AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How isn’t this a big deal?” Rune asked.
Cullen stood back with his arms folded, watching the show. He hadn’t said anything, and he didn’t need to—he’d called me, and that was all I’d expected him to do.
“Whatever the case,” I snapped. “I want those two found and brought to me so I can figure out who they are and why they’ve been taken. And you—” I pointed at Zen, who stiffened and puffed up his chest to look bigger. “If you start a fight like that where we can be seen again, you’ll havemeto answer to in a big way. I saw your fight miles away. What do you think will happen when the humans pick up on this shit? We have enough on our plate as it is without having to appease the humans and the fear that will erupt. Come on, man. You know how this works. Grow the fuck up, you guys are fighting like kids who don’t want to share or something.”
Zen grumbled something inaudible and walked away to find some clothes.
“Do you have any idea where to start looking?” I asked Rune.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think they’re trying to hide them with some kind of magic, but the magic is giving off some other kind of signature, and I’m going to follow that.”
“Do you think it’s dark magic?” I asked.
Zen had brought it up before, and I hated the idea that he might be right, but I had to cover all my bases.
“I think so,” Rune said, nodding slowly. “I don’t know what we’ll be able to do when we find them, but we’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“Don’t let them get away,” I said. “And don’t let them die. We need to talk to them—this is the only lead we’ll have found when it comes down to the Rogues, and we can’t afford for that to slip through our fingers, too.”
Until now, we had no information on the rogue group, and it was starting to grate my tits. I was the alpha, and somehow, I had no idea who this group was or what they were trying to do. I couldn’t find them, I couldn’t catch them when they did show their faces, and it was starting to make me look like shit to the rest of the city.
The last thing I could afford right now was to look weak. I hadn’t been given this position by birthright, I had to fight my way to it, and it would be that much harder to hold on to it. The city had already been skeptical of me when I’d stepped into the alpha position. It had taken me more than a hundred years to earn their trust, and if something went wrong like this group of assholes who wanted to take over, then I would lose the city’s trust all over again.
Something like becoming alpha out of nothing and gaining a city’s trust didn’t happen twice to the same person. I couldn’t afford to lose any of it.
I shifted and lifted myself into the air. I was more than ready to get out of here, to go home and stop thinking about everything that could go wrong and try to focus on the few things that had gone right for me lately.
When I landed on my balcony, I shifted back into human form and walked to my bedroom. I pulled on a fresh pair of pants before I walked to my bar and poured myself a shot of vodka.
I threw back the shot before I poured myself some more, feeling the alcohol burn through my veins. It took a lot for a shifter to get drunk—our metabolisms were incredibly fast, which was why we healed so fast, too—but it took the edge off, and that was all I needed right now.
I was on edge tonight—the night air felt alive on my skin, and the atmosphere was filled with a sense of foreboding.
Sleep wouldn’t happen right now. I was in a nighttime cycle thanks to the club, and it was better to be up at night.
My phone rang again.
I cursed. Wasn’t I going to get a moment’s peace?
“We found them,” Rune said over the phone without so much as a greeting.
“Yeah? What about the captors?”
“Uh…” I could almost picture Rune scratching his head. “They weren’t here.”
“What?!”
“It’s clear theywerehere, but they must have gotten the fuck out of dodge when they found out we were close. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s like they had a warning or something.”
“An inside man?” I asked.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Rune said. “To say that is to suggest we have a rat among us, but it doesn’t make sense any other way.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Where are the girls now?”
“Zen is on the way. He’s bringing them with a truck. They’re human.”
I frowned. “Human?” What would the Rogues have taken them for, then? Unless it was just to draw us out, but then, why had they run?
