CHAPTER 74

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
“Are you out of your mind?” He questioned after a few seconds, breaking the deafening silence that had befallen the area around us.

“For the past three days, yeah but now, I’m back and I’m not letting you be the end of my pack because of your sick obsession with Nadia. Go find someone else to do your dirty work for you,” I said, standing firm by my decision.

“There you go again, bitching like the little pussy you’ve always been,” Well, that hurt but he was only getting started,” What? You wanted me to act surprised by this change of mind? Your sisters always had more balls than you. She would have made a great Alpha but your mother was so insistent and lucky for you, I had to leave the town for my company,” he poked my chest,” Maybe this pack needs the real Alpha back,”

“Well, unfortunately, that man you call a real Alpha, which lets be honest is just a cover for you being a mindless murderer, may have to take a step back and let me do my job. Your work is done here. Actually, your work has been done for a couple of years now. Get back to that company you love so much and let me do my work, which actually involves keeping both the pride of the pack and its members alive,” I pushed passed him. I took a minute to look up at the house in front of me, swallowing down. The last time I had been here hadn’t ended well in my part and now that she was supposedly my mate, I was even more confused. My gaze moved from the door to the window, hands shoved inside my pockets.

“So this is about her,” My father’s voice infiltrated my mind as he edged near to where I stood.

“Get out of town, Dad,”

“Are you really that infatuated with that woman that you willingly bring shame to your title as the Alpha of the most powerful pack in town? The blood your ancestors and every Alpha before you had to shed to make it what it is today and you are willing to make it go to waste over some…woman who happens to be a threat to your pack?”

I grabbed the collar of his shirt, glaring at him while trying not to be prey of my own emotions, knowing there were members of my pack that were actually watching my every move,” Get out of town, Dad. You are doing more harm that good and if you really were a great Alpha before, then you’d know that at this point, keeping the pack alive is really more important than your obsession Nadia. Whatever threat you think she is, I doubt she is worse than the killer we have in our hands,”

He pushed my hands away, easily disentangling them from his collar, ”Nadia is way more of a threat than this killer is,” he turned to the members of the pack who were silently following up on the conversation with keen interest,” I know you’ve all heard about Nadia and how she not only, put a house on fire where her blood brother perished but also how she has got magic in her veins that makes her a weapon against our kind. Do you really think we should take a step back and watch as she wipes the town of our entire existence?”

He had a great hook line, admittedly enough but I was not going to let him win, at least not when our pack was not the only one going to suffer at the end from this.

“The other packs were attacked about one and half hours ago and they each lost seven of their members,” I saw the fear return in their eyes,” Whoever this assassin is, they must seem pretty pissed that Nadia is under attack from my pack and so they are taking out the wolves. So at this point, who do you think is the weapon that could end the wolves in town? Nadia, a woman who has never laid a hand on any wolf as we know or…” I trailed off, letting my gaze linger over the sentinels,” the assassin who already had a body count of more than fifty wolves in town in a matter of days?”

They all remained motionless until Jaden, took a step forward, his eyes briefly meeting mine before he moved on to my father,” Mr. White, growing up, I both respected and admired the Alpha you were but I have to agree with our currently Alpha. The members haven’t had a decent amount of sleep or food for three days straight. We all have families, jobs and friends outside being the members of this pack. If I die today, who would be the insider wolf doctor in the hospital? Who would be with my friends from work? Who is going to tell my patients that I won’t be able to take care of them anymore because I’m no longer alive,” he looked at the other members briefly before resuming his speech,” Yes, we’ve heard the rumors about Nadia but if I’m being honest. I haven’t seen or heard her harm a single soul, whether human or not, since she came in town. If she is really the threat you claim she is, then maybe once we actually solve the mystery of the person actually killing us, we’d look into it,”

The other members grunted in agreement. Dad turned to me, a chuckle of disbelief leaving his lips.

“You are going to regret this, son,” He marched off to his car, walking away.

After he drove off, I let out a breath of relief. My eyes got drawn to the house again, wondering if she could hear me beyond the barrier. Was she perhaps looking at me right now? Did she hear how I defended her?

“I really hope how taking your side was worth it,” Jaden walked over as the other sentinels quickly scattered off.

“You know I only do what’s best for the pack,”

“Right. Like abandoning us for three fucking days and leaving us to the mercy of your old man,” he snapped but then quickly switched up his tone to a much more calm one,” Coffee?”

I glanced one last time at the house, grunting in response as we walked to my car. All the way, I remained quiet, lost in my own sea of thoughts. We dropped into a coffee shop, my sensitive nose picking up a few wolf scents from the other packs. They sent glares my away and as much as I wanted to think they were just being petty; I knew they were rightful in getting displeased with me.

“Ignore them,” Jaden said as we sat down.

For a while we exchanged no word between us and soon enough our orders arrived.

“Ah! After the last three days, I really needed this. Can you imagine having to stay out all day and night, watching just one house with nothing to eat but a pizza, water and some orange juice? I worked hard my entire life and now that I’m earning enough money to escape my poor childhood Carson pushes me right back into it?” he chuckled, almost certainly in amusement.

“I’m sorry,”

“Sorry won’t fix anything,” he leaned forward, his voice lowered,” Let’s hope that that you actually know what you are doing,”

“Of course, I know what I’m doing, Jaden,”

“Really? It kind of looks to me like this is more about protecting Nadia than the pack,”

“I’m not protecting Nadia. She wants nothing to do with me, remember?” I pointed realizing a deep breath,” Look, I’m just trying to protect what is left of my pack. My father led the attack on the hunters and in the process, Nadia lost her family and friends. Someone seemed to have gotten in his head, making him believe Nadia is some weapon and have you seen her attack anyone since she came here?”

“Not yet,” he straightened,” All I’m saying is that as much as I respect you as my Alpha, if any harm were to befall the pack because of Nadia, then their blood is going to be on your hands. You’ll carry that for the rest of your life,”

I said nothing in response, grabbing my cup of coffee, sipping it delicately. My phone ringing almost had me dropping the cup in surprise.

“Ethan?”

“So you are finally picking calls. Well, good because the killer has struck again and the twelve pack members your father had sentry at the town were found dead five minutes ago. I’m heading there and maybe you should stick your head out of your ass and follow me,” he said, cutting off the call.

“Twelve men?” Jaden muttered, his face woven in the same shock I felt running through my veins. That was a huge number and all because of my father’s obsession with Nadia. I stood up, feeling my body trembling in rage.

“Go back to the pack house, give a detailed report to Danny and let him be in charge. He is the Beta-in-training anyway,” I instructed, walking out towards my car.

I need to find this killer and kill them with my bare hands.