Claws // Colby Brock

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He zipped upstairs and back in a split second, handing me Kian's notes. We'd have to be careful if we didn't want to expose him, as I had no intention of killing this wolf unless it became necessary. Bloodshed wasn't the answer here.

This man was one of Kian's friends — distant but close enough that he knew a fair bit about his life. That meant, now so did we, and I soon found his file. His parents were a part of a different pack in Oregon; they'd been alive for about a hundred years by now and so governed their own lives, less dictated by their alpha. If only he'd stayed with them, he wouldn't be in this situation.

"You know, I don't think I've been to Oregon before." Just that caused his eyes to widen slightly, immediately telling me the information was not only correct, but perfect. I tilted my head to the side without saying any more, letting his mind fill in the gaps again.

He growled. "Why're you being such a bitch?"

I scoffed. "Why'd you break into my house and try to kill one of my friends? I think we can both agree, I'm not the asshole here."

"Yeah, well why bring my parents into this?"

"Did I say anything about your parents?" I challenged back, a frown tilting my brows. His jaw clicked in place as he shut up, and I nodded at him. "Because I'm with a clan now, you assume the worst of me. You all do but that's not the case. The last thing I want to do is have to kill you, so help me out a little here and tell us something we don't know."

His eyes were locked on mine in complete silence as he considered my offer. The most I intended on doing was knocking him out again to keep him captive until the war ended, but I'd much prefer to get what I needed and send him back to Blake's pack. As stupid as it may seem, showing we weren't as cruel as Aiden had them believe we were, could just come in clutch in the end. And I was banking on that.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he sighed in defeat and adjusted himself upright. Since I knew he was giving in, I gently wiped the blood from his face with my sleeve and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him, nodding. He took that as a final act of kindness, his last chance.

"Alright, Amira. I'll trust you... and I guess that means I need to trust the rest of them, right?" I gave him a look. "Aiden's planning an attack next week on this house. He knows he can't compel or kill you, so he wants to take someone hostage from inside to use as leverage."

"Why does he want to come into the house so much?" I asked, a little bewildered. It seemed his only intention for that attack was to get into the house itself rather than kill any of us or destroy it, though I highly doubted he'd let whoever he used as leverage slip; at the least, he would keep them for when he needed power over me again.

Our informant shrugged. "I don't know — how am I supposed to? We do what we're told."

"Right," I sighed, pushing myself up to my feet. I looked back at Colby, who'd taken to leaning against the wall with his hands on his biceps, his eyes not leaving my form across the room. A little amusement passed through me but I pushed it away trying to keep up the professionalism. "As you don't have anything more to tell about Aiden... how about Blake and Anna?" I asked our guest, walking over to the space closest to Colby. He moved away from the wall to stand behind me, his hands resting on the back of the couch.

Our guest narrowed his eyes. "What about them?"

"You were always friends with Kian, right? So you should know something, surely... unless things aren't going well?"

"They keep to themselves," he said confidently, no sign of a lie in his face or voice. "I mean, Anna's pregnant but you knew about that before the rest of us. Hell, we all knew it before Blake, too."

"And how'd he take the news?"

"Happy but cautious, and massively worried about the timing."

I nodded. "Okay. I think that's enough. Do you have anything else you'd like to offer up? May work in your favour if my mate decides you've outlived your usefulness." My head tilted and every single vampire in the room set their sights on him, increasing the pressure tenfold. He seemed unnerved by their stares but kept up his facade of calm.

He said, with every ounce of his soul, "Most of the pack don't like Aiden and his vamps — and it's not just because they're vampires, although that's probably part of it." I felt my brows raise as he shifted uncomfortably, a few of us releasing him from the blank stare. "A lot of us feel like he's just using us for his dirty work. Rumours have been going around about how we're always attacking people on their homes and we know it's wrong. I didn't even want to come here today..."

"Then why did you?" I challenged, careful with my tone so I didn't annoy him into silence.

"Blake told me to. Used his full chest, his full influence as an alpha. And I'll admit I was curious to see where you've been living since meeting the lee-" I cleared my throat — "your mate."

I sighed. "The house has nothing to do with it but I guess I can see why you were curious. An alpha's influence is hard to ignore, I'm impressed you were even hesitant."

"I still trust Alpha — we all do... we just have our doubts about this most recent change."

I looked up at Colby behind me in silence, catching his eye and asking him if we can let this wolf go. He'd given us more than I expected, even something from the top of his head we didn't have to ask for, and I could see the potential for turning the pack against Aiden if we showed them a little mercy. I hoped he understood everything going through my head even without speaking.

Colby glanced briefly at Mike, who I saw nod, then at Sam. Luckily, he agreed, too.

"If you ever come back here, we won't be so kind as to send you back in one piece," my mate snapped as he stood upright. Mike zipped up behind our guest to untie him, muttering his own series of threats, but the wolf didn't so much as flinch. He could see we were going out of our way to be kind to him just this once and he respected it.

I stood from the couch to stand by Colby's side as I said, "I'd advise you heal before returning to the pack. Don't want anyone thinking you got caught."

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