Page 78 of Fate Awakened

“We have bigger problems,” Dante continues pulling my attention back to him.

“Deacon has also filed an accusation against us for kidnapping an Unawakened who was, in his words, ‘under his protection,’”

“The fuck he has. She doesn’t belong to him. She’s mine!” I growl the word.

Dante: Breathe. Hold onto your control. He isn’t here.

“We know. The problem is he has video evidence of her walking freely from his business hours before we flew her unconscious body into our territory. The optics aren’t good.” He finishes looking at James, who’s finally back from his trip.

“Deacon’s using any influence he has to spin the story that we went into his territory to steal the girl. He’s saying Hudson was in Reno spying for us and gave us the information about her. We know that isn’t true, but unfortunately, several other packs are listening and find it concerning. Especially since Hudson can’t testify and Antonio’s dead. It’s bad,” James finishes, his face showing concern.

“My contacts have been reaching out since the trade as well,” Elijah jumps in. “They have questions about why Hudson was in the area, how we knew about the girl, why we took her,” he rattles off the questions he’s been hearing.

“This is the key problem. We agreed to keep the theft of HUNTER a secret. We handled it ourselves. We kept everything in the pack. Now with Hudson gone,” Dante pauses, clearing his throat to remove the emotion. “We don’t want to sully his name. Outing him as a traitor doesn’t feel right, seeing as he jumped in front of a bullet to protect Cain’s Mate. In the end, he proved his loyalty." Dante’s final statement’s directed at me.

My attention slides to the screen. I haven’t had time to process what happened that day. My sole focus has been waiting for the moment she wakes up. In the back of my mind, I know Hudson’s the only reason there’s a possibility she’ll survive this. He sacrificed himself so that she had a chance.

But he put her there in the first place.

Without his actions, she never would’ve been at risk.

I don’t know how to feel. Thankful for his final moments? Justified that he got what he deserved? Angry that he stole her? Overjoyed that he tried to give her back?

A million emotions bounce around in my mind, but none of them matter if she doesn’t survive this. I know my pack is hurting because of his loss. I can see it on their faces. Feel it rolling off of them in waves. Erik trained him. He was one of Jake’s best recruits. Pres and Quinn went through school with him from childhood. Dante was his Alpha.

And now he’s dead.

I can tell Dante is pausing because he wants me to agree. To side with him that we shouldn’t drag Hudson’s name through the mud.

“What choice do we have? If the council agrees with Deacon’s claims, we’ll be expected to release my Mate to them. Hudson’s already given up his life to protect her. It would be in vain if we had to return her to Deacon’s Pack.”

“I agree with Cain,” Presley chimes in. “Hudson’s legacy lies in saving one of our own. Despite everything else, he’d want us to clear the pack. Pack first.”

Dante’s eyes flash to Pres, and I can tell he chooses his next words carefully.

“Then we risk revealing HUNTER to the LLC and every sitting board member.” Dante finishes locking his eyes on Presley.

“How? Deacon never got his hands on it,”

“No, but Kole did, and a vampire adjudicator will verify any story we spin about Hudson’s involvement. If we leave it out, we will look even more guilty when it’s brought to light. Revealing Hudson as anything but a spy working for us opens the door to all of it.” The gravity of the situation finally hits me.

We could have to release my Mate into Deacon’s custody, or we may alert every powerful Alpha to the fact that we have software that can instantaneously track and monitor anyone, anywhere, anytime. The target that will be put on the pack would be more than we could handle. We’d lose everyone while simultaneously giving someone unlimited access to a species-tracking machine.

Fuck.

“We knew this could happen. This morning I placed fail-safes into the code. It requires my fingerprint, eye scan, and voice password every 72 hours. Without it, no information can be queried. If more than thirty days elapse without my credentials, it corrupts all of the code,” Presley states.

“It’s too risky,” Dante says. “It just shifts the target from us to you. They have you; they have the code.”

Before she can respond, movement on the camera catches my eye. I turn my focus on the screen to see Quinn out of her chair, book strewn on the floor, and movement on the bed.

Her eyes are open!

I’m out of the room instantly, my chair crashing to the floor as I sprint down the hallway to the stairs.

Cain: Get Radolf, now!

Dante: He’s on his way.

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