The Possessive Alpha
Chapter 107

DAMON POV

“The council’s elite warriors?” Andrew asks, “are you sure? What the f**k would they want with New Moon?” As he asks the questions, he begins pacing, his eyes glued to the screens while his brain tries to figure out where this new puzzle piece belongs in the bigger picture.

“I am unsure, Beta,” Trent says, as his fingers fly along the keyboard to pull up the video feed from the last week, “but I went through the feed, and they have been here since the ball, making no advancements towards us but growing in number steadily. But they have come ready for war.”

“War?” Andrew asks while I stare at the screen, my eyes glancing between them when a new clip of Elle pops onto the screen. Despite the fury sitting in my chest, I can’t help the giddiness at seeing her, even if it’s only a picture.

“Elle,” I grunt as my eyes dance between the pictures, “they want Elle. It’s the only thing that makes sense. They became aware of her existence at the ball.”

“Then why haven’t they attacked?” Trent asks, looking at me for more answers, “they have us surrounded, and while we have them outnumbered, we would still suffer greatly.”

“They must know she isn’t here,” I sigh, my feet beginning to pace; their presence makes things much more complicated, and any hope of leaving to find Elle will probably not happen. “But they are waiting for something. f**k!” I scream, my fist connecting with the wall; my fist breaking fills the room, but I hardly flinch, enjoying the pain.

“They are waiting for her to come back,” Andrew growls, catching the same train of thought I have myself, while Slade growls in my chest, angry that another obstacle is in his path. “Or they are waiting for Damon to lead them to her.” can’t the Goddess find another couple to mess with? For f***s sake, why is this so goddamn complicated?

“We don’t even know where she is to lead them to her,” I growl, anger consuming me and the vermillion hue starting to blur my vision once more. The not knowing is tearing me apart, and Slade’s constant whine makes it hard to concentrate on anything other than the headache starting to brew like a summer storm.

As the words leave my mouth, the computer dings with an alert as plans and blueprints pop up on the screen. “What are those?” I ask Trent leaning forward to get a better look, to see the blueprint of a packhouse, but not the one in New Moon.

“Blueprints for a packhouse belonging in Silver Run,” Trent explains, turning his head to the side as he examines each document.

“Silver Run?” Andrew asks, his ears perking up at the name, “that’s Theo’s pack…” His voice trails off before a sigh of “motherfucker” leave his mouth, and I know the reason is that the answers were sitting in front of us the whole time. Every ounce of me felt dumb that I didn’t make the connection sooner. ‘Spells,’ Slade whimpers, knowing we have our hands tied behind our backs with the council having our pack surrounded.

“Who is sending these clips?” I ask Trent pulling out a chair to sit beside him and make myself comfortable for these answers, “or are you just coming across them?”

“They are being sent,” Trent says, pulling up the encryption that came across the screen, “and my guess is it’s the Luna who set up these messages to have them sent.”

“Why her and not Charity or Theo?” Andrew asks, taking the seat on the other side of Trent.

“I am sorry,” Trent smirks, “but there is no way either of them was the mastermind behind these messages. The code is immaculate and bears Elle’s usual monikers. She upgraded the entire security system this summer. If Elle wants to hide something, no one in this pack would be able to find it.” His casual use of her name sets Slade on edge as my eyes bleed to black and a growl escapes my lips.

As if knowing what has set me on edge, Andrew gives Trent a warning glare, “it’s Luna to you. Now is not the time to act like you are all buddy-buddy with her.” A growl escapes my throat as a subtle reminder about who Elle belongs to.

“I apologize, Alpha,” he says, his neck tilting toward me, “the Luna is the only person capable of writing this kind of code. No one else in this pack comes close to her ability. It would have taken our analyst days if we found this without her wanting us to.”

As Trent talks about Elle’s abilities, a bubble of pride rises in my chest, hearing the admiration lacing his words for her. A large part of me is still incredibly hurt that Elle didn’t tell me a damn thing about her plans. Instead, I find everything in pieces becoming repetitive stabs in the heart.

“Pull up all the clips and information your Luna has revealed to you,” I command Trent. Looking over all the breadcrumbs she has been slowly revealing to us will allow me to see the bigger picture. My fingers thrummed on the desk as my eyes scan the different documents and clips in front of me. Floor plans with little notes scribbled on the side, one saying ‘water filter = immunity; silver and wolfsbane.’

Running my eyes along the screens, I find the one with the water filter system, immediately noticing that it is much more potent than the ones in New Moon. Taking the keyboard from Trent, I navigate the image to the screen directly in front of me.

This system filters out heavy metals and toxins…why…immunity to silver and wolfsbane… what does that mean? Is Elle and Silver Run immune, or is the man who took over her pack? ‘Simon,’ Slade says, forcing an image of his reaction to the silver to the forefront of my mind. Silver Run members having a high immunity makes sense if they live in a pack that needs this kind of water system on their pack.

Removing the plans, I move to a video of Jonah walking along the pack border the night of Elle’s shift while on the phone, confirming every suspicion I ever had about the bastard. I had known him my whole f*****g life, and he turned his back on our lifelong alliance like it was nothing. One that had been in place long before either of us was born.

‘When I find him,’ Slade snarls, my mouth starting to foam with his anger and my b***d beginning to rise, ‘I don’t care if we have to chase him to the ends of the earth. I am going to f*****g destroy him. I’ll make him wish he had never been born.’

“Alpha,” Andrew interrupts, always knowing where my thoughts are going, “we will get Jonah, but first, we have more important things to figure out. None of these pieces mention the prophecy. How did she protect herself from being marked by her captor?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh, glancing between the screens; Elle covered so many areas in this plan to forget this aspect would be a glaring oversight on her part and reconfirms every doubt I have about her doing this whole thing without me. How could she be so stupid to willingly throw herself into the arms of a man who wants to make her without consent?

My eyes stay on the screens, silently berating Elle’s decisions; why must she be so f*****g stupid? Why couldn’t she just let me mark her? A storm is raging underneath my skin while my insecurities wreak havoc on my heart…what if she didn’t want my mark? Is that why she did all this? Because Is this better than wearing my mark on her skin?

A ping distracts me from the downward trajectory as another one of Elle’s encrypted messages fills the screen. It’s like she has eyes in the room, can sense my doubts, and sent this video to prove my chaotic thoughts wrong. This one from the night of the ball, her and I standing together underneath the large tree when we suddenly drop to the ground, darts sticking out from our necks.

We are barely on the ground for five seconds when Emma and Victor bust through the tree lines, dressed all in black. They hurry toward our unconscious bodies keeping their movements quick and low to the ground in fear of being caught, made evident by their quick movements.

Once both darts are removed from our necks and thrown into the ground, Emma comes near me with a large needle in her hand. Kneeling alongside me, she uses Victor’s help to open my jaw, stabbing the needle into my gums. “What is she doing?” Trent whispers as the three of us continue watching, entranced by her movements.

“What the f**k?” Andrew says, leaning closer to the screen like being so close will give him a better understanding, “is she injecting something?”

“Taking something out,” I respond, my eyes glued to the screen, watching with amazement as Emma moves away from me with the needle still in her hand, moving over to Elle, injecting my venom into the same spot they pulled the tranquilizer from.

“Will that even work?” Andrew asks, the heat of his gaze burning my cheeks, “because if so, it’s bloody f*****g brilliant.”

“I don’t know,” I whisper as my mind spins, turning the video over in my mind, “possibly? But I doubt it’ll be a permanent solution to her problems. I am guessing it burns out of the system.”

“Unless she doesn’t need it to be one,” Andrew says, as his eyes dance between the screens, ” what if she needed it to last only a few days until the plan she built could come to fruition?”

“Okay,” I mutter, “but why would she settle for that when I could have just given her the mark as we planned?”

“Safety,” Trent replies, looking between Andrew and me, “our future Luna is not dumb; she had to know having a mark would result in instant death or bring a war to New Moon. Whatever happens, she has your venom in her b***d without having the obvious mark on her neck.”

“He’s right,” Andrew says, an apology underlying his words as he looks over at me with a sad smile. “Your mark might have made things unknowingly worse.” I know he is correct, but I still can’t stop the stinging in my chest as I watch Jonah and Eli drag Elle away from me while Emma and Victor watch.

No longer able to watch Elle being taken or willingly leave me, I flip the screens over to the elite warriors before asking about them. “So, they have been here for a week? Did my parents know?”

“I am thinking yes,” Trent says, “but who really knows? They have been secretive and only share the barest details with their warriors.”

“It could explain why they stayed locked away,” Andrew shrugs, “and why they never sent anyone looking for her.”

“Hmm, maybe,” I say, pushing myself away from the desk and standing, “but I know where I can get the answers. Stay here, Beta; let me know if anything important happens.”

“What are you going to do?” He asks, his eyes narrowing as his judgy eyes bore into my soul like he knows what I am thinking and disagrees with it.

“Nothing,” I say, not wanting him involved in what’s about to happen, so he has no guilt whenever Theo comes home. I don’t know what’s going on between them, but having Andrew torture his father won’t be good for either of them. “Just stay here and inform me if you get anything important to come through.”

“Of course, Alpha,” Andrew says, but his words are tense as his eyes bore into mine, silently asking me not to make the choices I am about to, but he knows better than to argue. Not in a situation like this, he turns back to the monitor.

As I walk out the door of the small office building, my bones start popping, snapping, and reforming until I stand on all fours. Letting Slade take over as a mindlink begins to form between my Gamma and me. ‘How’s my prisoner?’ I ask Matt.

‘Fine,’ Matt growls, clearly annoyed by something, ‘it’s like the silver cuffs aren’t affecting him. He is moving around easily; maybe it’s because he is a council member?’

‘Yeah, I have a theory about it,’ I answer, thinking about the notes Elle left me. ‘But we will have to test it, and it may not be pretty.’

‘Tell me what you need, Alpha,’ Matt replies instantly, a sick giddiness in his words, too excited to use some of the techniques his father taught him. ‘You’re not bringing Andrew with you, right?’ He questions, his voice becoming somber.

‘No,’ I respond, ‘I figured it’s best not to implicate him in whatever is about to happen. I don’t know what’s going on with Theo, and I don’t want his involvement to ruin their friendship because it will.’

‘That’s probably a good call,’ Matt agrees, then changing the subject to the things that interest him, like torture, the sick f**k.

‘I’ll be there in five minutes,’ I inform him, ‘make sure you have these things ready—a knife of pure silver. I will also need some wolfsbane, poppy, and nightshade. I will need rope, a bucket of water, a washcloth, pliers, and electric paddles.’

‘Well, s**t,’ Matt mutters, not expecting me to list the slew of items we use on volatile rogue wolves we happen to capture. ‘You must have found out more about the Beta for him to need that kind of beating.’

‘Yeah, I need him to tell me why the f**k the council has their warriors surrounding our pack,’ I growl, pushing my paws into the soft dirt as I continue launching myself toward the packhouse. The trees pass by in a blur as I move between them with quickness and agility. Also, have warriors bring my parents to the cells.’

‘Your parents?’ Matt hesitantly asks, ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ The skepticism thick in his voice and the disapproval lingering within the question.

‘Yes, I am sure,’ I growl, ‘and I don’t appreciate you questioning my commands, Gamma.’

‘I understand, Alpha,’ Matt replies, ‘I just want-‘

‘I don’t give a f**k what you want,’ Slade rumbles, his animalistic growl invading the Gammas mind as we push our Alpha aura onto him, ‘I want f*****g answers, and I am tired of waiting for them. I am getting them one way or another. Now have my s**t ready.’ Slade commands before closing the link for good as my paws pick up their speed, trying to get me to the packhouse in record time.