Page 1 of Targeted By Temptation
1
EZRA
Office. Now.
My brother Boaz wasn’t one to waste words. And now he was the pack Alpha, and whenever he said “Jump,” we, as in my brothers and me, had to say “How high?”
Luckily, I was in the pack building. I happened to be in the pack daycare on the first floor visiting some of the kids. It’d been set up by my brother-in-law, Keane, when their little boy Felix was born.
Coming, I texted, and not bothering with the elevator, I hotfooted it up flights of stairs.
Technically, Boaz was the only one of the six brothers Grey who worked for the pack. We were all pack no matter where we went or what we did, but I now worked for our eldest brother Maynard. He was a finance guy, though his side hustle was him being more of a secret squirrel.
Boaz’s door was open, and I charged in, skidding over the polished wooden floor and landing on a chair with what Ithought was great aplomb. I loved that word aplomb. I couldn’t really use it to describe myself, but I did my job with a lot of it.
My brother screwed up his nose at my dramatic entrance. “Don’t you ever knock?”
“The door was open.” I was about to add, “And I’m your brother, your beloved brother,” but I held my tongue. Boaz was in Alpha mode, and he was already peeved. I recognized that look from when we were kids.
“Do you want to try coming in again?” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Of all of us, Boaz was the stickler for protocol.
“What? Are you kidding me? You wouldn’t expect that of Lake!” Our youngest brother followed the rules, most of the time.
Boaz cocked his head, and I rolled my eyes before getting up, knocking on the door, and asking for permission. But my brother, the Alpha, was filming me and snickering.
“Thiago and the others will get a laugh out of this.” He sent the video to our brothers’ group chat. “That was so good. I really got you.”
“Yeah, yeah. May I remind you I don’t work for the pack, so why am I here?”
“I need you to do something for me.” He held up a thick file that he probably wanted me to feed into the computer and create a spreadsheet. “A delivery.”
Huh? He had guys on motorbikes or in vans for that.
“It’s a treaty I’ve hammered out with the Stravon pack. It's a new territorial agreement.”
“What kind of agreement?”
“One where we tell them how it’s going to be and they accept that with no questions asked.”
I flipped through the documents that laid out how we were taking over territory on the city outskirts that had been contested for years.
“It’s an old industrial zone. I’m done talking about it, and now I’m doing something about it. The Alpha is aware of what’s in the agreement.”
Hmmm. The Stravon pack had a reputation for being shoot first and ask questions later kinda people, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of a dispute.
“Are you sure they’ve agreed to this? It favors us more than them.”
“Pfft.” Boaz swung his chair toward the window. “Their pack has been bleeding resources for months. Three of their businesses went under last quarter, and the pack structure needs to be revamped. Viktor Stravon is holding things together with duct tape.”
I raised a brow. It sounded as though my brother was taking advantage of the Stravon pack when they were at a low point.
“Having a weakened pack on our border is a liability. Desperate wolves do silly things.” He stabbed his finger on the documents. “This agreement makes a clear division between us and them, and we get what we need.”
He swirled his chair and did a 360. “That’s why I’m sending you. Maynard might take someone out, and Lake would demand snacks. You, you’ll walk in, deliver the goods, and leave.” Hesmirked. “Besides, you’re an excellent shot, the best of any of us. That might come in useful.”
“What? You make it sound like the Wild West.”
