Page 19 of Wolf Crowned

I blinked back tears. An image of my father‘s lifeless body laying in the dirt filled my mind and I shook it away. “That was your son who did that.”

He hissed into the phone. “The son that your lover took from me.”

I stood up and paced. “Only because he had no choice. Don’t you see, Alpha? There are no winners in a war. Meet with me in public. Let’s discuss a peaceful existence. No one else has to die.”

I could practically feel his anger radiating through the phone. “You can either join me by submitting or die, Sloane. There are no other choices.”

My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach as I leaned against the edge of the desk. I had never really thought that there would be any chance at peace, so that wasn’t surprising, but I didn’t want to have to take good men and women into a battle that I knew not everyone would walk away from.

I put my hand over my chest. “I’m sorry to hear you say that. You should know we’re never going to surrender to you.”

He growled. “And you should know that I’m going to enjoy ripping your pack apart, limb by limb. I’ll kill every last one of them before I take your life.” He snarled so fiercely into the phone it vibrated. “That way you know you utterly and completely failed. Lincoln, now he...he will suffer a far worse fate than death. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish you would’ve submitted.”

The line went dead, but I held the phone against my ear for a few seconds longer as my mind tried to process everything that had just happened. My hands shook and my knees wobbled as I stood upright.

I sucked in a few deep breaths and then walked numbly through the office. What if we just made things worse? Had we just poked the bear and brought more attention to ourselves? I hoped not. We were already fighting with everything we had and we just needed more time.

Alpha Dane had been content to let us be for the moment. What if we’d renewed his interest?

The air buzzed as I walked absently through the house back towards the kitchen.

Lincoln and Brandon were still at the table. Mom and Willa had joined them and were prepping dinner at the counter. They gave me a concerned look as I hobbled by. Brandon and Lincoln hadn’t noticed me yet. Both of them leaned forward, practically on top of the computer screen.

My legs were like Jell-O as I walked across the room and slid out the same chair from earlier, flopping down. “Alpha Dane called me.”

Mom gasped. Willa dropped the spoon she was using into the mixing bowl, her eyes widening.

Lincoln and Brandon both looked up, but it was Lincoln who spoke. “Already? We only sent the email a bit ago.”

I set my phone on the table and stared down at it. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s not willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution. He threatened to kill us all.”

Mom mumbled something under her breath and drew Willa into a hug when she let out a sob.

It shouldn’t be shocking. He’d used intimidation tactics the whole time I was in his pack. They’d been real then, but now, after everything with Dad and the attacks, the weight of it was suffocating.

I blinked rapidly and met their eyes. “Please tell me he clicked on the virus in the email.”

Brandon typed so hard on the keyboard the entire table shook. He stared at the screen for a few seconds longer and all I could do was hold my breath.

He glanced up at me and a small smile slid across his face. “He clicked the link, and the installer ran. We are in.”

My hand went to my forehead, and I fell back in the chair. “This is good. When do we start getting information? The sooner we can flip the script the better.”

Lincoln and Brandon shared a look. Lincoln grinned. “Sweetheart, we are in. We can get whatever we want now.”

I fiddled with the collar of my shirt. “Let’s do it. I want everything. Even if it seems like it might not be important, we should still look at it.” I shifted forward again, leaning on the table. “Do you need someone else to help you look over the information?”

Willa pulled away from my mom and cleared her throat. She let out a shuddering breath. “I want to help. I might not be a computer whiz like those two, but I’m not much help with the building, and...” her eyes misted, and she swiped at her right eye with her thumb. “I don’t think we’re going to get to take Alpha Dane down together like we said, but this is just as good.”

She put her hand on her belly and smiled.

Brandon put his arm over the back of the chair. “The more people, the better.” He ducked his head and looked at me. “We kind of need more laptops, though.”

Lincoln pointed at the one on the table. “Mine is the only one we have. We could do a lot more damage if Brandon had one, too. And Willa and anyone else who wants to comb over data will need one.”

All the computers in the pack house had been destroyed in the fire. It didn’t surprise me that the enforcers didn’t have any. They had a big screen TV and were almost always watching something on it when they weren’t on duty or out running. And almost everyone had a phone.

I bit my lip. I’d gone over the finances and they were a little rough right now with the rebuilding and wolfsbane purchase. But I could find a way. I had to.

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