Page 31 of Her Arranged Alpha
Jay shook his head. "I remember meeting you, Frank. We were damn near twelve years old. This is…. I don't remember this. We look like we're about five in that photo."
Frank took the photo and laid it back down on the table. "The kid in the middle died. We were all swimming in the river, and the dam broke. He drowned."
"Shit," Aaron said, leaning back in his chair. "How the hell do we forget something like that? Wait, how did all of us forget about it?"
"Here comes the fun part. The Council covered it up. Had each of our parents sign NDA's and wiped our minds."
"What the fuck!" Henrick snapped. "You're joking."
Frank shook his head. "No. The dad was furious and lost his temper. Wouldn't let it go, told the Council he was going tomake everyone pay. The Council did what they do best. They covered it up."
"This doesn't make sense. Why? It was clearly an accident." Jay asked. "We were kids. Why go to the extreme?"
Jones shrugged. "All of us Alpha came back, but the one kid who wasn't? Doesn't paint a pretty picture for us. I imagine a big scandal would break out."
"This was the first time we all met. Jones, you were younger than the kid, but you still managed to survive the water. I guess there were seven of us and only six packs to be monitored."
"Well, yeah, that doesn't paint us in a good light," Henrik said. "But still. We were fucking kids. People couldn't honestly believe we would do this."
"Tensions were high back then. Everyone wanted their kid to be Alpha. Anything could happen."
I rubbed a hand over my face. "So, this guy…. he's the dad then of this kid?"
Frank nodded. "Yeah, and he wants revenge."
That was the missing piece we were all trying to figure out. Who was this guy, and what did he want? He wanted us all dead.
"Well, that's not great."
"What exactly is his plan? To keep bringing this dark fog around until he eventually kills us all?"
Frank shook his head. "That I don't know. We just know the father is angry and wants us all dead. I imagine us all having children, and thriving is probably only pissing him off more. Hebrought the infertility, but the Council countered that with us mating with humans. I'm sure now, he's looking at other angles."
I ran a hand over my face. "Why the hell didn't the Council just tell us this? Why keep this hidden?"
"Probably because they didn't want us to know about their dirty messes," Jones said, shrugging at us. "And they were likely the ones that had our memories wiped."
I felt like my mind was spinning with this information. "Do we know where he lives? What he does?"
Frank made a face. "We don't know anything about where he is. We know their old family home, but that's been abandoned for years. Nothing but dust collects there now. And as for the job…well…"
"Jesus Christ," Jay said. "Wow, that…that explains a lot."
"He's been planning this for years, then," Aaron said, shaking his head.
We all fell silent, and I tapped my fingers on the table. "What do we do?" I asked, looking at each of them.
Frank shrugged. "I don't know. You can't ever track the guy. It's like he doesn't exist except in people's heads or dreams."
"He has to be somewhere," Jay said. "We all should search our towns."
"And say what exactly?" I asked, "We know our people. And this guy could be anyone."
The room felt tense, and Jones added. "Well, we know it's a man. We can start there. Anyone who suddenly joined a town over 20 years ago. We can start looking through records and try to pinpoint the person."
"Are we even sure he's here?"
Jay nodded. "Magic can only go so far. Even someone who's mastered their technique has to be within a certain radius. So, he's living here."
