Chapter 166

10.39 D Chapter 14: Theo “What’s going on, Briggs?” I asked as I got to my office.

“We had another attack at the border,” he told me.

My stomach fell. “Where?”

“Bonnerville,” he said.

“Rogues again?”

He nodded.

“How bad? Were there any casualties?” I asked apprehensively.

“One dead. Five in critical condition.”

“Do we have any information about the attack that could tell us why it happened?”

“They have a couple rogues in custody, but they’re not talking. They need someone with more authority than they have down there. We have to go down, Theo,” he said. “They can’t handle this on their own.”

“Your mating ceremony is in three days, Briggs. You’re not going anywhere.” I sighed. “But you’re right. I’ll go,” I greed.

“You’ll have to take Jimmy,” Briggs said, running a hand through his hair “Maggie’s not ready to take over Ayla’s security detail just yet,” I said. “So I need him with her at the campus.”

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10.39 D I ran my hands over my face. This was the third rogue attack along our border in two weeks. It was unheard of. We hadn’t had a rogue attack in decades. I had sent a few teams of warriors down to bolster the patrols, but it obviously hadn’t deterred them.

Something was going on and I needed to go down there to get to the bottom of it.

But I didn’t want to leave Ayla.

“You can’t go down there alone, man,” Briggs said.

“I’ll take William,” I said. “He’s been wanting to get out of the city for a while now anyway.”

“Didn’t they just have their fourth kid?” Briggs asked.

“Fourth and fifth,” I corrected. “It was another set of twins.”

“Damn,” he said, shaking his head with a grin. “You think he’s the best option? He’s been out of the game for a while.”

“He’s my only option right now,” I said.

“You could bring your dad,” he said.

“No, he’s still not up for that.”

“Alright,” he conceded. “Do you want me to reach out to him?”

“No, I will,” I told him. “I’ll need you to keep an eye on things here.”

“You okay, Theo?”

“No,” I said honestly. “I lost a pack member, Briggs. I have rogues coming into my territory and no idea why. And now I have to leave Ayla. It’s hard enough with us being marked less than two weeks, but with her still in danger...”

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10:39 D “We won’t let anything happen to her, bro,” Briggs said. “And you need to be at the ceremony as much as I do this weekend. So you’ll only be gone a couple days. Just get down there and figure out what happened and get back.”

Briggs left my office to go take care of my travel arrangements. I picked up my phone and dialed William’s number.

“You better be calling to tell me what the hell has been happening in that packhouse,” his voice came over the phone.

“If you came to visit more often, you would already know,” I chided.

Willam was my second cousin and a good guy. He was a couple of years older than me, but we spent a lot of time together growing up. For years, I was torn between having him or Briggs as my Beta. But he met his mate two days after his eighteenth birthday, and they quickly started a family. So, when it came time to make an official decision, he had no hard feelings when I chose Briggs.

But he would always be a ranking member. And with his Alpha blood, he could help with any questioning we had to do.

“Just wait until you have five kids to wrangle,” he told me.

“I’d have to talk my mate into giving me that many first,” I joked. “How are Beth and the kids doing?”

“The kids are great,” he said. “Loud and healthy. But speaking of your mate, Beth is pissed she hasn’t met her yet.”

“I can remedy that,” I said. “But, unfortunately, that’s not why I called.”

“What’s up, cuz?”

“I need your help. We’ve had some attacks along our southern border.

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10:39 D Rogues,” I told him. “I need to go down to Bonnerville for a couple of days. Things are a bit crazy here. I can’t take Briggs or Jimmy with me.”

“When do you want to leave?” Will said.

I breathed an internal sigh of relief.

“I need a few hours,” I said. “I need to get everything situated here and figure out a way to break the news to Ayla.”

“You don’t think she’ll take it well?” he asked curiously.

“She’ll likely take it better than Beth,” I teased.

“She’s got both sets of grandparents, plus her sister, close by,” Will stated confidently. “Honestly, she may thank you for getting me out of her hair for a while.”

I chuckled. “You guys were planning on coming to Briggs‘ mating ceremony already. So she could always bring them here. I’m sure my mother would have a field day with them.”

“She may just do that,” he replied. “But let me let you go. I’ll have to get work situated before I can go get packed up. Just let me know when you want me to meet you.”

“Will do,” I said. “And thanks, Will.”

“You got it, Alpha.”

We hung up, and I sent Ayla a message to come home right after she got out of class. I knew she would understand and be supportive, but I still hated it. I had just had a conversation with her that morning about making time for each other. Now I had to go out of town for a few days.

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10:39 It didn’t help that something in my gut was telling me these attacks had something to do with the Waar Pak.

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