Page 15 of The Alpha's Protective Mate

“Doesn’t mean one or two aren’t settled here,” I point out. “If you have a better idea about why no one seems to remember the vampire or the location, why don’t you fill me in?”

“Why are you being so testy?” Morris demands.

“Because I got ambushed by two vampires and nearly died, and my informant either ratted me out or is dead.” I give my friend a tight smile. “I think I have a right to be on edge.”

Morris sinks down next to me. “What I want to know is how they managed to attack you so badly?”

The anger in his voice echoes within me.

I try to think back to that scene, two nights ago. “I had gotten out of the car. I remember someone grabbing my arms from behind. Before I could react, I felt something being injected into my neck, and after that, everything was a blur.”

“Maria said it was extremely potent wolfsbane,” Morris murmurs thoughtfully.

Maria is a senior healer in Morris’s pack. She is also the future mate of Morris’s brother-in-law, my adopted brother and assistant, Harry Montgomery.

“But she said she’s never seen anything like it,” I respond. “I still feel light-headed, even though she removed all trace of the wolfsbane in me.”

“Someone else removed most of it before she got to you.” Morris doesn’t look too happy about that. “I want to know who it was. And to what extent that vampire was involved.” He taps his fingers on the arm of the couch and looks at me. “What did your healer say?”

“Dominic thinks there was a drug in that wolfsbane, the same type that’s still circulating in our kind,” I reveal. “But because the traces of the wolfsbane were already so weak, he couldn’t find much to work with. He’s been talking to Maria. But at the end of the day, Morris, it should not have been so easy to incapacitate an Alpha. Clearly, the vampires are upping their game.”

Morris is silent, his expression heavy.

“None of this is good, Robert. I’m beginning to think the only way to resolve this entire situation is to wipe out these vampires. They’re like leeches, refusing to budge. The Nelo Clan is at the top of the list.”

I start at his words. “You’re proposing a war, Morris. You know what will happen if we attempt this. Even the humans will get involved.”

“Not if we keep it all under wraps,” Morris replies sharply. “If the Montgomery Pack and the Moore Pack join my pack for this, we might be able to control the backlash. If you talk to Adam Moore, we might be able to deal with this problem once and for all.”

He’s clearly given this some thought, I realize. But vampires aren’t easy to subdue. If they were, our ancestors would have driven them out centuries ago. There was once a war between vampires and wolf shifters, back in the fifteenth century. The results of that war have never come to light. In fact, a major part of our history has been wiped from our archives. But we do know that wolf shifters and vampires have always hated each other.

“I’ll consider it,” I say slowly, just as there is a knock on the door. “Come in.”

Harry Montgomery, once known as Harry Hart, walks in.

When I became Alpha, I adopted Harry and his older sister, Aisha, into my pack as my family unit. Now, Aisha is the Alpha Female of the Wolfguard Pack, married and mated to Morris, and Harry is my most trusted right-hand man. He’s in his early twenties now, and I sent him to the best business university out there. He’s intelligent and capable, and since I have no child of my own, I’m considering nominating him as the next Alpha of my pack, whenever that happens.

“Anything?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I went around the shops. All of them have glass doors and the same shutters. I tried to check their security cameras but someone had wiped them all.”

“The bloodsuckers?” Morris’s eyes narrow, but Harry just shrugs.

“I really don’t know. Could be, since the camera covering your car and the attack was also wiped for that entire day.”

Harry looks tense, and I know he’s feeling guilty.

“You did a good job, Harry,” I assure him. “There are external forces at play here. Don’t worry. You did what you could.”

“There was something else,” Harry suddenly says. “She had a huge black eye. Her left eye. I remember that because I wondered why it wasn’t healing.”

“It’s probably already healed by now,” Morris says dismissively.

I become lost in thought at Harry’s words. From what he told me, it had taken him around fifteen minutes to arrive at the location. The eye should have healed to quite an extent in that amount of time.

I let Harry and Morris launch into a discussion about Toby, Morris’s ten-year-old son’s upcoming birthday party. My brain is otherwise occupied.

It’s been two days, and I have a business to run. I should return to work and simply be more vigilant from now on. If the vampires have come up with a way to weaken an Alpha, that is not good news in the slightest. It means we are in more trouble than we realize.

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