Nederland, Colorado

Daniel Locke ended the call and threw his phone on the desk, where it slid into the back of his laptop with a distinctive thud. Throughout his conversation with Hardy, he had remained the stoic and commanding alpha everyone expected him to be. Inwardly, his rage bubbled just below the surface as Hardy described the condition of the downed Werewolf. His people were dying in the worst possible way, and he had no idea how or why. Up until a month ago, Werewolves did not get ill. Now bodies were piling up across the country, and he had no way of predicting when the next victim would appear and potentially expose them all.

He hit the nearest wall with his fist and put a large hole through the surface. Wood splintered as the support beam cracked under the pure, brute force.

Simon poked his head through the door and eyed the damage. "Do we feel better now?"

He glanced at his hand, which bore no marks to show it had made contact with anything, let alone destroyed a portion of an office wall, and shrugged. "Much."

Simon leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest. "And I'm sure that the poor, defenseless wall had it coming."

He chose to ignore his friend—who also happened to be one of his betas—and headed back to his mahogany desk.

Simon, unable to hold his tongue in the best of situations, inspected the damage and chuckled. "How the hell am I going to expense the fix? I'm pretty sure I don't have a GL code for—in a fit of rage." He shook his head and turned toward Daniel. "I overheard some of the call. You know, it's okay if you don't have all the answers. This isn't your fault, you can't save everyone."

Daniel's green eyes flashed a warning at his beta. "I'm not having this conversation."

Simon's brows rose and he folded his arms. "Man, do you need to get laid."

"That's right, because if there's a problem, getting laid is always the answer."

Simon pretended to think about it for all of two seconds before he winked. "Yep."

Daniel rolled his eyes and snorted. "We all know that lately there's only one thing on your mind."

Simon put on his best offended face. "Nah. Sex solves everything was my default position before I met Lyssa." He jerked a thumb toward the damaged wall. "She finds very creative ways to calm me down before I get to that point."

Daniel frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. He stood to his full height, towering over his beta. "Well, we don't all have the luxury of having a mate, so I'll have to take your word for it. In the meantime, we have somewhat of a problem on our hands."

Simon's mood deflated, and he shuffled his feet under the scrutiny of his alpha.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Daniel regretted snapping at his friend. Simon only had his best interests at heart, and only wanted him to find the same contentment he now experienced. But his friend's pity at not having a mate irked him. Moments like this, he regretted the ability to communicate telepathically with his most trusted advisors and was thankful it did not extend to the rest of his pack.

"I just think you gave up too soon," Simon said.

He threw his friend a look that made it clear this particular topic was off-limits. He had long since grown weary of the politics that centered around this subject, and it did not help that his wolf echoed his friend's sentiment.

Simon got the message and plopped down on the oversized, brown leather Chesterfield tucked in the corner of the office. "So, Wildfire has made its way to the West Coast."

He nodded. "From what Hardy described, it certainly seems that way, but we will only know for sure once we get the autopsy results. The body will be sent to the San Diego pack. Once there, Alice can tell their doctor what to look for and what tests to run."

"Why bother when you already know the results?"

The same thought had crossed Daniel's mind. If the others were anything to go by, the autopsy would find multiple organ failures, tumors rampant in the brain, and unidentified bacteria saturating the tissue and blood. To make matters worse, when they investigated the victim, Hardy would discover the dead man had bottles of a little-known herbal medication called Wildfire stashed in his belongings. The toxicology screens would indicate trace amounts of the drug in the bloodstream, but nothing that would fell a full-grown Werewolf in such a horrifying manner.

Daniel leaned against his desk. "For the same reason as the last twelve bodies—we need to know if this is just a coincidence, or if they have something in common apart from being unaligned."

While many of the packs disapproved of Werewolves not aligning themselves to a pack, Daniel understood that a portion of their community, either through choice or circumstance, chose to go it alone. As long as they kept a low profile and stayed out of trouble, he had no issues with their choice. It was when they turned rogue he took exception. Their race's biggest risk of exposure was from this small sector. And the growing animosity between the pure and mixed blooded Werewolves did not help. As far as he was concerned, all Werewolves were equal, no matter their heritage. Any Werewolf who thought differently was not welcome in his pack.

"Has Alice confirmed the link between Wildfire and the deaths?"

"All we know for sure is that the drug has no effect on Humans," Daniel said.

The frustration with their lack of progress weighed heavily on Daniel's shoulders, adding to his ill-temper. Werewolves, as a race, had no need for internal medicine. They did not get sick or suffer diseases in the same way as their Human counterparts. Each pack had their own doctor, but they were trained to deal with physical injuries only. Understanding diseases and the workings of bacteria and pathogens was an alien concept. He was lucky that Dr. Alice Hayes, his pack's doctor, was a Human doctor before she met her Werewolf mate and made the choice to turn. She at least had some knowledge, even if it was decades out-of-date.

Daniel headed to the wet bar and poured two glasses of single malt. He handed one to Simon. "Has your team worked out how they're getting it?"

Simon took a sip and cleared his throat before he answered. "We think they are ordering it online."

"Pardon?"

"You know, on the internet. That inter-webby thingy."

"I bloody well know what online is," Daniel said. "What have you found out?"

"Turns out, Wildfire is freely available for sale on herbal health sites. Thousands of them. Well, actually, more like hundreds. Anyway, none of the retailers manufacture the product, nor do they ship or stock the goods." Simon swung his legs off the couch. "The entire delivery chain works through a third party that only transacts on the internet. To make matters worse, the dietary supplement pills are FDA regulated, and as they have no adverse effect on Humans, we can't get Wildfire removed from the online stores without attracting attention."

Simon let out a frustrated groan. "The problem is, we don't have the knowledge, or the ability, to deal with this. We've tried to buy the stock out, but you can only order a single bottle at a time. Who knows how long it would take us? We don't have the expertise to hack into those sites and bring them down." He raised a brow and snorted. "Not to mention half of them are on porn sites. I had a hard time convincing Lyssa I was on there for work. She even threatened to tell my mother."

The ramifications of allowing this to continue did not even bear thought. Not only could the drug be bought easily, but they needed to be prepared for the possibility Wildfire could be given to an unsuspecting victim. He posed the question that had plagued him since hearing about the distribution method. "Are we sure this drug is targeting Werewolves and isn't a side effect of the Human weight loss product it's marketed as?"

"You've seen the bottles. What do you think?"

Daniel had to admit, if the logo of a wolf paw print wasn't a giveaway, the Lupine brand on the bottle sealed it. Caught up in his own thoughts, he considered the possible consequences. If they could not stop the progression of the disease once contracted, they needed to stop it at its source.

He ran a hand through his dark hair and let out a deep breath. He would need to convene an emergency meeting of the Alliance Council. If someone was targeting them, it would not be long before they were exposed. The last time that happened, it had brought them to virtual extinction—an event that had taken over three centuries to recover from.

He dismissed Simon and picked up the phone with a heavy heart.

Simon passed through the doorway, but halted mid-step. "We're out of our depth here. We have no idea about the digital world, and we are literally chasing shadows." He paused and tilted his head. "You know who we need to call in, don't you?"

He could not believe this subject was being raised again. "It's not going to happen." His voice came out as cold as ice. Over his dead body would he allow that to happen.

Simon scurried out of the room, muttering under his breath, "I wouldn't bet on it once the council gets involved."

Alliance Council Meeting, Idaho

The venom in Daniel's tone was unmistakable as he brought his fist down on the table. "No. Absolutely not!"

The council had decided this particular meeting warranted a physical gathering rather than their usual video conference. Within twelve hours they had convened on Brandenburg pack land in Idaho, and within the first thirty minutes of the session, the conversation had turned into his worst nightmare.

Morgan, one of the elder statesmen in the room and their host, pinched the bridge of his nose. "Daniel, be reasonable. This is the only choice we have. We can't involve anyone else, and even if we could, Parker is still the best."

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "Find someone else."

"There is no one else."

"You seem to forget Parker is not one of us."

Members of the council whispered among themselves. Some around the large table viewed him as cold, distant, and unapproachable. His outburst probably shocked them. They were keeping their own counsel, waiting for one of the senior members to step in to dilute the situation.

Morgan rubbed the crown of his salt and pepper hair and took a deep breath. "I beg to differ. Parker has been accepted by me, my family, my pack, and the majority around this table. Someone who, may I remind you, is protected by my pack. The old ways are gone, and this council is responsible for guiding and leading our people. All of them."

From the other end of the table, a deep growl broke into the heated discussion. Heads swiveled to Abraham. He leaned on his cane as he stood and made eye contact with each of the twelve alphas present. "Enough! I have heard enough. Are you listening to yourselves?"

Abraham drew his bushy white eyebrows together, planted his gnarled hands on the table, and leaned forward. No one dared speak over the oldest member of the council.

Tamas, his grandson, and the Texas pack's alpha, helped steady Abraham. He shooed the younger man away. "I'm old, not disabled."

Abraham's wrinkles etched further into his skin as he pierced Daniel with a penetrating stare "We are losing our people to this mess, and we have no idea how to stop this plague. The longer this goes on, the more at risk we are to exposure and annihilation. If Parker can help get us through this, I don't care what chutzpah or prejudice you have Daniel, you will get over it. We need to act now or everything we ever knew—everything we have worked to achieve—will disappear in the blink of an eye."

An unfamiliar feeling of shame descended on Daniel while Abraham addressed the room. He needed to bury his personal issues and put his people first. Otherwise, Abraham was right; there would be no future for them. Despite his misgivings, his opinion of Parker would need to take a back seat.

He leaned forward and drummed his fingers on the table. There was no choice. He had to concede to the council's resolution. "I'll go along with your decision to seek Parker Johnson's help, but mark my words, I know from experience that we shouldn't trust this Human."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Simon's self-satisfied smirk. Daniel growled and opened a telepathic link to his beta.

For that, you are on patrolduty for the rest of the month.    

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📎A/N: Wow! Wonder who this Parker person is?

...And I think Daniel is being a bit harsh on Simon, don't you... a whole month of patrol duty!?

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