The Alpha Killer
Plausible Deniability

Chairman Lewis Wolfe’s POV

Council Headquarters, PA

After the meeting yesterday, all our resources were focused on locating the Alpha Killer. The La Crosse Pack wasn’t cooperating, and the other logical place to look was in Texas with the Meechums. They were even less cooperative, as their son was mated to Talia now.

We had both Packs staked out, and we hit pay dirt last night. We had Enforcers monitoring the roads and airports near Sulphur River, and a private jet landed in the middle of the night. It was met by three SUV’s from the Pack. Photographs taken at long range proved two disturbing things. One was that the Alpha Killer was being supported by Alpha Brent despite the warrants against her. The second was that they were colluding with vampires.

I looked at the photograph and the comments of the Chief Enforcer. The four vampires were known to be from New Orleans. They must have been the ones who changed Talia, and now they were working directly with a Pack. It was intolerable.

I video called Councilman Miller, his oversight extended to the Texas, in fact all Packs in the South from there to Florida. “We’ve got a prob, Bob,” I said when he came on. I showed him the photo and told him what was happening.

He was outraged. “Alpha Brent has already shown his disdain for Council rule, flaunting our laws and decisions, and now he’s seeking the backing of our enemies. You MUST bring this before the full Council, and we have to act quickly. If he can turn a small female like Talia into the Alpha Killer, imagine what will happen if he turns Alphas and Betas! They would wipe us out!”

“I agree,” I said. “I’ll get a conference together. What I need you to do in the meantime is to put together a list of Packs who will help us. Eliminate those with strong ties to Sulphur River, we don’t want them tipped off this is coming.”

“How many warriors do we need?”

“It’s the Alpha Killer, idiot. ALL OF THEM.” I cut the call and went to get a drink. This information was giving me a headache, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet. What the hell, it’s after five in Australia.

”Mr. Chairman, it’s Alex at the main gate. We have Todd Aldridge in custody, he says he needs to speak to you.”

The missing Alpha Todd shows up at my gate? Now THIS is an interesting morning. “Cuff him and have him escorted to my office.” I sent a summons to my Chief Enforcer and Counsel to come to my office.

Five minutes later, the former Alpha of the Tomah Pack was sitting in my office with my senior staff. “I’m surprised you had the balls to show up, Todd. Your mate sends her regards, by the way. We barely missed you in Chicago.”

“I expected that bitch to save her own skin, that’s why I left. Don’t think you can threaten me with her, I could care less what happens to her anymore. I’m here to make a deal.”

“We don’t need to make a deal, Todd. We have you, which will appease the Midwestern Packs when we execute you. We know where Talia is and who is protecting her. By sundown tomorrow, Talia will be dead, and you’ll be facing trial.”

“Talia’s not an ordinary werewolf.”

“I’m fully aware of the abomination that Talia has been turned into,” I said.

“She’s protected by a Pack, you can’t just go in there and grab her. Give me a pardon and use me as bait. I’ll draw her to where you can capture her without collateral damage.”

I looked at my staff, and busted out laughing. “Collateral damage is required for this, the whole Pack has to go.” I sent for the Enforcers. “Take this man to the cells and bind him in silver for trial.”

“Yes sir,” the men said. They pulled Todd from the chair and hauled him out as he struggled and tried to tell us what a mistake we were making.

I sent for Dr. Himen, there was more here I needed to know. She showed up a few minutes later. “I wanted to follow up on what you said yesterday,” I said. I showed her the picture of Talia with the four members of the New Orleans coven. “You were experimenting with the captured vampires, looking for new weapons to use against them?”

“That was part of it, sir. The other part was analyzing their blood and venom to see if it was possible to transfer any of their traits to us.”

“What were the results?”

“Ingesting blood did nothing, but we suspected that. The werewolves that have killed vampires in battle showed no changes, so I didn’t expect it. What I did find was that if I mixed vampire blood with werewolf blood cells, the vampire blood cells would surround and change the werewolf ones. I did some testing on prisoners, injecting blood directly into their bloodstream.”

“And the results?”

“Disappointing. The treatment was incredibly painful, and none survived it. They suffered for days before their bodies gave out. I did notice that their reflexes and strength increased as the change rolled through them, but they were out of their minds with pain and uncontrollable. We abandoned that line of research.”

I nodded, it WAS disappointing. “Do you think this is what happened to Talia Stillwater to make her into the Alpha Killer?”

“Absolutely. The Vampire Masters are millennia old, obviously one knew how to make this work and changed her.” She paused for a moment. “There’s another possible reason. The vampires we had to experiment on were fairly young. One was turned a few years earlier, one a century ago. Even between those two, the difference in the strength of their blood and their skills was apparent. Vampires become stronger and more powerful with age, and Talia fell in with a Master Vampire. It might not just be the method, it might be because his blood was powerful enough to make the change without driving her mad.”

More reason to kill them all. “Thank you. Return to your work.”

The videoconference with the other Council members, who had all returned home after yesterday’s meeting, was upon me quickly. I kept my end small, just me and my two senior staff members. When everyone was on, I filled them in. I went through where Talia was, who she was with and why that was important, and Dr. Himen’s experiments. “We have less time than we thought to act,” I said as I finished my brief. “If the Doctor is right and the Vampire Master has the ability to change werewolves to be like Talia, his presence at a Pack is concerning. He could be changing some, dozens, hell he could be changing the whole Pack right now. Imagine an entire Pack, hostile to the Council and in league with our enemies, with her speed and strength. They could END us as a species.”

“We have to move quickly,” Councilman Miller said. “I’ve contacted Packs in the area I think we can rely on, and the response has been mixed. Those that were hesitant or expressed sympathy for the Stillwaters I didn’t ask. Those who feared what she could do all promised men and support. In two days, we can add two hundred Pack Warriors to our Council Enforcers.Surely that’s enough to take out the vampires and Talia.”

“Two days isn’t fast enough, they’ve already been there one. We need to invade before anyone he’s trying to change can make the change,” I said. “We need to attack in the morning, when the vampires can’t come out and fight us. We’ll take out the Pack and burn out the Vampires.” The next ten minutes we spent talking logistics, battle plans and command. My Lead Enforcer would be in charge locally, the Packs and Enforcers working directly for him.

When there was a lull, my Counsel interrupted. “Before we go back-slapping each other about what geniuses we are in battle, let’s back up a little and discuss the potential outcomes of our plan.” Lawrence tapped the table. “First off, you have the Council and allied Packs planning to attack a sovereign Pack, on its territory, with no warning and no charges. Then you are going to wipe them out to the last woman and child. How do you think the other Packs will react to that?”

“They’ll see we had to do it,” Councilman Pierce said. “We’re facing an exigent threat here.”

“We have no evidence that the Sulphur River Pack is creating hybrids, only that Talia, while a rogue, was changed by a vampire. Based on their familiarity, we can guess it was Jarrod Covington. If the Coven has been hiding her, they must be friendly to her. Is it all that surprising that she would bring her friends to meet her mate’s family? There must be a lot to work out. Imagine if you roll in there, guns blazing, and it’s just a mating party with Vampire guests.”

“We can’t take that chance,” I said.

“Legally, you have a process before force can be used against a Council pack. You have to file charges, the Alpha must be given a chance to respond in a hearing before the Alphas, and only if found guilty can force be authorized- and even THEN only to arrest the Alpha and Pack leadership. There is nothing in our laws that allows us to wipe out an entire Pack. The very idea is monstrous, and I’m shocked we’re sitting here discussing it.”

“We don’t have time for Council procedures,” Pierce said.

“We don’t have time NOT to do it. Imagine your little scenario fails, and the Alpha Killer is out there. Every one of you will be on her hit list, along with the Alphas of every Pack who participated. Who wants to go first? You?” Kendall glared at the Councilman. “Let’s not forget that the Vampires will be killed as well. What if the Vampire Council knows of Jarrod’s visit to the Sulphur River Pack? Wouldn’t they use this mating between a Alpha blood werewolf and a hybrid as a chance to open a line of communication with their enemies? Luna forbid this Master is on an official diplomatic mission and we roll in there and kill him and his Coven. We could have all-out war with the Vampires then.”

This was the value of Lawrence Kendall to my staff; when we started heading off somewhere, he’d pull out the map and show us we were lost. “So what do you suggest? Surely we can’t sit back and do nothing while Jarrod and Brent build a hybrid army.”

He sat back and looked at the camera. “Why are you so afraid of Talia Stillwater?”

Councilman Ricardo looked at him like he was an idiot. “You’ve seen the tape, right?”

He shook his head. “Talia Stillwater was a sixteen-year-old kid when she was exiled and changed. By seventeen she’d killed her first Alpha. You see her there. She’s what, maybe five-foot-eight and a hundred and twenty pounds?”

“She’s deadly,” he said.

“You respect her as a fighter, and you should. The reason you want her dead is because her loyalty is not to you. It's that control that matters, not her power. Imagine if that same power was placed in someone of Alpha blood, a male twice her size and strength, with a century of fighting experience. How much more deadly would that be?”

“Order of magnitude,” Ricardo said. “She’s still a pup, not even of drinking age yet, and as a woman she’d never be as strong.”

“You guys are looking at this all wrong. As the Chinese proverb says, ‘In every crisis, there is opportunity.’ Look at this situation another way. What opportunity do we have before us?”

It was Chief Enforcer Jones who put it together first. “A Vampire Master. Capture him, and we can make all the Alpha Killers we want.”

Now Kendall smiled broadly. “Exactly. We turn a single trained Enforcer and we have something far more powerful than Talia Stillwater, plus we deny the Sulphur River Pack the chance to create any on their own. It also puts a halt to any unsanctioned peace efforts. Hell, the Vampire Council might blame Alpha Brent for the loss of their Coven and take care of the Pack themselves. Meanwhile, we have what we need to not just maintain power but make our power unassailable. Even the Vampires will have trouble fighting one of our hybrids.”

“It would be a game changer,” Jones said. “Right now, we need five or more Werewolves to take on a Vampire, since we have to control the limbs without being bitten. Covens aren’t that big, if we could take them on one-on-one we’d be able to wipe them out.”

“Made easier because the hybrids can walk in the sunlight,” I said. “You’ve convinced me of all but one thing. How do we capture a Vampire Master without the Vampire Council blaming us?”

“We don’t capture him,” Kendall said. “Another opportunity walked through the door this morning.”

I smiled. “Todd Aldridge. A wanted former Alpha, on the run from us with a grudge against the Alpha Killer. We couldn’t be blamed if he gathered a rogue army and took her and her friends out.” I clapped Lawrence on the shoulder. “You’re a fucking genius. If he fails, the link back to us dies with him.” I looked at the camera. “Call the Packs back. Tell them the Alpha Killer is in the region, and they need to increase their own readiness. Ask for a ready reaction force, a few dozen warriors, who can respond if directed. We may need them to swoop down afterwards and clean things up. Jones, get the Enforcers geared up and heading for Texas.” The call ended and people took off, we had things to do.

“Jones, let’s go down to the cells and have a talk with Todd, shall we?”

It didn’t take much. Jones would be his liaison, providing him with money, weapons and intel. No one outside the Council would know he was working for us. In return, he wanted a pardon and one more thing. “I want a chance to become a hybrid like Talia, then I want you to give her to me.”

“Why?”

“The biggest regret of my life is kicking her out of my Pack instead of keeping her for my own. I’m going to kill her mate and take her for my own.”

What the hell, he’d never live to make the change. There was no way I’d give that kind of power to someone who wasn’t loyal to me. “Agreed. Bring me Jarrod and Talia, and you may be the first to change and take her as your mate.”

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