The Alphas' Legacy (Alpha Eyes: Book 3)

Chapter 9

Van

"What do you boys think: meeting in our territory or somewhere neutral?" Van spun his chair in a circle, tapping his pen against his lips. This was their first official meeting to really nail down the basics of this mission. For some crazy reason, he wasn't feeling as mentally tuned into what he needed.

Ever since Zoey and his mom had left to 'explore the house,' he'd been wondering where they'd gone. Their scents had gone very faint shortly after their departure, so he'd been wracking his brain as to where in the house would hide their scents. Since he hadn't spent much time in the house over the past seven years, there was probably many places that would qualify for that. He didn't like the idea that Zoey might be able to 'hide' from him, even if it was in safety of the house. How was he supposed to protect her if he couldn't find her? They'd have to set some boundaries, or at least discuss boundaries.

"I like the control of a meeting on our turf," Goggles suggested, "but my guess is that the guy won't voluntarily come to us. We may have better luck in a neutral place."

Bug looked up from his laptop. "We've got plenty of options that are near the border. It'd be easy enough to set up surveillance and comms on our end."

Van nodded, taking a quick mental tour of the territory border. Bug would know more specifics, but he was pretty sure that there were some viable options along that line.

"If we had a meeting on the border," Stitch mused, "we could possibly keep Zoey in our territory. Straddle the line, you know?"

Goggles shook his head, dispelling the hopeful mood that was starting to grow. "We can't be too close to our own turf. He'll taste the trap before he leaves home."

Van knew he was right, but that only triggered his frustration. How hard could it be to set up a meeting between two people? Quite hard, apparently. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that there were so many moving pieces in this puzzle.

"All right, so we're looking for a meeting place in neutral territory," he announced, which Goggles typed into their official plan file.

"It needs to be somewhere where we can quickly get Zoey out of there if things go south," Stitch commented, nodding for Goggles to write it down.

"...and where we can hide any means of defense," Snuff added. "You may not let me blow the place up, but I refuse to let us go into whatever this is without some form of protection."

Van nodded and pointed his pen at Snuff. "We wouldn't go in cold, but thank you for the reminder. You guys all know the Midnight pack. We won't know what we're going to face, who's going to be there, or what they might do. Be prepared for anything."

"Are we taking anyone else with us?" Bug asked. "How will we keep Zoey's ex from leaving once he realizes what we're trying to accomplish?"

"We can't risk anyone beyond our team," Van answered, nibbling of the cap of his pen. "The more people that are there increases the risk that they'll suspect us and run before we get them fenced in."

"So we arrive at the meeting point in advance and set put up an invisible fence to keep them in once they cross it," Snuff affirmed. "How tight of a perimeter?"

Van turned to Goggles. "How skittish do you anticipate they'll be?"

Goggles sighed and leaned back in his chair. "If we can get him to come in without suspicion, we can have a pretty tight perimeter. He'll have his guard partially down, so we'll be more likely to close in on him fast."

"So the big question remains: how do we get the future alpha of the Midnight pack to a meeting that feels like it's on his terms?"

Silence reigned for a minute.