Chapter 3

My shock was palpable as the SUV pulled up into a parking spot not far from the tarmac, a large, unmarked plane ready and waiting for us to board nearby. A small flight crew stood in front of the stairs leading up to the plane, friendly smiles plastered across their faces.

"Is this a private plane?" I shoved my way out of the car, eager to get away from the heat of Callan and his weirdly aggressive looks at Finn every five minutes. You"d think a mate bond that transcends species and realms would be enough to show him I wasn"t interested in Finn, but I guess not. Men. "How in the hell do you afford something like this?"

Wolfe only grinned, moving to join me as everyone else exited the SUV, Callan already handing off bags to the flight attendants. "Hold up, I have something I"ve been meaning to give you." He reached into his back pocket, pulling a folded-up envelope from it. He handed it to me, his grey eyes twinkling. "Sorry it took me so long. You fulfilled your end of the bargain, it's only fair that I fulfill mine."

My eyes widened at the heavy metal debit card, Rowan Miller inscribed across it. There was a sticky note with a username and password stuck to it. "Ten thousand, plus a little bonus. As a member of the pack, you"ll receive a monthly stipend as well. You"ll need to get a job if you want to live fancy, but it"s enough to get by. Oh, and this." A sleek black key fob was dropped into my hand as he met my wide eyes with an easy grin. "When we get back, the SUV is yours too."

Tears pricked my eyes as I looked at it. I"d been so gung-ho when I"d first stumbled upon the Clover Pack, eager to get my money, some quick answers, and run. Never in a million years did I think I would have found myself that day.

My feelings towards Lexi were mixed, but in the end, I was grateful she"d run me off that road. It had set a journey in motion that I wouldn"t change for the world. Now all I had to do was make sure everyone got out of this alive with me. I swiped away the stray tear that escaped me, clearing my throat and gathering myself together. I had a reputation as a hard ass to protect.

"Took you long enough," I scoffed at him, my smile betraying my irritation as false. He slung a friendly arm around my shoulder, guiding me toward the plane"s waiting staff and the next step of our mission.

I joltedawake from my nap, the turbulence of the plane disturbing my sleep. Emerald eyes met mine, and I blinked, pulling my recliner seat back into a seated position, doing my best to discretely wipe the trail of drool that I hoped no one had seen yet. He sat directly across from me, and I got the distinct impression he had been watching me for longer than just a few seconds as I woke up.

"Sleep well?" Oliver inquired from his seat beside me, folding down the corner of the book he was currently reading and snapping it shut.

"Mostly," I replied, stretching my neck out from side to side in an attempt to alleviate the dull ache that had settled in. I guess even private jets weren"t as comfortable as my soft, warm bed back at the pack.

"It"s better that you"re up," Wolfe chimed in from his spot across from us, next to Callan. The plane was made up of three sections of sleek recliner seating, four seats in each block across the long structure. The rest of our group had made themselves comfortable toward the back of the plane, laughter and the occasional shout drifting up toward us as they caught up with each other. "We need to make sure we"re ready, for whatever we find."

"Do you really think your dad had something to do with it?" Callan"s mate bond with Lexi had been spelled, and it seemed more and more likely that the Supreme Alpha had something to do with it. Or at the very least, he was employing some witches with very questionable morals, and could have been spying on him.

Either outcome, we had a problem that needed to be dealt with.

Wolfe"s jaw clenched as he considered my question. "Growing up with that man was hard, and I think it"s important you understand what we"re walking into. I left as soon as I turned eighteen. The only reason we even speak is because I became an Alpha." He glanced sideways at Callan who avoided his gaze, turning to look out the window, avoiding any chance of a dominance contest.

I was right, Callan wouldn"t try to take the title from Wolfe. In fact, he seemed to be actively avoiding it. "He is a horrible man, and an even worse ruler. He rules with fear, and power, not understanding and compassion."

"Why has no one challenged him?" I asked.

"They have," Wolfe replied darkly, anxiously biting his lip as he remembered. "He"s killed every single one. You don"t become the North American Alpha by being weak. His pack, the Nexus pack, is a unique place. When I was too young to know better, I loved it, but as I got older, I realized what a horrible place it really was."

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, frowning.

"The pack is divided, and he does that on purpose. He rewards the strong and loyal, with all the riches in the world. But the outspoken, the ones who question his rule, he starves those people. Or at least, the ones he doesn"t kill first. He exiles them to the outskirts; we call it the slums. Not to mention what he does to his own family," he added, not elaborating any further. Darkness clung to his words, a contrast to the normally upbeat and fun Wolfe.

"Why don"t they just leave?"

"You can"t leave a pack without permission," Callan answered me this time, his mouth flattened into a thin line. "To leave a pack without approval means to become a rogue."

We hadn"t really talked about his feelings about being outcast as a rogue, but we didn"t need to. I"d seen it in the cast of his shoulders, the set of his jaw, anytime he"d been around the Clover pack. Even sometimes still. He"d worn it like a cloak, a death sentence. To be a rogue is to live a life of exile, of loneliness and solitude. Callan had been lucky Wolfe had let him live on just the outskirts of the pack, but it had still taken a toll on him, especially for a former Alpha, someone as dominant as Callan.

"Is that so bad, though?" Oliver"s brows were drawn sharply, trying to fathom why someone would choose starvation and oppression over a life of loneliness. "Wouldn"t it be better to just live on the outskirts?"

"Most rogues don"t survive the year," Wolfe replied softly, running a hand through his mop of hair, grey eyes flashing. "Very few packs operate the way that the Clover pack does. Some packs make it a sport to hunt down rogue shifters, the Nexus pack included. Becoming a rogue is almost certainly a death sentence."

My blood simmered as I wrapped my head around that. The Supreme had been sentencing Callan to death when he"d outcast him, for a crime he hadn"t committed. I already hadn"t liked the Supreme, but now a deep-seated hatred churned in my gut.

"Do you think he knows about the fae?" Callan asked.

Wolfe"s chest heaved with a sigh, tightness pulling at his eyes. "That I don"t know. If he does, and was knowingly working with them, then that"s a whole different set of problems on our hands."

"What are you going to do?" Callan shifted in his seat, pinning the Alpha with his full attention.

"Whatever I have to," Wolfe replied, an iron finality in his tone. "I haven"t told him much. He knows we caught the killer, and he thinks we"re bringing them in."

"Did you tell him it was Lexi?" I looked to Callan as I said her name, watching for a reaction, but I didn"t get one. He remained as stoic as ever, only a slight darkening in his eyes that could have been a trick of the light.

"No," Wolfe leaned back in his seat, his long legs barely fitting into the space in front of him. "The less he knows, the better. I want to see his face when I tell him."

"Good." Callan looked to the side, staring out the window as we flew high over the ground. He said nothing, but I lowered the wall between us, doing my best to read him through the bond. He was much better at it than I was, and he looked over at me with a small smirk that told me he knew exactly what I was trying to do. Cheeks reddening, I brought the block back into place.

"Why are Nia and Finn coming along? Wouldn"t it be better to just keep him in the dark?" Oliver asked, his brow furrowed.

"No. I want to see his face when he realizes what they are." Wolfe's eyes hardened, his mouth twisting. "And if he knows, if he"s involved with the fae trying to destroy our realm, then he"s playing a dangerous game."

The rest of the flight went smoothly, the landscape slowly transforming beneath us. Vast forests and rugged mountains sprawled, a comforting sight for shifters. The thought of the wind blasting by me as I ran freely through the forest had me itching to burst out of my skin. It"d been too long since I"d been on a run.

Soon, the plane touched down at a small private airport, and we disembarked the plane, the air crisp and cool, carrying the faintest scent of pine.

Outside the airport, a sleek black SUV greeted us. Was that the only car these guys knew how to drive?

Assuming Wolfe would give me the title, maybe I could trade mine in for something a little less secret agent and a little more me. I spared a thought for the car Lexi had made me total the night she ran me off the road, and a sadness washed over me. The car I"d lovingly nicknamed Stupid Bitch had been my only friend for a long time, and even my house when my luck had turned bad. Maybe I could get a newer model and call her Stupider Bitch.

Okay, probably not the right name, but I"d think on it.

We piled into the nearest SUV, the tension so buttery a knife could slide right through it. Wolfe spoke a few words to the driver, and then we were off, driving through the winding Montana roads. The darkened forest whispered past, the vegetation seemingly endless.

It didn"t take long for us to arrive, the SUVs stopping in front of the most interesting sight I had ever seen. My shock was mirrored on Nia and Finn"s faces at what was in front of us. "This is the Nexus Pack."

The sprawling city blended right in with the wilderness, equal parts nature and civilization. There were vine-covered structures all over, with tree-canopied avenues crossing between them. Towers made of elegant wood and stone dotted the trees, stretching toward the sky like ancient oaks. Elevated walkways wound throughout the branches, creating a multi-leveled city of wonder.

"Holy –" I started.

"Impressive, isn"t it?" Wolfe said from the front seat, pride in his grey eyes. "The people make it so that I don"t want to come back here, but the architecture... you won"t find another place quite like it. It"s a shame."

I stared out the window as we drove, taking in as much as I could.

For blocks as we entered toward the city center, I noticed the houses looked very run-down, starving people in tattered and dirty clothing milling through the streets, barely even glancing at our very out-of-place vehicles. I knew they were being mistreated, but I don"t think Wolfe and Callan had done it justice. These people were struggling, and to call this housing was a considerable stretch.

This was inhumane.

"I can"t believe he gets away with this," I said softly, my heart tugging as we passed a rundown school building with cracked and abused playground equipment. It was a weekday afternoon, but there were no kids running and playing.

"Not all Alphas are created equal," Lily answered me with a sour face, leaning forward from where she sat in the back with Nia. Once again, I was squished between Callan and the door. "It is kill or be killed in a pack like this."

"Someone needs to challenge him and change this."

"Challenges are a fight to the death. You don"t make that challenge lightly against an eight-foot-tall bear shifter." For a moment, I considered it. I truly, strongly contemplated throwing my hat in the ring if it meant that I could make a better life for these people. I"d been blinded by the goodness of the Clover pack, the way Wolfe led the pack with compassion and consideration, and more importantly, respect.

"Absolutely not," Callan voiced from next to me, reading my intentions.

"Why not?" I hissed at him, keeping my voice low. There really wasn"t a point. Even if I wasn"t trapped in a car with a bunch of shifters and fae, normal human ears would have still been able to hear. Still, the rest of the crew kept silent. "I"m powerful. I could do it."

He shook his head in disbelief. "You"ve only recently learned to use your powers; you"re just asking to get hurt."

"How am I supposed to take down Cas and Tantaii if I can"t even defeat a bear shifter?" Wolfe cleared his throat loudly on my last words, a jarring reminder that we were not alone in this car. The burly shifter driving us should have been able to hear, but he either didn"t seem to notice or just didn"t care, his dark eyes staying pinned on the road as we kept moving.

"You realize what would happen if you won that fight?" he asked me, continuing to keep his voice low and level, even though his eyes were trying to sear holes into my skin. "You"d be the Supreme Alpha."

He was right. And that was not something I wanted. I liked taking care of myself and being independent. The thought of having an entire race of people looking to me for guidance made me sweaty, tingles of anxiety prickling down my spine.

"He can"t keep getting away with this," I protested anyway. I didn"t want that mantle of leadership, but these people needed help. Their houses barely had roofs, and I was highly questioning if they even had running water based on the state of the people I had seen so far.

"He won"t," Wolfe said tightly from the front seat, turning to give me a sharp look. "We"ll talk about this later."

I leaned back into my seat, dejectedly looking out the window. Wolfe seemed cool with the driver, but who knows who he was really loyal to. The last thing we needed was to have something get back to the Supreme and ruin any element of surprise we had, so I kept quiet.

We were driven into the heart of the city, my head on a swivel the entire time as I marveled at the incredible surroundings that we passed, a stark difference from the slums before. After winding through the tree-lined streets for what seemed like ages, we finally arrived in a central clearing that opened up to make space for the centerpiece: a massive tree with wide, sweeping branches that stretched out like a mother"s embrace. Intricate carvings adorned its trunk, dotted with string lights woven in and around, casting a soft, ethereal glow over the area. Thick, powerful roots dug deep into the earth, disappearing underneath.

"The roots are tunnels," Wolfe told us as we stepped out of the SUV, and Finn gave an excited gasp that made the entire car laugh. As soon as we exited, the driver pulled away, leaving us with only one way to go. "It"s not public knowledge, but the Alpha before my father had them added, with help from the witches, to keep the tree alive and thriving. They spread all across the city."

"Where do they take you? What are they for?" Finn asked, practically vibrating with excitement at the idea of tunnels. He"d spent a human"s lifetime forging an underground system in the faerie realm to help fae who couldn"t escape from Cas on their own.

"I"m not entirely sure," Wolfe said, scratching his chin. "When we were younger, Lily and I used to play in the one underneath this building, but the pathways were always blocked off. My father said he didn"t want us to get lost." He almost smiled at the memory, and I saw the same softness reflected on her face. A yearning churned in my gut at seeing them recall the easy memories. I looked at Finn, knowing we had been childhood friends, but none of those memories came to me.

They were gone and never coming back.

Wolfe paused at the wide mahogany door, pivoting to face our group. He leaned in, lowering his voice, even though we were alone. "Remember, be smart about this. We are walking straight into his den; we can"t afford to show our hand too soon. Behave." His eyes especially paused on me, and it took all of my effort not to get offended, especially because I knew he was right to tell me that.

I could benefit from a lesson in holding my tongue.

"Nia and Finn, stay in the back and try not to stand out too much until I introduce you." His gaze hesitated on Nia"s azure locks, and she took a half-step back, standing behind Finn"s taller stature who flashed the Supreme a cheeky grin.

An entire head of blue hair wasn"t necessarily a dead giveaway, but there was no way anyone took a look at Nia and thought she was anything short of an avenging angel.

The rest of us nodded, and without further pause, he turned back forward, pushing the door open and leading us inside.