Evan stared at the table-full of groggy men in front of him, most of them with cups of coffee. He knew he had woken them all up an hour earlier than usual, but this was important.
This could affect all of them, not just Jonathan.
They had to get to the bottom of this.
He mentally went through the list of things he had to take care of before Jonathan woke up in an hour, crossing off talking to Tyler in private.
He had already pulled his second-hand man to the side and heavily apologized for trying to Alpha Command him, to which Tyler haughtily forgave. They cracked a few jokes and Evan knew Tyler was back.
He wasn't one to hold grudges.
At least, as long as he was told the truth.
However, that was only one thing on a list of many. Now he had to warn his gang about the threat.
"Alright, I bet you're wondering why I have you all up early."
He began, clapping his hands together.
He nearly missed, playing it off like nothing happened.
He hadn't gotten much sleep himself.
"Last night, Jonathan was attacked around midnight by a hidden Alpha."
Several eyes widened and Scotty, who had been sipping his coffee, nearly choked.
"They wore gloves and scent blockers, so we don't have much of a lead."
Tyler added from where he sat beside Evan.
"How do you know it was an Alpha?"
Ohm pressed, his wings shifting uneasily.
Evan glanced at John, the Alpha clearly the most awake out of any of them except for Tyler and Evan. He hadn't taken a puff from his vape yet, but he was spinning it in his fingers.
Jonathan had said he saw antelope horns.
Maybe it was John?
I hadn't even thought about that...
Evan realized, biting the inside of his lip.
With a frown, Evan leaned back in his chair.
"Jonathan said he saw horns."
Now those who had been staring at the table or the dark window behind Evan turned their attention toward him.
"What kind?"
Brock asked. Even John had stopped spinning his vape to look at Evan curiously.
Do I tell them? What if it wasn't John? Can we handle having a backstabber in the gang? How long until others start questioning their loyalty?
Evan closed his eyes and huffed a breath out of his nose.
They deserved an honest leader.
"Antelope."
He said curtly, following the entire room's stare as they turned toward John. The blonde's face paled.
"What? No, John didn't do it,"
Smitty interrupted from his spot beside the accused Alpha.
"He was in his room all night!"
The room was silent before Tyler asked,
"How do you know that?"
Smitty's cheeks stained red as he fumbled for an excuse.
"Um...well...I-"
"He doesn't."
John spoke up suddenly, staring at his vape pen like it was all that mattered in the world.
"I left my room around 10 because I couldn't sleep. That makes me a suspect."
Craig, who had been sitting on the other side of John, shifted closer to Tyler and away from the other Alpha.
The room was still silent, Smitty staring desperately between John and Evan, probably hoping one of them would say something to stop what was happening.
"What did you do when you left your room?"
Evan asked. He didn't want to accuse John, and the Alpha didn't sound very guilty, but he was right.
He was a suspect.
John scoffed, but Evan could see his nervousness in the quicker movements of twirling the vape.
"Does it matter? Nothing I say will make it seem like I didn't do it."
The entire room seemed to have shut down. Eyes were locked on the table or their coffee cups, some of them casting lose glances at John before turning away.
"Please,"
Evan prodded. He wanted to at least know if John would tell the truth.
"I went down to the garage and sat in my car blasting music, then around 1 am I came back to bed."
John said flatly. His vape had vanished to his pocket. Smitty's glasses were off as he held his face in his hands.
Evan sighed.
That did seem like a complete bullshit story, yet also something John would undoubtedly do.
There had to be a way they could prove the truth.
Suddenly, Anthony slammed his hands on the table, startling everyone.
Craig jumped so high he ended up on the floor.
"The surveillance cameras!"
The Beta yelled excitedly, leaping to his feet before sprinting out of the room.
He returned a moment later with a laptop, sitting back between Scotty and Nogla before opening it and typing furiously.
The room seemed to be holding its breath as he typed away.
Smitty had lifted his puffy eyes from his hands to stare at the back of the computer, John joining him. Then, Anthony grabbed a remote from the middle of the table, lowered the projector screen behind Evan and turned the lights off.
Waiting for the projector to warm up felt like an eternity before the camera feed finally appeared on the screen.
Then, he hit play.
The clock in the bottom left read 10:50 pm, and as the Beta accelerated the feed, around 10:57 John descended the stairs and toward the lower levels.
When Evan glanced at the Alpha, he seemed to be in as much shock as the rest of them.
"And then you said the attack happened around midnight?"
The video accelerated faster, the living room area empty before a flash appeared down the stairs around 11:25.
Jonathan.
A few chairs squeaked as people sat up, eyes glued to the stairs as the light of the fridge illuminated the bottom of the screen.
Anthony slowed the video down until it was at normal speed.
At first, the living room had seemed empty, when a figure suddenly appeared from the opposite side of the stairs the camera couldn't see.
Anthony paused it and switched to a different camera, this one placed in the other's blind spot and with a direct view of the fridge.
They all watched the figure slink toward Jonathan before attacking him, and then a beam of light came from the stairwell. The figure froze, then dashed back to where it had emerged.
A closet under the stairs.
Tyler growled softly beside Evan, and Evan placed a hand on his arm to quiet him.
But he was holding back his own snarl.
They had been so close, and yet didn't catch the attacker.
Anthony sped up the feed again, Tyler just a flash as he came down and then back up the stairs, the door only opening once while people were still with them. Then Jonathan and Evan headed upstairs and the door was closed for a while longer.
It wasn't until the clock read 12:26 that the door opened and the figure emerged again.
Anthony slowed it back down, and they all watched as they slunk toward the lower levels.
However, Evan felt his blood freeze as wings billowed loosely behind the figure, just obscuring their face and horns from the camera.
The Canaries.
Evan realized sourly, staring at the figure that had tried to kill Jonathan just to vanish again.
"Anthony, pause it and zoom in."
Evan snapped, watching hungrily as the task was finished and a black and white image of pale colored wings appeared in front of him.
"How do they have horns and wings?"
Brian asked as Evan gestured for Anthony to put his stuff away.
"The Canaries,"
Evan answered bitterly.
"They found a way to surgically add wings to Alphas."
Several of them shuddered and Evan held back another growl.
Now he had to get supplies to capture and kill this intruder.
"Alright,"
Evan announced, pulling everyone's attention back to him.
"Today we will get what we need to capture this Canary, which I will assign during breakfast. For now, this meeting is over."
Nogla was the first to stand and stretch before heading toward the door, everyone following soon after.
However, Evan called John and Smitty over to wait as everyone else left.
When the room was empty, Evan placed a hand on John's shoulder.
"I'm sorry you were accused of harming a gang member for a while there."
John scoffed, but the usual carefree light in his eyes seemed to have gone out.
"It's fine. I knew my story was weak. I'm just glad Anthony remembered the cameras."
Evan nodded, then sent the two off for breakfast.
It was time to get his teams together.