“You’re working with the wolves?”
I smirked unable to help myself. “They treat me better than the bears ever did.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, what happened to me wasn’t fair and you know it.”
She sighed. “You came back because it’s important, right? Tell me you’re here to help, Baine.”
I nodded. I needed to reassure her since she appeared to be one of the few willing to step up and help. We walked along in awkward silence. Finally, I couldn’t stand it. I had to know.
“How is she, Resa?”
She smiled. “She’s good, I think.”
“You think?”
“Oh, you know Olivia, she still confides in Tori more than me, and she was always closest with you. Things certainly changed when you left.”
“I didn’t leave,” I growled.
“You didn’t come back either,” she said sadly.
My jaw dropped in surprise. “It wasn’t a test, Resa. He made it very clear. Killian made it painfully clear.”
“You didn’t even say goodbye.”
I clenched my teeth and whispered. “I couldn’t.”
Baine
Chapter 3
Felix led us to the Alphas office. I was consumed by memories I was trying to force down. The last time I set foot there it certainly hadn’t been on good terms. My leg bounced up and down as we sat and waited.
The door opened and my heart raced. Out walked Kano. I frowned.
“Where’s Pike?”
Kano looked me up and down then snorted. “Didn’t think you’d have the balls to show your face around here again.”
“Just like I had no choice in leaving, I didn’t exactly have a choice on this return.” I cut my eyes at Silas.
He shrugged. “We’re here. It worked didn’t it? We need to speak to the Alpha, it’s of an urgent and delicate matter.”
“If it involves this one, it should be good at least. Come on in.”
I looked around. The place had certainly changed.
“Seriously Kano, where’s your dad?”
I watched him cringe and it gave me a sick feeling.
“You asked for the Alpha, I’m here. What do you want to talk about?”
“No,” I said. Sure, he’d been overly harsh with my banishment, but I never dreamed he’d be gone when Silas demanded I return. “When? How?” I had so many questions. I’d seen pictures of him on Trevor Daniels’ wall. Pike was grayer at the temples than I could recall. It couldn’t have been that old of a picture.
“Two months,” Kano said sadly.
“What happened?” I needed to know.
He shrugged. “We don’t know, Baine. He was here one day and gone the next. No trace. No letter. No nothing. I’m just trying to hold down the fort and not have everyone freak out.”
“Shit!” I banged my fist on the desk. “We’re too late.”
“Relax, Baine. We’ll find him. I already have Archie on it,” Tarron said in my ear.
“Always one step behind.” I had always felt like I’d somehow failed Pike by falling in love with his daughter. This was just another blow proving to myself and the Clan that I really wasn’t good enough for her.
“What do you mean you’re too late?” Kano asked.
“I’m Silas Granger, leader of an elite team of operatives that monitor threats to shifters. We have reason to believe your Clan has been targeted. I know there’s some bad blood between you and Baine and he was forbidden to come back here, but given the situation, I needed him here. He recognized every member targeted and once we sensed the threat may be escalating, we came immediately.”
Kano stepped around the desk and approached me. “You’ve been watching us?”
I didn’t know what to say. The others sensed a threat and responded in kind. I heard the clicks coming from all directions around me as my team raised their weapons and pointed them at the new Alpha in his own office.
A mature Alpha would have lost his shit, but Kano continued to approach. I sensed no threat.
“Stand down,” I said just as Kano’s arms wrapped me into a strong embrace.
“I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t know where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing all these years, but if you’ve truly come to help. Thank you. I’ll take it.”
I hugged him back overwhelmed with emotions. When he released me and stepped back, he turned to Silas and offered his hand. “It’s Silas right?”
The gruff gorilla shifter nodded. “This is Painter, Grant, and Taylor.”
“It’s nice to meet you all. I trust Baine, and any friends of his are welcome here.”
“Why? I’m not even welcome here,” I blurted out.
“Would you just keep your mouth shut. At least he’s not threatening to kill you,” Tarron reminded me through my headset.
“You may be a lot of things, Baine, but you were never a threat to this Clan. In hindsight perhaps we were too harsh. I always thought you’d come back anyway.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “You were there, Kano. You and Killian personally escorted me out of Clan territory with nothing but the clothes on my back and vowed to kill me if I ever returned. I don’t want to be here now. I’m just doing my job.”
He nodded. “I know. I deserve that. I really believe if Dad were here, he’d be glad to see you too.”
I scoffed. “Doubtful. I don’t know what your deal here is, but Killian made it painfully clear that nothing has changed.”
“You already saw him?”
“Unfortunately.”
“And Olivia?”
I shook my head. “I’d rather she not know I’m here.”
He seemed surprised by that, but I had my reasons. Number one being that I knew I had hurt her. There was no doubt in my mind that she had loved me as much as I had loved her. They hadn’t even let me say goodbye. I hated to think of what they had told her and what she thought of me for abandoning her like that. We’d had plans to start a life together and in an instant of honest confession to my best friend it had been ripped away from me.
At the time I thought he’d be happy for us. I thought he knew I wouldn’t just screw around, not with her. I expected his support and instead found out that I simply wasn’t good enough for his sister. The things he said, the stuff he’d called me, still haunted me today.
My hand gripped into fists.
“Oh no,” Taylor whispered.
“Weird question,” Grant interrupted. “Do you have a safe place maybe even just outside territory lines to blow something up?”
“Excuse me?”
“Like a small bomb, a grenade, or maybe a stick of dynamite?” Taylor asked.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine.”
They all knew me well enough to know I wasn’t.
“Silas, why don’t you and Painter catch the Alpha up to speed and T and I will just take care of a minor problem.”
Silas huffed.
“I’m fine. Really.”
“There was a small ravine near the airfield,” Taylor noted.