Part 1: Where Derek walks in the woods a whole lot Preview:The call for a Special Forces alphapack had come in from a small city on the edge of a wilderness preserve sometime just after dawn on a Thursday. Derek hadn’t been at HQ when the call came in. He’d been in bed at his apartment, trying to recover from a previous mission that had gone wrong in a truly spectacular fashion. All he wanted to do was sleep for a week, but when the videoscreen beeped he got up out of bed.
“Hale.” Which was all the greeting Derek ever gave. He only activated sound, leaving the screen blank. The last thing he needed was someone from HQ to see his naked ass as he stumbled around in his dark bedroom, trying to find clothing.
“We have a situation of some sort just south of the western preserve.” Lydia was a red witch, a very powerful red witch, that could make even the toughest alphas jump when she gave the order. Derek was simultaneously impressed and annoyed by her ability even as he pulled on pants and mentally rearranged his planned schedule for his day off. “They’re calling for an alphapack.”
“I’m on leave,” Derek reminded her. If they were calling in alphas on leave, it had to be bad. He found a shirt, sniffed it, and decided that it wasn’t too bad. Laundry hadn’t been high on his list of things to do for the last week.
“I know.” Derek snorted at the lack of apologies from Lydia. Typical when she was determined to get her way. “We’ve already got one alphapack deployed dealing with a few rogue omegas, three on guard rotation at the detention centers since there was a full moon last night, and two others in districts too far to get here in a reasonable amount of time. We’re pulling in the second string now.”
A lack of apologies and insults? Must be big. “What’s going on?” Derek pulled on a pair of socks. His wallet and keys went into his pocket.
“There’s a missing established pack. Nine werewolves. The local law enforcement found the alpha in pieces in the woods. They’re refusing to go back out to look for the rest of the pack and we need to find out what happened.”
“Wait. They found the
alpha in pieces and eight missing betas?” Omegas were often found torn to pieces if they turned vicious and strayed into an established family pack’s territory. Occasionally, it happened to betas if for some reason their alpha went crazy on them. Usually by the time the alpha went after the second beta, the others in the pack banded together to take the alpha out. Sometimes they even succeeded.
But an entire pack? Even the alphapack would have problems taking down a pack even with weapons and back-up. It just didn’t happen.
“There’s already rumors spreading about this. Law enforcement wants to keep in low key, but...” Lydia signed over the line. She sounded tired and Derek wondered if they’d pulled her in before her shift to coordinate this. “An alpha is dead and its presumed the rest of the pack is too. We need you out there yesterday to figure out what is going on.”
His day off could wait. Derek pushed his feet into shoes and began to do up the laces. “I’ll be there in less than an hour.”
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