Page 22 of Come and Get Me
CHAPTER SIX
ELIJAH
“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” Deacon, my mate, asked me.
“A little. I’d be crazy if I wasn’t,” I said. “I’ll be leaving myself completely at their mercy. Yeah, I’m nervous, but I’m still going to go through with it.”
This was our last meeting regarding the plan. Since they had agreed to do this my way, we’d had several of these sit downs. Deacon didn’t like it one bit, and the closer we came to the date, the more nervous he became. To be honest, I found it flattering that he cared and loved me so much. He didn’t want anything to go wrong, because he didn’t want to lose me. I didn’t think it was only because he was an Alpha and didn’t want to lose face. It was because I was one half of him now and he was the other half of me.
“Don’t worry, Deacon, everything will be fine. Chandler contacted me today, told me that everyone knows their roles. It was smart to make the trap at The Drain. That place is the crack of a dirty ass when it comes to sanguinistas. With its lax security, it makes them the perfect target,” Elliot said.
He was the one who was our contact to Chandler, we wanted to keep everything streamlined. The limited number of humans and wolves who knew about our plan, the better. So far, everything had gone according to how we wanted. Chandler had infiltrated the same human rebel cell that had cost Deacon some of his businesses and a few wolves from his pack after they’d bombed them. Deacon had been wanting his revenge on them ever since that had happened. As for Dante, he had given him over to Théoden because he’d wanted to solidify an alliance with the vampire Prince.
He had his alliance, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. I found out later that Deacon wanted more territory. For wolves, more territory meant more power. Deacon wanted it all, his ultimate dream was to have all of the packs under his command, and he wanted to achieve that by taking out one pack Alpha at a time until he was the only one left.
So, he set his sights on Josef, the eight-hundred-year-old Alpha wolf of the River Rock territory and a wolf twice Deacon’s age. My mate knew he couldn’t take Josef or his pack, which was also twice the size of ours, on his own, so he set his own plan into motion. He killed a vampire and a wolf and made it looked like one of Théoden’s vampires had done the deed of killing Josef’s wolf. He also left suspicion in the air as to who had killed the vampire from Théoden’s territory.
Deacon wanted them at each other’s throats, and then his final plan was to kill one of his own wolves to make it seem like Josef was attacking them both because of the alliance they shared. That way, Deacon would team up with Théoden to take Josef out. As devious plans went, it was a damn good one. But then Dante threw a major fucking wrench into everything. At first, Deacon was happy when Josef attacked Théoden and his sons during the day, but by that night, Théoden’s vampires had infiltrated Josef’s territory and had begun procreating.
What made it worse was that Josef seemed to be allowing it, which was something no respectable werewolf would ever do. So that meant Théoden had something Josef really wanted. We found out later that it was his mate. Who knew that Dante was Josef’s mate? I’d bet if Deacon had known this, he wouldn’t have ever given Dante over to Théoden. Knowing what I knew of my mate, he would have killed Dante. Or maybe bargained him for Josef’s territory and pack. Deacon was nothing if not a fucking opportunist.
Anyway, once Deacon’s plan went to total shit, he confessed to me what he’d done and that it meant we were in danger. If either Théoden or Josef figured out Deacon was the one who had killed their members, he would be next to die. I couldn’t let that happen. So, I decided to shift the blame to the human rebel cell, killing two birds with one stone. The only catch was I had to be the bait, and that was what had Deacon so unnerved.
I watched as my mate poured himself another glass of brandy, then walked back to his chair. He plopped down, slouching. “If those fucking humans try to kill you before you get to The Drain, you do whatever you need to do to protect yourself,” he said.
“I know, Deacon.”
“I don’t like that they are using real tranquilizers.” Deacon frowned and turned to Elliot. “Can’t we slip something to Chandler to replace them? He can just pretend that the tranqs are taking effect.”
The huge and really intimidating wolf, who was also our Second in Command Beta Capo, took a puff of his cigarette. He shook his head. “Not possible. They are too close to doing the deed and everyone is on lockdown according to Chandler.” He turned to me. “Good news is, with the two of you being mated, the tranq isn’t going to have that much of an effect on you, Boss.”
I didn’t like the idea that I’d be rendered even a little bit helpless, but it had to be done for this plan to work. If I wasn’t, the humans would fear that I’d attack them. If that happened, either they’d all die or I would for sure, and I was trying to avoid getting killed. The humans weren’t the only ones who had to put all of their trust in Chandler. If he pulled this off, I wanted Deacon to keep his end of the bargain and turn him. All Chandler wanted was to be pack. We should honor that deal.
“It will just kind of leave me a little bit loopy, right?” I asked.
Elliot nodded. “And maybe a bit nauseated, but you won’t be completely helpless.”
“Fuck,” Deacon snarled, then downed the last of his drink. “I’m going to kill every last one of those humans.”
“No, you’re not. Remember the second part of all this. We trap them, then call Josef and Théoden so they can get their supposed revenge on the humans who killed their members. It’s a sign of good faith on your part and proves your innocence. Keep your temper in check, Deacon,” I said.
He growled, but didn’t say anything.
“I’ll take Chandler out after we make a show of it in front of the humans about how he needs to suffer,” Elliot said.
“Good,” I replied. In all honesty, I didn’t really like having to set up the human rebels. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but in order to save my mate and my pack, I realized I was going to have to do things I didn’t like. This was one of them. I looked at Elliot. “Can you leave us?”
“Sure, Boss,” Elliot said, then he rose and left Deacon’s office.
We three were the only ones who knew every detail about what was going on. It would protect our pack if the others didn’t know. Loose lips sank ships and all that shit. I stood up from my chair and walked over to Deacon. I sat on his desk in front of him and looked down at his handsome face. When we first met, I hated everything about his ass, even the air he was breathing because it kept him alive. Now, I couldn’t see myself without him. The bond we shared as mates was that strong. But I wasn’t his slave, he knew that well enough now.
“Do you still want all of that territory?” I asked. I had to know, because he was always plotting. We had gone to two meetings with the other Alphas of wolf territories, with the exception of Josef. It was all about what the other packs were going to do about Josef and the fact that he had allowed vampires to take up residence on his lands. Also, wolves were sent to New Haven to protect the vampires during the day. This shit was unheard of and, from what I’d gathered, forbidden.
The other packs wanted Josef dead because he was a threat now. If wolves and vampires were that in cahoots together, what was to stop them from trying to take over the rest of the wolf territories? Josef’s pack was fifteen hundred strong, he was a mighty force on his own. With the vampires, who were about twenty-five hundred strong, maybe more by this point, it was nothing to scoff at. Deacon had made sure to feed into the other Alphas’ fears by pointing out the very possible future that we could be killed and Josef and Théoden would rule it all.
It didn’t help that we all knew Dante was Josef’s mate and Théoden’s son. He was the one person that bonded the two men together, and that link was eternal. Once Josef mated with Dante, who knew what the hell was going to happen? What kind of freakishly powerful wolves would he make and what would happen to Josef’s pack after the mating ritual was complete?
Deacon was quite shrewd in his plotting at the last meeting, stating that there should be an attack on Josef’s territory on the full moon night to prevent the union. The other Alphas had agreed that plan was a smart one and were setting their own agendas into motion. As for Deacon, he had no plans on attacking Josef’s pack, because he wanted to keep his alliance with Théoden intact. In fact, he was going to warn Théoden of the attack.
