The electricity cut out for a second, and the bulbs in the dusty fan above me flickered. The sight made me want to tear the fucking thing out of the ceiling and smash it into a million pieces, but I resisted the urge.
I'm an Alpha now. I'm supposed to be in control of my base emotions and able to lead with decorum or whatever the hell Alphas were supposed to have. I had most of the other qualifications locked down—I was one hell of a fighter, I had the respect of the wolves following me, and I would do whatever was necessary to provide for my pack and keep them safe. It was just the finer points that I needed to work on.
And the shitty electricity in our current home wasn't helping my temper any.
The Reckless Stalkers were small; we were ten members strong, and hopefully growing soon. We were also brand new, a split pack stemming from the old Red Canines pack, led by that asshole Danny and his useless mate Naomi. A few other dissatisfied wolves from neighboring packs also joined us, and I hoped that once word got out about what sort of pack I was trying to lead, more would find us.
Unlike the Red Canines, I wouldn’t change our pack to make it look more like the stuck-up Silverfangs or any other more 'successful' pack. We would hold our territory with strength, and make money any way we possibly could. Being brand new had its perks like that because I could shape my pack however I wanted.
But the downsides were bullshit, to put it lightly.
For one, we were broke. Thinking about my apartment back in Athens made me want to scream, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had managed to find us an old, unused grouping of campground cabins situated in a horseshoe shape in a big clearing just outside of Augusta, Georgia, and our first big undertaking as a pack was making it livable.
The cabins were rough, but finally, we had most of them clean with working power and plumbing. The main building in the middle of the campgrounds still had holes in the roof and the floor, so that was the last thing to worry about, and we could live without it for now. The campground had been abandoned for years, and we were lucky to have it.
Unfortunately, establishing pack territory wasn't exactly cheap.
I paid off the previous owners to give us the land and the cabins, but we had no money for supplies, so my wolves were working around the clock to make it all function. For the first few days, we didn't even have running water or electricity. We had to buy a generator, and then get a plumber and electrician out to our shitty cabins to get things up and running.
Now that it was done, I was able to relax a little, but I couldn't help but feel the frustration gnawing at me. I had enough contacts left from my days running drugs and weapons with the Red Canines before Danny went soft, so I was able to find us work, but it just never felt like it was enough.
At least it was work I was good at. Hell, it even ran in my family. My folks were behind bars because they had been such prolific drug runners, bringing anything and everything they could across the Mexican border. I had been more of an inconvenience than anything to them, but luckily, the Canine's old Alpha, Peter, had a soft spot for bratty little kids. Even when Peter suggested my parents step back and get factory work or something less dangerous in order to take care of me, they refused.
So I lived with Peter and Danny, and the Alpha raised me alongside his son like I was his own. I barely even noticed when my parents went to prison because they had become nothing but shadows in my world years before.
I think that might have been the moment that Peter's mind about the Red Canines had started to change. Even back then, they were a rough, notorious, crime-soaked biker pack, and no one even questioned where the money to keep the pack running came from. But the birth rate had all but stalled, and I was one of the last kids born in the pack all those years ago. Peter couldn't wrap his head around my folks valuing the road over their kid, especially when kids were such a rarity.
I didn't like thinking that I had anything to do with the softening of my old pack. They were all my family, and it just felt wrong to think that I was even a little bit of the reason they became a bunch of yuppies and family men. But I knew it was true.
The old Red Canines would never have accepted their Alpha rolling over and changing everything just because he found a mate. But they weren't the old Red Canines anymore, and that's why the Reckless Stalkers came to be.
I leaned back in the camping chair that makes up part of my living room furniture and sighed, annoyed. None of this had to happen.
I didn't regret leaving. I knew I was right, that Danny was changing the pack so drastically that it was about to be a shell of its former self.
But I did regret all the shit that came after I left…regarding Naomi.
I'd made the plan in a hot-headed storm of anger, and that was my first mistake. All I could think about when I first left the Canines was forcing Danny to see how wrong he was. He needed to see that his mate was weak, and by relying on her he was weakening the pack as a whole. He refused to see it, and it drove some of his most loyal wolves away.
But without being part of the pack, how could I possibly make him understand where I was coming from? The idea to poison Naomi had come to me, and while I knew it was risky as hell, I was pissed off enough to be impulsive. Stupidly impulsive.
If I had taken a few days to fine-tune the plan, I could have come up with something better. But I hadn't waited. Instead, I had tasked two of my wolves with the poisoning attack. I hadn't wanted Naomi permanently injured—I'm not a complete fucking monster, no matter what the rest of the world thinks of me now—but I wanted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Naomi was vulnerable and that having her around made the pack vulnerable in turn.
I was okay knocking her out, but Rick and Tanner had instead used fucking wolfsbane and nearly killed her. The thought made me nauseous. I had made my point, considering my wolves had managed to poison Naomi in her own bathroom right there in Danny's home, but the cost was not worth it.
Everyone was so sure I was a murderer now. I've killed before without regrets, but killing Danny's mate just to prove a point was more than I'd ever intended to do. She'd survived, but it was a near thing, and all my bridges were forever burnt.
I couldn’t even tell anyone I didn't mean for her to be poisoned with wolfsbane, because the last thing a new Alpha should do is show hesitation, so I just had to live with it. Now, I was just doing what I had to do to protect myself and the pack. That was all.
"Julian?"
The soft knock at my front door pulled me out of my thoughts, and I sighed before standing up and walking over.
"Yeah, come in," I said, opening the door. My second-in-command, a rogue wolf named James, stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He looked worried, and I knew he was about to drop some bad news on me.
"What's wrong?"
"Naomi and Danny left their territory a little while ago."
Fuck. "How long ago?"
James shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. I talked to my cousin who is still with the Canines. I don't think he meant to tell me, and he shut down when I pushed for information."
Why in the hell would they be leaving when the demon threat was so bad? It was so irresponsible, so dangerous…and also not something I should be concerned about.
"Any idea where they're going?"
"My cousin mentioned that Hector called them out, so I'm assuming Silverfang Creek territory."
I nodded. That made sense, considering Hector was mated to Faye, the powerful Silverfang Creek pack witch. She was probably having premonitions and warning of some sort of attack.
I knew I should be concerned with building my pack and nothing more, but I couldn’t shake the thoughts about the demon attacks. They had been skulking around Reckless Stalker territory, and I was curious what exactly was going on, especially if Hector had called Danny and Naomi out. The Canines were weak and ineffective, but Danny and Naomi were good fighters, and any information they brought back to Hector could prove valuable.
The problem was, how could I get that information?
An idea struck me. It was risky, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was worth a shot. If it worked, I’d have the knowledge that Hector had, and maybe even something else to offer him.
The Silverfang Creek pack is full of families, and no matter how well those wolves can fight, they aren't going to want to put those families in danger. The Reckless Stalkers, on the other hand, had no families. If I offered them the protection of my pack to keep Silverfang wolves off the battlefield, I might be able to get what I needed out of Hector.
And what I needed was a witch.
Faye, Hector's mate, was one of the most powerful witches in the country. She had the connections I needed to find a witch willing to join an unproven pack like mine. Wolf witches were nearly impossible to find, but I'd be fine with a human witch. All I needed was someone with enough power to make their spells stick.
Faye had always been a little distant toward me, but if I could convince her that I was here to help, maybe she'd listen.
But would Hector?
I didn't know. Hector had never liked me, and now he hated me after the mess I made with Naomi. But I could make him see reason, I knew I could. And even if I couldn't, the fact was that if my pack could keep their families safe from the demon attacks, then it was worth a shot.
I looked over at James and nodded. "I'm going to go talk to Faye and Hector."
James's face twisted in confusion, and I was surprised. "But they hate you, Julian."
I shrugged. "Yeah, but we're all on the same side here. The demons are the problem, not me."
"But they're going to think you just want information."
"That's because I do." I paused, looking him over. "Look, I have a plan. I'm not going to explain it right now, but it's a good one. I know how to handle Hector and Faye, so you don't need to worry about that. I need you to keep everyone busy here while I'm gone. Do whatever work you can, and if we get word from my contacts about a job, I'll need you to handle it yourself."
James looked like he wanted to argue, but he stayed quiet for a moment before nodding. "Okay. If you say you have a plan, I trust you. Just…be careful, okay? We need you."
I nodded, feeling a little more confident. This plan was risky, but it had the potential to pay off big. I just had to stay focused and remember why I was doing this. The Reckless Stalkers needed a witch, and if I could offer up protection for Hector and Faye's pack in exchange for one, then so be it.