Mood swings

PATRICK

"Why the fuck is Gabriel so late?" I growl. Paul shrugs, texting away at his phone, probably asking others about Gabriel. "And where is my brother?" I growl, waiting.

"He's out too," Paul answers. "Caleb says, Gabriel is on his way. He was out with a girl the whole afternoon."

"Did he think this trip was to have fun with beach girls? We are here to find Aiden," I growl. Paul sighs heavily. "He has replied. He's on his way here."

"I'm going to fuck him up if he doesn't have any info on Aiden," I growl.

Gabriel is my right-hand man, and I usually cut him some slack, but lately, he has been testing my nerves. Maybe I should go down heavy on him this time to remind him who he really works for. I won't say I like how he is getting too comfortable working for me.

"And where the fuck is Waylon?" I ask, cracking my knuckles. I am doing most of the work here, while others are treating this trip as a vacation. This is another thing testing my nerves. We need to find Aiden fast before she can figure out that we are not only after her but we have managed to find her city.

"Nothing from him yet, but Gabriel is going to be here in ten," Paul updates me.

"I'm going to break his ass," I growl, and Paul purses his lips, suppressing his laughter. That is it. I will give everyone hell tonight because no one seems to be taking me seriously lately. Paul must have sensed the shift in my energy because he straightens up quickly and hangs his head low in submission.

Just in time, I hear a knock at the door of my hotel room suite.

"Come in," I growl, knowing well enough who it can be. Gabriel strolls in, a look of glee on his face.

"Evening Bos-" I punch his face before he can finish, and he collapses. Suddenly, I am craving blood. I am usually good with controlling my emotions, but ever since my wolf started to act strange, I have had multiple accounts where I lost control completely. But this is excessive.

I should've stopped at the punch, but the blood thirst is unexplainable. I don't know why, but suddenly, I want to tear Gabriel apart, limb by limb and hear him scream in pain. At that moment, it feels like that will give me immense satisfaction and some relief from the chaos brewing inside me for days now.

"Patrick," Paul steps in between before I can cause more harm to Gabriel. Meanwhile, that mother fucker gets up and lowers his head in submission. I can see one of his eyes slowly turning purple. "Are you alright?" Paul asks me cautiously.

"Where is my brother?!" I roar, making the walls shiver.

"I-I'm trying to get to him, but Gabriel, tell us what you have gathered till now," Paul urges while I try to calm my nerves. This has never happened before. Why am I seeing red all of a sudden?

...Am I going mad? No. Why would that be? I try to think of other reasons, but I can't come up with any. The only thing that seems reasonable at that moment is that I am starting to lose not only my wolf but also my sanity. This would be the worst case, but why? Why me? Why all of a sudden? I can't find any answers, which makes it even worse for me!

"I've talked to a couple of vigilantes. They say Aiden is most definitely a she-wolf. She doesn't belong to any pack here," He informs us.

"What else?" I demand, finding it hard to calm down.

"I've gone through the rogues list and the lone wolves that live here. Still, I didn't find any women that could be Aiden. Only two women live apart from the pack. Both are lone wolves, and they seem to be too old and disconnected from the world to be Aiden."

"What else?" I growl, getting more and more impatient with every passing second. Whatever Gabriel is telling me is too vague to make out anything. Gabriel shuffles on his feet and exchanges a look with Paul.

"This is all I have found till now. I was out with this girl today. She's a local and seems to be from one of the Packs from here. She knows some stuff because she's the one who told me all this," He informs me, but still, it isn't enough to satisfy me. This isn't exactly what I am looking for.

"Then bring her to me. I will see how much she knows," I growl, and Gabriel straightens up.

"Err... okay. I'm not sure if she'd be up with this," He tells me hesitantly, shuffling on his feet. "She's kinda hard to get," He speaks with a tone that makes me want to punch him again. I don't know why I am feeling like this!

Maybe a run will fix all of this. It has been a while since I went for a run, and perhaps it would also help my wolf. Waylon has been having somewhat of the same problem lately, and he said letting his wolf out for a while and going on a run helped him a bit. But at the same time, I don't want to waste any time here.

I want to locate Aiden before she can know that we are here. However, I won't be surprised if she already knows about our presence here. She is very skilled, and after Victor's death, I can bet she is looking out for us as well!

She knows she is next, making it more critical for us to make our next move as soon as possible.

"Then do whatever you need to do to bring her to us. I don't care. If that girl knows anything, then I want her. Do you understand me?" I growl.

"Yes, Alpha. I'll bring her to you tomorrow," Gabriel promises grimly. I can finally see him getting back into work mode, which makes it one less thing to worry about. For now, I need to find Waylon and see how I can stop my wolf from making me lose control again!

****

GISELLE

I laugh, staring at the scene. A familiar pair of grey eyes with a Kent Clark face stares back. Under his picture, all the information on him is listed.

Name: Gabriel Harrison

Date of Birth: 12 January, 1991

Place of Origin: Green Bay

Member of: The Green Grass Pack

Rank: Second in command to Patrick Zachary.

The last line makes me laugh harder. It seems like I have spent the whole day flirting with no one other than the right-hand man of my enemy. It can't get more satirical than this, but sometimes I like life's sense of humour.

I scroll through the rest of the data about him, which includes everything about him. The more I read, the more I laugh.

They think they are going to find me before I can know that they are here, but one of their men gave it all away. My stomach is starting to ache from laughing harder.

I knew something felt off about him when he kept asking about the Packs here and trying to learn more about the wolves. Also, the fact that he was from the north. It worked out for me to go out with him and feed him somewhat useless information.

Now, I know what he is here for, and even though this should've set my guard high, I am looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow. I am not going to let this opportunity go to waste. I want to keep feeding him the wrong info and see what they'll do with that.

Things just get more interesting. I close Gabriel's files and look at the other data I found on the Alpha brothers. I hack into the airport server and know when they have landed in the city and even manage to find which hotel they are staying at.

From the look of it, the trip seems to have been abruptly planned right after Victor's death. However, this makes it clear that they are looking for me. And this time, they are damn serious!

This should've scared me. This could have scared anyone else but not me. Instead, it oddly excites me. My mind is already filled with all the ideas of all the ways I can mess with them. That'd be a lot of fun.

I know that they must have found out about the city from Victor since he has been on my tail for a while but yet hasn't managed to find out about me as much. This is good!

Here I am, almost getting bored of life, but now, I have something to look forward to, and that is to mess with the brothers.

I check more details to see how long they plan to stay here and what they are doing. I have hacked into that hotel's security base several times, so it is easy for me this time as well. It is one of the posh hotels in the city, seemingly very guarded and often high profile people stay there. These factors make it my favourite place to hack into and access the cameras to see what is happening there.

I check the details to see on which floor and room they are staying. This couldn't have been easier for me. I check the footage and find one of the brothers walking down the hallway.

I zoom into the footage to figure out which one of the brothers it is. It turns out to be Patrick, the Eldest. I can't make out much in the grimy security video, but he looks tense.

I don't know why, but as soon as I see him on the screen, something shifts inside me. I watch him walking towards a lift. There is just something about the way he moves that makes me focus more on him.

I know what the brothers look like. I have seen their pictures several times here and there, but this is the first time I've seen a video of one of them. There is no doubt that he is a powerful wolf. There is no denying that by the way he moves. There is this aura about him that can be felt even through the screen!

Again, this should've set off all my alarms, but instead of that, it fuels my thirst to mess with them. I want to mess them up pretty badly.

I watch Patrick get on the lift and go down two floors before disappearing into a room. I groan, wishing there were cameras in the room too. I can hack their phones as well. I did it several times in the past, but for the sake of maintaining the thrill for me, I decide against it.

After all, where will be the fun if I already know all the cards my enemies have been dealing with? I am merely choosing to play fair with the brothers. For now. As long as I can have as much fun with them as possible. I'll get rid of them as soon as this is all over!

It is as simple as that. But the idea of getting rid of them almost makes me sad. If I permanently get rid of them, there won't be any fun left for me. I pout. Now, this is a great dilemma, but for the time being, I will focus on having fun.

I can always figure out something on the way.

I watch the camera footage for a while and see the other brother Waylon, enter the hotel. Again, something stirs inside me as I stare at him on the screen. I can't figure out what it is about the brothers that provoke something profound and primitive inside my being.

Maybe it is merely my wolf's reaction to seeing a strong wolf. Even though I don't belong to any Pack, my wolf is somewhat receptive to the Pack hierarchy. Not that she likes to be part of it.... it is the opposite.

The two of us hate having any authority over us. I'd rather die than have an Alpha make decisions about my life. I like to be free and independent. It is one of the reasons why I avoid Pack life like a plague. The Pack life always makes a person subservient and minimizes their potential to fit in a useless hierarchy that might eventually crumble one day.

I can either wait for that to happen, or I can make it happen. Of course, I choose the latter.