Behind The Alpha Book 5 Deacon

Chapter 24

(Chapter song ‘Oxytocin' by Billie Eilish)
DEACON

I pace around the council room. 
“Dea, you’re wearing a hole in the floor.”  Jake says.  “Sit down.”
“It’s been days, Jake.  How can a building just disappear without one single trace.”  I growl.
The council doors open.  “I think we found something.”  Hunter says as he taps his tablet.
Monitors pull up a map of the country.  It’s covered in red dots. 
I scan the screen.  “What is this?”
“Rogues.  All of them.”  Hunter informs. 
The Alphas stand up from their seats. 
“They’re coming from the North around New York.”  He flips the screen.  “Rochester shows increases in activity.” 
“Have you told Axelridge?”  Owen asks. 
Hunter nods.  “I left a message.  Finn’s…going through stuff and not taking calls.  At least from us anyway.”
“I’ll call Bastian.  Maybe he’ll talk to them.”  Owen makes a note. 
Jake steps to the general map.  “Do you have tracking history?” 
“That was my next thing.”  He flips through satellite images.  “10 hours ago.  See the placements.  This one’s 6 hours.  This was taken in the last hour.”
We watch as the dots on the images move across the land and converge like a school of fish.  Heading east.
I furrow my brow.  “What’s that?”  I point to a concentration on the coast.
“A small town.  St. Edwards, Maine.”  Hunter informs.
My brows raise.  “Say that again?”
“St. Edwards.” He repeats.
“It’s Jenny.”  I turn, grab my jacket and shove it on.   I head to the door. 
“Dea!  Wait!”  I stop and turn.
“I don’t have time.  There’s a massive army heading her way.”  I motion to the map.
“Yeah and what are you going to do?”  Jake walks up to me and crosses his arms. 
“Kick some ass!”  My eyes flick from his to everyone else staring at me. 
Hunter joins him.  “We need to find out what we’re fighting.”
“We also need back up.  An army that size is going to be hard to fight.”  Owen says.
“OK, so call Falcon tell them to deploy.  Guys, Jenny could be hurt, ok.  We need to move now.”  I turn and Jake stops me. 
“Let us get all the facts first.”  Jake says.
“Jake…”
“Hey…”  We turn to Hunter.  He presses his tablet screen.  “This was 5 minutes ago.” 
We look at the image and they’re running away from the town.
I furrow my brow.  “Are they…retreating?” 
“Looks like it.”  Owen says.
“Why?”  Jake asks.
“This is why.”  We turn to Zane who hits a button on his phone and projects to a TV screen.
A reporter is standing in the middle of a street with…
“Oh…my…God…”  I say as I watch the screen.
‘Enforcers are baffled as to how or why this three story office building landed in the middle of main street.  The sleepy town of St. Edwards has no answers.  And when I say middle, I mean middle.’
The camera pans out and my eyes almost fall out of their sockets.
My building is sitting, dug into the asphalt of the three lane road.  Literally, right across it.  Jenny’s Bookshop is front and center.  It’s leaning to left like someone spiked it into the road.  Traffic is backed up the road as everyone stares in disbelief.
“How?!  Why?  What the actual fuck?!”  I hold my hand out to the screen and look around the room.
“Dea, shush.”  Jake says as he half sits on the table with his arms crossed.
‘Preliminary investigations have found no one inside.  The damage to the structure indicates a fight may have occurred inside the premises, though there’s no signs of foul play.  The Alpha has refused to comment on the situation, but some Enforcers have told us that nothing like this has ever happened in the towns history. 
I’m pretty sure this is a first for everyone.  We’ll have more as the story develops.’
I turn around.  “I need to get to that building.”  
“Jake, call Azriel and Faith.  They may be interested in this.”  Owen instructs. 
Jake nods and pulls out his phone.  He walks away. 
I point in Owen’s face.  “If this has anything to do with Michael, I’m killing him…for good.” 
“Just…calm down.  We’ll get answers.”  He says. 
“Azriel and Faith are on their way.  We'll group in Falcon Ridge.  I’ve called St. Edwards and told them to close the entire street off until we get there.  The Alpha wasn’t too happy.”  Jake says as he pockets his phone.
“No, he wouldn’t be.”  I scratch my forehead.
“How do you know?”  Hunter asks.
I make a whiney face and put my hands on my hips.  “St.  Edwards is Jenny’s hometown.  They haven’t let anyone in, in ten years.  They don’t like outsiders.” 
“Oh.”  Owen’s brows go up.
“Shit.”  Jake says.
“Why would your building end up in her hometown?”  Hunter asks. 
I look at the dots running away from the town.  “I don’t know, but my gut is telling me its not good.” 

****

During the whole helicopter ride to Falcon Ridge, my mind raced with the worst possible nightmares it could come up with.
I stare out the window, not looking at anything, but thinking of ways I can tear Michael to pieces.  I know this is him.  If it is, not River, or anyone will stop me from committing murder.  I’ve killed him once, this time he'll stay dead. 
When we land on Falcon Ridge’s landing pad, we exit and meet Bastian.  “Alpha Clark won’t give us access until tomorrow so we set up and be ready to deploy by 0900.” 
“What?  Why?  He must want this solved.”  I argue at his side as we enter the building. 
“He has to prepare and settle his people.  He needs to make sure they’re safe.  We sent flyers out to scope the area for rogues.  They’ll contact us when they have something.”  He says.  We walk through the busy halls.
“Dea.”  I look to see Jayson coming up the hall. 
I clap his hand and pull him into a bro hug.  “Hey, man.” 
“You’re friend.  She was in the building?”  he asks.
I nod.  “Yeah.  Looks like it.”
“So weird.  Everyone’s in the conference room.”  He informs Bastian.
“Very good.”  He motions to me.  “This way.”
I follow with the Phoenix council behind me.
We enter the room and the Falcon council shouts its Hey’s.  I clap hands and hug some. 
“So a building of yours dropped on the East coast?”  Luke crosses his arms, his biceps pulling on his leather.
I was about to answer when Darcy leans over my shoulder.  “Tell him about the sexy librarian.” 
I turn my head to him as he taps my chest and points to Luke with a stupid grin on his face.
“Sexy librarian?”  Luke’s brows go up.
“DARCY!”  I growl and shove him off. 
“What?  It’s true!”  He steps from behind me into our circle.
“You’re dating a sexy librarian?”  Luke gives me an even dumber grin.
“No!  I’m not!”  I grit.
“She’s not sexy?”  Luke arches a brow.
“Not when you say it!”  I scowl. 
He raises his hands.  “OK, so your still dating a librarian.  When did this happen?” 
I rub my nape.  “Months ago.  It was all good until this shit.” 
“We'll figure it out.”  Darcy shakes my shoulder. 
“I just…I want to kill something.  Not having her here...”  I have to work to keep my wolf down who’s going crazy in his cage.
“Really?  There’s something there?”  Luke says.
“I think so.  As crazy as it sounds, I think she’s my Fated.”  I give a little half smile.
“Have you told her?”  Darcy asks.
“Not yet.”  I look at the floor.  “I was going to then the building…”
Luke rests a hand on my shoulder.  “Hey.  We got your back.  That hasn’t changed.  We’ll get the bastards that did this.”
“Oh, I will.”  I raise my anger filled eyes to him.  “I’ll murder the prick.”  I snarl. 
“Everyone have a seat!”  Bastian yells over the twenty heads in the room.
I see River sit and our eyes meet.  I narrow mine and he returns the irritation.  He knows what I’m thinking. 
Bastian stands at the podium.  “OK.  As you are well aware, we have a situation on the east side of the country.  Unfortunately,  we’ve run into some politics.  The Alpha of the small town has delayed our entry.  Because he is not Alliance, we must respect his decision.”  He looks around the room and fixes his blonde, ponytail.  “There’s also a lot of questions coming from Titus.  Zander is in discussions with his cousin as we speak.  Titus is concerned about this surprising ability we have.”
“What ability?  We didn’t do this?”  I protest.
Bastian nods.  “I know you didn’t, Titus is not believing it.  He’s…concerned we are conducting experiments.”
“Oh my God…that’s bullshit!”  I grind.
Peter holds up his hand to me.  “In Titus' defense, he’s not really himself right now.  No one knows why.  Lana suspects her brother may be…feeling his age.”
“Well, he is almost 400 years old.”  Luke rolls his head to Peter. 
“Yes.”  Peter confirms.  “He’s been getting extremely untrusting of even his closest advisors.  His sister’s have tried to talk to him, but he seems to have locked himself away.”
“Is he dying again?”  Zane asks.  “We did use the rock.” 
“No.  I put the rock back.  The Heart of Atlas is fine.”  Peter informs.
“We will have to assure the King that we have no ill intentions.”  Bastian says.  “We clean this up quick and leave.  Understood?”
Grumbles fill the room.   
“We have units staging and receiving orders.  Once we receive word from the flyers, we mobilize.  It’ll be about a day and a half drive and expect resistance around Michigan.  The rogue activity we’ve seen is off the charts.
“Michael.”  I quietly bark.  River and I lock eyes again from across the table as I lean on the table and cover my mouth.
“Lefu.”  Bastian corrects.  “It’s our suspicion that he’s there.  He’s controlling the rogues and Michael.”
“Yeah, right.”  I drop my arm and lean in my chair.
“Michael didn’t do this.”  River grits.
“Sure looks like a willing participant to me.”  I growl.
“Enough.  Deacon.”  Bastian shoots me a look. 
I hit the table as I stand.  “Whatever.  I’ll be at Cass'.  Call me when we deploy.” 
I walk to the door.  “I’m taking a jeep.”  I lift two fingers as I turn to the deployment garage.