Chapter 394: Chapter 394

Mason “Is that...?” Zane said and quickly shut up.

“Sirs, umm...if you don’t mind, | can just leave the phone here. It’s really hot,” Goldie said hesitantly.

“Unless you need me for something else? I'll head back to Standard with my new phone and get the rest of the photos.”

“Did anyone in Standard notice you're not a regular resident?” | asked her. | hadn't yet seen the pictures on her phone, but by the way Zane and Xander were reacting, it had to be bad news.

Goldie waved at the steam but didn’t do much to move it around or clear the way. “I don’t think so.

| pretended to be a janitor. Nobody pays much attention to the cleaning staff.”

“Smart,” Xander said. “What's wrong with this phone?”

“It just froze up. Won't take any pictures, won’t connect to the internet. Nothing. | couldn’t get the pictures to send, but they are saved on it. Oh, and it doesn’t have a passcode on it. If you need me for anything else, Alphas, I’m at your service.”

She left the room.

As soon as she did, | crossed to the bench next to my brother. “Who is it?”

Xander turned the phone toward me. At first | had no idea who the picture showed. Then it hit me.

“Aldon. The guy from the prison? Your Elder from the Council?”

“Yep.” Xander swiped back and forth through a few more of the photos on the screen, then handed me the phone. “She’s right.

This phone is basically bricked.”

| swiped to a closeup picture. “What's he doing in Standard?”

“Good question,” Xander said. “I say we get out of here and discuss it back home before we bring it to the leadership council. We need more pictures from Goldie to see if we recognize anyone else.”

We all showered off the sweat from the steam room, dressed, and headed back to our quarters. Lanie was gone, but a quick test of the mate bond told me she was with her grandfather. That was just as well. |

didn’t want her getting worked up by any of this.

From what | could remember, she and Aldon had interacted, but | wasn’t sure what she'd think about him being in Standard.

None of us could figure it out, either.

“The only reason he could possibly be in that town is because he somehow found out that we ended up here in the enclave.”

Zane handed me and Xander each a bottle of beer with the caps already cracked off. He went back to the mini fridge in our kitchenette to get himself one.

Xander took a long pull off his beer and smacked his lips. “Brightsky Brewing makes some da mned fine. beer. And yes, Zane, |

agree with you. No Elder would be randomly traveling around. It’s not like he’s on vacation.”

“Not in Standard, anyway,” Zane added.

| studied the pictures. Goldie had managed to get a few from a distance, and some more up close. He wasn’t really facing the camera in any of them, and a few were blurred. “These pictures aren't the best.

Could it just look like Aldon?”

“No way. That's him. You think I'd forget the man who put me in prison?” Xander said with a scowl.

Zane slid into the chair across from us. “He looks like s hit, but that’s how he always looked, as far as I’m concerned.”

| got up, my beer in one hand, to pace as | thought aloud. “The whole reason you had Goldie go take those pictures was to be absolutely sure before we let Malachi take action that Brightsky needs to be on the defense. So let’s think about all the reasons why an Elder might have recently arrived in the portal town to Brightsky.”

“One,” Xander said roughly, “he knows we're here.”

“Two,” | put in, “he might be trying to get to Brightsky for his own reasons. What if he’s seeking sanctuary?

He helped Lanie, didn’t he?”

Zane shook his head, then seemed to reconsider. He looked thoughtful. “So he straddles both sides of the fence. That just means we can’t trust him.”

town.

“It means he could be trying to find safety in Brightsky,” | said.

“So why isn’t he here, then? If he made it all the way to Standard, that means he knows it’s the portal If he’s really got a good reason to show up after all this time, he’d know how to petition for entry. Right?”

Xander tapped his finger at his temple, then pointed it at me.

Zane took a long drink. “I get why you're trying out all the angles, Mason, but Aldon’s a f uckwad. If he’s in Standard, that smells like trouble to me.”

“What about the other newcomers? We should wait until we see their photos before we go jumping to conclusions,” | replied.

Xander nodded. “I’m with Mason. We have Goldie keep eyes on Aldon and boots on the ground about the others. Hopefully, she can get us some more pictures.”

| took the phone and tapped the screen. “In the meantime, maybe | can figure out what happened with this phone. In case someone tampered with it or something.”

Something was telling me that not everyone in Brightsky could be trusted.