Page 4 of The Last Ultimatum: Part 1

My heart dropped. “Dingoes?”

She nodded. “A friend shared with me that they found a whole tribe of dingo shifters out in the Whoop Whoop that they are tracking. They already have one and are hoping for at least five more before auction.”

“Six doesn’t make them very rare,” Colin pointed out.

“It does when they’re about to murder off the rest of the Tribes,” she said.

“But there is more than one dingo Tribe. There are several throughout Australia,” I argued.

“You don't think they know that? They must have a plan to kill off the Tribes to make this valid. These Collectors aren't stupid. They aren't just going to believe a dingo shifter is somehow rare with six of them up for sale, unless they were certain the rest were gone,” Taylor said.

Colin shrugged. “We've seen them prey on new Collectors before and pawn off common shifters without any powers.”

“True, but they would never have been listed as endangered. They have them marked as a Level 1 with authenticity. I'm telling you, they are going after the dingo Tribes to ensure they can secure the money a listing like this will bring.”

“Not on my watch. I’m in. They aren’t taking my people like that. I have to get there and warn them. Do we have any leads on which Tribes they’re targeting?”

“How many are there?” Painter, Silas’s second in command, asked.

I shook my head. “Dingoes often live in smaller packs than wolves, but once you get out into the outback, they will often merge together into larger tribes. Unlike here, there isn’t just an Alpha in charge, but an Alpha pair consisting of both male and female. They reign together.”

“So basically Kyle and Kelsey,” Ben, from Bravo team, joked.

“What about Kyle and Kelsey?” A deep voice boomed behind me, causing everyone in the room to stiffen and then all eyes turn towards me.

I sighed. “I was just explaining that while a wolf pack has a single Alpha who leads, dingoes have an alpha pair of both male and female Alphas that co-lead the pack. Our females are highly respected and protected.”

“I guess we are a bit more like dingoes around here then, huh?” Kyle said, causing the entire room to relax.

Kelsey Westin was a badass Alpha she-wolf in her own right and she was much more hands on with the Pack. That much was true. When I really thought about it, I supposed they did reign more in unison. Maybe that was what had made me comfortable enough to not just stay, but to give my full allegiance to them.

Silas and Michael worked through the details before dismissing us.

“Lachlan, I thought you were approved for vacation. What are you even doing here?” Kyle asked me after the meeting adjourned.

“Some arseholes are threatening my kind. So it’s going to be a working vacation now.”

Tilly

Chapter 2

“What’s happened?” I asked, awaking with a start as four men stood guard around my bed.

“Nothing for you to be concerned about. Go back to sleep,” Aiden snapped.

“Don’t you dare bark at me like that,” I said, realizing with a start that these were not my father’s men, but our enemy’s.

Maybe enemy was a harsh word given all the work my father had done to make peace with Aiden’s Tribe, but still.

He growled as I sat up and stared him down.

“You did not just growl at me. Get out of my room!” I screamed.

He shouldn’t be here, and neither should his three men, each watching us curiously.

Before he could respond, my father burst into the room. I expected him to be furious. Four unmated males were in my bedroom in the middle of the night. I knew he had invited them here, working out some sort of alliance with Aiden’s father, but that didn’t give him the right to come into my personal space like this.

I smirked, knowing my dad was about to rip his head off.

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