Evolution

CHAPTER 26 | traitor

Simon's stomach grumbled and he placed a hand on his stomach. "I don't understand how we forked out a small fortune to set up this place, and none of you thought to put in a food vending machine."

Parker rolled her eyes. Simon had been pacing the floor for the past hour. The beta wasn't used to confined spaces, and it showed. "This is a high-tech facility, not a restaurant."

Simon huffed then threw himself on the nearest office chair. "I'm hungry and this is a waste of time."

"That will be enough," Daniel said. He let out a low growl and Simon snapped his mouth shut.

Parker hid a smile at Simon's mood. Not that she blamed him. They had repeated the same vigil for the past four nights. Each time with no results. She glanced back at the monitors projecting live feeds from an abandoned warehouse in San Diego and the other from the basement of a deserted carpark structure in San Antonio.

At one o'clock in the morning, both scenes were what you would expect at that time of night... nothing but darkness and no movement, save the occasional mouse that rushed across the warehouse floor.

Daniel rose and moved to stand behind her. He leaned down, placed a light kiss on the crown of her head and whispered in her ear, "I can think of a more satisfying way of spending our nights."

He lightly squeezed her shoulder and shivers ran down her spine when his breath fanned across her face. She reached up and covered his hand with hers. "This is your idea, so you can't complain about your lack of sleep."

Daniel chuckled. "It's not sleep that I'm lacking."

Simon shifted in his chair and he snorted. "Get a room, will you."

Her face heated up and she quickly refocused on the monitors. Erotic images of Daniel wasn't going to help the evening go any faster. Parker sighed and leaned back into Daniel's light touch on her shoulders. She had to admit, she was starting to doubt they would yield results in finding the traitor.

Daniel's plan had been simple in theory, but complex in its execution.

Elise was hunting down the Lycan who had escaped. There was nothing she would not do to get the missing prisoners back. Provided there were still some on the run, they had a chance of finding the traitor in the alliance council. Throughout the week, Daniel and Morgan had contacted each alpha individually and confided an on the run Lycan had contacted them to seek sanctuary. They fed the target alpha a story that a time and place had been agreed for the Lycan to come in out of the cold, and into the protection of Daniel's pack. It would be at this point in the conversation, they would let slip the location. Whoever made the call, would then request the alpha put them up for a few hours to allow Daniel's team to regroup and arrange passage back to Nederland.

To work out the fake meeting locations, Parker and her team found ideal secluded sites within, or near, the target alpha's pack that had existing surveillance system Parker could hack into.

To keep it contained, they limited the surveillance to two or three locations per night. So far, nothing. Perhaps their assumption an alpha was the traitor was wrong?

Simon glanced at his watch. "If she's going to turn up, she's running out of time to hide."

Zeke nodded his head and finished chewing before he spoke. "I agree, it's a quarter to in San Diego."

Simon shot up from his chair and narrowed his eyes. "You're eating. Are you hiding food?"

Zeke shoved the rest of his Twinkie into his mouth, and shook his head in denial.