Killing In The Name

Oliver

It was 7 am, and my office was filled with my Beta, Gamma, and Luna. She didn’t know, but I didn’t care. Her presence alone created a completion to the leadership I had never known. This pack needed her as much as I did, and as much as I wanted to fiercely protect her from the darker sides of this world, the Moon Goddess had carefully selected her to help lead us through it for a reason.

Adair and I were painfully aware of how carefully Lya had been avoiding us since waking up in her bed after the night of the full moon. But, oddly enough, Adair was not concerned, and I just followed his lead. I knew Adair and Tala had forged ahead on some level of the mate bond, just waiting for their human counterparts to catch up, and I couldn’t help but feel as if he had some information he was withholding from me.

Keeping Lya tightly tucked under my arm, however, was proving to be a distraction, especially when the minute traces of the bond were still so new. Fingers snapping in my face pulled my mind back to the room and the task at hand.

“If you are going to pull me out of bed at this ungodly hour with this little sleep, you are going to pay attention,” Lya snapped at me.

I glanced around sheepishly, catching both Cody and Trevor on the monitor chuckling. Gregory, however, maintained his stony expression. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

“As I was saying, Lu-Lya,” Cody repeated, “if we can hack into the security footage surrounding places Trevor frequents, we can identify whether or not they are actually keeping tabs on him. It’s a worthwhile assumption that they did actually follow you to his apartment, and the disappearance of their son caused enough stir for them to come back here, but we don’t even know who to look out for.”

Lya looked a bit puzzled by this request. “Don’t you have access to facial recognition software set up for things like that?” she asked.

Cody nodded in confirmation. “We just need to know who we need to be identifying, so we have to get into their footage and pull the faces first.”

“But I have them all on social media, and their profile pictures have their faces. Why go through who knows how many hours of footage to maybe identify someone?”

I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Us werewolves don’t really do the social media thing,” I supplied.

Lya sighed absently. “Well, maybe we should save some time and take advantage of the fact that I did.”

“We can get you set up with the Cyber guy later today to get as many faces as possible,” Cody suggested. “Trevor, has anything related popped up there?”

Trevor chewed on his nail - a habit he had had since he was a kid. “Nothing remarkable. Her boss asked about her when he stopped by for a beer, but that was it.”

Lya’s head snapped up, glaring into the screen. “He?”

“Yeah, the vet you worked for,” he confirmed.

“The vet I worked for was a woman.”

I let out a harsh breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “So we have at least one probable suspect with boots on the ground.”

“Maybe they’ll think Ted and I just went on a vacation and they’ll leave,” Lya suggested quietly.

Cody rolled his eyes. “Lya, I think this is a good indication that you need to start training.”

“No,” I said through gritted teeth. “Absolutely not. The doctor said two weeks until that, and it’s barely been one.”

Cody gave me a hard stare, but elected against pressing the issue. For that, I was thankful. I was keeping Lya as far away from this mess as I could, which left no reason for her to go against doctor’s orders and potentially injure herself by starting training early.

Aside from pleasantries at the beginning of the meeting, Gregory had remained silent, which was par for the course. It wasn’t rare for him to go entire meetings without saying a word. For a long time, when he was newly appointed as my father’s beta, I believed it was because he wasn’t committed enough to the protection of the pack, but the more my father involved me, the easier it was for me to notice that his gears were turning all the while he was listening, only speaking if his input was really necessary. So, when he lifted his head and looked up from his hands, all eyes were on him as we waited for the Beta to speak.

“You all were either not old enough to truly understand, or not a part of this pack yet,” he said, voice low, “but the girl’s ability to accidentally accomplish what our previous Alpha and Beta worked and planned so hard for would do them proud.” My eyes snapped up to Gregory, lips pursed in a hard line. “Alpha, I know how opposed you were then, and how opposed you are now. But, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, kids.”

With that, Gregory stood and walked out of the office, closing the door quietly behind him. All our eyes remained locked on the closed door. The sentiment was clear - a large group of hunters that werewolves across the continent had been vying to take down for decades was now gathered in a place that we could strike. Even if we weren’t happy with the timing or the location, we needed to seize the opportunity to bring the fight to them before they brought it to us. It was, unfortunately, the exact thing Trevor had set out to recreate, and I had so adamantly insisted we change course. We would be fools to let them slip through our fingers now.

Trevor was the first to break the palpable silence with a wry chuckle.

“I gotta get that guy to teach me how to make an exit before he steps down.”