Taking Power With The Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 5: Freshly Cut Grass

***PHIL POV***

    Tell me that isn’t Jimmy, Kristy said in the still-active chat with everyone back home.

    I’ll bet you a grand it is, I replied, sensing that Madison was about ready to kick ass.  Even though it was nearly pitch-black outside, I could make out that it was him.  That was one of the many benefits of having really good night vision.

    Wait, Jimmy...Fabian’s, Jimmy Goodwin?! Michael replied, and I could hear the panic and anger rising in his voice through the link.

    There’s one way to find out, Kristy replied.  He’s about to set Jean-Marie on fire.  Watch this.

    In one of the sweetest moves I had ever seen any warrior wolf make, Kristy ran four full-extension strides toward the funeral pyre, jumped in the air from about 30 feet away, and landed right on the son of a b***h with the torch in his hand.  At the last minute, the guy figured out that his life was in danger.  He held the torch out defensively and tried to swing it uselessly in all directions.  

    His only problem was that Kristy caught his arm in Billie’s mouth.  In half a second, he didn’t have a left arm anymore, and the torch fell on the ground about 7 feet away from where Jean-Marie was tied up.  Instantly, the grass around him caught fire, and it quickly spread toward Jean-Marie.

    My turn to act.

    While Kristy dragged the now-screaming wolf away, I sprinted around the house and found one of the hose lines that fed a greenhouse.  I traced the hose back to the house, shifted back into my human form, linked Dalvin to have someone get me some clothes from my bag when it arrived at Everfur Shadows, and ran the hose over to the flame.  Luckily, I got the fire extinguished before it reached Jean-Marie.  I then got him untied from the pyre, and he collapsed on the ground in front of me.

    “You Crescent Woods wolves have no damn clue just how impressive your timing is,” he said, crying from relief.

    “What in the hell is going on, Jean-Marie?” I asked frantically.  I was incredibly freaked out by how dramatically terrible things had turned in the last seven hours and right after the convoy from the airport finally showed up with our stuff.  Dalvin brought over one of my Conquerors jerseys and a pair of sweats I packed with me.  I got dressed while Jean-Marie explained.

    “We no sooner disconnected and some siren blared across the north end of the property,” Jean-Marie replied.  “It didn’t sound like anything official, just a massive air horn got blared.  There must have been 60 werecougars and 10 wolves that stormed the plant.  Some of them were on recon purposes, others were for just brute fighting, and others purely tried to get information from us.”

    “What do you mean, ‘get information from us’?” I asked, not wanting the answer to that question but having a good idea as to what it was.

    “The cougars sent a group out to the plant and they raided Bonnie’s office from top to bottom,” Jean-Marie replied.  “However, she had the common sense to put the vital documents from her desk in my safe.  That prevented anything important from being stolen.”

    I spat in disgust.  This was getting bad.  Whoever was fronting the money with all of this was getting bolder.  An out-and-out attack on a pack’s property without provocation was going further down the rabbit hole of insanity.  I knew in the back of my mind that whoever was plotting this whole thing had eyes and ears somewhere in the packhouse.

    I needed to check Jean-Marie’s computer.

    “Where is your office?” I asked.  “Is it still functioning?”

    “It absolutely is!” Jean-Marie replied.  “You want to check your theory about my office and computer being bugged?”

    “Yes, please,” I replied, and Jean-Marie led the way to the pack office.  His setup wasn’t as sophisticated as Michael’s was, but I could tell that he was a fledgling techie. First, I felt around the back of his monitor and didn’t find anything. Next, I did the same thing with his computer tower and felt nothing. Finally, however, when I felt the bottom of his keyboard, I found what I was looking for.

    The bug attached to the USB cable was a keystroke logging bug.  It had wires all throughout, covering every key.  Every letter that Jean-Marie typed would have been transmitted back to Goddess knows where or to what pack or to what den.  In an effort to intentionally enrage the wolves who planted this bug, I decided to mess with them.  I opened up the word processing program on the computer and typed “GAME OVER, ASSHOLE” on a blank document.  I then unplugged the keyboard from the rest of the computer, ripped the bug out, and threw the keyboard away.

    “Was that truly necessary?” Jean-Marie asked.

    “Yes,” I replied.  “I’m going to be sweeping the office for further bugs as well. So I don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

    “Fair enough,” Jean-Marie stated.  I then turned his office upside-down.  I knew that whoever it was that bugged the office had at least one more floating around.  I searched the office phone, furniture, window curtains, and finally the TV, where I found a listening device right against the wall.  I picked it up, and right before I disconnected it, I had something to share with everyone.

    “You’ve not only picked on Everfur Shadows, but Crescent Woods and the Grand Tacoma Council,” I warned.  “Give up this entire thing, and if we don’t figure out who you are, then that’ll be it.  But if you don’t, this is war.  On my honor.”  I crushed the bug and met with Jean-Marie in the ES dining room to give him an update.

    “Two bugs in your office, one on the TV and one on the keyboard,” I told him.  “I crushed both of them and told whoever bugged the TV to knock it off because of who they’re messing with.  If they have any sense, they’ll knock it off.  If they don’t, then whoever has done this, and we have a feeling who it is, is going to have a problem.”

    Jean-Marie nodded.  “I cannot thank you and Kristy enough for coming down here and helping us out.  If another battle happens, are your teams going to be up for the challenge?” he asked.

    “More than ready,” I replied with utmost confidence.  “With Kristy down here and with her status as being CW’s best fighter, I know that we’ve assembled an ‘A’ team to absolutely mess up the wolves and cougars who are causing these problems.  All five of us on the CW leadership team were part of the plan that has put 36 Crescent Woods wolves on your doorstep.  If we weren’t good to go, we wouldn’t be here.”

    “Your new Alpha’s attitude and way of doing business makes him seem fifteen years older than he actually is,” Jean-Marie replied.

    “Yes, he does, but that’s one of the perks of being the Phoenix wolf and being groomed to take over the GTC in 20 years,” I declared with a smile.

    “Yeah, you’ve got me there,” Jean-Marie laughed, then his face turned inquisitive.  “Say, you’ve brought up Kristy a lot, but I’m yet to see her with my own two eyes.  Where the hell is she?”

    “I saw her drag away the wolf she jumped on and f****d up, but I have no clue where they ended up,” I replied.  I closed my eyes and opened up a link with her.

    Where the hell are you at, K? I asked.

    Northwest end of the property, Kristy replied.  I can absolutely confirm that it was Jimmy from four weeks ago.  He bled to death, but his last words to me were that we have no clue who we are messing with and that our showing up here is being considered an act of war in the eyes of Phantom Grounds.

    I sighed.  It was good that Kristy had gotten a pretty good amount of intelligence from the now-dead wolf, and it confirmed a lot of what we thought. But, on the other hand, it just sucked that we couldn’t drag him back to Crescent Woods and have him face the music with all of us playing different instruments.

    Okay, I’ll be right out to help you dig the grave for him.  I’ll ask Jean-Marie where the shovels are, and I’ll grab 2.  Are our omegas working with Bonnie on a strategy for the factory?

    Yeah, every omega with plant experience is using our video conference program with her right now.  The only update that I’ve gotten is that because the cougars have attacked three times, less than 75% of the plant is operational, but the tech they have here is lightyears ahead of what Frank and Suzanne had.  I know you wanted to go there with the deal, but honestly, this is working out better.

    I wanted to disagree with her completely, but I knew in my heart Kristy was spot on with her line of thinking.

    Want to see for ourselves what we’re dealing with? I asked.

    Good idea, Kristy replied.  I also realized that we haven’t updated everyone else back home since our mini-battle.  I’m sure Michael is starting to get antsy about everything.

    OOPS!  That was a problem.  I forgot all about that.  I’ll link him on my walk over.  I’ll also offer to keep our people here for a bit to help with the reconstruction of the plant.  Does that work?

    Perfect was the response I got before the link broke.

    “Three last requests for the time being, and then we’ll leave you alone to put your office back together,” I told Jean-Marie.  “The first is that while we can confirm that Phantom Grounds had people here as part of the ongoing attacks, the guy that Kristy jumped on is dead.  We got a little more intelligence from him as a result, but we’ve got a body to dispose of.  Where do you keep your shovels?”

    “Hang on,” Jean-Marie replied and closed his eyes. Then, after 15 seconds, he opened them again, and an omega came through the dining hall’s door.  “Mick will lead you out to the groundskeeping shed on that part of the property.  We’ve got a couple there.”

    I nodded.  “Good.  The second request is if our omega team can meet with Bonnie face to face to help see what’s operational and to help reconstruct everything that’s been damaged.  I’m going to ask Michael if that’s something that he’d be okay with.”

    “Any help you can give us would be appreciated, and I’m honestly surprised that you haven’t already asked to see what we have left standing,” Jean-Marie replied, his face lighting up in delight at my suggestion.

    “That was request number three,” I chuckled.  “We’ll be over there after we dispose of Jimmy.  If a CW wolf makes a mess on another pack’s territory, we’ll clean it up.”

    “That’s what makes you all so cool to deal with,” Jean-Marie replied.  “I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”

    “Cool,” I said and shook Jean-Marie’s hand before leaving with Mick.  Mick showed me where the shovels were, and I grabbed two and followed Kristy’s scent and Jimmy’s widening blood trail over to where he died.  Kristy was there, staring at her nails in disgust.

    “Mira and I are going to have to get manicures,” she groaned.  “I broke a nail.”

    “Shut up and dig,” I laughed, adding an eye-roll for dramatic effect.  In about 10 minutes, Jimmy was in a shallow, unmarked grave and was topped with about three feet of dirt.  I looked at my watch, and it read close to midnight.  We put the shovels back from where I had gotten them, and we jogged over to the remnants of the plant.

    The moment we got there was when it hit me.

    The faint smell of freshly cut grass topped with warm summer rain.

    It became ingrained in my senses, and Kristy stopped to look at me for a moment when her eyes suddenly became as big as saucers.

    “Phil, your eyes are yellow.  Is your mate around here?”

    I closed my eyes and focused on the scent.  It wasn’t fresh, but they had been there recently.  The scent also felt warm and full, like it was living and breathing.

    “No, but she was,” I replied when I opened my eyes again.  “I can also tell she’s not dead.  It’s too fresh of a track, and it feels warm, almost like there’s a connection.  I’m sure she’s alive, and I know I’ll meet her.”

    “I’m happy for you,” Kristy replied with a huge hug.  “But for now, let’s focus on the plant.”

    I wasn’t sure I would be able to.