Chapter 13: Deacon Offers To Help

Ace “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.” Deacon smiled as he closed his office door.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Because you willingly came here.” Deacon chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and sat on the couch. “We are mates, aren’t we?”

“Yes, yes we are.” Deacon smiled softly as he stared at me.

Creepy.

“That’s not why we are here. We have had some things come up and the girls and I were thinking.” I explained breaking the awkward silence.

“What’s up?”

I looked over to the girls and they nodded along with Wes and Mike.

They weren’t too thrilled with sharing our land with the person who tried to wipe us out, but they know that we could really use the help. They still didn’t like him though.

“I think it would be better for both of us if we conjoined our packs.” I said out loud.

Deacon choked a little and started coughing.

“Are you okay?” Zylen asked trying really hard not to laugh.

Deacon nodded while he hit his chest and continued coughing. “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Then why did you choke?” Zylen asked while a slight giggle.

‘Behave.’ I laughed through the link.

‘I am. It was just really funny to see Deacon choke up a bit.’ Zylen smirked as she winked at me and sat back in the chair.

“Because I always thought I would be the one asking first. Not Ace.” Deacon smiled. “Not that I don’t like the idea, I do, what made you ask that?”

“We had a run in with a rogue and something happened.” I explained.

“What happened?” Gabriel asked.

“We were having a pack meeting and some of our patrol team ran in.” Colby sighed. “They were carrying a box.”

“Containing?” Deacon asked leaning forward.

“One of our pack member’s head.” I finished. “It was April. She was a great friend of mine and an excellent fighter. Her and her parents were some of the few remaining pack members we had left when Lawson attacked.”

“A head?” Zane asked as I nodded. “A fucking head. What kind of sick fuck do you have to be to send a head of a member to their own pack?”

“Lawson.” Colby spat.

Zane nodded. “Well, I’m glad that you guys came over here. I think it would be an excellent idea for our packs to combine.”

“We thought it would be best. Two great and strong packs combined.” I added. “Lawson is building an army. I don’t know how many people he has with him, but we have to think of something.”

“So what exactly happened?” Deacon asked as Gabriel and Zane paid close attention.

“We were doing our regular patrol routes.” Wes said speaking up. “We were almost done with that area, but April smelled something. It was this rotting, stinky, potent smell.”

“Rogue?” Gabriel asked.

Wes shook his head. “That’s what we thought. But it was a rotten egg sort of smell. Very strong and you felt like crying because it burned your nose so bad.”

“We knew it wasn’t a rogue because they smell like rotten trash. This smell was far worse than that smell. I’d rather be stuck in a room full of rogues than smell that smell again.” Mike said.

“What happened after that?” Zane asked curiously.

“That’s when April stopped walking and started to sniff around and we headed in that general direction to try to find the source.” Mike explained. “After about 20 minutes of not being able to find anything, April suggested that we split up. We didn’t want too, but before we could say anything, she already ran off up north to try and find it.”

“Mike and I started talking and something didn’t feel right. That’s when we decided it was better to go after her. So we shifted and tried to follow her scent. But we couldn’t find it because that smell was so potent. It blocked everything else out.” Wes sighed.

“Then we heard a scream.” Mike said in a quiet voice.

Deacon looked over at me weirdly and I shook my head and mouthing ‘later’.

“We both shifted and ran as fast as we could. We couldn’t find her though.” Mike added.

“It was like they vanished.” Wes said confused.

“After a couple minutes of searching, we finally found the area but it was too late.” Mike sighed as he looked at the ground. “That’s when we came across the box. The whole ground was covered in blood. April’s body was a couple feet away from the box.”

“We grabbed the box and ran back to the hall. Another guard met us there and he grabbed the box while Mike and I went back to grab her body.” Wes added. “That’s it.”

“Except her face was really pale and her eyes were bloodshot.” Mike added as he looked at Wes.

“And not to mention the weird marking around her mouth.”

“A what?” Deacon asked as he looked over at Wes.

Wes nodded. “When we found her, she had this dark, beat red mark by her mouth. It faded a lot though to this weird discolored yellow.”

“Was there anything else around her?” Gabriel asked.

Mike shook his head. “No. Only her head in the box and her body a couple feet away. That was it.”

“I want to have a look at her head.” Deacon said with an unreadable expression.

I gave him a weird look.

“To see what the pattern is around her mouth!” He defended. “I might be a sick person, but I’m not that sick.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” I said under my breath as I opened up his door to leave.

“What was that?” Deacon asked as he glared at me.

“Nothing.” I said quickly and hurriedly walked out of his office.

The walk back to my pack was a little awkward. But Deacon tried to make small talk with me and I’ll admit it was pretty nice.

But once we got to my pack line, things couldn’t be any more awkward.

Once the guards saw me with Deacon, they didn’t look too happy.

“Alpha.” Cole asked as he looked at me and then to Deacon. “Is everything alright here?”

“Yes, it is.” I nodded. “Where did Andrew put April’s head?”

“He put it in the clinic. They have it frozen. They didn’t want to touch it in case you had other orders.” Cole stated as he continued to burn holes in Deacon’s head.

Deacon cleared his throat. “Can I help you with anything?”

Cole looked back at me. “Alpha. May I ask a question.”

I sighed. I already knew where this is going.

“Of course.” I nodded.

“Not to be disrespectful alpha, but why is the alpha who tried to kill us on our territory?” Cole asked as he looked back at Deacon.

Wow, Cole. Way to be less blunt.

Deacon growled.

“Okay stop.” I commanded. “Cole, Deacon is here because I asked him to be. I know that you don’t like him and I respect that.”

“Hey.” Deacon called out.

“Deacon.” I said as I turned to look at him.

“Yes?” He asked confused.

“Shut up.” I snapped.

He gulped and nodded.

I smiled and turned back to Cole. “I know you don’t like him and I can’t change that. But he is here to help us. His pack also got attacked by Lawson a while ago. He’s interested in what happened to April and really wants to help.”

“Wow. Is he offering to help? That’s a first.” Cole spat, but his face softened when he looked at me. “Right this way Luna.”

“Thank you.” I smiled as I followed him.

“You’re not gonna stick up for him?” Zylen smirked.

I shook my head. “Nah. He deserves it. And besides, if he is going to prove that he can be my mate, he’s going to have to learn on how to deal with my sassy pack.”

“I wonder where they get it from.” Colby laughed. “They have the sass master as an alpha.”

I winked. “Got that right.”