Alpha Scent (Amber Woods Shifters) (17 page)

“I swear to god I am going to send an email to the company that makes that wine, it should have a hazard warning on it or something”

Marcus laughed loudly, throwing his head back. She grabbed her head, closing her eyes again.

“It does have a hazard warning Brianna!”

“It does? I never saw one”

“That’s because after the
fourth bottle you were having double vision”

Sitting up she stared at him, his grin so gorgeous and all hers.

“Fuckin hell, four bottles? I’m surprised I was conscious”

“You were
right up until you challenged Lizzy, then you blacked out”

Brianna just stared at him for a few seconds, trying to register what he had just said.

“I challenged Lizzy?”

“Yes you did my feisty female, but don’t worry nothing happened
, we managed to cool it off before you both passed out” he winked.

“I would never do that, what the heck did I challenge her for?”

“Because she said you did not know what a thingy was!”

Brianna looked as confused as hell and he loved every expression passing over her face.

“A thingy? What’s that?”

“I don’t know you tell me, you had me, Justin and Connor puzzled!”

She groaned and got out of bed, her legs feeling a little shaky. Marcus watched her zig zag to the bathroom to get showered and hopefully not vomit.

“I will make breakfast and lots of coffee, you should be ok in an hour or two, the alcohol will be completely out of your system by then”

“No food, just coffee”

“Brianna you need to eat”
he argued

“I will, just not yet, see you soon”

She shut the bathroom door quietly, he needed to have her focused and alert by the time they had all assembled in the meeting room. The time for planning had arrived, by tonight, if all went well, they would have the women freed and safely back in pack territory. Each and every wolf that had betrayed their kind, would be judged by the packs, yet Marcus knew that execution would be the only justice they would want. Pack law existed for a reason, they dealt with their own kind, it made things a lot easier. Yes there was the high council, but they preferred not get involved at local level if at all possible. They put their trust in the alphas of the lands. Marcus would brief them on events and it would be filed. If it turned out to be much bigger than they thought, the council would intervene. If Rhett thought pack justice was harsh, he would shit himself at the punishment handed out by the leaders.

Walking back into the kitchen he cleared away last night
’s mess and set the coffee machine away. He looked at the large measure of beans he put in before adding another. His feisty mate was going to need it.

The meeting room was packed with amber woods enforcers as Brianna looked about the room. At least her head was no longer banging with last night’s alcohol. She sat in the middle of the room, Marcus understood when she refused to sit at the head of the table, she wanted to sit next to Lizzy to offer her support, it would be new territory to her. Marcus was deep in conversation with Justin, but every now and again he would lift his head and smile at her.

Sipp
ing her coffee, she heard her friend come into the room with Connor. They really were spending lots of time together, she just hoped Lizzy at least gave things a try before doubting herself like she sometimes did when her personal history cropped up. Brianna pulled a chair out for her which her friend gladly took.

“I’ll be right up there with Marcus baby girl, don’t worry” Connor said to her, kissing the top of her head.

Brianna raised an eyebrow at her in speculation.

“Oh shut up oh ‘not so long mated one who was only coming up here for
business’ I like his company”

“Ah ha, so you say” she winked.

“I do, anyway, how is your head this morning? I thought my head had been used for target practice, that stuff was bloody lethal!”

“I know, I don’t remember much, but apparently I challenged you”

“You did? What do you challenge me over honey?”

“Because, you said I did not know what a thingy was!”

Lizzy pinched her coffee taking a long drink, before looking at Brianna.

“A what?”

“I don’t know I thought you could shed light on it”

“Nope, sorry. Did I win?”

Brianna took her coffee cup back scowling.

“No it was over before we even got started”

Lizzy pulled her hand through her head, shaking her head in confusion.

“We passed out
” Brianna chuckled.

“Oh right………”

Marcus addressed the waiting group. His men on one side, the red stone enforcers on the other.

“Thank you for all attending, let me bring you up to speed. Luke can you pull up the frames that we discussed on screen please?”

Luke had set up the screen to show multiple frames alongside each other. The room feel silent, every eye upon the images.

“
We tracked the man that Brianna first scented at the service station and after the attempted kidnapping of Anna. For the benefit of red stone pack his name is Bradley turner, a mercenary with a bad history including murder. We tracked him to a complex twenty miles from her. I am sure you alpha has informed you of the reasons we think the women have been taken”

“Fucking strange crazy shit” Justin interrupted.

“It is. The complex has an eight mile perimeter with guards at surrounding it. Two doors visible. The front has four shifters guards and the back three. If you take a look at frame nine, you will see the fucking traitor Rhett with a smaller figure. Brianna has identified this as the missing Mckenzie girl. The biggest problem we have is that every guard is armed with silver bullets using AR12 and AR14, there are also three snipers stationed on the roof”

The room erupted into raucous snarling. Every wolf knew that it was dishonourable to fight amongst your own kind with manmade weapons, it simply was not done. Fighting was primal, instinctive and physical contact in their world.

“I know, believe me it pisses me off as well, but we have a way in”

Marcus looked at Lizzy
who blanched under the gaze of tense male shifters. Brianna picked up on her anxiety and gripped her hand under the table, a gentle squeeze of reassurance. As alpha female she took the lead.

“
Lizzy has a powerful gift of a telekinetic, she will be able to disarm the weapons first, allowing us to gain access quickly in the way we do best, teeth and claws”

“Are you cer
tain you can disable them Lizzy?” Justin asked.

Connor moved to stand behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“Yes, but I have never done it on this scale before, but with Brianna beside me I have every confidence I will succeed”

Brianna squeezed her hand again in acknowledgement.

“As discussed with my alpha, Lizzy is to be protected at all costs and our alpha female, Brianna must be guarded with the highest level of security”

Connor looked around at each and every wolf. He let his Beta energy roll off him, making sure that they all understood how important his request was.

“So do you have to be close to do this?” Alistair asked, Beta to red stone pack.

“We have a plan which I think will work”

Brianna could feel the anger coming off Marcus and glanced up quickly.

If there was another way Marcus I would do it.

I know Brianna, but don’t expect me to just sit back and let my mate be in danger, it’s pissing me off that you have to be the one to do this.

Marcus I
wont let anything happen to me

Be sure of that statement, because if anyone of those scum suckers touch you I will feed them their own shithole

Nice, caveman

Focusing her attention back to the room she continued.

“Lizzy and I are going to ‘happen’ upon the complex after being out running. We will get within a close range to get the guards to notice us. When they start to approach, Lizzy will disable the weapons then you can all make your move”

“I have had a good look at the footage and the best way I can do this is to take down the snipers first then, the perimeter guards then the complex entrance.”

Lizzy smiled confidently, she knew she could do this, just have a little faith she kept telling herself.

Marcus placed his hands on the desk, sighing heavily.

“Justin and I have discussed this and we think the best course of action following that will be for the red stone pack to attack the back half of the property and perimeter and my pack to take the front. We attack in wolf form”

Luke stood up, arms folded.

“How many are combat trained?”

Marcus could n
ot blame the guy for asking, he was a trained warrior and needed to know who he was fighting with.

“
All my men are combat trained of the highest level, but not at warrior standard”

“Same here” Justin added.

“That’s good, from watching the footage I don’t think those guards are a particular threat in fighting, I noticed most of them have a leaner build. It is also worth noting that Anna has told me that the man that tried to kidnap her did not smell like a full shifter, so we could be dealing with half breeds as well”

Luke
had nearly lost it when Anna had told him that bit of information, his wolf was having a hard enough time processing that some bastard had tried to harm her, but a half breed? There was a faction of extremist bastards that had a hatred for full shifters. He had worked on cases where one shifter had been tortured with silver chains for six months, slowly and purposefully just so they could see how much a full shifter could take, sick fuckers.

“Have we got the results of the
solution that they are using?”

Michael stepped around the group, to stand next to Marcus, Brianna noticed the way they exchanged worried glances. Marcus eyes flicked to hers.

“The solution is a complex mixture, it took a while to filter out. What I have found is that it has chemical in it which only works on female wolves. I performed various tests on it and what was astonishing is that it can mask a female’s scent completely, ensuring that they cannot be tracked by males. The other worrying part is that it has a strong sedative, and I am not talking a few hours sleep, I am talking about days”

“Holy shit, who are these fuckers? That is why only I could detect the smell then?” Brianna snapped.

“Yes, I assumed with your enhanced tracking gift and the fact that you were female made you scent in when all other males could not”

Marcus dragged a hand through his hair.

“These bastards will be brought to justice. We attack tonight, we can only assume that there are more inside. Lizzy can your gift extend to inside the complex?”

She
licked her lips nervously.

“I would have to be in the vicinity to make it work, in other words closer”

Before the noise erupted of protests from Connor, Brianna quickly spoke.

“
It can still be done, I will be with Lizzy every step of the way, and you will all be right behind us once you have taken the guards down outside. We also have to be cautious as Rhett might be expecting us, we don’t want those women used as bargaining tools or killed because of rash decision making. I have agreed with Marcus that I will approach the women first so that they will be more comfortable and calmer, I can follow the scent of the drug to their location. Again we will have your support at our backs”

Marcus came to stand next to Brianna’s chair, pulling her to stand, curling his arms around her waist.

“Let it be known that every instinct I have is to not let my mate near the complex, but after many discussions, this is the only way. You will all protect her with your life and that extends to her best friend as well, you don’t let them out of your sight, if there is a problem you pull them back and get them the hell out of there, as a fall back we go to plan b”

“Which is?” Tristan asked.

“Rip out the fuckers throats, whilst trying to dodge the bullets” Marcus stated.

16

Lizziy
and Brianna went in search of food, ending up in the pack house kitchen. The men were going over the final arrangements and the level of testosterone was suffocating. Home cooking wafted towards them, Brianna found that her appetite had returned with gusto and she was craving anything that could bring up her blood sugars.

Cora was pulling out a tray of freshly baked bread, the aroma so enticing. Seeing them both enter she placed it down, coming to hug both of them.

“It’s about time you two showed up, I need a hand with chopping the veg and blending the soup”

“Cora there is enough food here to
feed an army!” Brianna laughed as she put a warm cookie in her mouth.