“That’s right,” he told her with a large grin and she shook her head at him.
James watched her with horrified wonder as she literally finished off all the bacon. “You… ate… all of it? Where did it all go? There is no way it could have gone all to your stomach!”
“One of Life’s little mysteries,” she stated. “Uhm James, aren’t you like super late for work?”
“It’s Saturday and today I wasn’t scheduled to work,” he replied.
“Good then you can take me to my parents’ house now. I want to see how A. J. is doing,” she told him, getting up and placing her plate in the sink.
“Yes ma’am,” he said getting up as well. He grabbed the keys to his truck and held the door open for her. “After you,” he told her with a hint of a smile and she shook her head at him. The drive to the former alpha’s house only lasted fifteen minutes, but the anxious look on Lily’s face made it seem as if it had been fifteen hours. James tried to keep a grin off his face, he didn’t want to get her riled up, but the truth was he liked seeing this side of her.
Lily nearly leaped from the car when he had turned the engine off at her parent’s house. “Thanks, see ya, James,” she called out as she ran towards the house, up the stairs, and inside. He couldn’t help but chuckle as he watched her then went into the house himself. He walked past the kitchen where Lily was interrogating Sandy about A. J.’s night in search for Tony or the alpha’s father.
“Ah there you are James,” Andrew said as James walked into the living room. “Follow me, Tony’s called a little meeting at the pack house,” he explained with a wave of his hand and abruptly leaving the living room.
“Who’s all attending and why there?” James asked as he followed Andrew out of the house into his sleek black BMW. Usually, they only do the meetings there when the whole pack is involved.
“You, me, Chris, and Keon and you’ll have to ask Tony the why there. I’m not the head wolf anymore,” Andrew told him and James was surprised to see how lightly the former alpha had mentioned that he was no longer the alpha considering that he was sort of forced into early retirement, so to speak, by Tony. Actually Andrew seemed a lot happier now that he was just another wolf. “Oh and Hunter is going to be there too,” Andrew added as backed out of the driveway.
James couldn’t resist a snarl of disgust at Andrew’s younger brother. “Why is he going to be there?” He snapped, not bothering to hide is repulsion for the man. When at first Andrew didn’t reply James glanced over and noticed a look of confliction on his face.
“He’s there to answer to Keon’s accusations,” Andrew replied quietly and he felt bad for snapping like he did. He may hate the man, but Hunter was Andrew’s brother.
“If he just agrees to leave Lily alone there should be no problem,” James offered, in an attempt to ease the older man but Andrew said nothing in return. Instead, he kept his attention on the road. James let out a slow, quiet breath and looked out the window. It didn’t take long before they pulled up in the small parking lot of the brick building with tacky yellowing plastic letters that read “Elk Lodge Club Center.”
The name was meant to sound mundane on purpose as an attempt to keep the local humans out. James got out of the car and looked around. The people walked passed them, lost in their own worlds and things to do without so much as giving the building or James a glance or second thought, proving that the normal appearance of the building worked to perfection. He followed Andrew into the building and had to admit its appearance didn’t get much better on the inside.
It looked like your everyday office building really. It even had cubicles where a few skilled and in James opinion, unlucky, pack members helped keep tabs on the administrative part of running a pack. He followed Andrew into a large office where an oval table sat in the middle ringed with plush black leather chairs. Tony and Keon already sat in two of them. James nodded to the two men in greeting and sat at Tony’s right.
“Hey James, everything all quiet on your end?” Tony asked and James was about to answer when Chris rushed in.
“I’m here, I’m here!” He called then rushed over to the chair next to James and threw himself into it, nearly knocking himself over. Keon looked at him as if Chris had lost his mind, Tony shook his head while James tried his hardest not to laugh. “I overslept,” Chris said with a half-smile that grew into a large smile. “I kind of had a late night.” Tony kept shaking his head then cleared his throat.
“Okay, well let’s get this going,” Tony started. “I brought you guys here because I wanted the privacy and honestly dad your house has the traffic of Grand Central Station,” he went on and Andrew smiled with a nod. “I want to know what the Aequivalere plans are,” Tony demanded, looking at James and then Chris.
“I don’t know anything more than what was planned yesterday,” James explained and Tony looked to Chris.
“I don’t know anything,” Chris said, holding up his hands. “I’m not exactly a “need to know” person.”
“Alright then is there anything either of you can tell me about the Aquievalere?” Tony demanded.
“Well,” James started when Chris’s only reply was a shrug. “If you want my honest opinion, Tony, I think we shouldn’t depend on the Aquivalere for much. In the time I’ve worked with them they have proved to be useless. Xavier ran his experiments right under their noses and they had no idea. They had Silvano incarcerated and yet he escaped. They said they would protect Lily, but Silvano was able to attack her!”
“Okay so basically we’re on our own then,” Tony commented then turned to Keon. “Whether the pack likes it or not, Lily is one of us. We’re going to have to protect her. I want you to set up a security detail, have the borders watched. I want to know what kind of traffic we’ve got going in and out of our territory. When Sunday comes around, I want James’s house under constant surveillance. Silvano must not be able to get near Lily!”
“You got it alpha, but I have very few enforcers that have actually seen a fight. Those who have, have never gone up against vampires myself included. This is going to be a challenge, to say the least,” Keon explained.
“Actually I think I may have something that can help us with that,” Chris suddenly spoke up. “I know someone who’s willing to help us. She’s a witch one of the Cho witches,” he told them with a smile like that was supposed to mean something. It must have because Andrew’s eyes opened wide.