Chapter 3

It had been a week since his attempt to talk to Alvin, and Elliot had stayed away. It was his choice to remain distant. He'd done it before; he could do it again. Only before, Alvin hadn't known they were mates. Now that he did, it was like the bond between them had kicked into action, and it was a struggle to ignore. But he would. For both of their sakes, he would stay away.

As he sat in a meeting with his inner circle—as Preston called them—going over the information they had gathered since their disastrous rescue mission. Maybe disastrous was too harsh a word for it. They had rescued Preston but discovered they were woefully unprepared to handle this new threat. Creatures it appeared this A. S. group had created.

"Albie is recovering well," Billy Tapper, their doctor, told them. "His wounds are healing faster than a human's would, but that would be down to him having mated a shifter. I expect him to be released in the next few days, but he'll need to take it easy. I know what you ex-military type are like."

"And Fabien?" Elliot asked. They'd had a quiet funeral for him. Jacques, the vampire king, had been there. Jacques was as involved with their fight as they were and had provided some of his vampires to aid them. He had wanted to know everything they'd uncovered and had left, promising more help.

"We have preliminary results. Those quills have a toxin that slows down blood clotting in wounds. Those who have been injured with them are taking longer to heal."

Preston snorted. "Tell me about it. Those bitches hurt, and the wounds took a couple of weeks to heal."

"You still have the scar and a couple that haven't quite healed," Manu added.

"Not stopped you?—"

"Anything else to report?" Elliot interrupted Preston and Manu before they had a chance to argue. How they were mates… Not going there. Not when he had his own mate. One he refused to acknowledge publicly.

"Not yet. Once we have all the results back in, I'll let you know. It's taking longer than anticipated because we want to double check a couple of the results."

"Understood. Let us know when you have them."

Billy left, and Deac nodded at Elliot, who stood and locked the door. "We have something to discuss, Eli," Deac said once Eli had sat back down. "Our spy."

"Or spies," Preston muttered. He fiddled with a pen, a crease between his eyes. "I'm not sure if there are one or two. I'd go with two for now. One in security for certain and another in the village."

"Why one in the village?"

"Never put all your eggs in one basket."

Eli furrowed his brow. Made sense, which made finding the spies that much harder. They had more shifters asking to move to Morefield than they had room for and more people meant more chances of a spy slipping in. Leaning back in his chair, he looked at Deac, who nodded at Preston. "Agreed. Let's work on flushing out the one here first before we plan how to find the other one."

"I made a suggestion of having an IT glitch that we need to resolve by limiting access. Then lay a trap."

"Limiting access to who?" Deac glanced around the room. "Us?"

"For now." Preston flicked his eyes over to Manu, who nodded. "We need something that will at least point us in the right direction. We have several people working each shift. We need something that can pinpoint a time so we can see who is here at that time. Then we can begin to narrow it down further."

"Preston suggested a change in shift patterns, but I think that would be too hard to implement, as everyone would have to know." Eli looked around the room. "Any ideas?"

"An email," Rand suggested. "One that we alter, so everyone has an email that differs slightly."

"Say a different date?" Jim stared at the table. "A date we're implementing some new strategy or upgrade."

"It's workable." Deac tapped his pen and stared out of the window. "I can't wait for this to be over." Looking at everyone, he said, "Come up with ideas, but don't share them until we meet again. We'll go through them and pick the one that will be most effective."

"Back to the creatures." Eli leaned on the table. "As you know, I've been seeing them around my property and taking a screen shot when one of them passes near my CCTV. So far, we've identified eight different individuals. Having spoken with Preston, he believed they might be monitoring me. My day-to-day routine, my security. I tested his theory, and it would appear Preston is correct."

"What did you do?"

"I changed my routine." Eli shrugged. "Preston thought they were learning my routine as a possible way to catch me off guard and take me out."

"Or capture you at a time and place that would be easiest for them. Makes sense. Other than Deac, you're in charge. Remove you and we'd adapt, but there could be a time delay." Jim slumped in his chair, wincing slightly and rubbing his shoulder. "They must know by now most of us have some military training. We'd adapt, but there would be a time delay as information was passed, positions altered. That would be the perfect time to strike. I would say you and Deac are targeted." Shrugging, Jim added, "Not something we didn't know."

"I haven't noticed anything or anyone following me to observe my routine, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening."

"We have the Village covered extensively. The only weak links are the roads in and out of here. The main route to Salutem is covered as much as we can, but that road is public and not private, so there is only so much we can do." Jim moved his shoulder and winced again, then sighed. "Thing needs to heal."

"If you did the exercises…" Rand, Jim's brother, muttered.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get right on that when I have more time."

"I know we're down on cover right now, but while this is going on… I'm hesitant to add more to our teams." Deac hardened his jaw. "We have to find that mole. I won't have more people hurt—or worse."

Fabien's death loomed over them, and Eli briefly closed his eyes. Fabien had been a friend and colleague and was now dead. He felt responsible. If he'd arrived at Fabien's location quicker, he might have been able to save him. Might have been able to stop Albie from being injured so badly.

"We need to find a way to kill those things. I shot one in the face with a shotgun, and the thing shook it off like I'd slapped it. Then it slapped me—and here I am with a fucked-up shoulder." Jim rotated his shoulder. "I usually recover from these types of injuries, but this one is lingering."

"They had to reset it and keep it immobile for a few days. That thing might have slapped you, but the damage was extensive. By all rights, the bone should have broken but didn't."

"Might have healed faster with a break than all these muscles and tendon shit I've got going on." Sighing deeply, Jim gave them a small smile. "I shouldn't complain. At least I'm alive."

The atmosphere dropped, and Eli again thought of Fabien. "Let's go over what I've grabbed and discuss it." He lay the pictures out on the table, and they all went over them, discussing how to approach the situation. Another two hours of plans, then new plans, and then deciding they needed something else left Eli with a headache, and he was glad when Deac called an end to the meeting.

Leaving the building, Eli caught sight of Alvin and contemplated going over to talk to him, but what would be the point? They weren't going to mate. Eli had made up his mind, and he had too much going on in his life and in his head to have someone else deal with it too.

Getting in his truck, he drove back to his place, needing the space and the quiet it gave him. Time away from everyone so he could let his mind process recent events. Not that it happened. Almost as soon as he started thinking about plans and security and all that entailed, Alvin popped up.

At home, Eli checked his cameras, noticing nothing new, then sat back with a soda, feet propped up on the table. Watching and waiting. If they were right—and he knew they were—one of those creatures would make an appearance.

Ten minutes later, one did. The bushes to the far side of his property moved, then a head appeared. To Eli, it looked almost like it was making itself known. Letting Eli know it was there and that he was being watched. Eli wasn't sure what they could use to take one down unless it involved heavy artillery. The PN90s helped, but he wasn't sure if they caused any damage or not. He was going with a rocket launcher next time. See if one of the bastards survived that.

The creature disappeared, and Eli messaged Preston. Home ten mins and one appeared.

Any while you were out?

Not that I saw. I'll do a more thorough check after I've slept.

Would you normally be in at this time?

Yep.

Change it. See what happens.

Eli pursed his lips. Will do. How's Manu?

Fuck off.

Smiling, Eli dropped his phone on the table and watched the monitors for a few more minutes, then stood. He wasn't going to waste time here when he could sleep. Or try to. He needed a couple of hours before he had to work, and he was pulling a double, so he needed that sleep or he could potentially miss something important. Like one of those creatures.

Alvin. Groaning, Eli stripped and climbed under the covers, determined not to think about the young man, but his mind had other ideas, as did other parts of his body. Choosing to his ignore his dick, which desperately wanted attention, Eli rolled onto his side, punched his pillow a couple of times, then settled to try to sleep for a few hours.

After ten minutes of trying—and a dick that refused to go down—Eli rolled onto his back. Grabbing his dick, he stroked the hard length, biting back a moan. He attempted to focus on a woman, her soft skin and curvy figure, but it got him nowhere, so reluctantly he focused on his mate.

Alvin's face appeared, and Eli shuddered. Alvin's bright blue eyes clouded with desire, his blond hair damp with sweat, his body tight with pleasure as Eli fucked him. The tight heat pulling Eli in, making his own body light up with desire. The smell of his mate was all around him, making him forget about everything and everyone except Alvin.

His grip tightened, and he trembled, a tingling sensation building inside until his hips arched up, his body falling apart as he came. When Eli finally opened his eyes, he lay panting. He quickly cleaned up and refused to acknowledge his attraction to his mate even though he knew he wanted to put his hands and body on and in Alvin.

A desire that was growing harder to ignore, even though he'd made the decision to ignore his mate.

Sighing, Eli curled up on his side and closed his eyes. Now he knew he would sleep, the exhaustion tugging at his body, and Eli welcomed the darkness.