Page 27 of The Alpha's Fated Bond

I don’t want to leave this bed, but I have to. There’s a lot of work to get done that can only be done in the darkness of the night. Slipping out of the bedroom, I close the door quietly and look over at the two burly shifters standing guard in the hall. I nod at them, and they nod back.

I head to one of the rooms that has yet to be furnished, locking the door from the inside. The whole place looks like a construction zone. It’s a very convenient cover. After moving aside the tarp on the floor to reveal a trap door, I pull it open and jump in.

These tunnels were built a couple of years ago through painstaking effort, and only a handful of people know about them. All the digging took place at night; precautions had to be taken at each step to prevent anybody from finding out about their existence.

One of the companies I founded created solar-fueled bulbs for mines and underground construction. These bulbs line the tunnel, guiding my route. I walk underneath the village till I reach a series of tunnels leading in all different directions, a way of escape for my pack. If ever Karina decides to attack us, there are several of these trap doors built all over the village, even in the houses of those unaware of their existence.

This is the only way my people can get away from here undetected. These tunnels open up in various locations quite far away from the village.

As I head deeper underground, I take the tunnel in the middle and shift into my wolf form. It takes me thirty minutes to reach the end of the tunnel, which is a wooden door. I shift back and retrieve the key, which is in my pocket. When I unlock the door, I’m not surprised to see Saul, Jared, and Patrick are already here.

This is a large room containing folders and documents pertaining to Karina and her people, plus our own espionage information that we have been gathering with the help of spies planted all over.

I close the door behind me, asking, “Well?”

Saul looks up from where he’s writing something in a ledger. “We don’t have a lot to go on. Our spies are lying low for now.But I did get word that Karina has been trying to contact Julia. She hasn’t been successful, and she’s pissed about that.”

I look around at the men standing before me. “There’s a chance Julia’s dead.”

“Ding dong, the witch is dead!” Jared grins. “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to celebrate,” Patrick cautions. “If Karina is able to connect Julia’s possible death with you, Alex, we’re pretty much screwed. And you know that.”

He’s making sense, but I have a rebuttal. “Karina never told us that she was sending Julia our way, and as far as we know, Julia never told her she found us. By all accounts, we never crossed paths.”

Patrick gives me a disgusted look. “You expect that story to fly with Karina?”

“Not really, no,” I admit with a shrug. “But it’s not like we have anything else we can tell her. We don’t even know where Julia is.”

“We’ll have to figure that out soon.” Patrick looks tense. “I’ve sent out feelers. Even if Karina believes that we never crossed paths with Julia, if she has gone missing, Karina is going to take it out on us. And nobody can stop her.”

He has a point. This is something I was afraid of. But the alternative was to bring Julia with us when we left Oakrest, and that was not happening. Julia would have quickly realized that Sophia was the Silver Wolf, and she would have handed her over to Karina.

“Keep me updated on that situation.” I look at Saul. “Where’s Nathan?”

“He’s looking after Tessa,” Jared pitches in. “She’s rattled. The nanny was angry with her for bringing Beth back so late. She tried to ban Tessa from any more feeding sessions. Nathan had some words with the nanny, and the soldiers got involved. We had to step in. You’re going to have to deal with that situation in the morning.”

“Don’t worry,” I say darkly. “I’ll have a word with the soldiers. They may be able to prevent the parents from accessing their children, but not the Alpha.”

Even though the soldiers are Karina’s people, and they can be quite cruel to my pack members, I’m still more powerful than they are. I may not be able to kill them, but I can beat them to within an inch of their life. I’ve done it once before. Karina decided to show up later and whipped me in front of the soldiers and the pack, a humiliating human punishment, but it takes more than that to break me. The soldiers know that Karina’s reprimand didn’t have the intended impact, and they’re wary of me.

“How are you planning to introduce Sophia and Lily to the pack?” Saul asks, studying me. “Everyone is asking questions, and the fact that they haven’t even left the guest house has the nannies and soldiers becoming curious as well. We can’t let them get too nosy.”

“I’m well aware,” I say, leaning against the wall. “Last night, I saw two of the soldiers approaching the guest house. They left when they realized I was there. We’ll introduce the girls in themorning. The backstory is that they’re from one of the bigger cities, and I brought them here to open up a shop.”

“A shop?” Patrick gives me a long look. “That’s a foolproof plan you’ve got there, boss.”

I scoff. “Have some faith in me. Lily will be introduced as a witch who specializes in shifter clothing. Since we don’t have easy access to any stores where witches enchant clothes for shifters, and since we’ve already opened many businesses here and in other territories, it’s perfectly reasonable that they would be here to survey the area and see if they can set up shop here. That way, our people can also have a selection of our special clothes instead of just getting secondhand pieces sent to us.”

“That makes sense.” Saul nods. “But what about Sophia?”

“I’ve already prepared an identity for her. She’ll be introduced as a shifter. A seamstress.”

“And what if the soldiers try to verify her identity?”

“They don’t have the right to do that.” I smile sharply. “I’m still the Alpha. They can try to push her around, but they won’t be able to demand her identity card. The only one who can do that is Karina. But don’t worry about it. Everything is getting ready as we speak.”

Jared looks on edge. “This isn’t the first time we’ve people visiting for business-related work,” he says. “You haven’t forgotten how our most recent visitors were harassed, have you? We’ve lost two potential deals because of them.”

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