Chapter Four

King

The best thing for me to do about Ryan was to stay far away from him. His lovely skin. His perfect smile.

Far. Far. Away.

Otherwise, I might be tempted to throw all the reasons why not out the door and claim who was mine.

I'd taken out three nasty little alphas since leaving the warehouse the last time. Bloodthirsty, even for me, but lately my lion had been barely tamable. He roamed back and forth inside my mind during the night and, as soon as the sun rose, he wanted more—more blood—more kills.

I'd never seen him like this. I ignored the obvious reason, of course. A bastard like me had no right to be mate crazed. The only mate craze should be Ryan as he realized I was his mate and that the Goddess had done him a great disservice.

I was pulling an all-nighter, staking out a home in a neighborhood that from the outside looked like any other suburban family home. Tyrus intercepted some intelligence straight from the source since he'd tapped into the organization's computers and told me this was the place. By day, someone took the trash to the street. The mail was checked. Packages were retrieved in a timely manner. No one would suspect that any day now, a truck, posing as a furniture delivery would back into this cobblestone driveway and drop off stolen, kidnapped omegas. Right under their noses.

Next door to the mom who played tennis and had a man come to the house when her husband left in the morning. Across the street from the two dads with cute little twin daughters—one who played soccer and the other who loved ballet.

You found out a lot about people from simply watching.

Of course, my job used to belong to Aziz. He was the stalker, the investigator. I was the exterminator.

My phone buzzed in the console to my right, and I answered it immediately. "What?" I barked out. We didn't add contacts to the phones we took off the property. If I was caught or killed, I didn't want them tracing my people.

"King, my man. What's up?" Tyrus laughed. That bear was always jolly lately. Being mated and having a baby was good for him. Sloan was good for him. Tempered that bear quite well.

"Staking this place out."

"Any news?"

I shook my head, even though he couldn't see me. "Not really. How about you? You don't know when this shit is going down yet?"

"No. I'm watching all the channels waiting for the truck. At some point, I want to get ahead of these things. Prevent them from buying any more properties somehow, but they use so many aliases it's nearly impossible to find them all. I'd like to rip them out from the roots, you know?"

I picked up my night-vision binoculars. Although I had shifter sight, they helped me see those who moved in the shadows. "I do. The sooner the better if you ask me."

"Should I hang up? I don't want to distract you, man."

"No, it's okay. I need some company. Anything new at the warehouse?"

He grunted, and I heard his chair squeak as it did when he leaned back. "Not here, but at the other house. Sloan went over there to help with the kids a bit, and he came back saying he was concerned about Ryan."

I dropped the binoculars and almost the phone.

"What about Ryan?" My beast spoke through me, a first. Tyrus was talking about our mate. Mate bond or not, he was mine. Even if we never fulfilled the mating, which we wouldn't, there would always be a piece of me who looked out for him.

Goddess, I was a goner already.

"I don't know. Sloan said he was low energy. He has doubled his counseling sessions. He is running more and more as his animal. The kids say he's sad, but no one knows why."

"Didn't anyone ask him?" I said with a little more force than necessary.

"No. Ryan is great and good with the kids, but he keeps to himself about the shit he went through. Sloan chalks it up to past trauma. That shit can hit you out of left field. You can be okay for months, even years and then bam, some shit triggers it and you're back in the thick of all that pain and anguish."

"Can you bring him to the warehouse? Give him some time with Sloan and Grey and the others? He's older than the other kids. Maybe he could use someone to talk to besides the counselor."

"Maybe. I'll talk to Sloan about it." My friend didn't have a clue that I was the one who wanted the best for Ryan. To him, I was spewing random opinions and guesses. "Speaking of the other building, we need to expand it already. Each time we intercept a truck or a kidnapping, we have less space in there. Bigger kitchen too."

"After I'm done with this one, I can come back and help you handle that."

Tyrus blew out a long breath. "What if you ended this mission early?"

I had to admit, wrapping this up and getting back into the vicinity of my mate sounded like music to my lion's ears. A fucking symphony.

"What did you have in mind, brother?"

"Well, if the alphas in there are gone and the house is burned to the ground, there's nowhere to bring a shipment to. You feel me?"

My lion roared. The bear had a good point. A damned good point.

"You're sure there are no omegas in there? You know my beast. Once he gets on a rampage, there's no stopping him. He's particularly restless lately." Understatement of the fucking year.

"I wonder what's going on with that? Ryan's restless. You're restless. Weird. Maybe we should get our water system checked."

I scrubbed my free hand down my face and almost laughed. The water. I had an inkling as to what was going on with Ryan or even myself but was sure he would get over it. Ryan. He was young and beautiful. One day, a strong alpha would sweep him off his feet and, if he even realized that I was his mate, he would get over the notion quickly.

His good sense would make the decision for him, hopefully.

"Maybe so," I said. "So what's the call?"

"Hold on. I'm walking to the table. Hammer needs to make the call."

Nothing moved at the house I watched. No lights flickered inside. No flashing of a TV or the opening of any doors. No one came or went except for random trucks that drove into the garage.

"You're on speaker, King," our leader answered.

"Hammer," I said, "what do you think? I can end this now before it even begins. It would be one hell of a sign to the ones in charge."

"There are no omegas in there yet?" Hammer asked.

"No. Just a couple of security thugs."

Hammer exhaled loudly. "King's right. That would be one hell of a message."

"They'll be left with ashes." I took my shoes off, getting ready to shift. The predator inside me got the message loud and clear.

"Do it," Hammer commanded. "Get back here when it's done, just in case there's someone on their way. We don't want witnesses."

"I'm on it."

There were only bodies and blood once the fire started. I made sure the fire was contained to the house before I left. The last thing I wanted was innocent blood or hurt people on my hands. I had enough sins weighing on my chest.

As I rolled out of the neighborhood, I passed some fire trucks already on the way.

I hope those fuckers loved the message I sent.