ETHAN
I woke up a bit early the next morning and stretched. I had a great night's sleep which was not always possible, so I welcomed it with arms wide open.
It was common to be pulled out of our sleep because of one issue or another. Having a large pack did that to you. I would not change it for anything though. We had all shed blood and soul for what we had and would never stop. The stress and craziness were worth it.
I tossed on some jeans and a grey tee before heading downstairs to grab some much-needed coffee. My tastebuds were already watering with the smells coming from the kitchen by the time my feet hit the bottom landing.
Mrs. Tyson, the amazing woman that she was, was already dishing up some breakfast casserole that she made. An amazing night's sleep and her cooking. Winning already.
I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at the island. Her cooking was the best, as was her personality. Everyone in the pack absolutely loved her.
"Good morning, Beta," Mrs. Tyson said pleasantly with a smile that never faded over time.
I sighed, sipping my coffee, before raising an eyebrow at her. "How many more years will it take until you just call me Ethan?"
She let out a hearty laugh and set a plate in front of me. She leveled me with a look of amusement that a grandmother would give – one that showed you that they were far more stubborn than the child. I was stubborn alright, but she had me beat hands down.
"It is an honor to be called Beta. So, accept it," she said with finality.
Mrs. Tyson had been the in-house cook for the packhouse when we were kids. Lots of families lived here then, but we never got back into that once we took over. It would have been a constant reminder of all that we lost. It was easier to push that shit away than deal with it. Not necessarily a healthy coping mechanism, but there were worse ones out there.
Squad One was spread throughout the territory, and all had their own type of packhouse to do with as they wished. They had their own versions of Betas, Gammas, and so forth. It all depended on how they wanted it set up. It was the only way that we could effectively take care of a pack this size.
I knew for a fact that Tyree's mini packhouse in sector 2 housed his mate and her five brothers and sisters. They did not have any pups yet, but they already had a full house. Since his parents were getting older, they would be moving in before the year was up.
Johnson had a growing family, so the number of occupants in his packhouse was steadily increasing. His mate's parents also lived with them, but his had been lost in an uprising a few years back. Johnson had both a form of Beta and Gamma. He called them 'thing one' and 'thing two' behind closed doors.
I personally enjoyed the freedom of our bachelor pad. Mrs. Tyson came by every couple of days with fresh food and leftovers for the two of us. She took over food shopping for us as well because we were typically too busy and would just get takeout if we did not have anything. That and we both loathed food shopping and could not cook to save our lives. We tried once. That was all it took to realize that we should not attempt it again lest we put our entire pack at risk.
The casserole was delicious. It had eggs, vegetables, and plenty of sausage. The food and coffee woke me up, but I groaned with the fact that I had a long day of work ahead of me. We had a meeting this morning, and I had pack duties that would not be done until the moon was up.
I hated long days. With a fucking passion.
I grabbed some files from my office before heading to the War Room for the meeting.
The War Room was one of my favorite rooms in the entire packhouse because I got to design it myself. There was enough tech in the room to make tech moguls cry jealous tears. So much could be accomplished within its walls. The entire territory could be monitored remotely from the room in the event of another emergency.
The entire squad was already present and looked at me expectantly as I entered. Thankfully, I was only ten minutes late. They could really just suck it up because I woke up in a good mood that they could not touch.
"Glad you could finally join us," Johnson deadpanned.
Johnson's tone said one thing, but his eyes belied his amusement. I swore he got his daily thrills in teasing everyone. If his mate had not been fated to him, I doubted a woman would come near him with his penchant for assery.
"You would be caught up as well if you had Mrs. Tyson cooking for you. That woman was sent straight from the Goddess. So, what's the latest?" I asked, taking my seat at the table.
Xander used the computer and massive screen at the front of the table to pull up a map of our territory. It showed where the rogues had been spotted. They were always in the same three places. That was very odd behavior for rogues.
"How many attacks in total?" I asked.
Xander put up an overlay that showed eleven different rogue attacks and what area they attacked.
"Another two were spotted around midnight last night, but both was gone before they could catch them. I don't get why these three spots though. We have plenty of territory, so why aren't they going anywhere else?" Xander asked.
None of us had the answer. I wished we did because this was getting very fucking frustrating. The rogues would surely venture around the boundary lines if they were checking our defenses. There had to be some connection that we were failing to see. That was almost worse because this had to get sorted out.
I flipped through papers in the black folder I grabbed from my office and handed Xander the findings. He scoffed when he read through what they provided me.
"The Blacktree pack doctor was an absolute imbecile, so the autopsy was inconclusive. However, I hacked into their servers and ran another analysis of my own. The rogues were dosed with something we haven't seen before. I'd venture to guess that it gave them the edge to get so close to the territory. They never breeched our borders, but they had to move like the wind to not be seen until they got that close. There is a .03 second delay in our sensors, so they had to be really fucking fast. The substance was long gone before I could analyze it, but all the rogues along the Blacktree territory had the same findings," I explained.
I passed around copies of the papers for each of their records. Rogues were a sore spot for all of us. The fact that we could not figure out their motivation was weighing on all of us. Rogues typically fought for food, shelter, or because they had gone feral and relied on animalistic instinct. This all just seemed a little too perfect for it to be the latter.
Eric looked carefully at the map before turning his attention back to us. "What do we do to prevent them from getting through? Should we double up patrols?"
Xander ran his hand through his hair and nodded. Poor bastard looked like he had not slept that well. We all worked hard, but Xander worked himself a little too hard. He preferred to do things so that we could all have more time off. None of us agreed with that, but he still did it. Trying to argue with him or make him see reason was a feat in and of itself. Nobody could really reason with the guy.
"That's a fair idea. Let's double the patrols in those areas and push the boundary line out by five miles. It's neutral territory, so we're allowed to patrol it as well."