Chapter 47
CARSON “Leah is with you,” I said. “Thank god. Josh is heading your way, too. She ran away when the rogues attacked. She even saw one of them shift.” Lynx howled in delight in my head when he heard our mate’s name. He was happy to know she was safe. “Shit,” he muttered. “That might explain why she is scared to death and wouldn’t let me.” My heart sinks. “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “I don’t know what—” “Keep her there,” I blurt out, cutting him off. I tell him everything that has happened since he was away, including his parents’ involvement. Lucian growled at everything but stayed silent till I finished. I left out the part that we were mates. He can find that out when he returns to the pack house like the rest of the pack unless Josh tells him when he arrives. “How could my father be so cruel? We are all family. He taught us to look after our own, and Leah is one of us. I knew I should have come back sooner,” he growled, feeling his anger slip through the mind link. “But there was some complication with the house. Someone wanted to know if she was selling the place. I had to fight to keep it in her name.” “Why would someone think that the house was for sale?” I asked, sounding confused. I have never asked what was going to happen to the house. It slipped my mind. “Leah wouldn’t put it up, would she? It’s her family home.” “Jenny and I thought we would get it all in her name, which I did,” he said and sighed. “Leah would have the final say on what happens to it, even placing it up for rent. We knew she would want to return as she has friends here, but it also holds more memories of her father.” Lucian sighed. “But this person seemed to come out of nowhere,” he gritted. “He was hellbent on it. So, I stayed longer to get more information about her father and see if he had dealings with anyone.” “Did he?” I asked. “Not as far as I could tell,” he said. “He seemed to hold down two jobs to make everything come together. He never went out or gambled. His only time away was when he did stuff with Leah.” “Why are you only now telling me all this?” I blurt. “I was going too,” he said and sighed. “But it all was settled today. I was going to come and see you tomorrow. I could bring Leah back with me and—” “No,” I shout a little too loudly. “The pack is on lockdown because of your father, mother, and a few others escaping.” Lucian growled. “What!” he shouted. “Why would they escape? Don’t they realize it will look suspicious if they left straight after an attack?” I growled but said nothing. Anger was fueling every vein, and it was hard to control myself. We all needed answers and now. “Stay there,” I said. “Keep Leah with you. Josh should be there soon. Tell him what you told me and stay there. I will let you know when it is safe to return with Leah.” Lucian was quiet for a moment. “Actually, there is something else,” he said. “I found my mate here, too.” My eyes widened as he continued. “I found her when I came back to collect Leah with Jenny,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I stayed here to get to know her. She is human and has a daughter. It is Leah’s friend’s mum.” “So, I guess you will want to bring them with you?” I asked, looking at Jenny. She stared at me and mouthed. “What’s going on?” “Well, I was going to ask you when I got back to you,” he said. “But now there is trouble, and we are staying here. I thought I mentioned it. It may even help with Leah knowing they may return with us when the time is right. As Jenny said a few times before, she only wanted to be back because of her friend.” “Keep me updated,” I said. “So, how is it going with your mate? I am assuming she is human.” Lucian groaned. “The woman is stubborn and hates me,” he grumbled, which made me grin. “My wolf finds her attractive when she tells us off, and all I get from her is that I should return to the hole I crawled out of.” Lynx and I chuckled. “That fun, huh?” I asked, which only made him groan. “Why not ask Leah to help?” I asked after I calmed down. “She may be able to put in a good word for you.” “The way my niece is,” he muttered. “She may pour gasoline on me and let my mate light it. I was the one who came with my sister to collect her, remember? I’m not her favourite person.” Lynx chuckled. “Mate would eat him alive,” he murmured. Smiling to myself, I somehow forgot about that. Lucian went to help Jenny get Leah back. “Well, keep me updated,” I said. “You too,” he said. “Now I have to persuade my niece to come into the house with me without her trying to claw my eyeballs out.” A smirk inched the corners of my lips up. “You might want to give her some details on what we are,” I said. “With everything that went on here leading up to the attack, Jenny and I didn’t get around to telling her about our kind.” Lucian sighed. “I will try my best,” he said. “Josh will link you when he gets here, and you can let us know what is happening.” “Okay,” I said, closing the mind link and looking toward Jenny. “Leah arrived at her family home,” I said, making her move up in her chair and smile. “Your brother was still there.” Jenny furrowed her eyebrows at me. “What do you mean he was still there?” she asked. “I thought he was coming back here.” I shrugged and looked at her before I spoke again. “It seems he has found his mate,” I said, making her eyes widen. “He has?” she asked, making a nod. “Yeah,” I said. “It seems to be the mother of Leah’s friend. It sounds complicated since you both made a sour impression on the woman.” “Oh god,” she murmured. “She was pissed at us for turning up on the day of the funeral. She even had a go at me at the hospital.” Jenny stops and looks at me. “But I’m glad Leah is safe,” she said. “When will they come back?” Fuck. I forgot to tell her about what Zain told me. Moving up in my seat, I leaned forward slightly and looked at her. “They not coming back for a few days,” I said, making her look back confused, but I continued. “Josh is on his way there. I told Lucian to wait till he arrives, and I will mind link with what is happening here.” “And what is happening here?” she asked, moving her head to the side. “Did Zain find my mum?” I shook my head. “No,” I said. “He even went to the cells to check to see if she went to your father, but neither of them was there. It seems they left the pack undetected.” “What!” Jenny shouted. “They left the pack.” I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I have placed the pack on lockdown, so no one can come in or leave. I want to find out what the hell is going on.” Jenny stared at me and got up. Her eyes went to the door where her boys were. “I need to keep them safe,” she said. “But since the rogues were at our house, I don’t want to take them back there.” “All three of you will stay here,” I said. “In the pack house. I will have an omega set up two rooms on the beta floor. Zain wouldn’t mind.” Jenny gave a nod but looked defeated. “All this because of my parents,” she muttered. “What would make them do something like this to their own granddaughter?” I shrugged again. “The older generation wants to follow the same old rules my father placed over the years,” I said, staring at her. “The amount of times I have had to deal with them about something they didn’t like that I put in place was unreal. It all worsened since that rogue attack that claimed my father and the gamma’s son.” I sighed and took a breath before I continued. “The old gamma blames me for his son’s death,” I muttered, looking at my hands. “He has been very vocal about it. Whenever I mention or do anything to help the pack become stronger, he makes a big scene and makes it all about what my father would say if he were alive.” Jenny’s eyes softened. “You were never to blame for his son’s death,” she said. “He is grieving. His mate died a few years before when his son was seven, and it was just the two of them. He lost his only living relative he had left.” My heart sank, remembering it all, but it was hard not to blame myself. “Cason,” Jenny called out. “Don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself. You lost your father that night, and not to mention your mum, too.” I look up at her. Jenny gave me a small smile. “Look, get a room ready for my sons,” she said. “And once they are settled, I will help Zain and you with whatever you need. I need to keep busy, especially with my daughter and mate out there.” I gave her a nod and mind-linked an omega about a room to be made. Once I was done, I opened another mind link to Zain to return to the office. We needed to come up with a plan for what we were going to do next. “I will sort out the boys,” Jenny blurted out, moving towards the door, but stopped and looked at me. “When they are settled, I will come here, and we can decide on the next course of action.” I gave her a nod. Jenny turned back around and headed through the door. The room was quiet, just me and my thoughts. My mind raced over everything, but there was so much going on there that I didn’t realize Lynx was upfront with me. “I want mate,” he whimpered. “I know,” I said, looking back at him. “But she has to stay put. It will be safer for her not to be here.” Lynx looked unconvinced. “What about those filthy rogues?” he growled. “Do you think they followed her?” That was a good point. Did they follow her? “I don’t know,” I muttered. “But we need the rogues to believe she is still her and not away. If they know her scent and follow her there, it will be an uphill war, and more humans could get hurt.” Lynx growled. “Then what do we do?” he grunted. “Mate would be safer here with us, not out there.” “Josh and Lucian are with her,” I said. “We have to believe and trust that they look after her.” Lynx said nothing, but I could feel his worry about Leah come through. I felt the same, but we needed to be the alpha now and protect our pack from whatever was going on here. “Pack needs us,” I said, making Lynx look at me. “We need to ensure the pack is safe for our mate to return to us. We need to be alpha. Use our emotions to destroy whoever is behind this and get our mate back. What do you say? Are you with me, Lynx?” Lynx looked at me momentarily, moving his head to the side. “I’m with you, dummy,” he said, making me frown. “You’re my human, and we are alpha. Let’s get whoever it is and punish them for what they did to our pack and mate.” I gave him a nod. A knock rang out through the office, and the door opened. Zain walked in, looking pissed. “We need to do something,” he said. “Or we will have World War Nine on our hands. The pack wants answers, and we don’t have any.” I looked at my beta and best friend and sighed. “Then let’s get to work and find out what the hell is going on,” I said, moving out of the chair. “We can call a pack meeting tomorrow and briefly update them on what we know. Whatever we find, we will tell them.” “And the lockdown?” Zain asked. “We keep that up and tell them what?” “The truth,” I said. “We tell them what we know and go from there. We have to find out if anyone knows something.” Zain stared at me, taking in what I said, but nodded. “So what do we do now?” he asked. Thinking for a moment when I remembered something. “Cameras,” I said. “There are cameras on the outside of the cells. Get them. We can look over them and see who has been to see Paul. Maybe we can establish who is involved.” “Good idea,” he said, turning to leave. “I will get them now.” “Jenny will help,” I blurted out, making him look at me and nod. “She can tell us who they are and their link to her parents.” Zain nodded and left. I walked over to my desk and sat. We need to get things underway, or I won’t have my mate back here with me soon. We had a plan, and now we had to figure out what was happening here. An image of Leah popped into my head, causing my heart to ache. I needed her. She had to be my focus, or I was going to lose it.