Saved By The Alpha
Chapter 9

Sometime after dinner, Lexi called Remus back. Part of me wanted to hang over his shoulder and listen in, but I’d been raised with some semblance of manners. Instead, I offered to read Bella a bedtime story while Iris cleaned up after dinner. By the time I came back downstairs, Remus was just hanging up.

“What’s going on?” I asked, striding over. Remus looked positively murderous.

“Lexi’s found a location for us. The facial recognition software came up with a hit rather quickly. They appear to have deleted all of their social media accounts, but Lexi was able to dig up some records. Their aliases are ‘Blaze Greene’ and ‘Axel Tuff’. Blaze’s real name is Linus Sharp though. He was previously a member of the Black Rock Pack before his family moved to Oklahoma while Marnet was still alpha. Lexi also confirmed that ‘Axel’ is indeed Derrick.” He rolled his eyes dramatically, and I couldn’t help but snort.

“Blaze ‘n Axel? Really?” Had they renamed themselves, or had they asked teenagers to do it?

Well, they might be teenagers, by the looks of them.

“Yes, really,” Remus spit out, clearly not as amused as I was. “She’s found a location for us. They’re renting an apartment at The Grove on Sycamore Street.”

“Well, we should go. Tonight.” I nodded toward the door. “We know we’re on a countdown since Iris and Bella managed to escape — we just don’t know when the clock will strike zero, and they’ll disappear under our noses.” I paused. “And it should be us, not Lexi or any of her people. We don’t want to show that much of our hand. It won’t seem as weird if the pack alpha is looking into some weird shit in his own pack, you know?”

Remus’ expression went pinched for a minute, and then he nodded. “You’re right,” he said, baring his teeth. “Just let me call Luna and let her know I’ll be home late.”

“Of course,” I replied, watching as he stepped back outside. Luna had been over for a few hours earlier in the day, allowing Iris and I to work together after the meeting, but she’d gone home before dinner to tend to her children.

While he talked to his mate, I went back into the kitchen. Iris dried her hands as she made a face at me. “Heading out?” she asked, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

I winced. “Yes,” I replied, aware she likely wanted in too. We just couldn’t leave Bella alone. “I’ll leave Jaxon and Clay on watch here.”

She rolled her eyes and stepped over. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “Just be careful, okay? You don’t know if those two are run-of-the-mill a*sh0les or inducted members of the Raven Brothers. They never said a word to me.”

I paused, almost balking, before I nodded. She’s just concerned — and she probably should be. So far, she’s the only one who’s faced these two. “I’ll be careful. I won’t be alone, either.”

Iris hummed, glancing toward the back door. “I wouldn’t let you go alone,” she replied, raising a brow. She was leaning up to k!ss my cheek as Remus stepped back inside. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, you two,” she said, giving me one last pat on the shoulder before she started walking toward the stairs, likely to check on how Bella was doing.

I caught myself staring at her backside as she left and gave myself a little shake, glancing back at Remus. Fortunately, he seemed too caught up in the moment to notice.

“Let’s see what these two leeches have to say for themselves,” he growled, heading out the front door.

When we pulledup to the apartment complex, I was surprised to see how nice The Grove was. Remus must have noticed the shock on my face and snorted. “What? You expected a dive?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know — wouldn’t you try to hide somewhere inconspicuous if you were working with a secret, murderous organization?” I asked.

Remus snorted. “While there is something to be said for hiding in plain sight, I do think this is specifically poor planning, yes.” He made an expression somewhere between a smile and a snarl. “But we’ve already determined these two aren’t exactly forward thinkers. Besides, the owner of this facility is Adam Shepard, a member of Silver Streak. He makes exceptions for other shifters. He often gives them lower rates if they’re down on their luck. I imagine Axel and Blaze took advantage of that,” he rumbled, saying their false names as if they were rancid.

I grunted and let myself out of the car. “Did she give you an apartment number?”

“Yes. Building #2, Apartment #3B,” he recited, already striding toward the manager’s wing. “All the buildings are locked, of course, but given that Adam is a Silver Streak wolf and one in good standing, I can’t imagine that will be much of an issue.”

Remus was certainly right about that. Adam took one look at his alpha’s face and didn’t ask a single question, simply answering Remus’ queries and handing him a master key. Once he’d confirmed that the location Lexi had given him was correct, we set off across the parking lot. I almost had to jog to keep up with my half-brother, and he was barely taller than I was.

Frankly, I hadn’t seen this sort of quiet fury on him before — but then, I couldn’t blame him. I was ready to hang my Uncle Gage from the rafters for his attempted coup, but he hadn’t been selling out members of Longbow for freakish science experiments. He hadn’t been torturing children. I couldn’t even imagine what Remus was thinking right now.

Once we got inside and went upstairs to the room, Remus rapped his knuckles against the door. No one answered. I wasn’t surprised. He knocked again and stepped back, reaching into his pocket for the master key when it actually did open.

Derrick, the one that Remus had noted was a Silver Streak wolf, stood in the doorway, leaning lazily against the door frame. He didn’t look concerned in the least. “Mr. Silverstreak,” he said, dipping his head as if he were just a normal pack member greeting his alpha. “What can I do for you?”

“I need to speak to you and your roommate,” Remus rumbled, schooling his face to a careful neutral.

“Sure,” the younger man said, taking a step back to let us inside. “Hey, Blaze, come out here a second!” he called.

I didn’t roll my eyes, but it was close. This was Remus’ pack, and I was here to play support, not take the show over.

“Over here,” another voice called. We were led into a living room where the other man Iris had identified was lazing on the couch. He gave us a casual wave. “Friends of yours?”

“This is my pack alpha, Remus Silverstreak.” Derrick gave us another relaxed smile. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes a second time. “He just wanted to chat.”

Remus bared his teeth. “Enough with the masquerade. You both know why I’m here,” he rumbled. I could sense his irritation from where I stood, his alpha presence slowly taking up the space.

To their credit, neither man shrunk. Derrick simply looked confused, looking at his roommate and back to his alpha. “I really don’t,” he said, shaking his head.

Linus sat up straight, shrugging his shoulders. “What are you talking about, man?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “Are you sure you have the right apartment?”

Remus snorted. “I’m very sure I have the right people, Linus,” he replied coldly, his eyes dark. “I’m here to discuss your association with Project Night Moon.”

Linus didn’t flinch. “Project what?”

Red tinted the corner of my half-brother’s eyes. “Stop it. You’re only embarrassing yourselves with the naivete act.”

I rolled my eyes, quickly losing my patience with the situation. “We know who you are, Derrick,” I growled, eyeing the other man. “There’s no use pretending.”

“We know you were hanging out with both Ashley Sanders and Hannah Locke — two members of the Silver Streak Pack — my pack — who have gone missing without a trace.”

Derrick shrugged. “Yeah, and? I hang out with lots of girls. That’s not a crime. I’m a member of Silver Streak too. Of course I hang out with other Silver Streak wolves.”

Remus snarled. “What did you do with them?” he demanded.

Linus finally made a face, something defiant in his expression. “There’s nothing you can do for them,” he growled, no longer so nonchalant. “Project Night Moon is going to change how humans view shifters. It’s going to change the world. We won’t have to f*****g cower underground like rats anymore.”

“Yeah,” Derrick said, nodding firmly. Once Linus dropped the act, so did he. “We don’t need humans to think they’re powerful. We don’t need to hide from them anymore. They’re the ones who should be hiding from us.”

Remus narrowed his eyes. “If any human caught wind of what you two were doing, you’d be hunted down. They’d do the same with any wolf. The secrecy is necessary — they vastly outnumber us.”

“A man is weak,” Linus snapped. “The whole species is weak. One wolf is worth ten humans. No, twenty!” He glowered at Remus. “You’re a f*****g coward. A waste of an alpha.”

I growled at him. “You’re a traitor,” I hissed. “You fed these humans your own packmates, and for what? Project Night Moon is going down, and you with it.”

Derrick snorted, shaking his head as he folded his arms over his chest. “Project Night Moon has been around for years. Decades. It’s older than you, even. You’ll see things the right way soon, though. You’ll see we were right all along. Maybe you’ll even join the Raven Brothers.”

Remus bared his teeth. “I absolutely will not,” he replied. “Unlike you, I have morals. I will not allow Project Night Moon to continue operating, much less in my territory. I will end this if it’s the last thing I do.”

“You won’t,” Linus said gravely. “You can’t. You can’t stop a machine already in motion. There’s nothing you can do because you’ve already lost. Wolves like you lost years ago. You’ll wish for death before this is over.”

“The uprising is coming,” Derrick added, gritting his jaw. “We aren’t the only ones. It’s so much bigger than you know. You’ll regret it — you’ll regret everything.”

Remus shook his head. We were clearly getting nowhere. “You—”

Before he could finish, Derrick convulsed, j3rking wildly before he hit the floor with a heavy thump. Remus and I both raced forward. I crouched down to push him over onto his back, but he continued to tremble. His eyes flickered wildly as a b***d-tinged foam dripped from his l!ps. I j3rked my hands back. “What the hell?”

When I looked up, I realized Linus had slumped sideways on the couch too, his eyes staring forward while a similar foam bubbled up from his mouth. I quickly got to my feet.

Remus swore under his breath. “They must have had an implant in one of their teeth in the event they were caught.”

“That’s some Cold War shit,” I hissed, staring at the fresh corpses. “I didn’t think cyanide was powerful enough to kill a werewolf in a dose like that, though.”

Remus smiled grimly. “It is if you mix it with colloidal silver,” he replied.

I wondered how exactly he knew that, but I sensed this wasn’t the time to ask. “Now what?” I hissed, leaning back down to shake Derrick’s shoulder. His head lolled to one side — I knew without a doubt that he was gone.

“Do a sweep of the apartment,” the other alpha said, already starting to pull open drawers and paw through the mail on the counter. “See if we can replace anything of meaning.”

Five minutes later, we’d already turned over every stone in the residence. The pair of men had few possessions. In fact, they barely had any clothing in their drawers, much less anything indicating their association with Project Night Moon.

I swore under my breath as we met back at the front door. “Unless we can raise the dead, I don’t think there’s anything else of value here.”

“There’s nothing else we can do,” Remus confirmed, already heading out the apartment door.

“F**k,” I snapped, following after him. I slammed the door behind us. I couldn’t help myself. “The best lead to Dr. Brenner we had, and it’s a dead end. A literal dead end. We cannot catch a single break!”

“So it seems,” Remus agreed, leading us back to the car. He pulled out his phone once we were inside, tapping out a quick text.

I stared out into the parking lot, up at the building we’d just left. The clock was still ticking. I was certain Project Night Moon and their agents hadn’t stopped looking for Iris and Bella yet. We couldn’t slow down. If we didn’t stay one step ahead, it would be those two who’d pay the price.

As Remus pocketed his phone, he reached across the front seat and gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. “We will figure this out, Eli. We aren’t going to be thrown off by a few roadblocks,” he said, retracting his hand to start the car. “We will shut down Project Night Moon. There will be no more victims, and we won’t let them anywhere near Iris or Bella. Period.”

I said nothing, staring out the window as Remus pulled out onto the street. Iris. Now I had to go back to the safe house and report yet another failure to her.

Great.