Desired Blood Princess

The Widow

James POV

My phone vibrates on my nightstand next to my bed. My mind is feeling tired with the non-stop reports and mission assignments, but I force myself to focus. I sit up on my bed, reach for my phone and look at the screen. Tom's name flashes at the top of my phone. He never calls, I thought. I quickly answered,

“Hello Tom, what's up?” I say as I make my way to my bathroom. “James, the Widow has left the building and no one knows where she is,” Tom confesses.

This instantly wakes up my whole body and Tom has my full attention.

“What do you mean you don’t know where she is? That's your da**n job,” I practically yelled into the phone.

“We think she bribed a guard to get out of her cell, but killed him as soon as she was out. It looks like she got an hour's headstart and now the men are scouring the forest. Her trail looks like she is leaving Nebraska heading south.”

No, No, how can this be happening? We work so hard and sacrifice so much to keep Jade safe and these a**h***s lost the crazy b****. Dad is gonna flip out.

“Tom, update me immediately once you have more information. I'm gonna update the Alpha and hope he doesn't kill you.” I quickly hung up.

Da** idiots, I couldn’t believe this sh*t. I quickly dressed into some slacks and a button down blue shirt. I mind link my dad asking him where he is.

“I'm in the kitchen,” he replies. “ OK, i'm coming down now and I have bad news.” I quickly cut off the link.

I ran down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. My dad is at the table reading the local newspaper. I know this news will piss him off, so I mentally prepared myself for his response.

“Dad, Tom just called and said that the Widow escaped, the men are searching for her. I told him to update us. He said that her trail looks like she is moving south out of Nebraska.”

I stared at my dad waiting for some kind of reaction or response. But he looks lost in his thoughts.

“Alpha, did you hear what I said” hoping that me addressing him as Alpha would snap him out of his thoughts. My dad lets out a long sigh and says, “She always said she would come for her, that I would never be able to keep her safe.” there is an emotion in his voice I don’t recognize.

“Dad, I will activate code red and call in the warriors and trackers to Casper. They can be here in a day.” I paused for him to give orders or a solution.

His eyes clouded over for a minute and I heard footsteps coming from down the hall. Jacob and Jack enter the kitchen. Jacob looks like he has slept in his clothes from the night before. His hair is a mess and there is some dried spit at the corner of his mouth. Jack had a nonchalant look on his face and still in his pajamas. They both sat down at the table. Dad addresses all of us,

“Tom called and he said the Widow, aka your mother, had just broken out of her cell in Nebraska and was heading south. We know where she is headed and why she is coming. We are in code red.”

Dad referred to the Widow as our mother always makes my stomach turn. What mother would hunt her own kids? She is not our mother and I will never address her as such. I looked over to Jacob and Jack, whose faces looked stunned. My dad continues talking,

“James, call in the warriors and trackers. I am hoping we can catch her before she gets here. Jacob, make sure the safe house is ready for the warriors and activate the surveillance grid around the town. I want eyes on everything. Jack, I will need you available to watch and hang out with Jade. We need to know her whereabouts at all times.” Dad sips his coffee and then adds one last thing: “ I am calling your Aunt Layla to come stay with us, she can train Jade when she gains her wolf.”

We all leave the table to get ready for the day and to carry out our orders. My head is swimming with thoughts. I jump on my laptop and start messaging Scott, who is my dad's gamma and in charge of training the warriors and trackers. I text him:

J: Scott, this is James, CODE RED. Widow has left the building.

I instantly got a response from Scott.

S: James, I will get the men together and be there by nightfall tomorrow.

J: Thanks Scott, I look forward to seeing you.

S: Tell Alpha John we will find her. I will let Beta Owen know the situation.

My thoughts were interrupted by my father yelling upstairs, “Jade, I'm leaving in 15min.” A couple minutes later, my sister came down. I see Jack buttering a toast and handing her a piece. I heard Jack say to her,

“Sis, you wanna hang out in George's garage after school? George got a new mixer I wanna break in.”

“I would love to, but I have track practice today and probably a bunch of homework. The teachers are piling it on since it's the last month of school. Can we do a raincheck?”

“Sure,” Jack says and we all say bye and make our way out to the car. As we open the doors to get in, I see my dad's body stiffen and his eyes are searching across the street. My training jumps in and I walk to Jade's door, blocking her from anyone's view. I mindlink my dad,

“What is it, dad? Should I get Jade in the house?” I feel my body going into protection mode.

“No, just act normal. I thought I smelt magic in the air. I’ll send Jacob to investigate. Get in.” he closed the mind link.

Dad starts the car and we head towards Casper High. Jade noticed what happened back there and asked my dad what that was about. He shrugged it off like he normally does with her. I have asked him multiple times to tell Jade the truth so she can be prepared. I didn’t like leaving her in the dark. We get to school and Jade bolts out of the car not saying bye. I know she is pissed. We continued to the office to get ready for the team and Aunt Layla.

At 2:00, I got up from my desk and told my dad that I would go to Jades after school practice. My wolf, Finn, is restless and is extremely protective of Jade. Alpha wolves are overprotective in general. I get to school at 2:35 and walk out toward the track and field. I was greeted by some senior boys that were freshmen when I was a senior here. One of them says,

“I thought you would be on the USA soccer team kicking Brazil's a** in the playoffs. You were so good." This made me smile. I would have loved to take my soccer career to the next level after high school, but I don’t have that luxury.

“I thought about it, and decided to stay and be with my family and take over the family business.” they all nodded with big eyes. From the corner of my eye I saw my sister approaching and broke away from the crowd,

“Jade, wait up?” I said. Her face had surprise written all over it. “James, what are you doing here?”

I hate lying to her but I do, “We got a new client that lives right down the street from here, so I thought I would pick you up.” She looks satisfied with my answer and she guides me to a bench on the field.

As Jade is getting her shoes out, I see a tall blonde-haired guy run onto the field. My wolf Finn lets out a growl from deep down in my chest. This guy is a f**kin’ wolf. I have never seen him before. How come we didn’t know about this new wolf in town? Jacob is gonna get an ear full from me. This is his job. I can’t believe the day I am having so far. I pull Jade off the field and into the car. Now its dad’s turn to deal with this sh*t.