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“How can I help you?”
The guy stands in front of me with the female tucked behind him. A protective move. “The name's Thorn, a council representative.” The council. How the hell did they find out what was going on? Then, the woman tucked behind Thorn steps out and introduces herself.
“Hi, I’m Paige! You must be Eli.”
“Paige. Quinn’s friend?” My shoulders relax slightly. If this is Quinn’s friend, then Quinn contacted her for some reason.
“Yeah! Look, I know this seems kinda odd, showing up all men in black like but I promise I am only following my best friend's stupid orders. At least I’m mostly following orders, I’m not really good at following rules to the letter so…”
“Mostly?”
“Yeah, Paige, why don’t you explain to the Alpha what the plan was SUPPOSED to be,” Thorn says, staring down the woman.
“Jeez Thorn, no need to be so crusty. You know it wouldn’t kill you to smile once in a while. ANYWAYS, Quinn called me earlier today and told me to get a hold of the council. She had talked to Jake, recording their whole conversation, because my girl is brilliant.” I can't help but smirk at that, because she is brilliant, though I don’t like that she had to go behind my back to pull all this off. That woman is getting a stern talking to, when I get to her. “She said to take the recording and give it to the council because she knew I had a contact there, and she knew that if the council knew what Jake was going to do, they were more likely to step in and squash that jackass.”
“I’m guessing this is your contact?”
“Oh, right! This is my brother, Thorn. Wait, you knew that. Damn, this whole situation has got me flustered and anxious.”
Thorn crosses his arms and looks at his sister. I didn’t realize they were siblings but now that I’m looking at them I can see the resemblance.
“Yes, she said to give the council the recording and let them deal with it. She didn’t say you would keep the recording as a bargaining chip to come all the way out here to ‘help.’”
“Well, you weren’t gonna let me come unless I did that, so I don’t regret my decision. Besides, Quinn is my best friend, she would literally take a bullet for me which means when she does something stupid I am bound by the best friend's code to show up and save her then lecture her into the ground.” She crosses her arms and meets his stare. Paige is a feisty thing, no wonder Quinn likes her so much.
“As wonderful as it is to see this sibling disagreement unfold in front of my whole pack, I want to get my mate back, so unless you have anything useful, we are heading over to Clearwater pack to interrogate and find her location.”
Thorn finally turns to address me, his annoyance for his sister wiped from his face and a cold mask of business back in place.
“Quinn forwarded the address Jake wanted her to meet at, and after checking her cell location, she hasn’t moved from that address. It’s off-pack land and in an isolated wooded area. The area doesn’t seem to be more than a single building with lots of land to get lost in, but it is the perfect place to hide out if you don’t know where to look.” He pulls out his phone and shows me a map of the location. Just as he said, digital imaging shows an isolated barn in the woods.
“Can you forward that to me?”
“Sure. My team was planning on entering the private road and parking, some shifting to sneak around behind the building. It seems likely that they have Quinn in the barn. We’ve been watching the area for the past couple of hours, and it looks like more vehicles with shifters have shown up. We could have a bit of a fight on our hands. ”
After getting a brief summary of what Thorn knows and then sharing what we know, which isn't much, we load up. Dominic and I ride together with a couple of other warriors in the back. The ride is tense; my stomach is in knots while my body prepares for a fight. Jake is a dead man; I don’t care if the council is here, he doesn’t deserve to be alive with the torment he has caused Quinn. From what I’ve heard, he isn’t a good Alpha, abusing his pack and striving for power he doesn’t deserve.
I can’t help but think about everything Quinn has given me, from losing her to finding her again. She has given me a daughter and has brought joy back into my life, which was depressing and lackluster at best. I never told her I love her…she needs to know how much I love her. Once I get her back, I won’t stop telling her how much I love her. It just seems my regrets keep piling up but I won’t let that stop me from showing her for the rest of our lives how much I love her.
“We are ten minutes out,” Dominic says. I nod my head, my wolf restless to get our mate back. A call comes through the SUV; it’s Jim.
“Jim.”
“Eli, just wanted to let you know we found the leak in our pack.”
“You did? Who was it?”
“It turned out to be Amber.”
“Amber! What the hell. Why would she be helping Jake?”
“Looks like she felt slighted by you. She was pissed you didn’t pick her to be your mate. She is also a little bit unstable. She hasn’t stopped rambling about how you guys were in love and that Quinn is just a placeholder until you realize your mistake. Seriously I’m not sure she is all there. ”
A frustrated groan escapes my mouth. “Unbelievable. Expel her from the pack. I don’t want anyone so insecure and completely nuts walking around causing dissent in our pack. She was rightfully turned down and obviously can’t be trusted. ”
“I agree. We’ll take care of it. Any update?”
“We’re almost there, will know more soon.”
