Page 39 of Monster

“It could help,” Declan said, nodding.“But it’s a Band-Aid, at best. They need to see some results, and soon.Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep the members of my den appeased.” Declan rose to his feet.“We’re sending you mountains of our silver to wage this war… and there are questions. Results can quiet those.”

The alpha stopped at the door and turned to eye Deacon.“I don’t mean to add more stress to your recovery… but I don’t know how much longer I can hold them back.”

Declan departed, leaving silence in his wake.

“Ideas?” Deacon asked, pinching his nose.Maybe he should’ve listened to Glenn about sticking in bed one more day.

“Well, there was some chatter about a transport heading off base,” Hemming said.

Deacon glanced over to the hacker.“Chatter?”

“It looks like a trap,” Lachlan said.

“That’s why we didn’t bring it up,” Kye added, turning to glare at Hemming.

Hemming glared right back. “Trap or not, they deserve to know.We give them the information… they choose what to do with it.”He turned to Deacon. “Yes, it has all the looks of a set-up,” he said, sending a manila folder sliding across the table.It stopped before Deacon. “It was all encoded… but after all those years of seeing their codes across my screens, I think I cracked it,” Hemming said.

“I looked it over, as well,” Lachlan said.“His decoding appears good.”

Deacon opened the file and glanced at the first page.After reading through the email… and the notes on the side showing Hemming’s scrawled decoding… three transports… all departing in stages… three different routes…all three going along winding paths instead of straight shots… and the end locations weren’t listed.

It very well could be a trap.

His stare stopped on one word.

Children.

“Are you sure your translation is correct? You’ve got ‘children’ written here.”

“I’ve checked the cypher I made three times, and I’m almost a hundred percent sure it’s right. Children could be a code word for something, I don’t know.”

“There are no children in Zed’s prison,” Cutler said, but then his face twisted into an odd expression.

“What is it?” Deacon asked.

“Nothing,” Cutler said before leaning back in his seat.

“Parents value their children.Perhaps they view their creations as their children,” Malachi said. “Our attack might’ve forced them into action… to move a valuable asset away from that location to another.” Malachi turned to Deacon. “We can’t ignore this intel, especially with Declan breathing down our necks. The sooner we can amass a fighting force, the sooner we can move on the entire prison.”

“Agreed, but I have concerns,” Deacon said.He scanned the pages Hemming had delivered.“Six days until they move. It’s not enough time for us to scout all three locations and organize another attack—and be sure it’s not a trap.”

“They’re trying to throw us off,” Hemming said. “Likely only one is the true transport.”

“Three routes to split up our forces,” Bull murmured. “Smaller battles could give them the upper hand.”

“There could be a fourth not listed,” Kye offered. “All three could be decoys.”

Deacon pinched his nose, a headache already coming. “There will always be what ifs in battle.Our job is to find the safest path to victory.That means intel and scouting.”

“They have to know we’re in their system,” Kye said. “Our targeted attack to get Lachlan and Hemming out… they have to know you wanted the wolves for a reason.It’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to reason the wolves changed sides and are hacking in. They’d be idiots not to think it.” Kye glanced briefly at his mate, Lachlan. “No matter how good they are at hiding their trail, Lore must realize it’s a possibility.Any data we find could be littered with holes.”

“Your point?” Deacon asked.

“This doesn’t feel right.I think it’s a trap,” Kye said.

“Do we really want to ignore a chance to free more beasts?” Bull asked Deacon. “On Kye’s gut.” Bull looked at Kye.“No offense, but we move on information, not feelings.”

Kye sat back and crossed his arms.

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