Valen stares at the phone, biting his tongue so hard that he draws blood. His entire body is tensed.Arden was privy to the conversation, one of the only bonuses to still being in the study with his father.But for the two out on the ground, they have no idea what is happening, they are just at a complete standstill. Both taking the command far too literally. Tatum is starting to draw attention. While his build looks like he could easily be in a gym every day, he does not frequent this establishment and his position is actually becoming a nuisance, stopping the flow of traffic in and out of the gym.He has drawn enough attention that even if he was going with his original intention, it would cause far more attention than he would want to bring to the situation."What are we doing now?"The betas voice grates on Valen’s every nerve. After his conversation with Alaska, he has a new-found hatred for anyone with beta blood."Just get back here"If Alaska thinks she has won, she is sorely
Valen composes himself as he stares at the screen, as if her wall gives him the ammunition he needs to keep going. Alaska may be making a joke out of him, but there is one part of this whole plan that is a joke in itself and crushes any ounce of her credibility into the ground."The rest was clever… I will give you that, but facing me…"Valen was going to mention Cohen’s name, but the original plan has changed and wouldn’t that be just stroking their ego? He alters it slightly to not give her the satisfaction."... And my son in a head-to-head battle? Did you get lazy toward the end, run out of clever solutions, so you just wrote any random thought?"Alaska ignores her enemies condensending tone. She didn’t expect Valen to speak to her with respect. Even when they have accomplished this, Valen still looks down upon them. She doesn't need respect from him, this was never about that. He will always look down on them, it isn’t in him to have a single bit of self-awareness."No, that was
The whole study was filled with Valen’s fury. It was so thick that the few people who had been summoned struggled to even breathe, not helped at all by the dead body of the predecessor who still hadn’t been removed from the space, instead just shoved to the side as a grim reminder to the few who work on the computer that their failure is unacceptable.Arden didn’t attempt to recover the footage for long. He saw what his father was after, and he wanted to see it just as badly and there was no way he wanted to risk losing what little they had with his lack of experience.A stream of people who were too nervous to touch anything with far too much at stake bow out quickly before there is someone competent enough or maybe foolhardy enough to attempt such a thing. It took far too long, but finally, the vision is pulled back on the screen, the last few moments before it went black, and then sifting through the brief glimpse to pause on the clearest image of the wall and then to try and zoom
The vision on the screen tilts up from the floor and the broken door. It is only maybe a couple of steps in from where they were before they lost contact. It seems about right. The first thing to do when entering would be to look around, so they probably took that extra moment."Thatcher? Taylen?…"There is still no reply. Valen glances at Trenton, who is still furiously trying to get through to his sons on the phone. Trenton can only shake his head as he continues to try. Valen looks to Arden."...Fix it"Arden can only grit his teeth, stepping around the body on the ground. The only one in the room who was capable of doing such a thing is now nothing more than a tripping hazard. He can’t fix it. He leaned on his brothers for this, concentrating his efforts on other things but it doesn’t stop him from trying. He just does exactly what the other man did, with much the same result. He doesn’t want to do too much because they might just lose the little they have."I can’t do much more""
Valen tries to keep his back pressed against the cushioned office chair, but even with concentrated effort he finds himself leaning forward closer to the screens. He takes a deep shuddering breath, even with the continued lack of sleep, the anticipation is enough to get the adrenaline flowing through his veins.He adjusts the microphone on the headset once more, as if one millimeter either way will make the difference in his ability to control of situation."Is everyone in position?""Ready"A chorus comes back at him, and he grits his teeth, giving up the fight and leaning closer to the screens. He is still in the safety of the Autumn pack within the confines of the alpha office. He can't help but second guess himself about sending others to do the task. He is anxious, but he isn’t foolhardy. There was only so much he could find out. An address isn’t enough to make up for the lack of knowledge for the last three years. This is a reconnaissance mission.Arden is leaning over his father
It doesn’t matter to Valen that Jaxson and Alaska haven’t even equaled the death toll of what was taken from them. The Barrow’s don’t lose. Retribution needs to be taken for what was lost and this is about self-preservation. Fatigue still plagues him and, at the end, nothing can ever be the same, but he will never bow down. He still has his life, and he refuses to let it all fall. Valen stands up, they have wasted enough time."...Lets go""Where are we going?""The autumn pack"They need to know where Jaxson and Alaska are, they need to make up all this ground quickly and the pairs first advantage is that they are hidden, while they know every part of the seasons packs inner workings. They are able to work on the outskirts, avoiding detection, which is how they were able to succeed. They can no longer be the enigma.Arden barely glossed over the problems within the businesses. Draven had picked it up and the oldest set of twins had flagged it enough to make them suspect Jax’s involve