Badger grunted. “I know I need to stay here, but part of me wishes I was over there helpin’ hunt that bloody bastard.”
“You and me, both,” she muttered.
“When ye goin’ out, then? To Idaho, I mean.”
“I’ll fit a weekend trip in somewhere before I’m due. I’m hoping maybe I can time it just right when Asia and Gillian deliver, drop in for a weekend, and come home.”
“Imma go start dinner, then.” He arched his undamaged eyebrow at her and pointed at the nearly empty bowl next to her laptop. “Unless ye filled up on cake batter and pickles already?”
She shot him a bird and the sound of his cackles followed him out the door and down the hall.
CHAPTERFOUR
PEYTON
Peyton droppedhis cell onto his desk and swiveled his chair around so he could stare out the window at the large, sloping backyard.
A view their father had no doubt taken in countless times over the years.
Maybe even the night he and their mom were murdered, and Dewi nearly died.
I wish I could say fuck it and walk away.
But he couldn’t. Not when so many lives counted on him.
The safety of everyone in their pack counted on him.
The livelihood of the pack and those who were dependent upon pack income counted on him.
There were secrets aplenty he wasn’t revealing to Dewi.
Like his growing suspicion, echoed by other pack Alphas, that there was at least one traitor in their ranks.
That not all of his trips overseas would involve him searching for Faegan Lewis, because Peyton was actually in discussions with an exclusive and secretive group trying to figure this shit out.
A group that included himself, Trevor Clarke, five other pack Alphas from around the world, the prime minister of a western EU country, and the Indian ambassador to yet another western EU country.
The last two of those individuals who were also shifters and had vested interests in keeping that fact a secret.
Since Trevor wasn’t a Prime Alpha, the responsibility fell on Peyton to work his way through the Staffordshire Pack looking for any possible traitors in their midst. Because now that the Staffordshire Pack had pledged themselves to the Targhee Pack, it meant this task fell on Peyton’s shoulders.
The visits Peyton made to Staffordshire Pack members with Trevor were, presumably, so he could introduce himself and say hello to everyone in person. A courtesy.
The truth was Peyton needed to speak with people, in person, and use his Prime powers on them to make sure they weren’t part of the problem.
At least the few Primes Trevor did have in his pack—all far older men, and close relatives of Trevor’s who had no desire to lead packs of their own at this stage in their lives—had proven loyal. Because all of them had been at the top of Peyton’s list for his very first visit.
Peyton still had to visit the remainder of the pack, but it was one relief to have that checked off the list.
It also meant those Primes could be trusted by the Alphas of the other packs, and their participation in the hunt for Faegan Lewis wouldn’t be shadowed by doubts regarding their loyalties. They could also be counted on to help root out any traitors.
Yet it put them no closer to finding the man or figuring out who the traitor was. While narrowing the possibilities, it was starting to feel like a Sisyphean task.
The latest intel was that the traitor had reached out to organized crime gangs working inside former Soviet countries and with close ties to Russian mafia.
But with some of those same mafia leaders also holding high ranks in the Russian military and FSB, it might as well be the government showing interest in the intel.
The pack Alphas were taking censuses in their packs, looking for members who might have suspiciously disappeared or dropped off the radar without warning or just cause. Presumably as part of the search for Faegan Lewis, but more to see what they were up to.
