A Matter of Convenience

Forty-One

~Miles~

We pull up to the packhouse, and I hurry out of the vehicle. The other one moved forward to the clinic. We wanted the injured warriors to be looked over to just to be on the safe side.

Standing in front of the packhouse is Beta Lionel, and he looks pissed. I briefly told him what happened, but he didn’t take it well, of course. I completely blame myself, knowing I need to do anything possible to get my Alpha back. “I’m so sorry, Beta. I should have-” Beta Lionel holds his hand up, stopping my words completely.

“This is not your fault. You did what your Alpha requested of you. She knew what she was possibly walking into, and she continued with her plans. What we need to do right now is get her back, but we can’t risk a war with Alpha Felix.”

“Why not? Clearly he had a hand in this!”

“Do you have any proof? Do you know for sure that he was behind what happened?” I sigh and drop my head.

“No, we have no proof.” Beta Lionel nods and runs a hand down his face.

“That’s why we can’t go down path. We have no proof and the elders won’t take kindly to us attacking with no proof.”

“What are we supposed to do?”

“We will go to my office and see if we can figure out where she could be. Hopefully we get some type of communication from whoever took her.” I nod and follow the Beta into the packhouse.

~Ericson~

Blade has been pacing in my head back and forth for a while now. He’s been out of sorts since Isis left, jumping from my balcony. I know she said that Alpha Felix has reached out, but I have no more information than that.

My parents were looking for her during breakfast. Well, Mom was looking for her, and Dad looked smug to see she was gone. It was a tense breakfast, so I’m glad we had it privately rather than with the rest of the pack. Since breakfast, I’ve been trying to focus on my work, but Blade is making it difficult to do. We need to call her.

You know we can’t all her. We have her phone.

Well, go to her pack! We need to know what happened to her!

Why do you care, blade? She’s an Alpha wolf. She knew what was possibly going on with that pack. She’ll be fine.

Fu.cking human! For once, can you not be a fu.cking d***k?! CHECK ON HER! I groan out and roll my eyes. I swear I don’t know when it happened, but Blade is suddenly very interested in Isis, and it’s annoying.

Before I can get up and leave, the office phone rings. Much to Blade's irritation, I pick it up on the third ring. “Who am I speaking with?” I chuckle.

“You called here, guy. Did you dial this number without an idea of who you were trying to contact?” He growls on the line, and I fight to hold in my amusement.

“I’d watch my tongue if I were you. I’d hate for you bi.tch to pay for your sharp tongue.” Blade immediately stands at attention in my mind, and my breath hitches. “Ah, I see that I got your attention. Not such a smartass now, are you?” I say nothing, trying to figure out if what I think he’s saying is what he’s actually saying.

“What do you want? Who are you?”

“Who I am isn’t important right now. I want to talk to whoever is in charge of negotiating.”

“Negotiating what?”

“Negotiating for your mate, of course. I have Isis here with me, and if you want her back, we have some details to hammer out.” I say nothing, trying to avoid the blinding headache that’s threatening to take over. Blade is losing his sh.it, and it’s making it hard for me to concentrate. “Seems like you need a minute to figure sh.it out. I will call back in an hour, and we can talk about what I want in return for her then. I suggest you have your sh.it figured out by then because she’s pretty tasty. I may have to have a taste if you take too long.” The call disconnects, and I lose my hold on Blade, being forcefully thrown to the back of my mind.”

“Those sons of bi.tches are going to pay!”

~Jovanni~

I walk out of the room, pissed off. I hate that he threatened to touch my mate, but I can’t say anything right now. I have to play nice until Alpha Felix gets what he’s looking for. I hate that it has to be that way because that bastard deserves to have his head ripped off his body.

I pull out my phone and dial my Alpha. “The call has been placed. He will call back in an hour to make your demands.”

“Good. Keep me updated.” I disconnect the call and place my phone in my pocket.

Once we got here, I put Isis in the room that was set up for her. It was reinforced so she couldn’t get out. She was also given another dose of the wolfsbane she was initially shot with. When it comes down to it, she’s an Alpha wolf and no one in this building is equipped to take her on. We can’t have her at her full strength. Not even the mate bond would help if she had all of her faculties about her.

I stand in front of the closed door. It has a big window built in, so I can see her without being in the room. She’s asleep on the bed in the room. I watch her chest slowly rise and fall, indicating that she is breathing normally.

The wolfsbane is mixed with a heavy sedative to keep her knocked out. I want to talk to her, but she’s going to be out for another hour or two. I’ve been rehearsing what I want to say to her, but I’m not sure if it’s enough.

I need Isis in my life. I need her to take me back, take back her rejection. I know I had ulterior motives for our union, but that never overshadowed how I felt about her. How could I not want her? She’s gorgeous and powerful. She’s probably the subject of any sane man’s wet dreams.

The messed up part is that I didn’t even get to taste her before she walked away from me. I thought she was warming up to me, and I figured I’d be able to get her to agree to be with me before our ceremony. We’d gotten close a few times, but she always put the breaks on. I really want to taste her and be able to say that I’ve had my fated mate. Anything past that, I will take as it comes.