Gamma No More - Book 3

Toni had felt bad delaying the rescue for an extra day, but the information from their parents meant this would be less risky to all concerned. If the unthinkable had happened to Yennifer or they had died, she wouldn’t forgive herself and there would be retribution.

But to rush in outnumbered would be a potential massacre for her other pack members, and she had to balance all the lives under her care, officially, most of them were rogues, but from what Pam and Doug, Samuel and Yennifer’s parents, had told her, their old Alpha may allow his fighters and ranked wolves to pick their mates, but he wouldn’t let a mating occur before seventeen, so she was banking on that much still being true.

While she could see a lot of similarities between Alpha Vincent and Alpha Randall, the latter was a weak wolf, allowing his warriors and ranked wolves to run the pack with him allegedly in control.

Mostly, he just ratified the decisions that the others put forward. From what Toni had gathered, he didn’t make his own decisions; he was just a figurehead, a puppet to the mob rule.

Not that it mattered to Toni. A weak leader was still responsible for the actions of his pack.

Toni had crossed the border slightly earlier with Felix, Tyra keeping Felix’s wolf, Amand suppressed low in Felix’s mind, she could tell that it unsettled Felix a little, suddenly losing contact with his wolf, but he was their resident expert on surveillance and electrics and a veiled one and she couldn’t execute this part of her plan alone nor bring across all her wolves this way at once.

She thinks back to the rules that she used to live her life by; ignoring most of them since she had emancipated herself, so to speak, but in this instance, one is important to remember.

Rule nine: Take only the head of the snake. The rest is harmless.

She had no intention of killing the Alpha, unless he had killed her pack members, but control him, or in this case his Beta as well, and you control his pack, first, she has to remove the connection from the head of the snake to the venom, and that’s the warriors.

The entire basement floor of this pack house was a gym and sparring area; every day, four hours a day, the warriors train together for two hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon from four until six, and it is this afternoon session that they are banking on using to their advantage.

There are, of course, always some wolves on patrol, but small numbers are easier to control than a full complement of pack warriors.

At six o’clock on the first Friday of the month, the pack is called together for their monthly pack meeting. Having all the wolves together makes her life easier, if a little riskier, in case they turn on the intruders.

From what she’s been told, the pack are relatively gentle apart from the warriors and that’s something she is praying for, meek-minded and compliant, a bully’s dream and for what Toni wants, not enough desire to attack intruders, especially ones where they don’t know the size of the invading force.

Between her and Felix, they needed to stop the warriors from getting out of the workout rooms for this to succeed, their only other option, an early morning prison breakout, would become null and void, if this attempt failed, since the pack would be on the alert, but when she’d weighed up the options, this had been the safer one.

Nightfall was easier to move wolves around in without being seen. People were focusing on eating, relaxing and, in this instance, going to the pack meeting.

She still had a small amount of the drugs that knocked out the Royals for the broadcast, so she’s hoping that it’s enough to send the warriors to sleep, or at least subdue them, allowing them to be restrained, by the time they realised, their wolves and associated skills, like mind linking, would already be asleep.

It had taken a while, but Toni and Felix reviewed their handiwork on the monitors. All the wolves in the gym were now restrained and tied up. With luck, they would remain that way. She looked at Felix.

“You know what to do and when to get out?”

“Yes Alpha,”

She can almost see the pride radiating off him at what the two of them had accomplished.

“Any concerns, remember, your safety is a priority. We don’t sacrifice one person to save another, we all get out safely…”

“Got it Alpha, now go get our wolves back!”

He grinned. It’s almost as if he’s a child with a new toy, happy in his own world. The two wolves that had been on duty in the surveillance room were sleeping soundly and, importantly, tied up and drugged.

It had taken them close to fifty minutes to secure the warriors and get their pack members across one wolf at a time, to raise the least suspicion possible and, currently, there had been no obvious alerts.

According to Felix, the Alpha had been in his study, moving to the meeting hall with his Beta as the pack started filtering in. The stage was literally being set for their intervention.

Toni already had five wolves hiding on the upper floor of the hall. The rest would control the doors once the pack had gathered.

It’s just after six pm that Toni walks in behind one of her Deltas, Ezra, using a portion of her command aura to control those in the room.

She can see the entire pack, bar their top leadership, dropping their heads at her show of dominance, but she’s so close to Ezra that people will assume it’s his. She blends in, looking like the intruder’s guard.

Glancing up, she can see half the veiled ones, hoods up, looking intimidating, but with everyone matching it makes the scene look even more menacing. At their entrance, they drew their bows; the sound drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

The other four are outside the doors, securing them in case of issues leaving Felix, the tenth Veiled One, on the monitors.

“Protect the Alpha” Beta Miles shouts.

Some of his escort warriors who had skipped training try to move forward, but the fight with Toni’s command aura leaves them frozen in place. Instead, his three Gammas and the Beta have surrounded him.

“We’re here for our pack members, the ones that you abducted illegally.”

Ezra growled out as Toni ups the pressure of the command aura, focussing on the leadership only this time.

“You are mistaken. Only miscreants and rogues inhabit our cells,”

Again, the Beta is the one to speak up. Toni looks at the Alpha as nothing more than a puppet at best, a mouthpiece for mob rule.

“Don’t test me. Yennifer and Samuel Rees are being held in your cells. They are neither rogues nor miscreants.

We found our car hidden in bushes in no-man’s-land and eight sets of prints leaving it entering your land, so if they aren’t here in five minutes, there will be consequences.

As I’m sure you are aware by now, your warriors are unavailable currently.”

Toni can hear the smile in Delta Ezra’s voice as he relays the last piece of information. He’s relaxing into his role, making Toni smile, her face hidden within her hood.

Alpha Randall gives his Beta a nod as he steps forward. Ezra responds to Toni’s mind link.

“Not you,” His eyes search the pack, landing on a weak-looking male.

“He will go along with one of our warriors.”

He signals to the cowering man to get the keys, who then leaves with the wolf waiting for him outside the door.

Toni senses a change in the atmosphere among the other wolves, realising that the Alpha likely intends to use them as sacrificial pawns. She uses her command aura to calm those in the main pack, the body language of three hundred wolves and children, showing their submission. They only have twelve from her pack, and Toni knew they could easily overpower her and Delta Ezra, even with five veiled ones wielding bows on the second floor.

Delta Ezra becomes her voice once more.

“This pack is not responsible for the actions of your leadership, but we will remove any of you that moves against us. If you remain peaceful, you will be untouched.

We do not want to hurt the innocent.”

Emphasising the last sentence seems to calm most of the Shadow Stalkers’ pack and an uneasy silence fills the room until Samuel and Yennifer come into the room. Mike is supporting Samuel, but Yennifer herself isn’t uninjured, and Toni’s desire for justice increases.

Striding over, she takes Yennifer’s face gently in her hands. Seeing the bruises and injuries, she can feel her jaw tensing, sod the charade of Ezra being in charge.

‘Do you know who did this to you both?’

She directs her question to them both, but it’s Samuel who answered her first.

’A warrior named Linden under the orders of Gamma Simon; he didn’t want to be the one that hit her, since he wanted her as his mate.

Making Linden the message bearer meant he could ‘rescue’ her.’

Toni can feel her anger increasing as Yennifer added,

’Linden’s mate Diane is also in the cells, at least I wasn’t …she was… forced… she…

“Shh little one, you’re safe and I promise I’ll offer Diane options for her safety.”

Toni’s voice is quiet and calming as she holds Yennifer in her arms as she felt the young woman’s sobs. She can smell she’s still unclaimed, but her nightmares won’t be over quickly.

Holding her gently, Toni embraces her until her sobs subside.

’Eleanor, take these two home, along with Mike. They need to be close to their parents, so call ahead to Leah to meet them at their house.

Do not take them to the medical centre.’

Her voice filled with command in the pack link, but she knew a sterile medical centre would not bring either of them comfort. It’s their family they need.

As Eleanor takes Yennifer carefully under her arm, placing a fresh cloak over her and her brother, Toni’s eyes don’t leave them until they have left the room, when she turns and stalks towards the leadership, the room becomes so silent it seems to amplify the sounds of everyone’s breathing.

Her command aura takes on a life of its own, seeming to delight in releasing its dark side, spreading out from her like a blanket of death, as if to limit the oxygen in the room, her anger has been brewing, both at herself and the wolves that had beaten two young wolves so badly and she’s no longer fighting to keep it under control.

Part of her hates the darkness still, but there’s a larger part that is in this moment rejoicing in its power, as she accepts it, as a fundamental part of her as Prince Einar hinted at, to be used against those that would hurt her family.

For now, she has to keep some control because she needs someone to pay the price for injuring innocents from her pack.