Chapter 2: Caution

Jude

As soon as Wendy went to talk to her parents, I walked up to Hijack. I already know that he likes Wendy, even though he knows that we’ve been dating. He’s still hoping that she might be his mate, but I seriously doubt it. My wolf, Saggio, has never been possessive of a she-wolf in our life. But with Wendy, he’s ready to fight to the death to protect her and Dasha.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to bring Sphinx along on this job?” he asks when I walk up.

“Better for her to have me there with her, than for her to get thrown into her first job alone like the three of us did,” I say, including Tracker in the conversation.

“He’s right, Hijack. And let’s be honest, Wendy connected the dots for Alpha Stellan, Alpha Christer, and Alpha Arden before we did.”

“Her brother asked her …” Hijack begins.

“Yes, he did. And this is still personal to them and to her. This is her family, so she’ll be even more invested in finding Stellan. We all agreed that we’d bring her into this team because she’s got good instincts, Hijack. This is just another way to hone her skills while she’s still learning. Besides, we all know that she’s soft. She needs real world experience if we’re ever going to trust that she can do this job properly,” I say.

My words sound harsh, but they’re true. Wendy has lived a charmed life. She has some of the most powerful Alphas in the country protecting her. No one would dare hurt her and no one would dare touch her. That’s great, except that this job can send us into the dregs of society, exposing us to the worst of humanity and werewolf kind. There’s a good chance that Wendy won’t be able to deal with the reality of this work. I hope she can, but I’m also not willing to wait until she has to face it alone to see if she can. In this environment, I can protect her, guide her, and help her if she needs it. It’s why I’m pushing for her to join me on this job. She needs to know if she can do this, and so do we, as her team members.

I watch as Hijack’s jaw muscle twitches. “For the record, I don’t like it. I think she’s too inexperienced for this kind of job.”

“How was I any different, Hijack?” Tracker asks.

The reality is, she wasn’t. The difference is, Hijack didn’t have feelings for Tracker and he does for Wendy. Being that we’re two Alpha males, it could become a nasty battle. But we’ve worked together for three years and Wendy is underage. Neither of us is willing to throw away our career for what might be. I’m not sure how Hijack justifies it for himself, but for me, Wendy is my girlfriend. She’s with me by her own choice. So, I can wait until her eighteenth birthday when I’ll know for sure if I’m her mate or not. For now, I’m happy to keep things just as they are.

“Fine,” he finally concedes.

I hear Wendy walking behind me and I turn, seeing her walking with her mother up to the stage where Alpha Michael and Alpha Nevaeh are talking to the elite squads. She nods at me and I wink at her. Now I get her all to myself for two full weeks. This first week will be work. It will be tough, but I’d rather work with Wendy than not see her at all. The second week will be mostly vacation, meeting my family, and letting her see that my family is a lot like hers. I know she’s nervous about it, but I also know that once she meets them, they’ll love her as much as she’ll love them.

My family is over the moon that I’m bringing someone home. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that. But then again, I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. Wendy is special. Even when she’s disappointed in herself, like her previous inability to spar effectively, or she feels inadequate when it takes her a long time to find something that would take me a few minutes, she’s still a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

Plus, her face is so incredibly expressive. She’s beautiful in a natural way and she doesn’t try to pretend to be someone she’s not. Of course, being an Alpha female, she’s got a lot of confidence and sass, and I fucking love it.

“Do we have any idea how the fuck Stellan escaped from prison?” I ask, changing the subject.

“I’m going to find out,” Hijack says. “Like Alpha Michael said Tracker, you find him, I’ll figure out how it happened so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again, and Hacker and Sphinx will work with Alpha Squad to track him down and make sure he hasn’t set any traps.”

Hijack looks past me. “While Vivienne is here, I want to talk to her. Those she-wolves she's been working with are starting to go missing really fast. I need to know if she’s seen or heard anything that can help us pinpoint who it might be that is taking them.”

“Yeah, and I still haven’t gotten a hit on Alpha Patrick, Alpha Peter, and Justine, which is frustrating the shit out of me. Where the hell can they take a pregnant she-wolf without putting her and her pup at risk?” Tracker growls.

“Maybe they don’t care about her,” I say. “I mean, Patrick was willing to let her go mate with Alpha Henry and then let his pup be raised as Henry’s heir. Who the fuck does that?” I ask.

“And don’t forget we still have Alpha Glenn and Alpha Grady’s trials for murder and Gamma Nathan’s trial for trying to buy Vivienne from Alpha Glenn,” Hijack says.

“Why does it feel like our workload tripled when the Hills entered into our lives?” Tracker asks.

“Well, there’s a lot of them, so maybe that’s it. Or maybe it’s just because they fight against injustice, so when they see it, they don’t stay quiet about it like others do,” I say, not willing to say anything against the Hills. Wendy’s family are all good people.

“And remember, Alpha Warren is set to take Councilman Edward’s place on the council, so you might want to reframe that way of thinking, Tracker,” Hijack says.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I just meant …”

“We know what you meant, Tracker, just be careful. He’s new and may not understand like we do,” Hijack says.

Personally, I disagree. I think Alpha Warren would understand and probably feels the same stress about his family that we do, but I’m not going to say that. Time will tell what kind of councilman Alpha Warren is, especially since his daughter and son will be part of the elite teams that serve the council.

Wendy comes skipping up to me.

“I’m all set,” she says, giving me that smile that is full of sunshine.

“Perfect, let’s go see when we need to be ready to leave.”

“Tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. Raptor and his team are going to the prison today to talk to the warden and see what information they can get. I think they’re planning to take you and Hijack with them, but I don’t have any clothes or a computer with me. Thankfully, both are at Yorick’s.

“Do you need a ride, or is your family taking you?” I ask her.

She turns and we look at her family who are obviously organizing to protect the pack and specifically Alpha Cyra and Gamma Lila.

“Wendy,” Alpha Warren calls, waving her over.

“I guess you’re going with them. If you need a ride back in the morning, let me know, I’ll come get you,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she says softly. I can tell she doesn’t want to leave me any more than I want to leave her.

“Text me later?” I ask her.

“Since I’ll be packing my computer and can't IM you, I definitely will,” she says.

I lean in and, because we’re in a very public place, I kiss her gently, not deepening the kiss the way that I’ve started to with her.

I hear her whimper that our kiss was too short and too sweet, which only makes me smile. We’ll have plenty of time for kisses in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ll talk soon,” I say, holding her hand until she pulls it out of mine as she walks away.

“You’ve got it bad, Hacker,” Tracker says.

“Yeah, I do. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”