooked his laptop up to it. He'd already copied the contents of the jump drives onto it, and he handed them back to me. "Let's see what else he has," he said as he started opening files. They were numbered, but clearly had been edited.

They watched the story of her abduction again, this time each was taking notes. Chief Counsel Lawrence Kendall was focusing on the information needed for warrants and prosecution, Lead Enforcer, Carlos Mendez was looking for clues as to who else might have been involved. I was fighting my own guilt as I watched the story.

I hadn't been Chairman when this happened, but I had been in Tomah four years ago after this had happened. I had dismissed Tania as a runaway, and Talia as young and ill-prepared for leadership. Four years later, Tania was a shell of herself; instead of strength and confidence, she was weak and skittish. Her eyes were not bright like the photos I'd been shown, they were sad and hollowed out. My gut twisted as she told of her Beta, the man I had pushed to have mate with her sister to stabilize the Pack, had drugged her and handed her over.

There was no doubt in her identification of Alpha Justin as the man who held and raped her either. I paused the video. "Is that even possible? Can someone bring on heat in an unmated she-wolf?"

"It has been done," Carlos said. "There were some experiments done by the Mount Shasta pack a decade ago aimed at treating mated werewolf females who weren't coming into heat. They used a mix of human fertility drugs; high doses over two weeks would fool the body into starting estrus. They gave up because they could induce heat in all the females, but the only successful pregnancy was from a young female who hadn't mated another yet. There isn't a demand for fertility in the unmated."

"Why go through all that with a young, healthy female," Kendall said. "Why not just mate the girl to start her heat and kill her later?"

"Two reasons," Carlos said. "You bind yourself to her during that year, and you and your wolf suffer. What if you haven't found your true mate? Are you going to give that up for a surrogate? Go through the pain and loss of losing a mate? Could you even get rid of her after she bore you a child?"

"And the other reason," I asked.

"You're already mated," he said. "Let's assume for a moment that Alpha Justin did this. He can't screw the girl without his mate feeling it." Cheating on your mate was unheard of because there was no hiding it. The act made you uncomfortable, and your mate suffered like her insides were being burned out. "He can't mate her without putting his Luna away first. The motivation is obvious, they've been mated a long time and no heir, the Pack was getting nervous. The lack of an heir makes the Alpha vulnerable to challenge."

"And he did have sex with her," Lawrence said. "If she's telling the truth, Luna Rhoda was in on it."

"How do you hide this? It's not like the Pack can't smell her if she's pregnant, or doesn't see her that way."

"True. That's something we will have to follow up on when we get there," I said. We continued to watch as she detailed her captivity. "If she got pregnant within a month of capture, when would she have given birth?"

We did some quick calculations on a 40-week gestational period and came up with May to early June, three years ago. "Phillip's birthdate was recorded as May 20^th," Lawrence said. "Right in range."

I went to the next video, it was describing her time after her baby was taken, starving and left alone. Her wolf had healed her, then the man killed her wolf and left her as a weak human. It was a cruel fate for a born werewolf, forever missing their other half. No wonder she looked so lost. I took note of the description of the man, and nearly came out of my chair when she talked about being sold into slavery. The video ended with her picking a photo out of a lineup, identifying the Beta of the Copper Mountain pack as the one who had given her over to the humans.

Not only was this cruel, it was dangerous. Tania knew everything about our kind, including where the major Packs were located and their leaders. No wolf meant no Pack loyalty and no Alpha command. She was a loose cannon pointed at our heads.

"Thank Luna she's back with a Pack," I said. "Imagine if she had talked." There were werewolves who had their wolves killed; it was a last resort, usually after the loss of a mate. They were kept with a Pack for support and monitoring. I turned off the screen as the interview ended. "Thoughts?"

"I've only got enough for warrants on three people, and two are Alphas," Lawrence said. "Let's look at the other evidence he sent." We pulled up the statements; most of it was circumstantial, but in aggregate they looked guilty as hell. I'd seen enough by the time we were crossing Nebraska. "Lawrence, issue the warrants for the arrests of Alpha Justin Heranus and Beta Jack Meoffe of Copper Mountain and Alpha Todd Aldridge of Tomah. Send Todd's to Alpha Clark and to Carlos, he can forward it to his team leaders."

"What about Luna Rhoda?"

"Not enough evidence to show she was involved yet," Lawrence said. "If we get other evidence to show she was aware of the kidnapping or aided in it, we'll arrest her too. After we get her back from the Alpha Killer," he said.

"Not much of a chance of that," I said. "Do it."

Minutes later it was done. In an hour we would be landing. Once we had linked up with Carlos' men, we would travel to the Copper Mountain Pack and arrest their senior leadership.

It was time to clean up.

Tania's POV

Somewhere over Iowa

"Ladies, this is your pilot. We are now passing over the Quad Cities area at our cruising altitude of 14,000 feet. Flight time to Clarksville is two hours and fifty minutes, weather is expected to be good. Enjoy the free peanuts and thank you for flying with Bob." I had to laugh, the Cessna 425 we were flying was small enough he could just turn around and talk to us. I looked at the safety manual in the pocked of the seat in front of me and reviewed the exit procedures. It was a small, twin-turboprop plane with a single pilot and eight seats. It wasn't tall enough to stand up fully inside, but the seats were wide and comfortable. I'd flown a few times when I was younger, and this was way more fun. The windows were bigger, and the flight was lower and slower. I unbuckled my belt and moved across the narrow aisle, checking on my boy.

MY boy.

He opened his eyes when I put my hand over his. He looked around, confused. "Mommy?" He looked back and forth.

"I'm here, Phillip."

"NOT MY MOMMY! I WANT MOMMY!" My heart broke as tears formed in his over-tired eyes and spilled down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Phillip. Your Mommy is gone now, but I'm here. I love you too," I said. He kept crying, and as I knelt by the side, I felt overwhelmed and helpless. What the hell was I even doing? He didn't know me, I'd taken him from a mother and father who loved him and had cared for him since birth. How could this be the best thing for my boy?

I was selfish and cruel.

I moved back to my seat, sitting heavily and I buried my head in my hands and cried my eyes out. I felt fur as Snacks pushed his head in, moving between my thighs and my arms. His cold nose bumped against my cheek before his pink tongue licked my neck and jaw. "I'm a horrible person," I told him as I hugged his neck.