The Alphas' Legacy (Alpha Eyes: Book 3)

Chapter 5

Van

Van ran his fingers through his hair and puffed out his cheeks. The helicopter should have been descending onto the landing pad by now. His team should have been here. The lack of... everything normal made his skin tingle. Where was everyone?

Shrugging his pack off his shoulder and setting it at his feet, he dug his phone out of his pocket.

"All right, you punks," he muttered. "This better be a joke."

He speed dialed his first mate, his Bluetooth earbud picking up the sound. After a few rings, the call clicked to life.

"Morning, Boss."

"Stitch; where are you, man? We're supposed to be wheels up in five minutes?" He scanned the distant tree line for any sign of his guys.

"Uh..." Stitch swallowed so hard the sound carried through the phone. "Didn't you hear? We're on mandatory R&R for the next 48 hours."

"What!" Van barked. "When? By whose order?" Dammit; this mission was important! They couldn't just sideline it.

"That would be mine and your father's."

The voice had changed, and to someone he wouldn't try to overrule or challenge.

"Mom? Why are you with Stitch?"

"Your team is all here at the house... exactly where you should be. Now hurry back. Breakfast is almost ready."

The line when dead before he could react. The luna had laid down her law, and he could only obey. Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he hefted his pack back onto his shoulder and trekked across the field. If his parents had grounded his team, maybe there was something close to home that needed doing. He could live with that.

When he stepped into his parents' kitchen, he was immediately suspicious of the cheerfulness of the room. His mates sat around the table, chatting and eating like any normal at-home day. No one would guess that they'd been pulled from a mission within the past hour.

Luna Karina—his mom—set a plate before an empty chair. "You're just in time, son. Have a seat."

More curious than hungry, he followed her into the kitchen and ditched his pack by the door.

"You cancelled my mission?" he dared to ask.

"Reassigned," she corrected, pouring the contents of the coffee pot into a press pot. "We still needed to send a team, but not yours. Your father and I want you here, so I called another team last night. They flew out two hours ago."

He scrubbed his fingers through his hair. This was only the second time his parents had prevented him from going out. Last time, they had a family emergency. Maybe something had happened again.

"What's going on? Has something happened with Chris?"

She shook her head. "Your brother is fine. We need you to help us with Zoey's predicament."

He blinked. "Zoey... the girl? Mom..." He groaned aloud. This was the worst possible reason for ground his team: a girl.

His mother faced him with a fierceness in her emerald eyes that he'd rarely seen. Her jaw twitched for a second.

"Donovan, we have allowed you to follow your own path in the pack. We let you abdicate your position to your younger brother—not an easy feat and never been done before, by the way. Your father and I have let you do things that no one else would So don't you dare groan about have to stay home for a few days to protect someone who's been through a life much worse than yours!"