Chapter 21: Chapter 21

SLOAN

Sloan pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the impending headache threatening to split his head in two.

They’d been brainstorming about their current situation, attempting to find new details they may have overlooked. So far, they hadn’t had any success.

He glanced at Tristan, who was sprawled across one of the side chairs, nursing a glass of Scotch, no longer actively participating.

Declan was over by the window, chatting into his phone, receiving updates from the tech team.

In his peripheral view, he saw some movement, and he looked over at his father, who had joined them about twenty minutes ago. He was reviewing the different documents they had on the various attacks.

“Tristan? Some input would be appreciated,” he growled at his brother.

“I’m a visual thinker. Reading the same words over and over again frustrates my soul,” Tristan snapped, taking a sip of his drink.

“That explains your grades in school.” Theo chuckled to himself.

“Thanks for the input, bro,” Sloan muttered sarcastically, picking up a folder and opening it again. “Stupid motherf—Wait a minute. A visual thinker?”

Sloan stared at his brother and smiled. “That’s it. Tristan, you’re a genius.”

“I know I am, and thanks for confirming it.” Tristan raised his glass to Sloan. “So tell me, what did I do?”

“We should put all this information on a map for visual presentation. That way we can find patterns,” Sloan suggested, and his father nodded.

“That way we can look for overlaps and possibly predict their next move,” his father added, just as Declan ended his call.

“Any new information?”

“Unfortunately, no. The tech team is still trying to clean up the footage. It’s going to take them some time to develop it.

“I also had a team sweep the area outside, but they didn’t find anything,” Declan said, and Sloan nodded.

“It—” he started, but his phone interrupted them. “Yeah?” he answered, holding up a finger, and walked back over to the other side of the room.

Sloan pressed a button on his desk, and the wall next to him opened up to reveal an eighty-four-inch screen. He tapped on the keyboard, and a map of Seattle appeared on the screen.

“Okay, so the first known attack occurred in Jackson Park,” he started, clicking on the screen, pinning an area north of the city.

“But we know that the first victim was found in the Bitter Lake Playfield area, on the Opal Moon Pack territory. Both locations are north of the city.

“However, attacks two, three, and four were in the Victory Heights, Sunset Hill, and Rainier Valley areas.

“All three were spread around the city and days apart. By this time, humans started to take notice, since these attacks included four mutilated bodies found in very public spaces. We know the total body count was seven.”

“What exactly was taken?” Declan’s raised voice interrupted them. He nodded as he listened to the person on the other end of the call. He glanced up and waved Sloan over to him.

“Dad, Tristan, keep on mapping,” Sloan said, walking over to him. He waited patiently until Declan pulled the phone away from his mouth.

“I treated Elizabeth’s escape as a suspicious kidnapping, just in case our initial assumptions were wrong, and had a team check out her condo. It seemed as though someone was there recently, but they left in a hurry.

“They took some of her clothes, her computer, and several perishable food items. Oh, and there’s a note tucked under her abandoned cell phone.”

“Is it her handwriting?”

“Yes, they’ll be bringing it back. It’s addressed to you.”

“Put a trace on all her bank cards and get the security footage from the condo board. Also, see if there are any shifter-run businesses in the area with security cameras, and get their footage as well,” Sloan ordered.

“Yes, Alpha.” Declan nodded and continued his conversation on the phone.

“Tristan, update the notice to the other clans and packs. Elizabeth is no longer considered a victim, but a rogue. I should have dealt with her when I had the chance.”

“Son, no one could have foreseen any of this.”

Sloan sighed heavily, dragging his hands over his exhausted face, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. “FUCK!”

“What?” Theo asked, confused by Sloan’s outburst.

“Elizabeth has been privy to most of the information that came in about the attacks. She even had free rein inside this house.”

“Shit!” Both Tristan and Declan swore.

“You all stay here and keep plotting on the map. I need a bit of sunshine to calm the turmoil inside me,” Sloan groaned.

Tristan opened his mouth to say something inappropriate, but their father quickly clapped his hand over it. “Go to her, son.”

“Thanks. I won’t be too long.” Sloan laughed as his father kept his hand over Tristan’s mouth, but Tristan didn’t let that stop him from mumbling another inappropriate comment.

~“Leanne?”~ he thought, linking with her.

~“Yes, Alpha. We’re in the common room with your mother and sister.”~ Her reply echoed in his head.

~“Thanks.”~

He walked down the hallway toward the common room. Upon looking into the room, he paused at the doorway, gazing at all the women in his life gathered together.

His mother was relaying a story, while both Myra and Bryn were in tears laughing. Even Leanne had a smile on her face.

The scene drove away the heartbreaking memories that had occurred mere hours ago in that room.

He watched her look up and smile brightly at him, as if sensing his presence. He couldn’t help but smile back at her.

She briefly excused herself and wandered over to him. Without saying a word, she hugged him, and immediately his stress and headache began to disperse.

“I should call you CB instead,” she muttered into his chest.

Sloan frowned and placed his hand under her chin to lift her face so he could gaze into her eyes. “CB?”

“It stands for Cuddle Bug,” she whispered up to him. Before he could answer, he heard the telltale sound of a picture being snapped.

“Don’t they just look adorable together?” Sian gushed from inside the common room. “Did you get it, Bryn?”

“Sending it to Sloan now,” Bryn replied.

Sloan looked across at his sister to see her tapping away at her phone. Some seconds later, his phone buzzed. He untangled one hand and pulled out his phone.

He tapped on the notification displaying on his screen, and a picture file opened up. He smiled and turned the phone to show Myra, who was blushing.

~God, I love it when you blush~, he thought as she hid her face in his chest.

“I’m making this my phone’s home screen.” Sloan smiled, tapping at his device, true to his word. “I needed some peace away from the horror of our reality.”

“Let me help. Fresh eyes, and all.” She shrugged nonchalantly. For a moment, the graphic images from the crime scene flashed across his mind.

“I appreciate the offer, but I refuse to tarnish or corrupt your mind with such scenery, nor do I wish to increase your worry.”

“Slo—”

He quickly placed his finger over her lips, silencing her.

“Not this time. You pulled rank earlier, but this is a different matter. I’m sorry, but the answer is no.”

He suppressed his laughter as she puffed out her cheeks and huffed in frustration, trying to look angry, but the result was adorable.

Her expression reminded Sloan of the angry duckling picture Tristan had shared with him ages ago.

Sloan kissed her forehead, swirled her body to face the common room, then smacked her butt, pushing her back into the room.

“Thanks for the break, Angel.” He winked at her.

She replied by sticking out her tongue at him.

Feeling a hundred times better, Sloan headed back to his office. At the last minute, he changed direction and stopped off at the security room on his way. “Kenny?”

“Still working on the footage, Alpha, but we’re making progress.”

“I want a status update by the end of your shift tonight,” Sloan stated, and the young shifter nodded.

“Yes, Alpha,” he called out as Sloan left them to continue their work.

Upon entering the den, he found Declan, Tristan, and his father gathered around the flat screen, pointing and chatting softly with each other. “Progress?”

“If there’s a pattern, I just don’t see it,” Tristan said, shooting back the rest of his Scotch.

“There’s no order to the attacks. Like these four,” Theo explained, highlighting four spots on the map. “They occurred in different areas of the city, miles apart but within hours of each other.”

“Besides the six creatures who infiltrated this house, there’ve got to be more individuals involved,” Declan commented, folding his arms and leaning against the desk.

“Somehow, someone organized a band of rogues to work together as a unit,” Theo concluded.

“That’s a terrifying thought.” Sloan sighed, staring at the map littered with several red dots, wishing for a clue to appear.

Nothing happened, so he decided to change the topic. “Were the investigators able to identify the animal prints from this morning?”

“A couple,” Declan answered, walking over to the computer and tapping on some keys. He then turned the desktop monitor toward the group. “A wolf or coyote. Maybe a jaguar or puma.

“There was also a clear print from an otter,” he explained, clicking through the different animal prints. “However, these were just preliminary results. A full report on the prints will be available by this evening.”

“This has gone on for far too long. I’m tired of playing cat and mouse with these bastards.”

They nodded before disappearing into their own thoughts. Tristan turned back to the map, gazing at its contents, and then suddenly he spoke up.

“I hate to be the devil’s advocate, but have any of you considered a mole?”

Thunderstruck, all eyes turned to Sloan.

“It makes sense. How else would they have known the location of the different cameras inside this house?” Declan wondered aloud.

“Or how to hack our highly secure network to freeze and time-loop live footage without being seen?”

Sloan began tapping his finger impatiently on the desk as they continued to voice his thoughts.

“Maybe that’s why they came for Elizabeth. She’s one of their pawns, along with someone else from the pack who knows the ins and outs of the house,” Tristan continued.

“Could one of the techs from last night be a double agent?” Theo asked.

“Those are my men. I personally vouched for each of them,” Declan defended, looking a bit shocked at the possibility.

“We can never know.” Theo shook his head. Sloan could only imagine that his father didn’t want to think that a trusted shifter in their pack would align themselves with murderers.

“Well, they’re all going to pay if one of them is a spy,” Declan growled.

Tristan violently shivered. “Declan’s Killer Boot Camp?”

Declan cracked a wicked smile and nodded his head.

~I don’t even want to think about Declan’s training exercises. The innocent ones will suffer for it~, Sloan thought. ~We need to start limiting the chain of information being exchanged.~

He cleared his throat, and they looked at him. “From here on out, all information coming in and out about the rogues and Elizabeth will be need-to-know.”

“Sloan, you can’t dismiss the council,” Theo exclaimed, looking at him as if he had lost his mind.

“I’m not. But it’s time we got ahead of these bastards, starting by limiting their source of information.”