The Alpha Killer
Alpha Conference

Alpha Brent's POV

Sulphur River Pack House

The celebration had gone late into the night, yet I was up at six like clockwork. That was one of the things I’d lost at fifty years of age, the ability to sleep until my alarm. I don’t know why I bothered to set it anymore. I linked with Security Control and everything was quiet. They were going to send a “highway cleanup crew” out to the battle site to pick up brass and make sure no evidence had been left behind in the sunlight. So far, we had been lucky, no law enforcement interest.

I got out of bed and dressed quietly. Patty was still sleeping with Phillip curled up next to her. He’d bonded quickly with his grandmother, and that had helped with his transition. He still had crying fits, he missed the parents he grew up with, but his wolf was helping him now. We’d be watching him today since Tania and Bobby were going to do the interview with the FBI and the lawyers. They’d be gone after lunch, and it might go into the evening.

Downstairs was quiet, only Sally was there making early breakfast for those on duty or who like me were up early. With the celebration, we’d be having a pack brunch starting at nine instead of the normal breakfast. “Good morning, Alpha,” she said as she brought me a cup of coffee. “Biscuits are just coming out of the oven. Would you like a chicken-fried steak with that?”

“That would be wonderful, Sally. Take your time, I need to wake up.”

I sat at the large table, iPad in hand, and thought about the day. We had worked over Todd Aldridge in the cells last night, and he had quite the tale to tell. Heck, he was giving us information as he was being driven to the cells, which is why I knew exactly what Chief Enforcer Jones was up to when he showed up later. The Council was behind this all. Todd had cut a deal with them, bring them Talia and Jarrod and his slate would be wiped clean.

We would have to dispose of the rogues soon, and for that I was glad we had construction equipment and thousands of acres of land. Sally sat a huge breakfast plate before me, the steak covered half of it, four biscuits on the other, and it was smothered and covered with the thick sausage gravy. A huge glass of orange juice was set down next to it.

A few more people straggled in and took their seats, and Sally was joined by four others as they started to prepare for a buffet brunch. “Grandpa!” I looked up and smiled as Dusty’s daughter Sandy ran into the room.

“Hey sunshine,” I said. “Did you get up by yourself?”

“No, Mommy and Daddy are coming,” she said. I saw Dusty and Kimberly come in the room and come sit by us. “I’m going to watch cartoons.” She ran off into the play room for the kids, obviously not hungry right now.

“Couldn’t sleep in?”

“I think this boy is going to be a soccer player by the way he keeps kicking my bladder,” Kimberly said as she sat down by me. Dusty sat on her other side.

I saw my Beta, “Bear” Baldwin, entering and I waved him over. Sally took their orders and I took the opportunity to talk. “Priorities for the day. Cleanup of the road, I hear we have a crew heading out already, we need to make sure that area is sanitized before anyone else gets there.” Bear nodded, he would put someone on it. “The rogues have to be disposed of. I want them photographed, identified and buried by noon. Take the excavator out by the old dump and make the hole deep, I don’t ever want them found.”

Bear nodded. “They have cars, hotels, phones…”

“Dusty, you have cleanup from that. Collect everything that could track or identify them. If they’ve rented a car, sanitize it and return it. If it can’t be returned, get it to the chop shop. Same thing with hotels, go there, pick up all their stuff and check out. Leave the phones in a public place, scatter them around so it doesn’t look coordinated,” I said. “Keep any cash, throw everything else.”

“I’ll get a team together and get on it,” he said. “This could take a while.”

“Start with Todd,” I said. Sally set down food for them, and they dug in while we talked. “I’m going to go replace out what Jarrod has found out overnight.” They had put Eduardo on the computer trails of the rogues, and Jarrod was interrogating Todd. Just a look from the vampire was enough to get him talking again. I got up, giving Sally and the girls in the kitchen my thanks, and walked across to the building that housed our cells underneath. I acknowledge the guard, who let me in the secure doors leading downstairs.

“Good morning, Jarrod,” I said as I walked down the stairs. “I would have thought you’d be back in the safe room by now.”

He just laughed. “You werewolves and humans think we’ll turn to ash if the sun hits us, but that takes sustained exposure over hours. We wear thick UV-resistant clothing, cover our heads and hands and wear UV-resistant sunglasses, and we can walk in the sun long enough to move around,” he said. “SPF 100 sunblock helps too, even if it is uncomfortable to be out there, we can recover from the damage of a short exposure. It doesn’t mean we like it, though. It’s easier to stay underground during the day.”

I did not know that, and it made me feel good to see how he would trust me with something that could be used against his kind. “How is our guest?”

“Sleeping. I got everything I could from him. He has balls, I’ll give him that. He showed up at the Council, alone, and worked out a deal. The Council wanted me as a blood bank, and they told him he could have Talia as his mate if he came through.”

Wait a second. “So Talia was to be taken alive?”

“Yep. He’s had a hardon for her ever since he kicked her out, no other she-wolf does it for him now. I don’t think for a minute the Council was going to follow through with it. They were using him, knowing that attacking my Coven would mean war.”

It was true. The Vampire Council would never allow a Master to be held captive by werewolves, for good reason. “Why would the Council risk this?”

“What three things drive a man, Brent?”

I thought about it. “Power, obviously. Procreation, that’s instinctual.” I thought about it for a while. “Staying alive.”

“Exactly. For the Council, Talia and I are the trifecta. With my blood, they would gain power greater than any other werewolves. Procreation, it’s instinctual for a male to seek the strongest female to reproduce with, to give them the strongest children. We don’t know if hybrids can breed, none have been allowed to exist long enough to replace out. The ones I knew of from vampire history were male, so Talia is a first. I have no doubts Chairman Wolfe planned to take her for his own.”

“She’s already mated, with Randall.”

“To them, Randall is an inconvenience, just like your Pack is. You have to be destroyed, because you know their secrets, you defied them, and you have some control over her. They will wipe you all out, especially her mate, so he can take her and use the mating bond to control her.”

I just laughed at the idea, Talia was so dominant she controlled Randall, not the other way around. Then it hit me. “Immortality.”

“Yes. Vampires are the living dead; we never age from the time we are changed. We exist until we are killed, which only happens if our head and heart are separated or one is destroyed. We can even regrow limbs if damaged. Werewolves live longer than humans, but you still face death. The hybrids gained our strength, our speed and our healing, but what if they gain the power we have for healing and eternal life? What WOULDN’T the Council do to have that?”

“They would do anything, they would be in power forever.”

He nodded. “And that is why the Vampire Council is so resistant to the hybrids existing. Two of the five wanted Talia destroyed just for existing. If she had not proven her loyalty to me and her usefulness to the Council, she’d already be dead.”

“Three to two, huh? That’s like the Supreme Court. One person dies and it could flip the whole balance of power.”

“And now you know my problem. I do not regret changing the three, but I must be careful. If one of them starts behaving badly, Vampires and Werewolves will unite to destroy them all, because both Councils fear them.”

We talked for a while longer, working through the options, until I had my plan. I left him to go back to my office and started to make phone calls.

The first was to the La Crosse Pack and Alpha Clark. I filled him in on all that had happened and what it meant. “Those BASTARDS,” he said. “I want blood on my teeth!”

“I have a plan, meanwhile, we have Todd in custody and the girls will have their revenge,” I said. “Jarrod pointed out that our two Packs are in danger, since both of us know about the hybrids and both have family ties to them. Stay on a war footing, protect yourselves just in case they rally other Packs against you.”

“Again.” He let out a sigh. “I have plenty of allies after what Todd did. Let Talia know that Justin died last night, alone and in pain. His mate wouldn’t even look at him. I gave her some money to move on and she’s gone now, headed off to human life.”

“Will she be a problem?”

“I put a tracker inside her neck and we’ll have a warrior following her. I made her record a statement about her involvement in the kidnapping and rape of Tania. If she becomes a problem, we kill her or release the video to the authorities, and she spends the rest of her life in jail. She signed the paperwork for Phillip, that’s in a Fedex envelope heading your way now.”

“Good. I’m going to call an Alpha Conference at two in the afternoon,” I said. “Tania and Bobby will be giving their statement to the FBI then, but I have other information. Todd is singing like a canary, and their Chief Enforcer, Jacque Jones, is disgusted enough to help. He was the liaison to the rogues and they won’t be able to discount what he says like they will Todd.”

“I’ll follow your lead. Email me the conference number and I’ll start calling Alphas. I’ll take last names starting with L, you get those from A to K. This is going to be fun, Brent.”

“We’ll have fun after the danger is over,” I said. “Keep you Pack safe.” I hung up and sent an email to the Council and all Alphas with the request for the video call at 2 pm Central time, along with login details. I went down at eleven, catching the last of the brunch, then joined my mate and my children at the pool. Phillip was a good swimmer for his age, and he was screaming as he was tossed into the air by Bobby before plunging back in.

“How are they doing?”

“Good. She’s losing her self-consciousness about the scars on her body; nobody is staring or saying anything, and you know a wolf has no issue being naked.” Werewolves found no need for swimsuits. We didn’t have human body consciousness, and it allowed us to shift in the pool if we wanted. The biggest pool problem we had was fur, which is why we had extra filtration installed when it was built. I watched as Phillip was tossed twenty feet horizontally, shifting into his little wolf in the air and dog paddling back to his Mom before shifting back. They weren’t the only ones at the huge backyard pool; some of the younger adults were playing basketball, while a bunch of adults were talking at the swim-up bar area we had.

My mate looked over at me, she could see the stress. “Go play with the kids, relax a bit. The afternoon will be bad enough as it is.”

“Come with me then,” I said. We left our clothes on the table by our chairs and I shifted, howling before I took off running for the deep end. I landed so my body splashed the young kids, who squealed in glee before coming after me. Soon I was shifted back to human in the three-foot area with a half-dozen kids trying to pull their Alpha down. “There are too many,” I said as I lifted my arms up, four kids hanging from them while the others hung from my neck.

“Deal with it, love,” Patty said as she swam away. I was looking at her and didn’t see the attack coming from underwater. My legs were knocked out from under me and I was pulled down backwards. I lost half the kids in the fall, and I stood back up and shook the water out of my hair. Bobby was laughing his ass off by his Mom, he must have done it. I glared at him and went back to play wrestling with the kids as they laughed.

Tania and Bobby had to leave, but Phillip wanted to keep swimming. We stayed in the pool for an hour, just enjoying time with my Pack. She took him to shower and change while I went to the office. I asked Dusty and Bear to join me for the broadcast, mainly to help keep me calm since Patty wouldn’t be here. The 80” hi-def screen in the conference room was being used, and the camera would only show me. I set the computer up, there were some things I was going to show them all and I got them ready. The software we used would allow photos and documents to be displayed for all.

I was in place ten minutes early; since I had called the meeting, I was running the show. I watched as the Alphas got on, each appearing in a small window on the right half of the screen. I smiled at Dallas as he came on representing the Copper Mountain pack. On the left, the person talking (I could click on a person to give them the floor) and the documents were on the top and bottom of the frame. Shortly after two, I started the meeting. “Thank you for coming on, gentlemen. Last night, an organized group of rogue warriors carried out an attack on my Pack, going after two vehicles just outside my territory. I am pleased to say that all but one of the rogues was killed, and the leader was captured.” I was studying the reactions; the Council was trying hard not to respond, while the others were pleased. “Here is the list of the men who were killed.” I went through a slide show, showing each dead man along with their name and any information we had on where they were from.

“Those men came from all over the country,” one of the Alphas said. “Why would they all come together at your lands?”

“Alpha Brent is not disclosing that his Pack is harboring the Alpha Killer,” Chairman Wolfe said. “There is a reward for her capture, I’d have no problem paying rogues for it if they capture or kill her.”

“My pack isn’t harboring anyone, Mr. Chairman. Talia Stillwater is mated to my son, she is part of my FAMILY and part of my PACK. The real question is why the Council is bankrolling Todd Aldridge and paying rogues to get her. Todd kidnapped Tania Stillwater, who is mated to another of my sons, and had her parents killed. He walked in to the Council headquarters and walked out with money and a mandate. And I can prove it.” I started playing the video, it ran almost five minutes long and during that time all reaction was muted. Todd went through everything; his visit to the Council, the deal he made, where he got the money to hire the rogues, and what he was supposed to do. When it was done, I unmuted, and it was bedlam.

“ALPHA BRENT IS WORKING WITH VAMPIRES,” Chairman Wolfe yelled over everyone. “He is betraying our kind. Talia is an abomination, a mix of vampire and werewolf, and it has to be stopped. The Master Vampire on his lands right now did it, and we as a Council were right to demand their capture.”

I laughed. “If your cause was so just, why work in secret with outlaws and disgraced Alphas? I have nothing to hide here. Talia was changed after a Vampire Coven took her in when all of US abandoned her. The vampires didn’t kill her parents, Alpha Justin Heranus’ men did. The vampires didn’t take kidnap her sister, the man the Council elevated to Alpha instead of her did. The vampires didn’t rape her sister and steal her baby, Justin did. And the vampires didn’t take away her wolf and sell her as a sex slave, Beta Meoffe did.” I leaned forward, letting my face show that I was pissed. “Yes, I have a Coven on my lands. They are Talia’s family. Werewolves and vampires are NOT at war right now, and I’m building a relationship with them that could benefit us all. Talia proved to me that there were vampires who could be trusted, ones with more honor than some of the men on this call right now,” I finished.

“This is madness, and it must stop NOW,” Chairman Wolfe responded.

Suddenly, the doors burst open in his room and a woman yelled out, "I AGREE." He turned and his eyes opened wide, just before Talia Stillwater grabbed him by the neck and lifted him like he was nothing. She slammed him onto the conference table, her claws extending, then she pulled her hand back.

The front of his neck went flying away in a spray of blood, and Wolfe raised his hands to the torn flesh. It was hopeless, arterial blood was spraying all over the room and he had seconds to live. Talia moved to the side and we heard a plea for mercy. When she came back on camera, she had the Chief Counsel, Lawrence Kendall, on his knees. Extending a claw, she drew it across his throat and tossed him onto the table next to the dying Chairman he served.

She moved towards the microphone, covered in blood and totally dominant. “These men gathered in this very room and decided they wanted me for themselves,” she said to the assembled Alphas. “The entire Council voted to send rogues after me and my Pack. This Council also risked starting a war with the Vampires by capturing a Master for their experiments. It wouldn’t be the first time the Council has experimented on vampires. I personally killed the Mount Shasta leadership that was doing it at their bidding and freed the two vampires they held. You would be at war right now if I had not taken action to defuse the situation,” she said.

She casually grabbed each of the men with a hand and tossed them backwards. It looked like she wasn’t trying, but these big men flew backwards and their dead bodies left dents in the wall behind her. “I will no longer accept such leadership. My family will not accept it. My Pack will not accept it, and neither should honorable Alphas. The four of you on the Council who are not here to die at my hands, you have five minutes to resign. If you do not, I will come after you and your death will be neither quick nor painless. Do not think you will escape death, for I bring certain death with me. Choose a new Council, boys. Choose wisely. ”She turned and walked off camera.

A new face came into view, I’d recognized him when they entered. “Everything she just said was the truth,” Chief Enforcer Jacque Jones said. “I have taken control of this facility pending the election of a new Council.”