6. Five

Five

Lincoln

I smashed my finger over the return key and growled.

Sloane stopped pacing and lifted her brows as she looked at me expectantly. "Anything?"

I scrubbed a hand over my face and beat my fisted hand on the mattress. "The web host won't restore the site. They claim there is malware in the code, which is complete and utter bullshit. My site wasn't hacked. There is nothing malicious about it."

This had to be my dad. But how? He didn't have the technological knowhow. He had the connections though, and the money to make it happen. Dammit.

The bed creaked and dipped as Sloane sat next to me. She turned the computer towards her, her eyes glazing over the screen before landing on me. "Do you think you're going to be able to do anything at all?"

I grunted and exhaled loudly. "Maybe if I call someone I might be able to talk to someone who's competent and get them to restore it. I'm not sure yet."

Depending on what they were dinging me for, it could be an uphill battle that would take weeks to sort out. We didn't have that kind of time.

Sloane flipped the laptop around so it was facing me. "It's going to be okay, Lincoln. People know that the websites are out there. People have been talking. I'm sure we can talk to Alpha Isaac and our other contacts over the phone." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "We just might need to do things the old-fashioned way."

She was right. But phone calls wouldn't reach as far as the interweb could. "I just hate that my dad is taking this away."

She ran her fingers up and down my arm. "He's doing this because he feels threatened, Lincoln. We're getting to him. We're doing what we need to do."

I considered her words. She had a point. We were getting under his skin. The chat box closed itself as my inactivity timer ran out. I folded the laptop shut. "I love that you always look at the silver lining."

She squeezed my arm. "I think I get that from my dad. Just because things aren't going our way, doesn't mean that we can't make lemonade out of lemons."

I chuckled and shook my head. "That sounds more like your mom speaking."

Sloane giggled and rolled her eyes. "What can I say? I am my parents' child."

She had gotten the best traits from both her parents. I prayed to Luna every day I had more of my mom in me than my dad. Dad had been a decent person when I'd been young, but as soon as Mom and Hannah passed, he had flipped, and he'd never been the same.

Sloane patted me softly. "What can I do to help you?"

I blew out a breath and ran a hand through my hair. "I'm not sure there is much that we can do at the moment."

I motioned to the laptop. "If we can't get them to restore the website, I'll either need to start over with a completely new domain and probably rebuild the site. I'll need to find a new host too and repurchase my security certificate."

Her eyes went wide and mouth slack. "I only understood about ten percent of what you just said right there."

I chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm used to it. There is a lot of back end stuff that needs worked out. It's not as simple as slapping it up on the internet and calling it a day."

She scooted closer and planted a soft kiss on my lips. "Remember, when you're talking to us common folk, explain it to us like we're five. I understood the last bit. What you're saying is it's not going to be a quick fix."

She narrowed her eyes and tapped her lip as she cocked her head to the side. "You know, maybe Brandon could help you. He seems to know a lot more about this kind of thing than even I thought he did."

I puffed out my cheeks and let out the breath slowly. "Couldn't hurt."

The few times I spoke to Brandon, he seemed to know what he was talking about, but I'd never seen him actually doing anything either. Knowing about coding and actually writing code were two extremely different things. There was also just because you knew how to write it didn't mean you knew how to make it work.

I tapped my fingers on the lid of the laptop. "Let me try calling their customer support first. That's going to be our fastest and easiest way to restore the website. If they're agreeable, we'd be up and running today."

She gave me another kiss. "I'll leave you to that, then. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I can find to keep myself busy."

I knew she wasn't saying that either. There was always something for her to do. I'd seen my dad run around like a chicken with his head cut off my entire life. But it never really clicked how grueling being an alpha was until Sloane had taken her father's place.

Her fingers slipped out of mine as she stood up. She walked to the door, put her hand on the knob, and then looked over her shoulder. "Come find me when you're done. Let me know how it goes."

"I will."

She gave me a tight-lipped smile before slipping out the door.

I dug my cell phone out of my pocket as I opened the laptop back up and searched for the customer service number.

I cursed under my breath. Only chat was open right now. It was probably just an automated assistant, which would be useless. The customer service lines didn't open for another two hours. I guess that was one of the downfalls of being up at the crack of dawn. Nobody else was awake.

I stared at my phone screen. My fingers hovered over the keys. I knew my father‘s number by heart. It would be dumb to call him.

It didn't stop me from dialing his number or hitting the send button. I blew out a breath as I lifted the phone to my ear.

The ring was shrill, like nails on a chalkboard. My pulse raced. My mouth went dry, and I considered hanging up, but just as I was about to pull the phone away from my ear, the line clicked on.

"Hello," my father's gruff voice answered. He cleared his throat and I had the feeling I had woken him up.

Well, there was no going back now unless I wanted to be a coward. I hadn't really thought through why I was calling him, but, here went nothing. "Dad."

The word sounded foreign in my mouth, and I hated how my breath hitched when I said it. Part of me felt like a kid and having to tell him I'd done something bad. Sure, he'd been stern, but he'd never been harsh, and I'd always known he loved me. I hated I had those memories. It made all of this so much harder.

Dad was quiet for a moment. "Lincoln." His voice was oddly calm and almost surprised, loving even. I couldn't really describe it.

The moment was short-lived. "Have you called to beg for your and the little slut's life?"

Ah, there was the father I'd come to know.

I pursed my lips as I snarled. "Don't call her that."

I almost spit out a retort about his extracurricular activities, but then I didn't know who all knew that my father was expecting another child and I couldn't risk that slip up and put Sawyer in danger.

He grunted. "Well, whatever you want to call her, I guess I should be glad that we found out what a traitor you both really were."

I massaged my temple with my free hand. Calling him had been dumb. What the hell I was I thinking? "You know it doesn't have to be like this, Dad. It's not too late for us."

"Too late?" His voice rose a few octaves, and I could hear the anger shaking in it. "Why can't you see the bigger picture, son? This is about protecting our family from anything ever happening again."

I closed my eyes and gripped the phone so hard I feared it would snap. "You want to protect us by starting a war? You want to protect us by having other wolves plot against us? Dad that's suicide."

My dad barked out a laugh. "They wouldn't be doing that if it weren't for your traitorous lies." He ahhed, sounding amused. "Is that what this calls really about? The website was finally taken down."

My suspicions were confirmed. "You might have taken down the website, but it's not stopping anyone. The war is going to continue and these wolves are not going to stop until you're dead."

I could almost see his face in my mind. The smile slipping away as his stoic sneer replaced it. "That sounds like a threat, Lincoln."

My jaw worked as I tried to think of what to say. My mind was running a million miles a minute. "Not a threat if it's true, Dad. It's not just me. There's plenty of other wolves that feel this way. Bad things are going to happen. I don't want to see you or Sawyer dead. You are the only family I have left."

The phone crackled, and I imagined he was on the verge of breaking it in half. "I think it's you who don't understand, Lincoln. Those other wolves are weak. They think they can play along with the humans and live in a peaceful, blissful existence. I saw the true light. Luna showed me she abandoned us."

I scoffed. "Luna didn't abandon us. Bad things happened, and it cost our family dearly. Sometimes things happen outside of your control."

The phone crackled so loud that I had to move it away from my ear. "If Luna were here to protect us, she would've never allowed humans no less to murder your sister and mother."

I huffed into the phone. It had been dumb to call him. I already knew that. There had been some small part of me that still hoped that my father could be talked down. I should've known that ship had sailed long ago.

I rubbed at my eyes. "I just don't want to see you or Sawyer killed." There was truth to my words. It shocked me. Part of me would always hold onto the way Dad had been before.

My dad howled with laughter like I'd told the funniest joke in the entire world. "I think you are mistaken." His voice had taken on a hard edge.

"Nothing is going to happen to Sawyer and I. We will be fine. We don't need your worry. You, on the other hand."

His breathing grew heavy. My pulse spiked, and I held my breath as he continued with his threat. "I'm going to take everything from you because of your betrayal. Your little mate's family. I'll make her watch as I kill every last one of them. Make you both watch as I slaughter the pack. Then for your punishment, I'm going to kill that bitch as slowly and painfully as possible."

I clenched my jaw so hard I was sure I was going to crack some teeth.

He wasn't done yet, though. "Then if you're lucky, I'll kill you. But I might just take the satisfaction out of letting you live knowing that you let everyone that you cared about die and then you have to live with that for the rest of your very painful, tortured life."

I hung up the phone, but his threat hung in the air. It hadn't hit me until just now.

To win the war and protect my mates, I had to kill my dad.