His Mate: Prince Asher

Chapter nineteen

“The damned creatures were here,” Larry said, scrunching up his nose as he spat on the forest floor. “What I don’t understand was how they evaded all the traps.”
“Larry, we are running out of time. If we don’t get at least one of those damned beasts by the end of the month, Mr. Volkov would be off with our heads and I seriously don’t want to die yet. I have kids you know,” a man said, standing in front of Larry.
Larry glanced at the rest and saw that they were in support of what the man said and he frowned, “do you think I don’t want to catch them too? Or do you think I want to die and I don’t want to raise my daughter? Listen, we all spent his money and we all will bear the consequences if we don’t deliver to him. Besides, we wouldn’t have been in this problem if you lot hadn’t bragged how good we are in catching the damned beasts.”
“But we are good, Larry, I just don’t understand what had been happening for a while now. It’s like they have become smarter and now knows where we hide our traps.” The first man said.
“No matter how smart they have gotten, one of them is sure to slip up and by then, it would be our scapegoat and then we could…” Larry paused when he heard a twig snapping. He turned his head around and listened, “you lot hear that?”
“Yes Larry,” they said. “Someone is coming.”
Larry cocked his shotgun and walked stealthily towards the sound and as he approached, he hastily removed the tree branch covering the spot only to stop short when he saw who was hiding there. “Naomi,” he called, shocked at first before overtaken by anger. “What the hell are you doing out here in the dead of the night?”
“I-I’m sorry dad, I didn’t know you would be here,” Naomi replied, hastily drying away the dried tear stain on her cheeks.
“I did not ask if you knew I was here, I am asking what you are doing in the woods at this time of the night!” Larry responded angrily.
“I’m sorry dad, it won’t happen again,” she hurriedly said as she could feel the tear threatening to fall again. She had run to the woods from Anita’s party and searched in all the spot she had seen her wolf friend but he was not anywhere. She had tried tracking down the spot in her vision and along the line, she had gotten lost in the woods. It was during the process of finding her way back that she heard her father’s voice and they were talking about catching some creatures. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her as she had wanted to know if her father and his friends were the ones that hurt the wolf in her vision and so she had eavesdropped. And she would have gotten away from it if she hadn’t tried to get a little closer in other to hear clearer and thereby stepping on the twig.
“Like hell it would,” Larry said, obviously angry as he grabbed her hand forcefully. “Set the traps again, make it more hidden this time around, maybe then we would be lucky. I need to take her home and make sure she doesn’t wander again at night, perhaps she really has no idea what we are up against and I would need to teach her that.” With that, he started walking out of the woods, dragging Naomi who tried to not yelp in pain with him. Unbeknownst to them, a creature lurking in the shadows growled softly while watching them before it turned to run from the spot.
***
In a dimly lit room, a man stood with his hands behind his back as a young teenage boy pushed open the big wooden doors. If Naomi was there, she would recognize the boy as the one that talked to her in front of Asher’s house. His black eyes glanced at the middle-aged man in the room and he stood erect before bowing down respectfully. “Good evening, father.”
“Gideon, tell me you found her,” the man said as he rushed his son immediately, he saw him.
Gideon sighed and bit his lower lip before shaking his head softly. “We were at it when a future alpha intercepted us.”
The man frowned, “a Future alpha?”
“Yes father. I believe a future alpha of one of the Westwood packs. However,” he frowned, wondering how to place his findings in words.
“However what? From what I understand, Gideon, you are the strongest young alpha out there, how could an ordinary Westwood future alpha stop you from carrying out your quest?” the man asked, his tone spoke of his disappointment.
Gideon paused, not knowing exactly how to phrase his words. He was also ashamed to tell his father that he did engage in a fight with the alpha but had lost terribly and was only able to escape with his life because something started happing to the alpha. He frowned deeper, come to think of it, what had happened to him? From his understanding, he knew the alpha started acting in pain when he bit him and even though he was surprised and wanted to take the opportunity to go for the kill, his followers had showed up and wounded as he was, he couldn’t do anything and could only lead his packmates to safety first.
“Gideon, our Eastwood number of packs maybe be visibly smaller compared to the Westwood packs but we are stronger and faster, hence why they don’t know of our existence but we know of theirs. So tell me, which Westwood pack future alpha would send you running back to report to me?” the man asked and Gideon looked at him in shock. The man sighed and shook his head, “Gideon, you are my son and I know you, if you hadn’t lost in a fight with him, you wouldn’t be back by now and besides, the faint bite mark on your neck proves that you were injured and hasn’t completely healed.”
Gideon immediately went on his knees with his head bowed, “forgive me, alpha for I have failed you. Not only did I fail to find the human girl you tasked me to but I also lost in a battle to a weaker pack alpha. I will gladly go for my punishment.”
“It’s alright, Gideon, there is no need to beat yourself. However, I am interested to learn about this young alpha,” the man said.
Gideon bowed, “thank you, alpha,” and then stood up. “Actually father, he demonstrated an action that surprised us all. He…communicated with us in the mind link.”
The man froze in shock hearing that, his hands visibly shook, making Gideon to frown. “Gideon, are you sure it was a young alpha?”
Gideon’s frown deepened with his father’s reaction and he wondered if there was something the man knew that he didn’t. “Yes father, he may be a few years older than me but he is young none the less. I will give him twenty-four years or twenty-five tops from his voice.”
“Then he is not a future alpha but an alpha already. We pass down our powers to our younger ones from the age twenty-three to twenty-five.”
“No father, he is still a future alpha. His alpha powers is not yet that strong like an alpha, however, his alpha command is pretty strong. It would be understandable if it could affect Jasper and the rest but…it affected me as well,” he frowned.
“Shit,” the man said, taking a step back.
Gideon rushed to him immediately to hold him, “are you alright, father?”
The man sighed and nodded, “yes, I will be fine.” And then he grabbed Gideon’s collar, “son, listen to me, we must find that girl, the fate of not just our pack but the whole Eastwood packs depends on it. Do you understand?”
“Yes father, I knew of the importance of this mission before I took it. Rest assured, I will find that girl,” he said, besides, there is one whom I am suspecting must be her, he added in his thought. He couldn’t tell his father about the young girl he had met earlier until he was sure she was the one he was searching for, if not, his father might ask him to drag her here and it would be so wrong if she ended up not being the one they were looking for. He slowly helped his father to his room, his mother was going around the pack administering her Luna duties, perhaps he would mind-link her later to tell her about his father’s illness.
After helping his father to lie on the bed, he left the room and mind-linked his beta to find him in the history room. Something smells fishy and he needs to find out why his father suddenly got ill after hearing of the Westwood future alpha.