Ayla: Always an Alpha

Chapter 27 - Maybe That's the Reason

~Killian~

Ayla peered over my shoulder as I scrolled through the forums. We were in a booth at an old 24 hour McDonalds a few cities away from her pack. We had needed to buy something to make up for our internet stealing, so a tray, laden with two burgers, nuggets, and a large fry lay untouched in front of us.

"People actually do, umm, business, on these websites?" she asked.

"Some do."

"Out in the internet open like this?"

"It's not as easy to track someone on here as you'd think. People are smart."

"I take it they think whatever weird dog breed code they're using is smart too."

I chuckled. There was a lot of chat online about the recent murder and the other attempted murder, using terms like "two black labs", but I'd have to scroll past all of the recent posts to any original threads in order to sniff out the offending parties.

The murder in Pennsylvania was done by my group; I was sure of it. We wouldn't have left a trace in these forums; Ayush was really good at handling our internet affairs. But the attempted murder in Oregon? We rarely ever went on an assignment in the West. If I found the group responsible for that attempt, I was hoping I could follow their tracks to the client. It seemed pretty safe to assume that their customer would be the same person responsible for the hit on Ayla and the alpha in Pennsylvania.

"This is disgusting," she said as I scrolled past threads that were not even worth looking into. "They're calling those women breeders? They were alphas. Not fucking baby incubators. They earned their titles."

"Every community has their incels," I responded. Nothing they were saying hadn't been posted before. It wasn't new to me, but I forgot Ayla was seeing all of this with a fresh pair of eyes.

"To think I'm being sought after because some rich incel somewhere can't handle me leading a pack instead of having six pups before I'm 30." Grimacing, she shook her head. "It's dehumanizing. We're just wombs and homemakers to these people."

Although I empathized with her, I didn't know what to say.

Next to me, she vibrated with anger.

"Ayla." I wrapped my hand around her thigh to stop her jittering. "For as long as you let what they're saying anger you, you give their ideals credit. You know you're worth more than what they say. Your pack knows you're more than what they say. Meanwhile, they're never going to do anything for humanity. They'll talk shit on the internet for the rest of their lives."

"I know." She covered my hand with her own. "And I agree with you. There's just a lot going on up here right now." Ayla waved a hand at her head and let out a sarcastic laugh. "The incels are just the easiest thing to focus on at the moment."

"Well, how about you focus on these fried potatoes instead." I grabbed a fry and shoved the entire thing into my mouth. "Yum."

"Fried potatoes?" A mirthful little grin appeared on her face. "Why not just call them french fries?"

I smiled and reached for another. "I thought you'd eat them if I reminded you they were vegetables."

"Smart man." Quickly, she bit off half the fry I had between my fingers.

I finished it and went back to scrolling. Ayla munched on the rest of the food and proceeded to watch me instead of the screen. I didn't mind. In fact, it almost made me feel normal, like we were two twenty-somethings eating at a McDonalds together as we had a million times before. Maybe that's the reason I kept my left hand on her thigh as I searched - the mundaneness of it all. And maybe that's the reason she grabbed that same hand of mine between hers and cuddled up to my left arm when she was done eating. And why I didn't shrug her off when she rested her head on my shoulder.

The search continued for a while. An hour or so into it, I found something promising and slowly scanned through the messages. When I looked down at Ayla to see if she had picked up on it too, I found she had dozed off. It was cute, even if she smelled a little like someone else; someone she probably sat next to at her meeting, I figured. It was a masculine and synthetic scent, like an expensive cologne, but underneath it all, I could still smell her. She was herbal and warm. It was a spice I'd never be able to recreate with my essential oils.

I left her to sleep while I traced the user's IP address to a VPN, which thankfully was one Ayush had hacked before. I ran his code, obtained the original IP address, and traced the port to Nevada, which felt like a good start. It'd take me longer than Ayush, but once their server turned back on, I could likely get into an open port. With everything offline, there was nothing we could do until then.

Gently, I squeezed Ayla's hand to wake her.

"Hey there," I greeted her when she lifted her chin and looked at me with a pair of bleary eyes. Immediately, the heat on my shoulder faded.

"Sorry." Ayla shook her head and stretched backwards. "Did you find anything?"

"There's a promising lead, but we have to wait for them to boot back up. I can try tomorrow. It's time we go."

"Agreed." Even tired, she managed to give me a playful smirk. "This is exactly why green vegetables are better. They don't come with a food coma."

~~~

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