Book 1: Chapter 71

I sat in one of the booths in the far corner of the room. Noah and Finn were unloading the new inventory for the week and I was kicked out of helping or being in the way. Currently, I had my earbuds in my ears and I was pouring over a laptop. Getting my entire army together wasn’t an easy feat. Unlike the other Alpha Princes or even the Alpha King, I didn’t force my guys to stick to one location. If I needed them to do a task, I relegated a specific group to that area. Considering all of them were rogues, it made it easier for them to move around. It didn’t make it easy calling them all into one place again. I hadn’t done it for many years. The last time we were in Cairo.

“You sure you want everyone?” Keri was on the other end this time. She was further south working out of a local coffee shop.

Looking up, I was quiet as Noah and Finn walked past with multiple cates in hand. “I mean, we are talking hundreds of Hunters. I’m not going to leave it to chance. If they take Silas’ territory, it’s going to send a ripple through our entire species. Bad for us, good for them. That they can just do this and get away with it and there is no one stopping them.”

“So all hands on deck.”

“Exactly. I’ve already got three with in the city limits. The issue is everyone else.”

She sighed. “Well, I can get Group 9 and 1 over your way in the next few days at the very least since they were here with me. We’ll have to set up international flights for a bunch of the other guys.”

“You have my card number. Make it happen. I need them as soon as possible. It’s going to be a big shift and I don’t want the Hunters catching on because we are dragging our asses. They aren’t within the city so they aren’t going to see the influx of my guys until it’s too late.” I waited as Noah and Finn walked past and out the door to the truck waiting outside. “We need to stomp out these cockroaches now. Charles is already seeing an influx of supernaturals coming up dead. I spoke with him the other day.”

Keri snorted. “How you didn’t decide to fuck Mr. Police Chief, I will never understand. I mean that’s on a bucket list of mine.”

Rolling my eyes, I took a sip of the ice water Noah had graciously given me after I asked for a hard lemonade. “On your bucket list, not mine. Plus, I’m a little limited on what I can cross off my bucket list now. He’s taken now though.”

“Yeah, after you matched him with someone. Incorrigible, I swear. I’m not going to even dignify what you did with your brothers Gamma. Do you have no shame?”

“In my old age? Absolutely not.”

Groaning, I could image her rolling her eyes. “You’re not old.”

“I’m as old as I’m gonna get. I don’t know what else you want from me.” I clicked through a couple of different pages of battle strategies on the screen. We were screen sharing and going over different options we had. “It would be better if you headed up here early.”

“The less I’m around those two, the better. Especially with Finn pregnant and them on high alert because of you. I can’t imagine the continuous tension that is around you guys. Plus, I can still do not just your work from here but also help gather more intel.”

Wrinkling my nose, I took another sip of water. Finn came over and I minimized the screen I had up. Keri snorted on the other end of the line but I ignored her.

“Is that Keri?”

I nodded. “We were catching up with what she is doing down south right now for me.”

“Keri, don’t give her any grief.” Finn leaned in, growling into my earpiece.

I laughed as she cussed him out in very colorful words I’m sure that weren’t appropriate for the coffee shop she was sitting in.

“She said ‘fuck you’ and ‘she’s not’.”

He shook his head. “Anything I can help with? You looked a little serious.”

“No. I’m good. Thanks though. Did you guys finish unloading the crates?”

“Just about. We are going to go ahead and fill up everything before we head into town to grab some groceries for us. Is there anything you wanted?”

I shook my head. “I have the list on the fridge of what I was thinking we could grab. Outside of that I don’t think there is anything specific.”

“Alright, love.” Finn kissed my forehead and headed around to the bar where he started to open up all the cupboards and swap out kegs or slightly empty bottles of liquor.

“You still haven’t told them, have you? That’s why you’ve been pausing so often and why you keep minimizing the screen when they come over.” Keri huffed in my head. “Goddess Alpha, what the hell? They’re your Betas. They should be the ones organizing the guys together, not refilling the bar and grabbing groceries.”

I shook my head as I brought the screen back up and typed a couple notes on the side of the map. “I mean, we would still have to do that. We can’t just stop everything for however long. We still need to eat and the bar gives them something to do rather than fussing.”

“Are you going to tell them?”

“Eventually, I’ll have to. They are going to go into town and literally see the entire army mulling about and they are going be just a little curious.”

There was a long pause as I could hear Keri weighing what she wanted to say against the odds of me getting upset. “What are you going to do about Finn?”

That was the question I had been avoiding. Maybe the reason why I was avoiding telling them to begin with. Finn couldn’t shift, not this late in the pregnancy. He also couldn’t fight. The poor guy struggled to tie his own shoes and the thought of him trying to fight in his condition sent shivers up my spine. What’s worse was that I felt the same about Noah. I was worried that if I left Finn out of the fighting that Noah might get killed. Accidents happened and anyone, including Hunters, could get one good shot off and it would all be over. The thought of Finn being left behind with no one, not me and not Noah was frightening.

“You think they would go on an all expense paid babymoon if I asked them?”

Keri burst out laughing on the other end of the line. It made me smile as I typed up a few other geological choke points I’d noticed while running the edges of Silas’ territory. We needed to figure out where I was going to position my guys. They were most likely going to take over the city first before moving into Silas’ territory. That meant that they would be coming from the south and heading north. It would be better to station our army at that southern border.

While I didn’t think that Silas’ warriors couldn’t handle it, I just didn’t want to put more pressure on them than we needed to. My guys were better in every way and that wasn’t even me being full of myself. We trained hard, worked hard, played harder and they were barely a step down from Noah and Finn. With how Silas was when I fought him, I knew it didn’t bode well for his warriors.

If anything, they had home field advantage. The southern line was the easiest for my group to get to know. The east side flooded and we had no idea if a storm would come in and how to handle that. It would be better for his own guys to handle the parts of the territory we didn’t know best and were a bit harder to learn to defend.

“You could order them to go.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “I’m not that kind of Alpha, Keri. You know that.”

“Alpha…Sol…you may have to break them. They aren’t going to leave you, not this close to the end. Especially when that end is now not just you dying in your sleep but an actual battle. They aren’t going to let it go. If you aren’t going to order them to leave, you need to be prepared to get them to leave a different way.”

She was right and I hated it. Looking up at the ceiling, I tried and failed to stop the trickle of tears that fell from my eyes.

“It might be easier just to order them, Sol. They will be livid but at least it wouldn’t break you. Pushing them away by breaking them will still scar you. Hell, we can tie them up in the basement if you want. Have someone come untie them when it’s all over.”

I laughed but it came out as a choked sob. Unfortunately, the sound made Finn turn and his eyes widened. He was by my side in a second as I minimized the screen again. Slipping in the seat next to me, his arm curled around my head and he pulled me into the crook of my neck.

“What the hell, Keri? You made her fucking cry.”

Keri sighed on the other end. “No you dumb asses. You make her cry.”

I sniffled and smiled. “I’m okay Finn. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. You haven’t cried in a while. You want me to take over? I’ll kick her ass.”

“Ha! Your fat ass couldn’t even reach me in your state, stupid Beta!” Keri yelled but Finn wouldn’t be able to hear her.

I, however, laughed at her. Again, she wasn’t wrong. Finn might be strong but in his current state he wasn’t winning any battles against Keri.

“It’s fine, Finn. I did it to myself honestly. Go back to what you were doing.” I kissed his cheek and he grabbed my chin, capturing my lips with his.

“Oh. Gross. Your kissing aren’t you. Ew. I’m hanging up now. I’ll talk to you later, Alpha.”

The line clicked and I laughed against Finn’s lips. “You made her hang up.”

“Good.” His eyes leveled with me. “You sure you’re okay?”

Nodding, I patted his arm to kick him out of the seat. He huffed and scooted out before going back to the inventory swap. Finn had been super affectionate since our fuck in the shower. I think what I said finally got through to him and he saw me again for me rather than the withering plant I was. Noah was a different story. I don’t think he talked to me directly in a couple days. Ever since he slammed the door it felt like he just slammed the door on me; on us. It was hard but I did my best not to take it too personally. The feeling that he was slipping through my fingers as I slipped through theirs never went away and it tugged at my heart.

My phone started to ring again and I smiled at the caller ID. Answering it, I shut my laptop and leaned back against the booth.

“Why hello big brother.”

He chortled on the other end. “Good afternoon little sister. How are you feeling?”

“As good as I can get at this point. How can I help?”

“You mean I can’t just call my sister to say hi and see how she is going?”

I snorted. “Absolutely not. What do you want, Sil?”

He laughed and then cleared his throat. “Okay…so…”

Without hearing the rest of his sentence, I just started to laugh and shake my head. “And they call ME incorrigible.”