Page 143 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“What?” I gaped at him. “Why?”

“I’ve got some software that can trace a call. I’ll have a plug to attach my laptop to your phone while you talk. If it goes well, we might be able to triangulate his position.”

“Can you do it that fast?” I asked, staring at Zayde’s laptop.

He shrugged. “The movies have it all wrong. If the cops want to trace your call, they don’t need you to stay on the line very long. Ten seconds tops. I, however, am not the cops. I need to run the number through a half-dozen programs and piggyback through a back door I found in the state police computer system. It’ll take a few minutes to do it carefully. Unless you want the Georgia state police to come busting our door down.” He snorted derisively. “Thatmight get them here, even though a shifter kidnapping isn’t worth their time.”

“Got it,” I said. “Keep the asshole on the line until you’ve got his location. I can do that.”

“If we can pinpoint Kyle’s location, we may be able to forgo going after Dallas and ambush Kyle directly,” Langston said. “Whichever comes first, I suppose.”

“I think this is good,” Cole said, clapping his hands together. “Good job, guys. I think this might work.”

Langston grinned and raised an eyebrow as he looked at Cole. “Good to hear. And if I may be blunt, I’m glad you got your head out of your ass.”

There was silence around the table, and we all stared at the two of them, worried about Cole’s reaction. I had to force myself not to put my hand on Cole’s arm to restrain him.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to. Cole’s face broke into a grin. “I deserve that. One hundred percent,” he said, chuckling.

The men shook hands, and a collective sigh of relief rippled through the room. I reached forward and rubbed Cole’s back, smiling to myself. Things were finally getting a little better.

Cole and Trent started making phone calls. By midnight, they’d gotten a hold of enough members of the pack to ensure that word would spread about the meeting the next day.

Now, sitting in Cole’s house the next afternoon, I could see how stressed he was. Farrah was there, along with Trent. Langston and Porter were setting up in the city hall conference room. A few hundred shifters were about to find out exactly how bad things were in their town, and it was weighing on Cole.

He looked at Farrah. “What do you think they’ll say?”

Farrah hadn’t taken the video evidence of Dallas’s involvement well. She was heartbroken, and if I had to guess, she was feeling guilty as well. From the look on her face, she still thought she and Cole could have helped change him if they’d tried harder when they were younger. Thankfully, though, she hadn’t argued about our plan to go after Dallas.

“I think they’re gonna be freaked the fuck out,” Farrah said. “You’ve got to lay it out for the town, though. We saw what Kyle did to North Crest. If they know what kind of danger they’re in, they’ll overlook the fact that we hid this from them. Harbor Mills is in worse shape than North Crest, with all that legal last will and testament shit of Dad’s. Be yourself. They all respect you, they all like you. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Cole nodded, but his foot bounced an unsteady rhythm, and he glanced around the room, unable to focus on any one thing. He looked like a nervous wreck. Back in high school, he’d never been excited by the prospect of being a pack leader. Part of it was his constant worry that he would let people down. With his father having doneexactlywhat Cole had feared, there must have been a thousand possibilities going through his head of how he’d be like his dad.

“She’s right,” I said, reaching over and putting my hand on his thigh. “You’ll do fine. You aren’t your dad.”

Cole’s head whipped around, and he pinned me with his eyes. From the look on his face, I’d obviously been right on the money.

“I don’t want to push the pack too far too fast,” Cole said. “I only got back a few weeks ago. I’ve done a good job of getting them on my side, but I can’t help thinking that this might be too big of an ask for them. Of course,” he added, “we don’t have much of a choice.”

“We’ll be there with you,” Trent said. “Moral support. Plus, if anyone wants to be a dick about it, Langston will tie a knot in their ass.”

Back in Des Moines, Langston’s father was the pack alpha, and Langston acted as enforcer. As Harbor Mills had no enforcer at the moment, he’d accepted the post of temporary enforcer.

“You think he’s up for it?” Cole asked. “I mean, enforcing for a pack he doesn’t belong to? It could get a little weird for him.”

“He may look like a pretty-boy underwear model, but he’s not someone to mess with,” Trent said. “I’ve seen him get into andout ofshit that would have ended a normal man. Nothing is going to faze him. He’s someone you most definitely want onyour side, and we should be very glad he’s on ours. He also said he’d help you try to call up recruits for this mission, but he thought you might want to do that yourself.”

“He’s right. It’s on me,” Cole said. “I can’t ask someone else to help get volunteers. Not when what they’re volunteering for might be this dangerous.” He let out a heavy breath and stood. “I need to go up to my office. Go over my notes before the meeting.”

Farrah, Trent, and I shared a look as he left. Cole was back to his usual self, but telling a room full of pack members that a psycho like Kyle was on their doorstep would be a difficult task for any alpha.

“I’m going to go check on him,” I said.

“Good idea,” Farrah said as she got up. She waved at Trent to follow her. “Come on. Let’s get to city hall. We can be part of the welcoming committee.”

I could hear Cole rummaging around and cursing under his breath. I hurried upstairs before he could work himself up into a panic.

He was in the office, back to the door, hands on his head, staring at the wall.

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