Page 19 of Fall of the Alpha

19

THE SPY RETURNS

Grigori

Where were they?

None of the Betas who were supposed to report in to him by now had done so. He paced the floor of his dwelling. At least it was quiet now. Brianne had gone to join Carina at Paldon’s, the two of them wailing together, as if that would solve anything.

Blast.

Maybe he shouldn’t have told his spies to look for Alek and Bella. Maybe they’d gotten too close.

Or maybe one of them had found something, and everything was taking longer because of that. There was no way to know.

He hated waiting.

Finally— finally —his comm chimed.

Grigori answered the device, relief and anger warring within him as he looked at Redmond’s pale face. The Beta looked glassy-eyed, his expression strangely blank.

“Where the hell have you been?” Grigori snarled, unable to keep his frustration from pouring out.

“I… uh…” Redmond stammered, not at all like himself.

“Just get here, now .” As Redmond nodded, Grigori ended the call before starting a new one to security, directing them to let Redmond through upon his arrival. As impatient as he was for information, he was too canny to risk talking over something as unsecure as a comm link.

As far as anyone knew, Redmond was just a friend of Alek’s, which had made him the perfect choice to go looking for him in the Territories. He could even ask about him without anyone being suspicious. It could be dangerous, depending on how the Alphas reacted. Risking him had been an easy decision, though. He was a decent but not overly skilled informant, easily replaced if need be.

Now that Redmon was on his way, Grigori’s pacing increased, and he cursed multiple times as he checked how long it was taking the male to get there. Was he crawling?

Finally, the door chimed.

Grigori opened it, reaching out to grab hold of the other male and yank him inside. If anything, Redmond appeared paler in person than he had on the vid screen, and he was shaking as he stood in place, his hands hanging uselessly on either side of him. He stared at Grigori dumbly.

“What the hell happened?” Grigori asked, as he shut the door behind him. “What is wrong with you?”

“I… they captured me.” Redmond licked his lips as Grigori stiffened in surprise. “They… the Wolf. He said he had a message for you. He wanted me to give it to you.” The male’s expression took on an almost dream-like countenance, filling Grigori with disgust. He’d seen such things before, in Betas who had fallen under an Alpha’s spell. Easily influenced, that was Redmond.

“What’s the message?” Grigori demanded harshly when Redmond didn’t automatically continue. Worthless male.

“He said he’s coming for you.” Redmond’s dreamy gaze refocused, solidifying, as he suddenly stared intently at Grigori. “He says he knows everything, and he’s going to tear down everything you’ve worked for until he grinds you into the dust.”

A chill went through Grigori, despite knowing that such a promise was impossible.

Malachi couldn’t possibly know everything. Grigori had worked too hard and was too good at what he did. Not unless…

The other spies.

The ones who had not checked in.

Only Redmond had been sent back, and only because he had a message.

Carefully leashing his fury, Grigori took several deep breaths as his brain feverishly sorted through the information. Possibility after possibility ran through his head, along with all the steps he’d taken over the years to avoid detection.

But they took Alek. Malachi must have known who he was.

This just confirmed it. Especially since Redmond, Alek’s friend, had been the one sent back with the message.

I know who your son is. I know who his friends are. I know where you are.

That was the real message, the unspoken one Redmond was too thick to realize. But Grigori understood it. He also understood the disdain.

I am so unthreatened by you that I’m going to send your spy back to you. Unharmed. I don’t care that you know.

Leaving Grigori totally in the dark would have been the wiser move because he would not have known what happened to his spies. Between Redmond being caught and returned and Malachi’s message, it was fairly obvious that the rest of Grigori’s males had been caught and either killed or held captive. He seethed, hating Malachi more than ever.

Returning Redmond with the message told Grigori that Malachi thought he was so unworthy an opponent that Malachi could telegraph his moves ahead of time, and Grigori would be incapable of doing anything to stop him. Malachi was insulting his intelligence and his power simultaneously.

“What about my son?” Grigori asked Redmond, determined to get at least something useful out of the male. Something he could actually use. “Did you find out what happened to Alek?”

“I saw him.” Redmond blinked. “He was with the Alphas of Riversong Territory.”

Cora and Trace. Grigori held back a snarl. The only Alpha he might hate as much as Malachi was Cora.

“What did they do to him?”

“Nothing.” Suddenly, Redmond was back to himself, looking down his nose at Grigori with a kind of suspicious resentment. “They had done nothing to him. He was with them willingly. They called him a ‘Sigma,’ and he stood there and watched while they… questioned me, and he did nothing. He’s a traitor to the cause.”

As if Redmond had any room to talk. He would have spilled everything he knew; Grigori didn’t doubt that. Fortunately, Grigori purposefully never told anyone everything. At most, they had tiny slivers of the full picture. On the other hand, if Malachi had managed to capture all of them, that was a small chunk of the full picture.

It was hardly everything, though.

That overconfidence would be Malachi’s long-awaited, overdue downfall.

“Let me worry about my son,” Grigori said, frowning as he tried to remember what he knew about Sigmas. Not much. He had never met one. They were even rarer than Omegas. The only thing he could remember was, supposedly, they were a combination of Alpha and Omega, but he could not remember how.

That Alek was playing nice with Cora and Trace was not hugely surprising. Though he’d inherited his mother’s intelligence, he did seem to have a knack for reading people and survival. Latching on to them would be the surest way to survive Malachi. Cora did have an eye for the unique, and a Sigma would be that.

But he was not an Alpha.

Blast.

Grigori had been so sure…

Likely, the boy was useless to him now. If he was not an Alpha, he would not be able to overpower Malachi, much less rule a territory. Perhaps Malachi had done him an inadvertent favor by taking him before Grigori could rest all his hopes on Alek’s shoulders.

“What about Bella? Did you see her?” If he could bring Paldon something, that at least would help curry him some favor with Zone One’s leader. He knew Paldon was losing patience with him. They’d never had the easiest relationship. He wasn’t ready to overthrow the male yet, though, and having some information could buy him some time before the inevitable clash.

Unfortunately, Redmond shook his head.

Useless male. Not one piece of actionable information. Grigori grit his teeth, turning away and resuming his pacing as he worked his way through what he was going to do next. He almost didn’t notice Redmond still standing there until the other male cleared his throat.

Grinding to a halt, Grigori looked at him.

“What?”

“I… what else do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. You’ve done enough.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

Redmond stiffened, his eyes flashing angrily.

“Now see here, it’s not my fault I was captured!”

“Isn’t it, though?” Grigori snorted. “If you were better at what you do, you could have gotten that very little bit of information that you did and all without being captured.”

Drawing himself up, Redmond glared, taking a threatening step toward Grigori. He held his ground, a sneer curling his upper lip. He was not going to be intimidated by a mere pup like Redmond. The Beta was all bark and no teeth.

“You’d better watch how you speak to me,” Redmond threatened. “I bet Paldon would be interested in what I have to say, even if you aren’t. I deserve some respect. I deserve?—”

His eyes widened, hands going to his stomach, where he’d gotten exactly what he deserved—Grigori’s knife in his gut.

The Beta’s mouth worked soundlessly as Grigori pulled the blade free and stabbed him again, this time through the heart. The male hit the floor with a spasm as his eyes blanked out, wide and unseeing. Blood stained the two spots where Grigori had stabbed him, still seeping out even though his heart had stopped pumping.

Now, Grigori was going to have to take care of the body and find some excuse for Paldon as to why he had no information about Bella. Annoyed, he kicked Redmond’s body as he passed by it to go find something to roll it up in.