18: Don’t Push Me

“Effie, please. I just need to know if you’re going to choose me or him.”

“You could have both, they’d agree,” my wolf whispered. Erm, what?

“What do you mean I could have both?” I asked my wolf.

“They both want you, they both want us.”

“Effie, please don’t ignore me,” Luke’s voice cut through my conversation.

“I told you Luke, this is not something we are discussing right now.”

“But…”

“Luke, do not push me on this, you will not like how it goes.”

He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, alpha.” His hand ran through his hair, stress evident on his face. “I always imagined that if you ever took over the pack, I’d be your beta. Why did you choose him?”

“Because he was supposed to be alpha. I need to strengthen my platform, not fill it with cracks before I’ve even taken over. However, I would be honoured if you would take the position of my enforcer.”

He looked up, eyes bright. “I’d be honoured, alpha.”

“Good, we can worry about swearing you in later. Can you please call and check in with Nathaniel? I thought he would have checked in by now, it’s been well over an hour, the packhouses aren’t that far from here.”

“Of course, alpha.”

Something was wrong. Neither Nathaniel or Julienne were answering the radio or their phones, which meant one of two things. Either they shifted and forgot to take the radios with them, or they were in trouble. One option had them needing their asses kicked, the other, their asses saved.

“For fucks sake, we’re going to have to go after them.”

“Effie, let me go. I’ll make sure they’re okay and then we can get on with the plan.”

“You’re not going on your own, Luke. Take Grayson with you. Check in with me as soon as you know what is going on. I’m going to start rounding everyone up, we need to be ready to go. If there’s an issue, Luke, you need to call me immediately. Do not try to be a hero and handle it on your own. You need to call for backup. Got it?”

“Yes, alpha.”

“Good. Get going, Luke. We don’t have time to delay on this one.”

He nodded, turning to leave the room.

The packhouses were only ten miles away, and there was a motorway for most of the trip, so he would be there pretty quickly.

I didn’t expect a response quite as quickly as I got one though.

“Alpha one, something is wrong.” His voice came over the radio, stressed, scared. “Something big is wrong.”

“Beta one, talk to me. What’s happening?”

“Both targets are in the woods, they’re performing some kind of ritual. They’ve got both Alpha Eight and Charlie One. They’re both bound and gagged, it doesn’t appear that either of them have got any involvement in the ritual, they just got in the way.”

“Beta One, Delta One. Do we hit now, or do we just extract our people?”

“Extraction,” came Grayson’s voice over the radio. “There are too many bodies here to attempt to carry out the plan.”

“I agree,” Luke added. “But at the same time, alpha, we need eyes on this ritual.”

“Roger that. I’ll get a stealth team together and send them in as soon as I can. Do you need backup for the extraction?”

“If the stealth team can reach us quickly, that should be more than enough backup.”

“Thank you, beta one. If anything changes and you need more support before Sierra reaches you, let me know.”

I didn’t expect it, but knowing Nathaniel was in trouble felt like a knife to my heart. That’ll be the mate bond starting to rear its ugly head. We might not have accepted it, but it was strong. It always was strong when an alpha was involved, and this one technically had two. I sighed, I needed to make a decision, but that wasn’t one I was planning to make immediately.

Fortunately, the leader of the Sierra team (inventively named because they were my stealth specialists) answered within a couple of rings. “Ophelia, good evening.” Lyla was only young for a wolf, at just 117. Despite that, she was easily the best stealth operative I’d ever met.

“I realise you’re in the middle of an investigation, Lyla, but I need all of your team at HQ as quickly as you can all get here.”

“The whole team, alpha?”

“The whole team, Lyla. I’ll explain when you get here.”

“We’ll be fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks Lyla. I’ll be in the armoury prepping your kit when you get here.”

“It’s serious, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“I’ll be as quick as I can.”

She was true to her word, Lyla met me in the armoury just 7 minutes after our call. There was absolutely no way she stuck to the speed limit to get here.

“I’m grateful you got here this fast, Lyla, but do I need to get my contacts to write off another speeding ticket?”

She gave me a small smile. “Maybe. I might have gotten away with it.”

I rolled my eyes at her. I appreciated everything she did and she was very good at what she does, but sometimes her methods did leave me with a LOT of paperwork.

“So, what’s happening?”

I filled her in quickly on what happened in the pack, and why we’re planning to take over. I paused before moving on to more recent events.

“I sent Nathaniel and Julienne out to scope a potential covert way into the central territory; they have unfortunately been captured by the current alpha and Maximillian. They’re currently performing some kind of ritual, but it looks like Nathaniel and Julienne are essentially collateral that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so they are currently just bound and gagged to the side of the clearing. What I need you to do is get the team together, get out there, help Luke and Grayson with the extraction, then watch this ritual, and find out what the bloody hell they’re up to.”

“On it, alpha. Sounds like I’ve got a fun night ahead of me.”

I paced around HQ for what felt like an eternity. When I had enough pacing, I dragged myself down to the gym. The gym in HQ had a large, open space attached to it, one that was big enough to shift and run as a wolf. It wasn’t the same as a forest, but we’d had the space turfed and kitted out with overcomplicated irrigation systems and artificial sunlight to replicate it as closely as possible.

Reaching the gym, I stripped off, leaving my clothes in one of the boxes we kept by the entrance. I shifted, landing on all fours, enjoying the feel of the grass beneath my paws.

I ran for hours. I needed to burn off the stress, and running as my wolf was typically a good way to do that. Today though, it wasn’t enough. I could still feel Nathaniel, I could feel that he was in pain, he was uncomfortable.

It suddenly clicked. Wolfsbane. He was covered in wolfsbane.

I shifted back, running back towards HQ, not caring that I was still as naked as the day I was born. Fortunately, I managed to grab the radio on my way out.

“Sierra one, come in.”

“Alpha one, I’m here, what’s happening?”

“Wolfsbane,” I gasped. “They’re in wolfsbane.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, get them out of there,” I gasped for breath.

I shouldn’t have run that far or fast immediately after shifting, I should have at least given my body a minute to adjust.

“Alpha one, are you okay?”

“Just out of breath, Sierra one. Running up ten flights of stairs at full speed will do that to you.”

She laughed. “We’re in position, alpha one. Making a move shortly. We’ll have them back home before you know it.”