Chapter 248 Chapter 248
Jesse watched the chopper fly over his head. The last few hours had been trying. They had gotten some information, finally after the jackal shifter realized he wasn’t going to be free again, ever. Jesse didn’t ask what happened to him after the Alliance was done with him, that was just something he didn’t need to know.
Calum and Cale had to remove Blair from the equation right around the time the man had said they were fed information and knew how many women were here. He didn’t know how they got the numbers or who told them, he was low on the totem pole and just followed orders. Orders were given by Lindon, Blair’s brother. That information had put Blair over the top as far as tolerating him went.
To know your own estranged brother was that deep inside Tomas’ organization was something Jesse didn’t know how Blair was managing to cope with. He didn’t blame him at all for wanting to find his sibling and end him.
Calum walked by him talking low on his phone, no doubt telling Devin everything that they’d learned. Hopefully, the Alliance would be able to get addresses and locations from him.
Jesse gnawed on his cheek and stared at the ground. The jackal, he smirked, they should have gotten his name—his clan was from an entirely different continent. What did that mean exactly? Had they moved to North America or were they brought here to help Tomas? That was a question they really needed the answer to.
His phone buzzing in his pocket brought him back out of his head. It was Shepard. He could count on one hand the number of times the king had called him and not the other way around.
“Sir.”
“Jesse. I just spoke to Ed, and he gave me a quick rundown.”
“It went better than we planned.”
“I’m glad my son gave you the go-ahead, if we’d waited, he may have had time to come up with stories.”
Jesse grinned, “I’m pretty sure having Blair and Calum staring him down inspired him to share what he knew.”
“That would help, yes. I’m calling you because in the past you have come up with some very creative distractions and I need some input on how we can lead them away from Blair’s clan.”
Jesse tried to hide his shock but failed when he blew out a long breath, “problem with that is before we weren’t aware someone was sharing information. How do we know who to trust if we do something as a decoy?”
“We have been working hard on a select group that we know we can trust. What would you suggest we do to plant false information?”
Jesse rubbed the back of his neck, trying to relieve some of the tension in it. “Well, uh,” nothing like being put on the spot, “I’d go about sending the information down the line the way we always have and say they’re changing locations. Something wasn’t working out here, space or whatever. Then actually send transports and have them drive to wherever the new location would be.”
“Have an assault team waiting there?”
“I’d probably send some of them in the transports. Moving nine females was scary as hell the first time and I think the only reason we didn’t run into problems was that Cal and I changed the plan at the last minute and didn’t communicate that to anyone.”
“It’s a good plan. How would we know if they continued to watch Blair’s land?”
“I’m not sure. Our jackal friend admitted he was the one watching the land and had been on it several times. His counterparts were only here the one time they tried to poison one of the women and ended up getting Jake instead.”
“Do we know why it was only him?”
“The others were called back, something more important was happening.”
“More important than nine females? That’s fairly significant.”
“That’s our take too, sir. We’re wondering if the information that we have those addresses has leaked back to them.”
“I don’t know if Calum told you, but I’ve put a temporary hold on hitting any of those addresses until we ferret out who we can trust or get enough in place that once you go in the backup is there when you get out.”
“How long of a delay?” He thought of telling Evanna they’d have to wait to see if any of her clan survived this long.
“We’re keeping someone at the locations, to monitor any movement if that’s your concern. If ours are moved, we’ll know. I understand you want to find your mate’s clan members, but we have to protect the whole of the clans with the Alliance.” He made a low growling sound, “all of this started during my grandfather and father’s time and has been left to run rampant all this time, like a festering wound. We need to nail it down, now and put a stop to it.”
“I understand.” He did, mostly, the idea that so many things had been mishandled had to be weighing on the king heavily. Like clans such as Shaelan’s falling off the radar for so long. Entire clans vanishing was also a heavyweight on the king’s back. “Sir, before I forget, I was talking to the clan co-ord team and we’d like to add a few to our roster. It’s hard for so few of us to cover so much ground.” He closed his eyes to try and think through everything else he had in his head, “my first thoughts of who would be a good fit are Gia Marin and Calla Hart.”
“That’s understandable, we need more now than ever. Marin? That’s an Alpha family?”
“Yes, she is, but she’s good and I doubt any weapons training would be required.”
Shepard chuckled, “bored female children in Alpha families always tend to excel in all things combat.”
Jesse smirked; he’d never thought of it but it was true.
“I will leave that up to you and Cal, who you want to bring into the fold. Both of you know many more of ours on a personal level than I do.”
“Okay, I’ll talk it over with Cal.”
“Cal’s mate sent us a new list of things the co-ord team should have, so all of that has been updated and is ready for pickup.”
Jesse nodded, “Zain sent us the list, it’s a lot more than we had, but after this last trip, I’m understanding the need for it.”
“We do try to look after you.” He sounded distracted for a second, “The weapons training is going to continue there, we’re moving it over to Ed’s because it’s any easier location to monitor, especially now with us acting as if we’re moving Blair’s clan.”
“That’s a good idea, sir.” At least the king trusted him enough to make the split decision to follow Jesses suggestion to pretend to relocate the clan.
“It will take a few days to get that in play, to bring in the assault team members we know we can trust, so I’m going to ask you something of a more personal nature now, Jesse.”
He stared at the ground, not sure what it could be.
“Rayne shared with Irene the challenges ahead with your mate, although I’m extremely impressed that she and her leopard caught the jackal, I’m concerned for both of you that we’re just tossing you into everything when she may require something else.”
“How do you mean?”
“I’m not going to claim to be an expert on it, because I’m only going on what Rayne and Irene have told me, they’ve been talking to specialists and researching, but I understand it’s going to be a long road ahead in her treatment.”
“It could possibly be the rest of our lives, sir.”
“I know you will find a way to cope with it, Jesse, you’ve shown me your logic and patience on many occasions. Here’s what I’m proposing, just understand this is a suggestion, not an order.”
Jesse cleared his throat, still not sure where this was going. “Okay.”
“While we get things sorted and set up, would you like a week off to go home and spend it with your mate, get to know one another better, and get her started on the right path to healing? I’m sorry if I keep saying she, Irene told me I should say them or they, but I’m old, son, I don’t quite grasp all of this.”
“She is fine. They are both females, so it applies.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a good thing then.”