"Now what?" I asked Mason as we sat in the hammock.

"Jenna gave up the place where she met the rogue. My guess would be that his place is no more than five miles away from it."

I nodded in understanding. All we had to do was scout out the land that didn't belong to the pack and was in the five mile radius. It sounded easy, but probably wouldn't be.

"Are you going to take a group out?"

He nodded and gently squeezed me. "You're going to be coming with me. I'm not leaving you anywhere near Jamison. He's unstable and looking for some payback."

"Having a gun isn't enough for you anymore?" I teased.

In complete seriousness, he shook his head. "I don't want you out of my sight. Jamison is strong and not a half bad fighter, when he wants to be. I wouldn't bet your life on the hopes that I could get to you if he attacked."

I just nodded, so my head could rub his chest. It wasn't the time for teasing. Mason was really worried about Jamison, so I should be too.

The pack was in mourning for two days before we had to force them to pay attention to the problems these rogues were creating. During the two days, Mason and I stumbled across three new bodies. The girls hadn't even been reported missing when we checked in to the police station for missing girls. They were raped and beaten to death as a message. The last girl we found was especially heartbreaking. She was no more than thirteen years old. That meant she was younger than the children we had at home.

The rogues thought we weren't able to catch them. When we found them, I promised myself that they would pay for what they had done.

Alpha Dean scouted the area with Mason and me. He left all of his wolves at the pack house with Jamison in the hopes that it would help with his mourning. Even if his mate was a vicious whore, he still had the mating bond with her and he was still experiencing the loss.

As wolves, we covered ground quickly. Mason and I stuck within line of sight, while Alpha Dean went farther away. I only knew where he was because I could hear him running.

Since Jenna's death this pack has felt different. I knew it was partially because one of their stronger wolves was in mourning of his mate.

There hadn't been any parties or any humans at the pack house. They were starting to come together as a real pack. As horrible as it was to say, Jenna's betrayal and death was having a positive influence on this pack.

We heard a howl ahead of us and knew that someone had found something. Everyone who was around came by to see what had happened.

Mason had his nose to the ground, following the scent over the pack boundary and onward.

This is where they were crossing, he said in my mind.

I knew it had gone to everyone by the flinches and surprised whines from the other wolves. Not all packs could speak to each other's mind.

Follow, Mason's wolf growled at everyone.

Now wasn't the time for explanations. We were on the hunt for these guys, not out here to answer questions. That was what their alpha was for.

All of the wolves followed Mason. The alpha stayed right up front with him, not to show any weakness around his pack and let them think that Mason was the only one running the show. I trailed along, watching for anything while the wolves focused on learning from Mason's example.

Mason gave a frustrated growl when we came to a clearing. I could smell gasoline and the exhaust that came from older cars. They had taken a car from here.

If they came back, they would know that we had been here and they wouldn't return.

Following the scent from the car would be useless. Once we hit the main road the scent would be lost. It was unfortunate for us that these guys were smart. It would have made our job much easier if they had left a trail right to their doorstep.

Since we were stopped here for now, I split from be pack's formation and started looking around for anything that would point us in the right direction.

It didn't appear to us that there had been a struggle in the area. Either they had never brought a girl here, or the girls they had brought here were already dead.

We would have to wait them out. If one of them brought the car back here, we would catch them and Mason would get the information he wanted out of the murderous bastard.

Unnamed point of view

"We need to move," my father's growingly annoying voice said behind me. "We should go somewhere new. Mason will catch up to us."

"So let him," I snapped, not looking away from the women in the cage. If only they cooperated they wouldn't be forced into this cell. If only she cooperated, I wouldn't need any of the other girls.

"What do you think they'll do to these girls? To your precious Mary?" That drew my attention from the women. They were all sleeping. "They would kill her because she knows too much."

I shook my head, shaking the vision of her death from my mind. No one would get close enough to kill her when I was around. If anyone was going to kill her, it would be me.

Looking back at the three women cuddled up for warmth, I slide my hand through the bars. She was closest to the cell door. She was dirty; the tear stains down her cheeks made her even more beautiful.

"We'll go look for some place to put them today."

I could feel his relief at my statement. I couldn't understand what it was about Mason Meyers that made my father fear him so. He didn't look like much of a threat; we had faced many bigger wolves together while we've been on the road.

Whatever threat Mason brought to us was a real concern so long as he had a pack backing him. We couldn't take a whole pack of wolves, even if they were only moderately trained.

The coward of a man quietly went back up the stairs when I didn't look back at him.

It was hardly an occurrence when I got to look at her without hate staring back at me. I stroked her dirty matted hair twice before she started rousing. Soon she would break and give in to what I wanted.

I would kill a thousand women in front of her to break that resolve. She would be mine, even if she wasn't happy about it.

Lexi's point of view

We waited for twelve hours before Mason called the alpha to replace us. I didn't think they were coming back and Mason was just starting to agree with me. The stubborn man was hungry, tired, and frustrated that our closest lead led to nothing.

A while later Mason was back to normal, well, as normal as he gets. I was drying my hair when he stepped into the bathroom.

"I think we should go out."

I nodded once, looking at my reflection as I ran the towel through my hair. Had a little fun, now back to business, I thought to myself.

"Where were you thinking about going?" I asked, not really caring where we went, I just wanted out of this pack house. We had been here for a few weeks and I was getting tired of being cooped up inside.

"There's a bar that's pretty nice. Dean told me about it. A lot of the pack doesn't go there because the women aren't whores at this bar."

I looked over at him as I played mental catch up. "Oh, a bar. I thought you were talking about more, investigating something."

He smiled and shook his head as he stepped closer to me. "You need to get out of this house and I need a break. We need some time together. We haven't had much since we've been mated. It's not much of the honeymoon I thought we'd have."

I smiled and kissed him lightly. "Alright, I'll get ready and we can go out to this bar Dean told you about."

He kissed me behind my ear and patted my bottom once before leaving me to get ready.

Going out with Mason was always fun. I got to get dressed and dolled up, but tonight was special. This was our first time going out as a mated couple. I was excitedly giddy as I did my best to hurry up and get ready.

My beauty process wasn't that long. Making my hair was usually the issue. Over the years, the curls had taken over my hair and become difficult to control. Having straight hair my whole life, the curls were something I never had to deal with before. No one was really sure why my hair went from straight to curly over the years.

But at least I didn't have to spend hours curling my hair anymore. I slipped on my dress and heels before calling for Mason to get dressed. All he had to do was change, the lucky guy.

We went to a local bar that came recommended by the alpha. It had a pool table, jukebox, a full bar and every wall had at least two screens for watching whichever sporting event happened to be playing. It was definitely a place for men to congregate, but that didn't stop the women from showing up too.

Mason flipped through the jukebox options as we waited for a table to open up. He smirked before putting in a few quarters and making his selections. I tried to peek over his shoulder, but he hid song choices from me.

"There's one." I went towards the high table as it was being cleaned by a waitress.

"Can I get your guys anything?" she asked distractedly as she cleaned up the mess.

"A margarita and a bourbon," Mason answered from behind me.

"On the rocks?"

He shook his head. "Straight is fine."

She gave a small smile before walking away with her loaded tray.

"It's busy in here tonight," he muttered unhappily.

I climbed onto the barstools that surrounded a table. "Is it messing with your scent recognition?"

He nodded as he took the barstool opposite mine. "Very much so."

I shrugged. "You're just going to have to deal until we have our drinks, then we can leave if you want."

He shook his head and reached across the table for my hand. "It's fine. We're here to have fun, not recon."

I smiled at the idea of spending some real time with him as a mated couple. We had gone out on our home lands, but this time it was different. This time we were a mated couple, closer than we had ever been.

Our drinks came quickly. Mason ordered five more shots just before he downed the one drink he ordered. No matter how much Mason drank, he was never affected by the alcohol. The trouble with being such an active werewolf was that the alcohol metabolized before he could even feel the effects of it.

We cuddled together, talked, and I even got him to dance with me for a few songs.

A few drunken college kids saw how much Mason was able to put away and challenged him to a drinking contest. Mason wasn't the kind to pass up the opportunity to beat someone at something when the occasion arose. Needless to say, the werewolf smoked the human boys.

I felt Mason's shift in attitude as we walked away from the boys. Something was up, he just wasn't going to tell me what. He kissed the side of my cheek as we went back to our table.

"What's wrong?" I asked as we sat down and got comfortable.

He smiled. "You'll see." He patted his stomach. "I haven't had that much to drink in a long time."

I smiled and hugged closer to him. Something was wrong, but it wasn't an immediate concern. It still bothered me to know that Mason knew or sensed something I couldn't.

I scanned the rowdy bar patrons for anything that might alert me to what Mason knew.

There were only two men that stood out in the bar. They were scanning around, looking for someone.

At first, I pretended that it didn't bother me, like I didn't really notice. But then I got a good look at one.

A scar ran down his face from above the right side of his forehead, down through his eye, and ending just below his cheekbone. The scar was red, looking like was in the final stages of healing, it.

Mason had given one of the rogue wolves an injury just like that. This guy had to be one of the murders, which meant, that the man sitting next to him, was his partner in crime.

I placed my hand on Mason's arm, doing my best to remain calm, even though I knew what these men had done.

"Is it my imagination, or are those guys the rogues?" I asked quietly to insure that the two wolves wouldn't hear me. The music was loud enough that I probably could've spoken in a normal voice, but I had to take precautions here.

This place was full of humans. I didn't want any of them dead if we confronted the wolves. One trapped wolf would be a problem, two would be a disaster.

Mason smiled at me, looking happy and oblivious to the danger these wolves presented. "Of course they are sweet cheeks. They arrived twenty minutes ago."

"So why haven't we greeted them yet?" I batted my eyelashes at him. So long as we pretended to have our eyes only for each other, the other wolves would pay us no mind.

They were on their hunt.

"Because," he leaned in closer to whisper into my ear, "they know who I am."