MATE AND HIS LOVER 9

#13 A disgrace

When Nate and Tim get off the car, they see Drey run towards them. Frank is also running not far behind Drey.

Drey stops and opens his mouth to say something when Frank reaches them and covers Drey's mouth from behind. "Dude, they had just come from an all night stakeout. Let them at least rest a little first."

"What's the matter?" Nate asks.

Frank lets go of Drey, and Drey and Frank look at each other briefly before Frank sighs. "We heard some bad news from Josh..."

Nate patiently waits for Frank to continue.

Frank says. "Patrick had caught two rogues."

All the exhaustion from staying up all night is gone in an instant for Nate. "What are you saying? That's not possible."

"We were on our way to confirm," Frank says, "when we saw your car pull up."

"Where are they?" Nate asks.

Frank lightly shakes his head. "Nate, look, you and Tim should go home and rest. Let me and Dre—"

"Where are they?" Nate repeats, louder.

Frank gives up. "We were heading to the main office."

Nate starts walking. Frank, Drey and Tim quickly follow him.

When the four of them reach a tall concrete building, the men walking in and out of the structure, going about their day's work, throw swift glances at Nate.

The news has spread.

Nate keeps walking, not even stopping for the security check.

Seeing Nate's angry face, and having heard the news, the guards
let him and his friends pass without a fuss.

Everyone thought it would've been Nate who would've caught the first rogue.

Without stopping, Nate climbs and walks into the Interpack Affairs floor. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Patrick and his friends, joking and laughing with the group of men who had flocked around them.

Nate goes into the corridor of detainment rooms, opens the first door and sees two guys — Shane and Zakir, two of the many rogues whose faces Nate had memorized from the files he received from the Croway pack.

After Nate comes back from the corridor, he sees that the floor has gone silent. Everyone is somberly watching Nate and his friends, except Patrick and his posse. They have a wicked grin plastered on their faces.

Patrick gets up from the table he is sitting at the edge of. The crowd around him breaks up. "Hope you had a good look at them. That's probably the closest you were able to get to any of those mutts."

Nate's fingers curl and dig deep into his palms.

"Come on, Nate, it's not worth it," Frank says, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. Frank guides Nate away from Patrick. Patrick, however, starts to follow them. "I thought you signed up to help us out, but it looks like you guys are the ones who need help. That day Castino said he wanted you to learn, so I hope you're learning well how much of a failure you are," Patrick says and then whispers, "and a disgrace."

Nate shoves away Frank's hand on his shoulder and lunges for Patrick. But Drey and Tim, who were half expecting this, grabbed Nate's arms right away, pulling him back.

"What's going on?" Ross' voice comes from the entrance.

Standing behind Ross are Castino and Alpha Christopher.

Nate stops pushing against his friends, and his friends let him go. They know Nate won't do anything in front of Ross.

Ross comes and stands between the half brothers. "You two better not have been causing trouble for everyone on the floor." He turns to Patrick. "Don't you have a couple of rogues to process? Just because you managed to leash some, it doesn't mean you get to waste your time boasting about it. There's plenty more on the list. Run along now."

Patrick glares at Ross, but knows better than to talk back to him. He turns away and leaves, along with his men.

Ross then turns to Nate. "Go home. Get some rest."

Nate doesn't look at Ross' face or Castino's or Alpha's.

He and his friends leave.

Outside, Drey says, "Something smells fishy. There's no way those punks could've located those two rogues by themselves. Those two were on our priority list, and we were nowhere near tracking them."

Nate doesn't say anything.

Frank tells Nate, "You've to let this go. We still have more on the list."

Nate stops and looks at Frank. "And how are we now any better in locating them than we were a minute ago?"

"We don't have a choice," Tim says, "but to keep trying."

"I'm tired of trying!" Nate says, "I'm sick and tired of Patrick getting everything he wants even when he doesn't deserve any of it. You're right — I don't believe he and his guys caught those rogues by themselves, but what can we do about it? All that matters is he has two to show for and I... nothing. I have nothing!"

Nate gets in his car and drives away. He doesn't want to go back home and see Daisy's face, or stay anywhere else in the pack. He'll go rest at the motel located on the outskirts of the packland where he stays sometimes.

When Frank returns home he looks around for Daisy. He was hoping Daisy could talk to Nate and that might help him. Nate has been in a foul mood recently, even before the news of the rogues came in today.

But Daisy is not in and had left a note on the refrigerator that she has gone down to the nearby general store to buy some groceries.

Frank goes to his room and lies down. He can't think of how Patrick might have managed to track not one but two rogues, when he and Nate have been struggling to trace them.

He closes his eyes, thinking he should talk to Nate again after Nate has rested and cooled off, and they should start on the next rogue right away. They don't have time to waste anymore. Nate has to win. Frank will do everything in his power to help his friend.

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