Page 74 of Shadow Bound

An hourlater we are all sitting around Winslow and Ranger’s living room, watching the footage Whisper had found for us. The silence and wariness in the room is almost tangible. Not one of us can believe what we are seeing.

“I wondered where they all went,” Sawyer, who’d joined us, whispers. His green eyes locked on the flat screen TV.

“I just can’t believe that’s the same Noah I’ve known my whole life.” My father, Elias, shakes his head in disappointment.

My parents had also showed up, as the acting alpha pair while Pruitt is away, we needed to keep them in the loop. While Ryker had technically taken over the role as an alpha with Pru, he was in no condition to lead the pack without his mate. He elected to step back and let my parents resume the position they held for fourteen years.

I’ve never seen Isabeau look as uncomfortable as she did when she met them. My girl can look death in the eye and not flinch, but she was almost trembling over herself when she met my parents, Elias and Margot.

My mother was wary of her, but the second she watched Remi and Winslow interact with her without trepidation or fear, she relaxed. I met my mother’s eyes a couple of times after she caught me staring at my blood-sucking Tinkerbell. A mother never misses anything, and I know she knows where my feelings are headed with Beau.Where they’ve already headed. I didn’t know I needed my mother’s approval, but when she gave me a subtle nod across the room, my whole body relaxed.

I haven’t been a good son for the past ten months. I took off just like Ryker did for all those years. I never made an effort to call her and check in, there wasn’t any guilt regarding that when I was away, but the second I met my mother’s eyes, ones that look just like mine, the remorse started to build.

“How many are in that container?” Gage, the head enforcer and also Remi’s boyfriend asks.

“I counted six,” Isabeau answers from the other side of the room. She stands against the far wall away from everyone. She isn’t quite comfortable with big groups yet, I’ve learned. “There were four in the other blue cargo container.”

I shake my head in disbelief at this. For months, Sawyer and I had a steady flow of rogue wolves to hunt, but things started to dry up. The cases became less and less. We thought it was because we were so on top of the problem and with mating bonds being made through love now instead of just fate, there were fewer male shifters turning rogue since they could mate with the ones they loved. Though I craved the hunt, this was a positive development. But we were so wrong. We weren’t fixing the problem, not even close in fact.

In actuality, Noah has been gathering rogue wolves up across the country and storing them in various cargo containers. From what we can tell from the footage, he barely feeds them, and definitely never lets them out. He’s making the already crazed shifters even more deadly and feral.

Noah’s been building an angry army of rogues and he intends to set them loose on us.

The last footage we have of him is in Colorado loading another container onto a semitruck. He hasn’t been alone though. He has some men working with him, helping him. Isabeau has theorized his little helpers are vampires supplied by Nessa and Sterling.

“How many do you estimate he has in total?” Dad asks no one in particular.

“There were three containers, I’m guessing he brings around fifteen wolves and a handful of Nessa’s vampires,” Isabeau, who’s been twisting a knife anxiously in her hand, responds, not bothering to look at him. If she was part of the pack, it’d be considered disrespectful to not look at the alpha when she talks, but since she’s not, it’s tolerated.

Behind my dad’s black-rimmed glasses, he eyes the vampire. Unlike Mom’s expression, I can’t read my dad’s. Elias Weylyn is almost as good at hiding his thoughts as Isabeau is. She still wears the crown though. My dad is a quiet, reserved man. He’s responsible and just, but also loyal and protective to a fault. It’s what makes him a good alpha.

“Where will Nessa come into play with all of this? So far, I’ve only seen Noah on the footage,” Dad asks Beau.

Finally, she lifts her head to look at him. With a smirk, she shakes her head. “Nessa is too clever to be caught on camera, unlike your beta. Much like me, no one will know Nessa is coming until she’s standing six feet in front of you with a knife or gun pointed at your head. When Nessa wants us to know what she’s planning, she’ll make it clear. She doesn’t make mistakes.”

This answer makes my dad frown, but he nods his head in understanding.

Remington, who’s sitting next to Gage with her legs over his lap, pipes up next. “There’s one thing I really don’t understand, you said Noah told you guys that Nessa promised him something in return for bringing this army to our doorstep. What could Nessa or Sterling possibly offer Noah? Money? He’s never been a materialistic person. Power? He was the beta of a wildly powerful pack, but he walked away from it. What does he want?”

Everyone looks around at each other, waiting to see if someone has the answer, but everyone stays quiet.

“I think he just wants revenge,” Mom says sadly. “He blames almost everyone here for playing a part in Addison’s death. Even if his reasoning isn’t founded, it makes sense in his head. Just like in his head, it makes sense to him that he’s saving the girls he kills from ever feeling the pain he feels.”

I shake my head at this. “I think revenge is a big part of it, but I think Remington is right. He’s getting something else out of this.”

“What though?” Remington asks again.

“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.”

Everyone whispers and strategizes amongst themselves. Beau stays with her back pressed to the wall, but I can tell by the way her eyes dart around the room, she’s hearing everyone’s conversation. It has to be terribly overwhelming to be in a room with so many people. So many noises and scents for her sensitive senses to take in.

My mom suddenly stands from her spot on the couch, with a subtle jerk of her head, she silently asks me to follow her.

With one last look at Beau to make sure she’s okay, I follow my mom onto the back deck of Ranger’s house.

My mom stands against the railing, her arms crossed in a relaxed way, not a confrontational way, making me relax some. She doesn’t beat around the bush, the second the door is closed securely behind me, she asks me the question I’d been too afraid to ask myself, “Do you think she’s your mate?”

I feel like someone just dumped ice-cold water over my head. My body jerks and then freezes in place at the question. When I stand there for too long with a presumably dumb look on my face, my mom huffs out a breath. “Well?”

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