Thorn Ch. 23-27

"Lexi, this is your alpha, come in Lexi. Your buddy Gemma is about to have a total breakdown so what should I tell her you are up to?"

"Mate, with my mate," Her laughter and a moan of need interrupted her communication with him, "sorry Thorn, mates, I'm with my mates."

"What the fuck is going on with you lot, you've all mated? Luna, Gem, Kate and now you?" He paused, "Did you say mates, as in plural?"

"Tyrone and Jared. You took them into the pack officially a few months ago, I met them for the first time las night. After we visited the tattoo shop they were there and smelled me.. They work with Nadiya. They insisted Marcus summon me there after scenting me in the shop. Thorn I was going to tell you, but you were busy."

"Worry less about my feelings and ring your friends, they're going to be furious you've taken this long."

"Did you say Kate had mated?" Lexi finally absorbed.

"Fuck, yeah that's not common knowledge, keep your mouth closed till you are told. Lex, it's a cluster fuck and difficult to explain, but she's good now and her mate and her are on the mission so give her a break okay?"

"Yeah I'll ring Gem soon."

"You have fifteen minutes." Thorn decided to contact the two men with her, "Jared, Tyrone, congratulations to you both on mating so well. I'll expect to see you at the lodge tomorrow with Lexi. You are now officially in the core. We will discuss what that means when you get here. Also you have about ten minutes to finish whatever you need to do because then all hell is breaking lose. Girls screaming and yelling more than you can imagine. When you can hear and think straight, start packing. See you at breakfast."

"Thank you Alpha, we'll see you in the morning."

"Alpha, no offense but there's three of us needing satisfaction can you make it thirty minutes?"

"You have twenty if you promise to never put that request to me ever again."

"Sorry, thank you Alpha Thorn, I will be there in time to cook breakfast."

"Lex will ring you in about twenty minutes, Gem you may as well put Luna on speaker phone with you when you get the call. Lucas and I will put up the privacy screen"

"Don't tease us, give us the news." Luna insisted, "Please?"

"Oh hell no. Then we'll get all the screaming before we can escape. I'll see you soon." With that Thorn pressed the button that dropped a privacy screen between front and back seats.

With the soundproofed screen not completely wolf standard Gem and Lucas wouldn't be completely oblivious to either side, Thorn himself could hear Luna and Gemma quite clearly, unless they tried to whisper, which he doubted was likely. The only one in the dark was his mate.

"Lucas, I'm checking in with Aaron and Kate. I'm not sure how up to date you are but there is something odd about this whole situation."

"Mason and Carl installed some surveillance equipment late today but found equipment belonging to someone else already onsite. Aaron said there are at least three wolves in the area."

"Well the area doesn't belong to any pack so one stray wolf I could let go, but three? That is enough to get me nervous. Add in the spy gear, I think things are about to get interesting."

"Well while you're busy I'm cranking up the stereo. It will be my only chance to blast some country music before you and Gem out vote me."

"Oh yay, country in the front, screaming girls in the back, should be a great trip," Thorn's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Aaron, Kate? You free to catch up?"

"Of course we are, Thorn is everything okay?" Kate sent back.

"Lucas is playing country music, not even the cross-over sort, think Loretta Lynn and George Strait variety. We're on our way to the lodge, long story short Luna is ready to make babies, and I'll be making my mate a wolf in the next few days. On top of that the mating thing seems to have infected your inner circle - Lexi has mated too. She is about to call the girls to tell them. Luna spent part of the day with the aunties and is being weird so something big went down and on top of that I have too many unanswered questions with regard to the mission you and Aaron are on. Other than that Kate, everything is hunky dory."

"Yeah well just to add to your troubles, Aaron and I just had a huge fight and I think he's off with one of the cheap skanks from this shit hole. I would rather listen to Lucas play his country music than the continual sound of domestic arguments we've been listening to. Finally, I should mention I have a really bad feeling something is going to go really wrong this week and I wish I could be more clear but we're going to lose a member of the pack Thorn and I can't see who and I can't see how or when."

Fuck. I'm giving you guys one more day up there and then you can start back to the lodge. The girls will be happy to see you. The surveillance equipment should pick up anything that woman has to offer. I'm not leaving you guys out there at risk."

"It's not here and it isn't us." Kate spoke quickly and off subject, "Thorn did you just tell Aaron to come back?"

"Of course not, I was going to catch up with you then go give him hell when we were finished."

"Fine, I'll go unlock the door and let him in then. But if you got him to come back I wouldn't be letting him in."

Thorn heard the door open and then a loud gasp. He heard a thud and a crash. "Kate? Kate? Aaron?"

Then the unmistakable growl of his brother "I did not look at another woman. I was trying to work out what was off about her. I only went near her to see if she was human or wolf. She smelled so strongly of her addictions it was hard to get past that. She was human but she has spent a lot of time with a wolf. I followed her. I have a lead on Luna's dad."

"And why did you have to attack me when you came in the door. I did not give you permission to kiss me, to run your hands all over me and break things."

"Shut up. I'm on a short fuse right now. Both of you sit down. Kate, does he smell of another woman?"

"No. He doesn't" she admitted.

"Then apologise to your mate. He kissed you, touched you, because you are the one he wants, he wants you to smell of him. He wants your smell on his skin. Fuck you two aren't getting any closer to sorting things out are you?"

"I apologise Aaron. I let my insecurity get the best of me," her pause was telling, "I like you kissing me too much, it's why I keep trying to stop you."

"I know you're sorry. I'm never going to cheat on you baby, I swear. I know you think I can't keep it in my pants but I've never loved anyone before. This is not the same. I also know the kissing gets to you. You give in and cling to me every time, it is the only time you touch me. The only time you drop your guard. That's why I keep doing it."

"Okay, we can talk about this when our Alpha, and your brother isn't listening."

"Good because I'm nauseous already. Now what was this lead?"

"This total junkie was doing a drug deal with a wolf. She got her supply and he didn't take any payment. Told her it would be the same deal as last time. She argued with him over the terms of the agreement. She was to find a girl, preferably a virgin and get her to him. In the past a virgin got her a three month supply. She claimed virgins were getting harder to come by and countered they were easily worth six months."

"She's trading children for drugs?"

"Yeah, it got worse. He then re-iterated two months for a boy or an 'impure' girl, he went up to five months for a virgin. She agreed and left. He got on the phone to someone he called Boss and said he would have some more for him soon but that one of his supply network was pushing for more drugs and was basically passed her use by. He ended the call saying he would dispose of her body after she brought him the next one."

"You think the boss is Luna's dad?" Kate asked.

"Nah. The guy got off the phone and rang someone else. He called her Ma'am and said he was following her orders not the bosses and that he'd been keeping an eye on the bitch but she was too far gone to worry about any more. He then said he'd be disposing of one of the traders and thought it was time to get rid of that bitch Jolene at the same time. Jolene is Luna's mother Thorn."

"Okay so where did her dad come in?" Thorn ran a hand through his hair already trying to piece things together and wondering who to call in to this mess.

"He said to this Ma'am person 'What the fuck did John see in her in the first place? He should consider himself lucky that you took him. Instead of still being a moody bastard.' You had already said Luna only knew her dad's first name."

"John." Thorn gathered himself briefly. "Lucas, Aaron has a lead on Luna's dad, the surveillance equipment isn't going to be enough though. There are more complications than the plot of Game of Thrones. Drugs, sex slaves, witches, wolves and a big mysterious nasty." Thorn quickly filled Lucas in.

"We're going to need the full core work this out and that means it's getting harder and harder to keep this from Luna, which I am not too worried about as we have an agreement in place and she's going to be a bit distracted which will help. However we're entering a very dark world, we already have Aaron and Kate in danger and neither are trained in anything like this. I want to pull them out as soon as possible and avoid putting any more of the pack in danger."

"We can get the ex-military guys there by tomorrow. I think we can count on Aaron to keep track of 'mother dearest' and the bitch selling girls for drugs, I don't really give a shit about, but we need to make sure no trade goes through. Yet we also need to track this fucker back to the people in charge and Luna's dad, John. Let's contact Nadiya, she'll have contacts and resources I'm sure, and Tyrone and Jared will be great."

"I can't see them both leaving Lex right now."

"Yeah I think you'll be surprised. They are good men and they have a real loyalty to this pack."

"Okay so Aaron watch Jolene. Kate stay safe. Tomorrow you guys will be out of there. Please keep your eyes and ears open."

"I'm not just going to sit in this flea infested motel room. I was sent here on a mission and until both Aaron and I are relieved I will continue with that mission. I expected no less from you Lucas than to assume I wasn't capable of being an asset not having a penis, but I thought you knew better Thorn."

"Kate, I took it for granted you would know what you should do. While you are doing it, be careful."

"Thorn, I don't like her being here, I would like her to leave now. I can get her to the airport and I'll just tell everyone she left me."

"You expect to get near me again this year Aaron you will zip it right now."

"Tip Aaron, never think any of the inner circle are weak. Your mate has already completed one degree, has almost completed a second. She has gifts you can only dream of. She is fit and strong. She fights like a tiger."

"Sorry Kate. I just feel sick even thinking of losing you." There was a low growl and after a silence, "What the fuck was that for?"

"You didn't like it?"

"Baby, you can kiss me like that any time any place."

"Well at least you two have made some progress finally," Thorn laughed and both Aaron and Kate growled at him, "Okay I think the girls have stopped screaming in the back seat so that's our sign to end this. We'll be in touch tomorrow."