I scoop the ice cream and put it into my mouth. Jackson is across the desk reading through some files. Never realized the big city Alphas have this much work to do in a day.
I can't believe I could ever say this but it's more fun being an Alpha of Fault Lake than even hanging around with my mate in his packland.
However, I stare at his ripped biceps, broad shoulders, wide jaws, and just the overall hotness that's oozing out of him.
"If you're bored, why don't you just go back to the house?" Jackson says, turning the page.
"If you don't want me to stare at you, why don't you take me out someplace fun? Don't you guys have movie theaters or theme parks here?"
"Is that what you do at Fault Lake? Watch movies on weekdays instead of working?" He says.
At this rate, I'm not going to have a decent time with him until the weekends, that too if he doesn't decide to work on the weekends as well.
"What's your favorite color?" I say, trying to make the best use of the time we have together.
He doesn't reply.
"Are you a virgin?"
Nothing.
"If Rick and Wren were in danger and you could save only one who would it be?"
Silence.
I continue with my questions...
"Why don't you like me?"
"Is it because of how I look?"
"Do you think I'm not good enough to be your mate?"
"Is it because I'm from a small town?"
"Is there not even one thing about me you like?"
He slams shut his file, upset. I realized he had earlier stopped turning the pages. "I know what you're trying to do," he says, "Is this how you want to do it? Guilt trip me into accepting you?"
I'm happy to try all options. Before I could add more to that set of questions, I get a call from Chloe.
"One sec," I tell Jackson and take the call.
Chloe says, "Leah, I'm at the south border, looking at a dead rogue. A morning runner found him. He's been stabbed multiple times."
Shit.
"Ask Finnick to take the body to the MO. Where's Ivan?" I say.
"He had gone out of the border to see if someone's there."
"I'll call him and ask him to return to the border. No one leaves until I'm there. Find a few more men to place at the perimeter. My dad can help."
I end the call and start dialing Ivan while picking up my jacket and heading out of Jackson's office.
Once Ivan picks up his phone, I say, "Get back to our territory."
"I just came to look if that sick bastard is still here."
"Ivan, don't you fucking dare make me repeat. Get back in. You shouldn't have gone out there alone in the first place."
"Alright, I'm heading back."
"Send Chloe back to the main house, and you stay at the south border. I'll be there by night."
I put my phone back into my pocket. By now I'd reached my car, and open its door.
Jackson appears and grabs it. "What are you doing?" He says.
"Something that's going to make you very happy. I'm leaving. Going back to Fault Lake. This doesn't mean we're done. I'll come back later."
I pull the door but he doesn't let it go. "My grandfather said I have to keep you here for a week," he says.
"I'll call your grandpa and tell him it was an emergency so I had to leave. You won't be in trouble."
"What emergency?"
"That's Fault Lake's business. Now, I'm in a hurry, Jacky, I need to get going."
I pull harder at the door but it doesn't even move.
"What emergency?" He repeats.
"Jackson, let go of the door."
He does. I get in and drive away.
I reach Fault Lake a little past midnight. I see Ivan at the border. He gets in. "Anything else happened?" I ask him.
"Nothing."
"What did the MO say?" I say, steering the car towards the road that leads to the hospital.
"Middle aged male. 40 to 45 years old. Rogue. Malnourished. Weak. He died from bleeding. Was stabbed 23 times."
"Jesus."
"We can't just let that sick bastard keep getting away with this."
"We don't know anything for sure, Ivan."
"Really? You don't seriously believe what you just said. Everyone knows it's Hermann Keith. But everyone's keeping their mouth shut because of his father."
Hermann's father, Boyd Keith is the Alpha of one of our neighboring packs, Gerth Hill. When they were little my dad and Boyd used to be friends.
We don't have any kind of relationship with Gerth Hill these days. Not the good kind or the bad kind. Each to his own business.
But Boyd's son is making all the packs around restless. Although there's not a definitive proof, there's been rumors that Hermann has been killing the weaker rogues for fun, sometimes even the humans who get lost in these woods.
It's all been just whispers. Nothing solid.
But finding a stabbed rogue at my pack border sure makes the problem all more real.
At the MO's office, I look at the body. All the stab wounds are concentrated at the chest. Poor man couldn't have put much of a fight. It must've hurt like hell.
"What are we going to do with the body?" MO asks.
"Arrange for a proper burial for him. Keep his belongings, and anything that might help identify him, in case someone comes looking for him," I say. I doubt anyone will come. But it'd be nice to find someone who still hasn't given up on this guy.
After I reach home, I talk to my dad. "What do you plan to do?" He says.
"I'll talk to the other Alphas around us. We'll expand our territories by a few miles, and let the rogues refuge near within the borders. Less easy targets. Less murders."
Dad nods. "That's a good plan. Go with it."
"But..."
"But?"
"Nothing," I say getting up. "It's a good plan."
End of chapter
