“Could they be spying for the vamps?” James asked.
Nick shook his head. “I don’t think so. They tend to stay away from most of the pack, and a lot of them act like they want nothing to do with us, but to be on the safe side, I have checked for scents. They’ve not been anywhere near this room,” he explained.
Frustrated, Lily sighed loudly. “So fine, we can’t move Tristen, Bonnie will survive, and those stupid wolves were just being annoying. So now what do we do?”
“He’s had his turn. Now it’s ours,” Donovan said, with a chilly grin. “I say we go in, tear apart all his little booty traps, and take him down.”
If only it were that simple, Lily thought as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“We tried something like that, and it got people killed,” Nick said, not looking impressed by Donovan’s unnerving grin.
“No,” Bill said. “We went in and got blindsided by his traps. If we go in, expecting them, then there shouldn’t be a body count. With all the wolves we have, I know quite a few are or have been military men, myself included,” he began to explain
“A military man too?” Lily asked with a slight snide sneer before she could stop herself.
“Of course, Lord Etienne liked for me to stay sharp and on top of the times. It was my idea to use Navajo during World War Two, but I let a buddy of mine, Johnston, give the brass a suggestion since they didn’t like me too much,” Bill replied, looking smug then turned back to Nick. “As I was saying, we also have wolves who like you, are law enforcement. I know a little about bomb detection, but I’m sure there is someone who knows more than I do.”
“So we find this person and then what?” James asked, leaning forward and resting his arms on his thighs. “If it takes us longer than a day, he’ll know what we up to and counter it.”
“If we focus all our efforts on one road, it should only take a few hours or the morning at worst,” Bill replied. “After that, we do what Donovan said. Daytime vampires are easy to take care of.” He said it with such absolute certainty that Lily had no doubt he had killed vampires before. It sent shivers down her spine as she wondered just how high was his body count.
James watched the small group of people who would be in charge of clearing a path to the town where the heart of Nick’s territory was. His father seemed to blend in well with the group despite the still slightly gruesome scars on his face. The eye patch he wore gave him a slightly comical villainous aspect.
To his surprise, Lily joined them. Tension fissured through him as he watched her stop next to his dad. What could she possibly want to talk to him about? Whatever she said must have pissed him off. His lip curled as he snapped something at her. She snapped something back, and James started to take a step towards them when he saw his dad curl up his fist. Lily said something to him, and an embarrassed, guilty look washed over the older wolf’s face.
After a few more shared words, and a few glances in James direction his dad had a small smile on his face and Lily walked over to him. “What was that about?” James asked, unable to curb his curiosity.
With a grin, she told him, “Just making sure your dad knows he’s an asshole.”
“Really,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then why does he looked pleased?”
“Because he’s smart enough to realize he’s an asshole?” Lily offered.
James shook his head at her. “You’re not going to tell me are you?”
“And ruin the fun? Never,” she teased then after a moment of him needeling her with his intimidating stare she rolled her eyes. “Ugh! Fine! I told him to try not to blown up. He may be a dickwad, but he’s still one of ours,” she told him then took a breath to mumble, “And he’s your dad. He shouldn’t get himself blown up before he sees the good man his son has become.” Then she scowled at him.
A large grin spread across his face. “I love you too,” he told her.
Once again she scowled at him. “Oh go stuff it,” she said, but he couldn’t feel any anger behind the words. If anything, her tone was teasing. “Look, I need to go talk to Evan. Apparently she’s still trying to go on a hunger strike to punish herself or some stupid crap like that. I’ll see you later.” Lily gave his arm a light squeeze before jogging towards the hotel.
He watched her for a minute, unable to take the grin off his face, before turning to see the team leave in two SUVs. James walked up to Nick and his daughter. “Hey runt,” James told the teen, earning the expected glare.
“Hey old man,” Wendy shot back.
“Do I really need to tell you two to behave?” Nick asked, giving them an impatient look.
“He started it,” Wendy complained.
“Oh going to cry now?” James shot back, grinning at her.
Before Wendy could say another word, Nick demanded in his alpha voice, “Enough you two! We’ve got better things to do. I want to know who’s going to town when they get back. I’m going, I assume you and Lily are going…”
“I’m going,” Wendy jumped in.
“No, you’re not,” Nick replied.
“But…”
“We don’t know what we’re getting into Wendy,” James told her. “It could end up in a very vicious, bloody fight.”
“And you’ve only been training in any but the basic self-defense for less than a year. You’re not ready for such an unpredictable situation,” Nick added.
“But…” she started again, but the smell of blood stopped any and all arguments.
They turned to see Zander, covered in blood, helping a limping Tristen. James took off in a run towards them, the alpha and his daughter close behind. “What the hell happened,” James demanded, glaring at Zander.
“H-he saved me,” Tristen said with a sniff. “Again.”
“The omegas…” Zander said, looking guilty.
“What about them?” Nick asked, his voice held an edge of caution.
“They attacked me,” Tristen answer for him. “They were going to take me to Vincent. Apparently he offered them a lot of money.”
“I told you Issac was no good,” Wendy said with a scowl.
That didn’t surprise James too much, but he couldn’t help but wonder what Zander was looking guilty about. The boy helped Tristen lean against a car. He took a slow breath then let it out slowly as if he was trying to prepare himself. “I knew that Vincent was trying to buy off the omegas. I tried to dissuade Isaac, and I didn’t say anything because I assumed the stuff they did on the full moon was it. I didn’t really think they’d do more especially after Tom died.”