Page 66 of Alpha Gray

“Alpha Cole has been expecting you,” the other guy says. He gestures for us to follow, and Reid and I trail behind them up the driveway and into the packhouse.

The packhouse here is sleek and modern, with clean lines and lots of windows. Once inside, we’re led down a long hallway- which I know from my previous visits ends at Cole’s office. We reach the closed door of the office and the larger of the two goons escorting us knocks on it twice, announcing our arrival.

“Send them in,” comes a deep voice from inside, and the guy turns the knob and pushes the door open, stepping out of the way so that Reid and I can enter.

Cole is seated behind a large oak desk that’s partially covered with scattered paperwork. He’s a young guy- I’d put him at about thirty- and he’s got short black hair, dark eyes, a square jaw, and a no-nonsense attitude. He rises to his feet when we enter, his expression stoic.

“Alpha Gray, nice to see you again,” he greets, moving around his desk to approach me as one of his goons closes the door behind us. He extends a hand to shake mine with a firm grip.

“Alpha Cole,” I reply, tipping my head. “Likewise.”

“And you must be Alpha Reid,” he says, moving to Reid beside me and offering his hand.

Reid shakes it, nodding. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All good things, I hope.”

The corner of Reid’s mouth tips up into a half-smile. “Of course.”

Cole circles back around to his side of the desk, gesturing to the two overstuffed leather chairs situated in front of it. “Please, have a seat.”

Reid and I acquiesce, sinking down as Cole takes his seat opposite us.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you up here for a meeting.” Cole leans forward, setting his elbows on the desk and lacing his fingers together in front of him.

I just nod, leaning back in my chair and crossing an ankle over my knee, waiting for him to go on. I don’t want to make any assumptions about an alliance, so I’ll let him take the lead.

“You called me last week about your rogue problem, asked if we’d come across the guy down here.”

“Yeah,” I mumble. “He was eliminated, but we still don’t know why he was hanging around. Haven’t had any issues since.”

Cole pauses, drawing a breath. “Some new information on that front has come to light,” he says. “We have reason to believe that Alpha Xavier and the shadow pack have been using rogues to locate the shifter packs in our state.”

My blood runs cold. My pulse races, and I can feel my frantic heartbeat in my ears.

“Are you sure?” My voice is raspy, and it sounds so far away, like it isn’t even mine. Suddenly I’m that frightened eighteen-year-old boy again, watching the shadow pack tear through mine, screaming out as my parents fall, fighting against Deke as he pulls me out of the packhouse to safety.

Cole speaks again, bringing me back to the present. “We captured a rogue that was sniffing around our border, got some information out of him.”

Fuck. I let myself start to feel safe, comfortable in the remote six-pack territory. I let myself get involved with Fallon, consider a future with her. If the shadow pack finds the six-pack, there may not be a future for any of us.

I scrub a hand over my face, leaning forward. “Are you sure? Where is he now? Do you still have him?”

Cole nods solemnly. “He’s in a cell in the basement.”

“Can I question him?”

Cole shrugs. “I’m not sure what else you’ll get out of him. It took a while for us to even get what little information we did.” He pushes back his chair, rising to his feet. “But yeah, I figured you’d want to.”

My mind is absolutely fucking spinning right now. We’ve got the squad in place and we’ve been theoretically preparing our defense for years, but are we really ready for the largest threat to land on our doorstep?

Reid and I rise to our feet, following Cole out of his office silently. He leads us down another corridor to a long set of stairs descending into the darkness. Once we reach the bottom and he flicks on a light, I glance around at the clean, empty, well-lit space. Not the dungeon I was expecting.

We follow Cole as he crosses the room to a door on the far side with a keypad affixed next to the handle. He types in a series of numbers and I hear the locking mechanism disengage.

He pulls open the door, leading Reid and I into a small room lit with overhead florescent lights. When I cross the threshold, the rogue’s foul scent assaults my nose before I even lay eyes on him.

He’s seated in the center of the room, bound to a metal chair. As we enter the room, the rogue jerks his head up to look at us, his eyes wide, wild. His stringy dark hair clings to dried blood on his dirty face and one of his eyes is completely swollen shut- evidence of how Cole’s pack coaxed information out of him.

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