Draven and Trip don’t talk on the way to the venue. Trip is used to Draven’s way of operation. Between him and his three brothers, he drew the short straw to be placed with Draven. Of course, it wasn’t such a lottery, they themselves were thankful to be able to be betas in their own right which they never knew was possible growing up, so when the reject of the family was the one that was able to take such a role it was a double blow. When they were deciding between themselves who would go where, Trip was considered the best option to be able to get along with the man who has the ice-cold aura and dry personality.It is just lucky that Trip also admires Draven’s ability to stand out on his own within the family like that, especially when he was tied in birth to Hayden.The two walk one in front of the other into the closed night club without caring about such things as open hours or even common courtesy. Most nightclubs in the area come under the seasons banner in some way and this one
Draven sends everyone out of the security room except Trip, who still hasn’t offered a word of help. For now there is nothing to say. The evidence is there but all it shows is that this place is a dead end. The manager and employees don't argue even though Draven technically has no right to be within such a space. While the nightclub falls under the season's banner, it is not under the autumn pack, he has no authority, yet no one has the guts to argue the point, they value their lives too much.Just being in the same room as him is suffocating enough and they are glad to get the freedom."Trip, copy all that footage and we will review it later"Trip isn’t very knowledgeable at computers, but at least knows that much. Draven picks up his own phone and calls his father."Was there any purchases that could help locate him?"Valen scrambles to log onto the banking app."Sorry I wasn’t set to review it until tomorrow…"Draven swallows down the insults that would be spewed at everyone else i
Jax stares at her back for a moment as she walks toward her room, holding himself back from running to her and holding her. He has been putting even more effort into the training, but even with the exhaustion that comes from giving it his all, it doesn’t stop his mind running wild.The relationship in his mind is evolving so fast, but he is not sure it is the same for her, from pretending to be her boyfriend at the work function to acting like a couple in the airport. It is all getting harder. Walking through the airport like a real couple, the wigs didn’t matter, it was still her, it was still her scent, her warmth, it didn’t even matter that they were playing others, that they were hiding their faces from the camera, all that mattered was having a very happy Alaska so close to him, having her scent around him, her gentle touches.A true sense of what it would be like to have the impossible, to actually be with her.He knows that he is blowing all of it out of proportion as she is jus
Alaska sits in the exact center of a fixed bench on the side of the road, her arms spread along the either side of the timber backrest, her face angled up to the sky, her eyes pressed shut and a slight smile on her face as the sunlight soaks into her skin. She hasn’t felt like this in a long time, every moment has been spent working. So to even take a minute to just enjoy life is so incredibly precious. Now that she is in the process of making those pay, there is a weight lifted off her. The guilt at even showing a smile is decreasing, she has spent the whole morning attacking the businesses under the seasons banner, concentrating most of her efforts on the autumn pack, which, of course, is the easiest as she had intimate knowledge of the businesses before they were taken and they have really changed very little in that time, extras added and wealth added due to Draven's ruthless mind, but nothing that Alaska cannot unravel.She hasn’t attacked them so obviously until now, because she
Jax watches Alaska closely. For a moment he isn’t sure if there is actually danger lurking, because her expression is somewhat strange, maybe it is just more forced than usual, but he can’t feel another wolf around and if there was something that urgent he knows she would have linked him."Jax who is this?"Jax hears the question, not even knowing who asked it and not even wanting to take his eyes off Alaska for a second in order to confirm. It doesn’t matter anyway, just as their faces swirl into one, they all have the same voice. He answers the question without directing it at anyone in particular."This is Alaska… My best friend"Jax moves through the crowd of girls easily, unlike their usual state where they can’t get enough, they are shocked in place, he doesn’t notice as he wraps an arm around Alaska’s shoulder and pulls her close to him, planting a large kiss on her forehead.Even a blind man could see that there is something more than just a best friend relationship. Jax has a
Draven sits in his office, his mind halfway between the disappearance of Hayden and the mess in the businesses. Something about Hayden’s disappearance just isn’t sitting right, is he neglectful, yes, irresponsible, most definitely, selfish, no doubt. But he isn’t usually so lax on contact, even if it is just to rub it in Draven’s face? Never.Not that Draven would care in the slightest. Personally, he can’t think of anything worse than finding his mate, but his disinterest has never stopped Hayden before.Draven has little interest in anything and yet Hayden still finds a way to make everything a competition. It may be a way of including Draven in some sense of normalcy, whatever it is, it is the way Hayden has always been. This?….This isn’t.Hayden is the first out of all the Barrow boys to actually find his mate is an accomplishment. They are all of an age that it should have happened long ago and then there are the older set of twins who would be the more logical pick if the goddes
Draven draws in a deep shuddering breath as his excitement peaks, saliva drips off his large teeth, his canines itch in his jaw, as desperate as he is for that kill. He feels every stick and every stone under his large paws. Every single kill is like this, every detail, which would be mundane in any other circumstance is stored in his memory, a trophy of sorts as he cannot risk having any physical trophies that could link him back to this. His breath is so loud that it is the only thing that gives away his otherwise stealthy approach. It doesn't matter anyway, he is too fit, his body a precision killing machine, while his adversary is gangly, malnourished, untrained and unorganized. They make so many mistakes in order to protect their own life, bumping and hitting into each other in an effort to get away, slowing their own escape as well as offering up others as the first sacrificed. The slowest and the smallest of the group, the one that got shoved to the side by numerous other s
"What can I do for you Trip?""Draven just wanted to meet to discuss some things at the club tomorrow night"Jax just shrugs at Alaska with a questioning look. Alaska’s shock has faded completely, and her razor-sharp mind is working quickly. It makes sense that Draven would suspect them, and maybe he came to the conclusion much quicker than she gave him credit for, but the request doesn’t sound much like a summons and if Draven really knew the truth it wouldn’t be an exploratory meeting, they would be hunted and killed much the same as the rogues that surround them. Alaska just nods, the plan was always bound to change, while she has done her best to anticipate her adversary there is always going to be some discrepancy."What time would he like us?""Shall we say ten?""We will be there""Umm Jax?""Yes?""I am sorry to hear about Torin"Alaska’s eyes which were bright and filled with excitement, dull significantly. Jax scowls, he has not even spoken to Trip since the undertaking, jus
Jaxson takes a deep breath in, letting the unseasonably cold air fill his lungs as they stand on the very line of the autumn pack border. The place he has avoided for these whole three years. The air does nothing to calm him, so he reaches out and touches Alaska’s hand. Her skin is slippery and ice-cold, it doesn’t have the same softness or warmth that it usually holds, but it doesn’t make him recoil, instead he just holds it tighter.The walk cannot be blamed for this level of saturation, they were drenched from the second they walked out the door of the cabin. So the duration matters little. The actual walk to the pack took a long time. The heavy layer of dark cloud makes it impossible to gauge the exact moment of sundown, but they know they still have time. They took a roundabout route in an effort to cover tracks was as necessary as it was a delay tactic. Even though they never had the thought to shy away from their own actions or to cower in the face of the Barrow’s even one more
Outside the study, Jaxson's name seems to carry and Mila’s ears prick up, but she can hear nothing else of the conversation. Once again, within this pack, she's just shoved in a corner after being torn from the uncomfortable confines of the car. This time, very obviously guarded and while Arden tried to pass it off as protection within an unfamiliar pack, it seems much more like being locked down and that is a far too familiar feeling for her. She is in a bad spot. If this ends and she has to go back home without Arden, things are going to be hard for her, but it is increasingly appearing like things are going to be hard for her here. All she can do is wait it out.Trip is nervous to say the wrong thing. He had very little details from Draven. He just made the calls and followed orders trying to guess what is in his alpha's mind is near impossible. "I think after getting his first clue about Hayden's disappearance from Alaska, and then I guess he spotted the same trend as you, I thin
"You’re in?"Trip’s voice finally, after the day from hell, has a slight hint of excitement as he leans over the shoulder of his hacker contact, leaning far closer to the fully grown man than he usually would, invading the man’s personal space to the maximum in his desperation.He doesn’t even exit the room to meet the occupant of the next high-powered sports car which roars into the pack before the first one has even left, knowing that it can only be another member of the Barrow family and knowing whoever it is will come straight to him and just glad that, at the very least, he has this. He has never really felt like a failure as a beta, but the fact that he wasn’t even the first to notice his alpha's disappearance plays on his conscious and then giving Cohen nothing after a night of investigating just made it all compound."I am in"Trip sighs in relief as he hears the two sets of heavy footsteps moving toward the office with haste. The door isn’t even knocked upon before it is push
Before they were only working off a strange feeling. Now it is much more, there is a sense of urgency that wasn't there before. Cohen feels stupid for wasting so much time coming here, but maybe he needed this to even be able to understand it. Arden glances back at the still open door of the pack house."Is it time to bring dad in now?"Cohen rubs his chin, their father is wise and has contacts that they might not have access to otherwise, he might even know far more than they do. But it is time for them to start doing things on their own and if they are wrong about this and have blown everything out of proportion, won’t they come out looking like the stupid ones? If the two truly are hiding and trying to fuck with them, wouldn't they then be implicated in the stupidity?"There is no need to cause him unnecessary worry until we know more"While the sons don’t know much about a father's love except for what was shown to the world, their father is much the same as them, there has to be
"Cohen has just crossed the border on the western side…" Valen announces to Arden, who has only just arrived in his office. While Hayden is technically the alpha of the summer pack, Valen still has his own space, and it is much the same as the alpha office, as prominent location and as luxurious decoration, because truth be told, he does as much for the summer pack, if not more than his son, who holds the title, they veil it as he is running operations under the guise of the seasons pack, but his workload seems to be more than when he was alpha and most of it is from the summer pack, until the undertaking his adult sons were shouldering most of the burden of the running of the pack while he was scheming in the background, and he had taken a step back from running the pack even when he still officially held the title, now they have their own packs which they are taking from strength to strength while the summer pack is now the one lagging behind, and it was always the mightiest of the
Cohen drives towards the Autumn pack. He would rather be anywhere else, doing almost anything else than chasing after his delinquent brothers. Draven has just been thrown into the same pile as Hayden most of his life, even though he is completely different, and this fiasco has just confirmed it.He rarely goes to the Autumn pack. If there is a meeting of the brothers, it is always in the summer pack, away from prying ears, most of the summer pack knows what they did, because they were a part of it, they cannot risk word spreading further. Cohen mostly spearheaded the campaign against the Autumn pack and would like to take far more credit for the quick submission than is probably due, but for that reason, he also likes to keep himself away from here and while he and Draven are probably the most alike on paper, it is also the reason that they get along the least. There is usually no reason for him to visit this brother alone. Just because he hasn't been much in all these years doesn't
Jax’s arm is firmly fixed around Alaska, holding her close to his body. He can feel her warm breath penetrating the material of his shirt, but it doesn’t make him feel the comfort that he would usually feel, instead he just feels frustrated.He scrubs his free hand down his face, pulling his skin so exaggeratedly under his eye to the point that the red of his socket can be seen even past his closed eyes."I don’t know Alaska. Maybe this means I am supposed to be alone for a lifetime""Don’t say that, wouldn’t that mean that I am too?"The air in the room freezes and any pitying thought that still lingered in Jaxson’s mind is gone. He looks at Alaska with wide eyes.Jax is almost too scared to say anything in case she understands the real meaning behind her words, but he can’t keep quiet and what is a simple question to some but the most loaded question to her comes tumbling out."Do you think that you are ready for that?"Jax knows that he has fucked up again, he didn’t need to push,
"I completely choked in there"Jaxson and Alaska are back in their warehouse lying on Alaska’s bed. Jaxson is just staring blankly at the cork tile ceiling above him as if he can count the millions of holes on the otherwise white surface.Alaska lays with her arm draped over him and her cheek resting on his chest just staring at everything but nothing at all. It was a mission to get him back here without being tracked. While Jaxson was still living and breathing, he was just going through the motions and far more reminiscent of a dead weight than anything else.It was an effort and by the time they arrived back she is sure that it appeared much the same as the first day they arrived here, only she is sure that she didn’t look as heroic as Jax would have. She was a sweaty, exhausted mess, he is heavy!Jax’s words snap her out of her stupor."You did not choke"Alaska pats his chest."What else do you call sitting there as a mute, unable to look at anything or anyone, unable to even tel
A single sentence hits the room like a bomb in the pin drop silent space, it is as if even the music has stopped and if it is still playing Alaska fails to hear it. The words went off like an explosion in her ear drums, still leaving that ringing in its wake. Her brain still rattling at the admission and when she can finally gather her senses enough, she finally pays attention to the woman perched upon Arden. Arden's movements with Mila’s hips do not cease, so it appears as if she is still grinding into him even when her fate is in the room. The rest of Mila's body is still as if shocked at the words, the secret between two suddenly known by everyone. The usual most precious moment is a disaster, the whole thing is a spit in the face of the goddess.Alaska looks at Jax again for confirmation, and she sees it all in his eyes. Suddenly it all makes perfect sense, the timing, the sudden change in demeanor, it all started at the door of the room. She just was so focused on everything e