The Mate Challenge

17

Trevan Stone didn’t appreciate games. He was upfront in everything he did from hooking up with random women, to getting rid of anyone in his way. It seemed that he’d hit a speed bump in Blue Creek by the name of Rocco Rahound. The shifter Alpha, or supposed Alpha had sent someone to try and recruit him and his friends for a dirty job the old man didn’t want to take care of himself. He snorted. What a pathetic excuse for a leader.

Trevan and his friends weren’t exactly rogues, but they didn’t belong to any large packs. He and his two friends had lost their pack when they’re warred with some vampires. His brother, the former Alpha of his pack had been killed along with the rest of his family and most of their pack.

He sat down at a hole in the wall bar mostly filled with humans and glanced at the people around him.

“Are we actually considering doing what that piece of s**t old man paid us for?” Roen Girard, his best friend asked.

No f*****g way. They weren’t hired killers. They killed, but only when they felt the need. Usually they found themselves defending the side of the innocents, not praying on them.

Roen picked up his beer mug and drank the contents in a single swig. “f*****g bastard. I wanted to bash his head in when he said he wanted us to take some kids to those blood suckers.”

“We already got paid, so it’s not like we have to do anything,” Alain Thorpe, Trevan’s other best friend since childhood stated.

“We can’t just leave and act like we don’t know what the f**k they’re doing!” Roen growled. “We might not have a pack, but we’re not heartless murderers.”

He was right. Trevan and his friends had grown up surrounded by family for most of their lives. Though their pack had been small and secluded to the deep Stone Mountains, he’d always known to defend the innocents.

Trevan agreed with Roen. But he didn’t understand why Rahound wanted them to bring girls and hand them over to a group of vampires. As far as he knew, vampires and wolves didn’t mix. Why would they be having any kind of business now?

“Something’s going on in this town,” he said, eyeing the group of humans drinking and laughing around them. So innocent. So helpless. Like sheep to the slaughter. They had no idea they were surrounded by beasts.

“So, what do we do?” Alain asked, his voice low and guarded. He kept his gaze on the front entrance while Trevan did the same with the back door. They knew s**t could happen at any time and the last thing they would allow is to be caught unawares by anyone. Especially vampires.

“Find out more. Let’s not break off contact just yet,” he motioned for the men to stand. It was time to get out of there. “Let’s see where all this is going. Someone has to know something about the Rahound Alpha and why he wants us to do that.”

Whatever the hell they’d walked into in Blue Creek, they weren’t just going to sit by and do Rocco’s dirty work. But the old man had hired a lot of rogues, which meant pretty soon a large group of teenage girls was going to go missing and unless they figured out why, nobody would know.

When he’d grown up in the Stone Mountains, Trevan had learned to lead from his brother. He’d been the youngest and always attached to his brother’s side. One of the things he’d been taught was that vampires weren’t all bad. He’d believed that. Until the day they’d savagely killed men, women and children in the pack without a second’s hesitation. Now, he could sit down and watch them burn without batting an eye.

He’d heard that the Wolfe pack led Blue Creek. But with Rahound so close, he wondered if the set up with the vampires had something to do with Wolfes. He needed to talk to one of their people. Or someone close to the pack and find out what the hell was going on in that town.

“Do you know anything about the Wolfes?” Trevan asked the others.

“Bunch of guys mated to a bunch of humans is all I know,” Roen replied, dropping some bills on the bar counter to cover their tab.

“The future Alpha recently got married is gone for a few weeks with his new bride. The others are around. They all own some kind of business with the name Wolfe on it, so if we wanted to search them out it shouldn’t be hard to do,” Alain added.

Did he want to look for the Wolfes or get information on them? Best to play it safe and see what they found out before approaching anyone.

“Let’s see who we can find that knows them better,” Trevan slid off the stool and stood. Women smiled at him. Some licked their lips in open invitation. If he weren’t so curious as to Rocco and his plans with the vampires, he would stay for a while and talk to one of the humans. He liked women with curves and soft smiles.

“You think Rocco has something planned with the bloodsuckers against the Wolfes?” Alain asked as they walked out the door.

The cooler evening air didn’t bother them. They were used to much colder temperatures and would probably spend the night in the woods. His wolf wanted to roam.

“Whatever Rocco is planning, I have a feeling that by having the vampires on his side he’s going to try to gain the upper hand and not care over the number of casualties, mainly teenagers. He’ll use them all to get his way.”

If Trevan had anything to say about it, there was no way in hell he’d let vampires destroy another town.

* * *

Emma knew she was pushing her luck by going back to Mason’s club. Ever since she’d gone to the vampires he’d been stuck to her side. He’d finally gone to do his own thing almost four days later. Only because he’d pulled the promise from her that she would keep her distance now that things with the Rahound and the rogues had turned more dangerous. He worried over her safety. It was sweet, but Emma had things to do.

She shifted from foot to foot on her black combat boots. She waited to see if the bartender would come outside the back door. Unlike the last time she’d broken all the rules and gone into Mason’s club, this time she took a different approach. By not going inside the club she wasn’t really going against what Mason asked, but she was still getting possible important information that could help her find Maria.