Chapter 280

Gavin’s POV

It’s been 2 weeks.

2 weeks since Judy left.

2 weeks since I lost my chance with her.

2 weeks since I let her slip through my fingers.

I had been searching all the parklands for any signs of Judy, but as far as I knew, she wasn’t in this region anymore. I had no jurisdiction in other Lycan territory, so I couldn’t just send my men to them and search their lands. As far as I knew, she hadn’t even been in contact with her family. I’ve been monitoring Irene’s phone, despite her protests. But there’s been no contact made.

What infuriated me even more was the fact that she had the nerve to leave without saying a word to me or Matthew. I clenched my fists at the thought of it. My wolf was wallowing in pain, missing her more with each passing day.

The first week that Judy left, I drank myself into a stupor. I was unable to function as an Alpha, and Taylor had to pick up a lot of the slack. I was grateful to him for that. Now I was back in the office, and I couldn’t think about anything other than Judy. I couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes, her smile, her scent… I was craving her touch. I just needed her back in my arms.

My head was pounding as I went through the reports on my computer. Though I was looking at them, I couldn’t comprehend a single thing that they said.

There was a knock on my office door before Taylor walked in; I don’t know why he bothers knocking if he’s not going to wait for me to give him permission to enter. I rolled my eyes as he closed the door behind him.

“There’s a problem,” Taylor said, turning to look at me. “There’s been an attack in the Redcliff pack.”

“When did the Redcliff pack become my problem?” I asked, annoyed by the interruption.

“Since you agreed to go there to investigate the situation with some of your best Gamma warriors,” Taylor said, raising his brows. “You do remember your promise to them, right?”

I rolled my eyes at the memory.

Technically, Redcliff was Levi’s territory, and I wouldn’t go there unless it benefited me… or unless it was necessary. But the problems they were having with the rogues worried me. If we didn’t nip it in the butt soon, it could end up being an issue here as well. We have some of the best trackers in the world and could pinpoint the exact location of the rogue hideout, which is what they are desperately searching for. Levi granted us permission to enter and patrol his territory.

“I’m not scheduled to go there for a few more days,” I told Taylor.

“Well, they are requesting you now,” Taylor said. “There was an explosion. It was bad.”

“An explosion? The rogues are using explosives?”

Taylor nodded.

“Yeah, and if we don’t nip it in the butt now, it could end up becoming a problem here too. You know how it works,” Taylor reminded me.

I groaned, knowing he was right.

“Okay. Book a flight. We will leave tonight and be there by tomorrow,” I murmured.

Taylor nodded as he turned to leave.

“Oh, and by the way… they just hired a new Gamma warrior. Not sure who it is… but I heard they are a badass.”

I raised my brows, my eyes meeting Taylor's. The knowing glint in his eyes told me everything that I suspected.

“You’re saying…” I started but then stopped; I couldn’t get my hopes up. It would only leave me gutted if it turned out not to be true. I sighed and leaned back in my seat. “I’ll be there.”

Taylor smirked but said nothing as he left my office.

By the next morning, we were landing at the Redcliff airport. We took a private plane and were greeted by a tall and lanky-looking man with shaggy brown hair and almost a boyish quality about him. He wore Gamma armor and had weapons attached to his hip; this was a pack that had an Elite Force; he had the Elite Force badge on his chest that read: Spencer.

“Alpha Landry, it’s an honor to finally meet you,” he said, bowing his head. “My name is Spencer. I’m here to escort you to the packhouse.”

I nodded as he hurried to grab my and Taylor’s luggage. I asked Taylor to come with me to Levi’s territory in case anything happened. Derek and some of the other Gammas are on their way as well in their own private plane. They had a lot of gear and equipment they needed to bring, and because of the weight limit of the private planes, it was better if they took a separate plane.

They would be arriving in a few hours because they got a later start than we did.

Taylor was scheduled to return to the pack in a couple of days so he could keep watch of the company while I remained in Levi’s territory for the rest of the week with my gammas.

We walked to the waiting car and got into the back seat. Once Spencer had our things stored in the trunk, he slid into the driver’s seat.

“Sorry, it’s kind of a mess back there,” he said, glancing at some of the trash on the ground. I frowned at it, not saying anything. “I wasn’t expecting company in my car. This was kind of last minute as I got this assignment and was running late this morning. The one who was supposed to be here got caught in the explosion last night. She’ll be okay… but she’s being kept in the hospital for a few days for observation.”

I nodded, not bothering to reply because I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. I didn’t really care about their warriors or their people… I cared about mine, and I wanted to make sure this threat didn’t make its way to my territory. I wanted to figure out what was going on now before it truly became my problem.

Thankfully, the Redcliff pack was a pack that Levi didn’t come to often. Unlike me, he didn’t go to each of his packs monthly to check on things. Levi’s home pack was over an hour away from here, and he mainly focused on that pack and some of the surrounding packs. The ones that were out of his way, he hardly bothered with. Though I expected to see his Beta Ron at any point.

I was surprised that Levi actually granted permission for another Lycan to occupy his land for a week, but because I have the best trackers and, admittedly, better resources than he does, apparently, he found himself desperate for some outside help. And because I was curious about this rogue problem and wanted to nip it in the bud early on before it became a problem on my territory, I agreed. Plus, I needed a distraction… not to mention it gave me an excuse to go onto someone else’s territory and continue my search for Judy. I hated that I couldn’t find her, and I hated it even more thinking that she could be on another Lycan’s territory.

My wolf growled at the thought, bringing me unwanted attention in the car.

I cleared my throat and looked out the window the window without addressing why I was pissed off. Taylor didn’t press me for information, probably already guessing why I was upset. Spencer, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Once we arrived in the pack, my wolf grew tense. He was sensing something, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

Spencer parked in front of the large packhouse and stepped out of the car to open our doors and grab our luggage. Taylor and I stepped out of the car, and I took in the warm air; this was a warm climate environment, and I wasn’t used to the odd temperature.

“Alpha Landry,” Sampson, the Alpha of the Redcliff pack, said as he walked down the front steps. “It’s an honor to meet you, Sir. I’m the Alpha of this pack.”

“Sampson, right?” I asked as I shook his hand.

I could still smell the burning from the explosion yesterday.

“Yes, sir,” Sampson replied. “Thank you for coming here on such short notice. None of us anticipated the recent attack. It kind of shook us. It could have been a lot worse… thankfully, it wasn’t. Though I lost a few gammas, one of them was injured. Thankfully, she’ll be okay.”

“My gammas should be arriving in a couple of hours. They’ll start their investigation right away, but I’d like to speak to the survivors and find out what they know.”

Sampson nodded as he said, “I hadn’t had a chance to go around yet. I was going to go yesterday after the first attack, but then the second one happened.”

I started to walk past him and into the packhouse, though my wolf was more wanting to go in a different direction. I ignored him and continued forward.

“Most of the survivors are in the hospital. Including the Gamma from last night. She’s stable now and scheduled to be released tomorrow afternoon once everything is checked out. I think she should be the first you talk to.”

“Okay, yeah,” I said without looking at him. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”