Traitors

Traitors
BRUCE 

I throw my head back and down another glass of scotch. 

I like the way it burns all the way down my fucking throat and settles uneasily in the pit of my stomach. 

Another day and no sign of Opal. 

It's been so long that I'm starting to ask myself if everything I lived with her was just a figment of my imagination. I'm slowly going crazy. This rage I have inside of me is all-consuming and it sickens me. 

Sickens me. 

I want to kill Quinton. I want to tear Walter Hart apart for being the primary reason why Opal ran to begin with. I don't join the meetings that Quinton set up because I can't stand to look at her biological mother either. 

I know I made mistakes. I'm just as monstrous as Walter Hart, come to think of it. I agreed to the plan initially. If I hadn't, Opal would never have left. But one thing I know for a fact is that I love that woman. I love her with everything I have. 

I've never cared about anyone the way I care about her. 

That's why I'm out there, day after day looking for her. More packs are being attacked and we're left without options. We've been retaliating, and things are really starting to get ugly. The harder we hit them, the more I worry about Opal, but they haven't stepped forward with any proposal. 

The thought that she might be dead is a punch to my stomach. 

Opal can't be dead. 

A knock on my door interrupts my train of thought. It's Megan. She gives me a worried look that makes me rise from my seat. "What happened?"

"It's Quinton," she claims before walking further inside my office. "I know you don't want to hear anything about him, Bruce, but he's been missing for hours now. I tried contacting Gwen, but she's gone, too."

I shake my head a little. "What's any of this supposed to mean, Meg? What do you mean, they're gone?"

"They're gone!" she sniffles. "Quinton told me he'd come straight here and that he'd tell me how the meeting went, but the sun's almost up and he still isn't here. I have a bad feeling, Bruce. A really bad feeling."

"Have you tried calling Janice Sanders?"

"She isn't picking up. I'm thinking of heading to her place...will you come with me?"

I decide to go with her simply because of how desperate she is but deep down, I know there has to be an explanation for this. Quinton wouldn't have just disappeared. This is a precious waste of my time and I'll end up resenting him even more for it.

When we get there, we find the place strangely empty. Her gate is open, and there are no cars out front. Clearly, Quinton isn't here. 

Even the front door is open. 

Megan looks at me, panicking. "What do you think any of this means?"

"We'll have to find out."

At this point, I'm alarmed. We need to get to the bottom of this mystery. Megan heads inside and calls Janice's name. There's no answer. I look around for signs of anything being amiss, and I find no signs of a struggle or anything. 

Megan checks upstairs. No sign of her. 

"It could be that she's not home."

"This makes no sense, Bruce," my sister says a little desperately. "Where could they have gone?"

The only place left to check is out in the garden. 

And that's exactly where we find her. 

Megan screams and races toward the dead woman. I approach slowly, heart thundering in my chest. Megan checks for a pulse even though Janice is evidently dead, then looks up at me. "Something terrible has happened to Quint. I can feel it, Bruce!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here," I tell her in an attempt to calm her. "We need to report this. Then, we'll focus on finding Quinton. We can't assume that the worst has happened."

Megan screws her eyes shut. "Don't you sense that something's wrong? I don't know what it is, Bruce, but none of this makes sense. Now, Quinton has disappeared, too. Could the rogues be behind all this?" She opens her eyes again and I see tears swimming in them. "If they are, then they're more dangerous than we could've ever assumed."

I think about her words as we drive back home. I'll have to alert the Alphas, and I'll have Rick call Walter to let him know that his sister is dead. He hasn't been around since I kicked him out, and I won't be the one to invite him back by giving him this information. 

When we get home, I notice something strange. 

Soldiers are milling around, all of them with Walter's uniform. 

"What the fuck?" I whisper angrily to myself as I get out of the car. There's no sight of my men anywhere. Who allowed these people to enter?

Megan tries to step out of the car, but I raise a hand. "Stay right there. I'll handle this."

The two men posted at the gate watch me approach them with expressions that don't sit well with me. "What's the meaning of this? Who sent you here? Where are my men?"

"We're just following orders, Alpha King," one of them answers lazily. "You'll have to bring this up with our Alpha."

I'm seeing red. I get back in the car, and Megan asks me what's wrong. 

"Walter's stirring trouble again."

Only, this time, I have no idea what he wants or why he's even doing this. 

I drive through the gate, hands shaking with the urge to strangle him to death, something I should have done a long time ago. Megan watches me with a worried look on her face. I don't reassure her. 

I don't know what I'll do myself. 

"Be careful," she tells me as I open the door. "Remember what Daddy told us!"

I say nothing and head inside, ignoring the way his soldiers look at me. The fact that he would disrespect me this way under my own roof means he's begging for death. That's the only explanation I have for all this.

I find Walter in the living room with my mother. They were laughing before I walked in. I shoot her a venomous look before saying, "Mom, I'd like to ask you to leave so I can have a conversation with Alpha Walter on my own."

Walter stands up. She does, too. To my astonishment, he throws an arm around her shoulders and tells me, "Where your mother goes, I go. We're a team now. I've asked her to marry me."

I step toward him quickly and throw a punch at his face. While on the ground, he whistles and the men who were at the door invade the living room. I have very little time to react. I attack them with everything I have, and they drop one by one despite the fact that I'm outnumbered. 

But when one of them drags Megan inside while holding a blade to her throat.