I placed a hand against his sturdy chest, my arm immediately feeling a weird sensation as I pushed against him, "Get off me."
He obliged by jumping to his feet and Cameron helped me up, holding my arm as I swayed, "That was some knock to your head," Cameron said as he touched the back of my head, making me wince.
I looked at the rogue and then at the men, "We need him alive." I said reaching up to touch my head, I should just grab some ice from the ground and place it against the lump, "Can I speak to your Alpha?"
"You're looking at him," the voice across from me spoke again and I turned to look back into stormy eyes. His voice wasn't concerning like before, it was deep and demanded authority.
"We can talk inside," He said, turning around as his men came to grab the rogue. I held out a hand stopping them.
"Don't worry, I'll take him to where we hold the others and you can question him later." the tall lanky man said.
I pursed my lips before nodding, "Please give him this." I reached into my pocket pulling out some medicinal wolfsbane, "I need him fully healed so I can interrogate him."
The man nodded grabbing the small tube and they both dragged him across in the same direction that Alpha Hercules Ryder was going.
"Do you want me to follow them?" Cameron asked as we got closer to the house and the men holding the rogue went another way.
"That's ok" I said, following the hulk and Hercules instead.
As we entered a room, a petite lank man, compared to the men before me, came running in, his eyes frantic as he yelled.
"Hercules! Hercules! The committee called the Enforcers are coming! I hid the accounts in the firep— oh."
I couldn't help but crack a smile at his expression when he saw Cameron and I, dressed top to bottom in our uniform.
"Stupid mutt," The hulk muttered slapping the back of the puny guy's head. I decided not to point out that we had nothing to do with accounts. We don't care how much they make, or how they make it.
"Why is Hercules in handcuffs?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head, as he followed us all into a big room.
Cameron and I took seats on one side as the others took seats on the other, awkward silence filled the air.
"So introductions?" Cameron asked, assessing the tense atmosphere, "I am Cameron and this is Illargia, and we're obviously the Enforcers that are coming so please fish these accounts from wherever you hid them," joked Cameron but the poor guy thought he was being serious and got up to move.
"We're kidding, sit down," I told him.
I then looked at Hercules across the other end, the man next to him spoke.
"I'm Gideon, that is Marcus and you clearly know Hercules," he said and I nodded.
"Not the best start, can I ask how you had the rogue or what you were doing to him?"
"He attacked our men on patrol so we dragged him here," Gideon answered. I looked at Hercules, who was quiet, just his grey eyes watching me making me shift in my chair. Why was he looking at me like that?
"I'm in charge of accounts and they are all accurate and there has been no cooking in the accounting books Miss Enforcer. Do you want me to take you through it?" Marcus said not reading the vibe in the room.
"Then why did you hide them?" Cameron asked and I nudged him.
"We have nothing to do with accounts or how you make money," I said, putting Marcus at ease. He let out a breath, leaning against the chair and sighing.
"But now you've made me curious, why did you hide them?" I asked.
"Promise you won't dob on me?" he asked.
I nodded and he smiled, "Oh I just didn't do the last quarters numbers so they're not up to date as per the record keeping requirements."
There was silence before Gideon muttered something under his breath, making Marcus scowl. Gideon then turned to look at me, "Do you have the keys or do you expect my Alpha to sit here with one handcuff on the entire time?"
It was then I realised that he was right, Hercules had one handcuff on and he hadn't even said a word at the pain that he would be feeling.
"Can't your Alpha ask for himself?" I asked as I reached for the keys, "He's not a man of many words." I commented as I grabbed the keys from my pocket and pushed them down the table towards them.
Gideon made a swift move to grab the handcuffs with his shirt, and placed them on the table, "I'll bring them up to your room later. Marcus, give them a tour and show them to the guest ho-," he paused turning his head towards Hercules, "uh, the guest rooms? Upstairs?" Somehow it sounded more like a question than an order but Marus didn't wait for clarification.
Marcus smiled, jumping to his feet, "Oh you're going to have the best tour of this territory that no other pack has given you."
Great...
* * *
The pack territory was bigger than I had anticipated, the hills and mountains we had seen were also part of their territory but they never went out there because of the weather and distance.
They had a smaller 'main land' territory which they pattrolled, that was where the trees acted as a border. The advantage they had was that Mother Nature would be on their side with the snow and trees, they would almost always know the moment anyone came onto their land.
We hadn't even covered a quarter of the territory, Marcus had shown us all the buildings and explained that they all looked the same because why would they look different? Everyone had the same living standard and supplies which I liked. It was refreshing not to see an overbuilt pack house that the Alpha would stay in.
I swore as my boot got stuck into the snow, it was quite deep in some parts and I just could never tell whether the next step was on top of the snow or deep inside like now. Cameron gave me a hand helping me pull my leg out.
"I'm hungry," Cameron said as he finally reached the big doors.
"This is where you both will stay. Did you guys bring any supplies?" Marcus asked, looking confused looking at us.
"We did... but then we gave up when we had to pull our luggage through the snow so we actually left them in the car, if there any way we can borrow something to go get them? We didn't have snow chains so I assume you guys have some?" Cameron asked.
"We'll get them for you. The night patrol boys will come by the car." Marcus went into the house and we followed him in.
It appeared that someone was already living there, looking at the slight mess that was around the house. It was still a massive house compared to your normal residential areas.
"Myself, Gideon, his mate and the Alpha share this house. You guys can have the third floor, Gideon and I stay on the second floor." He told us as he led us to vast big steps.
I started unbuttoning my thick coat, the house was heavily heated and I could feel the snow evaporate off my like steam.
"Oh, the Alpha just linked me that he wanted you here, probably to keep an eye on you or something,"
"Dinner would be served, are you going to be joining us?" Marcus asked.
I beat Cameron to it, "I'll be eating in my room later if that's alright." I wasn't a big fan of eating with the packs during our visit. It was just awkward and I felt judged every time I did eat or didn't eat something. I felt more free eating in peace while working.
"I'll come join you." Cameron said.
Marcus led us up to the top floor, which had a surprising amount of natural light flowing through because of the giant wall to floor rectangle windows. There were paintings and pictures in between the windows on a light grey painted wall, as well as great big golden curtains that were open .
There were slight panels in the wall like storage compartments that held up a few pot plants and more picture frames.
Marcus led us to the car corner, "Hill you can have this room, and Cameron that one is yours." He said pointing to one in the distance. "Once your luggage gets rescued we'll let you know. Do you need clothes for tonight?"
"No that's alright I'll survive." I said.
Cameron and I walked into my room when Marcus said he had to get something, and I looked at the massive bed and vast room, mostly filled with empty space.
"We could have just shared." I said. The couch in the corner could have fit me easily. The room had lots of natural light, with a bookshelf in the corner filled with books. It was very clean and there was a door that led to an attached bathroom.
"It's alright we both know I'll be spending most of my time in your room anyway." Cameron said as he jumped onto the bed.
"Take your shoes off." I said as I slipped out of my own, I didn't want to stain the light coloured carpet they had. I also couldn't wait to take off my socks, they were meant to be waterproof but they were slightly damp and I hated that feeling.
"Anyway I'm going down for dinner, are you sure you dont want to come?"
"No." I said as Cameron shrugged his damp jacket onto my bed, kicking his shoes in two different directions and left me alone in the room.
Men
I grabbed his wet jacket and chucked it on a chair near the bookshelf, I didn't need the mattress to get damp. I walked over to the large square window looking out. You could see the beautiful colours in the sky from the sunset. There were barely any clouds out here and you could already see a few stars even though it wasn't fully dark.
I wonder what the sky would look like when it was fully dark.
I walked to the closet opening it to see that it had empty hangers, a few shelves and even some basic supplies there.
I opened a drawer, starting to take all my weapons out, starting by taking the dagger out from under my shirt and placing it on the shelf. Next I took off my waist belt, it was a thick bulky black belt as it had hidden pockets small enough to hold silver bullets. I carefully rolled it placing it away
I bent down pulling the spare hunters knife beneath my pants and carefully wrapped it with a spare black cloth I always kept in my pocket to handle silver items.
I pulled out my thin hair tie, it may look like a normal hair tie but it was super flexible and I could wrap it around someones neck, which to then it would tightly constrict making them pass out. I ran a hand through my long, thick brown hair untangling the knots with my fingers before I grabbed a spare normal hair tie and tying it back up into a bun.
Lastly I took off my watch, the strap having small silver rhinestone like features, however they were silver needles. I placed them all in the drawer and closed it, reaching for a face wipe they had on the shelf. I needed a shower, but I was going to wait till my luggage came. I was happy to carry it all through the snow but Cameron refused, probably because he was dumb enough to bring a suitcase instead of bags.
I shrugged off my four layers, hanging them leaving me in my woolen black shirt. I also shrugged out of my thick waterproof pants, underneath I had worn my thermal pants. It felt so good to take everything off, it was like wearing a constant heavy backpack. I hoped the wolves on patrol would bring the bag in the backseat, my weapon bag, I really needed that. Otherwise I could always go tomorrow morning by myself to get the stuff if Cameron didn't want to come.
I walked over to the bookshelf, grabbing a random book before jumping onto the plush brown leather couch. I was almost swallowed by the comforting material as I opened the random book.