Chapter 4

ETHAN

I woke up a bit early the next morning and stretched. I had a great night’s sleep which was not always possible, so I welcomed it with arms wide open.

It was common to be pulled out of our sleep because of one issue or another. Having a large pack did that to you. I would not change it for anything though. We had all shed blood and soul for what we had and would never stop. The stress and craziness were worth it.

I tossed on some jeans and a grey tee before heading downstairs to grab some much-needed coffee. My tastebuds were already watering with the smells coming from the kitchen by the time my feet hit the bottom landing.

Mrs. Tyson, the amazing woman that she was, was already dishing up some breakfast casserole that she made. An amazing night’s sleep and her cooking. Winning already.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at the island. Her cooking was the best, as was her personality. Everyone in the pack absolutely loved her.

“Good morning, Beta,” Mrs. Tyson said pleasantly with a smile that never faded over time.

I sighed, sipping my coffee, before raising an eyebrow at her. “How many more years will it take until you just call me Ethan?”

She let out a hearty laugh and set a plate in front of me. She leveled me with a look of amusement that a grandmother would give – one that showed you that they were far more stubborn than the child. I was stubborn alright, but she had me beat hands down.

“It is an honor to be called Beta. So, accept it,” she said with finality.

Mrs. Tyson had been the in-house cook for the packhouse when we were kids. Lots of families lived here then, but we never got back into that once we took over. It would have been a constant reminder of all that we lost. It was easier to push that shit away than deal with it. Not necessarily a healthy coping mechanism, but there were worse ones out there.

Squad One was spread throughout the territory, and all had their own type of packhouse to do with as they wished. They had their own versions of Betas, Gammas, and so forth. It all depended on how they wanted it set up. It was the only way that we could effectively take care of a pack this size.

I knew for a fact that Tyree’s mini packhouse in sector 2 housed his mate and her five brothers and sisters. They did not have any pups yet, but they already had a full house. Since his parents were getting older, they would be moving in before the year was up.

Johnson had a growing family, so the number of occupants in his packhouse was steadily increasing. His mate’s parents also lived with them, but his had been lost in an uprising a few years back. Johnson had both a form of Beta and Gamma. He called them ‘thing one’ and ‘thing two’ behind closed doors.

I personally enjoyed the freedom of our bachelor pad. Mrs. Tyson came by every couple of days with fresh food and leftovers for the two of us. She took over food shopping for us as well because we were typically too busy and would just get takeout if we did not have anything. That and we both loathed food shopping and could not cook to save our lives. We tried once. That was all it took to realize that we should not attempt it again lest we put our entire pack at risk.

The casserole was delicious. It had eggs, vegetables, and plenty of sausage. The food and coffee woke me up, but I groaned with the fact that I had a long day of work ahead of me. We had a meeting this morning, and I had pack duties that would not be done until the moon was up.

I hated long days. With a fucking passion.

I grabbed some files from my office before heading to the War Room for the meeting.

The War Room was one of my favorite rooms in the entire packhouse because I got to design it myself. There was enough tech in the room to make tech moguls cry jealous tears. So much could be accomplished within its walls. The entire territory could be monitored remotely from the room in the event of another emergency.

The entire squad was already present and looked at me expectantly as I entered. Thankfully, I was only ten minutes late. They could really just suck it up because I woke up in a good mood that they could not touch.

“Glad you could finally join us,” Johnson deadpanned.

Johnson’s tone said one thing, but his eyes belied his amusement. I swore he got his daily thrills in teasing everyone. If his mate had not been fated to him, I doubted a woman would come near him with his penchant for assery.

“You would be caught up as well if you had Mrs. Tyson cooking for you. That woman was sent straight from the Goddess. So, what’s the latest?” I asked, taking my seat at the table.

Xander used the computer and massive screen at the front of the table to pull up a map of our territory. It showed where the rogues had been spotted. They were always in the same three places. That was very odd behavior for rogues.

“How many attacks in total?” I asked.

Xander put up an overlay that showed eleven different rogue attacks and what area they attacked.

“Another two were spotted around midnight last night, but both was gone before they could catch them. I don’t get why these three spots though. We have plenty of territory, so why aren’t they going anywhere else?” Xander asked.

None of us had the answer. I wished we did because this was getting very fucking frustrating. The rogues would surely venture around the boundary lines if they were checking our defenses. There had to be some connection that we were failing to see. That was almost worse because this had to get sorted out.

I flipped through papers in the black folder I grabbed from my office and handed Xander the findings. He scoffed when he read through what they provided me.

“The Blacktree pack doctor was an absolute imbecile, so the autopsy was inconclusive. However, I hacked into their servers and ran another analysis of my own. The rogues were dosed with something we haven’t seen before. I’d venture to guess that it gave them the edge to get so close to the territory. They never breeched our borders, but they had to move like the wind to not be seen until they got that close. There is a .03 second delay in our sensors, so they had to be really fucking fast. The substance was long gone before I could analyze it, but all the rogues along the Blacktree territory had the same findings,” I explained.

I passed around copies of the papers for each of their records. Rogues were a sore spot for all of us. The fact that we could not figure out their motivation was weighing on all of us. Rogues typically fought for food, shelter, or because they had gone feral and relied on animalistic instinct. This all just seemed a little too perfect for it to be the latter.

Eric looked carefully at the map before turning his attention back to us. “What do we do to prevent them from getting through? Should we double up patrols?”

Xander ran his hand through his hair and nodded. Poor bastard looked like he had not slept that well. We all worked hard, but Xander worked himself a little too hard. He preferred to do things so that we could all have more time off. None of us agreed with that, but he still did it. Trying to argue with him or make him see reason was a feat in and of itself. Nobody could really reason with the guy.

“That’s a fair idea. Let’s double the patrols in those areas and push the boundary line out by five miles. It’s neutral territory, so we’re allowed to patrol it as well.”

We all sat around and discussed some more details on the situation with no finality as we still could not figure out a damn reason why they would act so out of the norm. Ultimately, we broke away once we came to that conclusion.

Kurtis offered to go scour the woods for information that might help. We were not sure if he would find anything at all, but it was still worth a look.

After a hot shower and another cup of coffee, I made my way back down to the War Room. Nobody else was there, and for that I was thankful.

There was something nagging at me, but I was not sure what it was. Sometimes it was just easier to work in peace. I pulled up every map and file we had on the rogue issue. I saw the three areas that were affected, but they seemed too perfectly placed, and that was not a rogue’s M.O. at all.

There was nothing at those locations. So, why there? It was almost as if they were looking for or waiting for something.

My phone vibrated on the desk, and I welcomed the brief break from the rogue’s insanity. I smiled when I saw it was Emma.  

Emma – “Regarding the paper. Are you sure that you still want to help?”

Ethan – “Why wouldn’t I?”

Emma – “Because you are probably a busy guy who does busy guy things.”

I could not help but laugh. I got the feeling that she thought people only did things out of obligation. I never would have offered if I was not positive about wanting to help her.

I never did things out of obligation. Sure, I took care of my pack but not out of obligation. It was out of honor and love. Blood Moon Betas always came from my family, so I was groomed for this. It was my legacy just as it had been for my father and his father before him.

Ethan – “I’m doing busy guy things right now, but I’m stuck. Want to help?”

Xander would skin me alive and let his wolf, Kai, eat my entrails if he knew I showed anything top-secret to someone not on the squad. We had strict rules on sharing confidential information. Simply, we did not.

To be honest, I was not sure why I had the urge to get her help, but it was too late to go back now.

I went to the door and locked it. There was a keypad to enter, but we made sure to place a lock on the inside in case we needed to make sure nobody could get in. It was a safety precaution put in place for any future attacks. It was a safe room which had remote access to the entire territory. We designed it that way on purpose.

Emma – “Not sure how much help I would be, but let’s do it.”

I sent Emma a video request because it was something she would have to see. She answered immediately, and I was struck again with her eyes. They were fucking gorgeous and still had the rings. It was her default setting, but I had never heard of it happening before. I supposed there was a first time for everything.

She sat on her bed with a superhero t-shirt that hung off her shoulders. I saw a few scars along her collarbone. Perhaps that was from the wolfsbane incidents she mentioned. Her hair was braided to the side. She was the picture of ease.

“Hey, stranger,” she greeted warmly, making me smile.

“Hey to you too. You’re not busy, are you?” I asked, hoping that she was not.

She shook her head and waved her hand in the air. “For you, I got time. What’s up?”

Her words boosted my ego a bit after it had been so carelessly deflated yesterday when she remained unaffected by my presence.

“This is literally top-secret, so can I trust you with this?” I asked her seriously.

I was about to break multiple rules of our pack. The same rules that caused swift and severe punishment. I never would had considered doing this before I met her, but now it felt like I needed to. I briefly wondered if Xander would take that as a reasonable excuse if he ever found out about it. Somehow, I highly doubted that.

She narrowed her eyes at me, fixing me with a hard stare.

“Of course, you can. You never have to worry about me betraying your trust. I’m not that kind of person,” she promised.

That was all I needed to hear because I definitely believed her. It was odd seeing as how we met yesterday, but I did. I was not one to trust someone too quickly either. Emma was just different for some reason.

“We’ve been having a bit of a rogue situation here, but we can’t figure out why it’s happening or what the connection is. There’s something strange about the entire situation. What do you know about rogues?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment and got up off her bed. She went to her desk and set the phone down.

I got a fairly good view of her room. It was a stark contrast to what small part of her house I saw yesterday. This room showed a story of who she was. Her room was painted in a silver color that was very reminiscent of the rings around her eyes. It was the same color of Kai’s eyes. Perhaps he could convince Xander not to kill me over this since Kai and Emma had similar eyes. Yeah, that was a stretch even to me.

There were some photographs hanging in frames around her room. It was easy to guess who the little blonde girl was once I saw her eyes. She was grinning up at a dark-haired man who must had been her father. They seemed really happy.

It was interesting to note that even pup Emma had the same rings around her eyes. Why was that? It was not a human trait, so that meant it had to do with being a shifter. How could she have that connection with her wolf even as a pup before she was capable of having a wolf yet?

Xander’s was the only case that I came across with early shifts. He shifted at twelve instead of thirteen.

One picture showed a toddler Emma, another showed her probably around six or seven, and she still had the same eyes. Mark another win in the interesting column for Emma. That column was adding up quickly.

Next to her bed, there was a large bookshelf that was filled to the brim with books. There had to be hundreds of them. Xander would be in dork heaven right now.

Some of the books on the top shelf looked very old. She stood on her tiptoes reaching for one on that shelf. It strained her shorts, and I thoroughly enjoyed the view. Huh, there were even more scars on her legs. Perhaps she was a warrior in her pack. She surely had the attitude and fearlessness for it.

She thumbed through the books until she got to a red leatherbound one. She pulled it off the shelf and brought it over to the desk, opening it, and looking for the proper page before placing her finger down.

She took a seat and turned her attention back to me.