Treasure

Alpha Forrest held it together until the three Warriors left the room and closed the door. The three, all members of the Banff Pack, had just informed him their Alpha was recalling them immediately and they were leaving the Pack. It had been a bad day, starting with the loss of all his Omegas.

He hadn’t been woken with his coffee as he normally was at 0530, and before six the Pack was in an uproar. The kitchen was dark, nobody was around making breakfast, and the guard at the gate hadn’t even checked the vehicles that were leaving to see who was in them. Alpha Forrest and others tried linking them, but by the time they knew they were gone, it was too late to do anything. They were out of range of the Pack.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. The Pack was unsettled after the attack on Coral, and the sudden departure of his top Beta and the visiting guests further destabilized them. The other Council members left early in the morning; Chairman Gruber was flying back to Germany, and Councilman Waterman to Wyoming. He spoke to both of them during the course of the morning, updating them on the disappearance of Beta Carlson and the Omegas.

Something happened around lunchtime, when the first of the loanee Pack members started coming to his office to state they were leaving. Since almost the entire old Pack leadership was eliminated after the trials, and the remainder were Omegas or young males needing rehabilitation, the Council filled the Pack with volunteers provided by North American packs. During the time those people worked at Bitterroot, they would transfer their allegiance to Councilman Forrest, who was the designated Alpha. He was dependent on these people for everything, since he had no Pack of his own.

Now it was nearly dinnertime. As the men left, he opened a list in his desk drawer of the Packs in North America.

Adirondack Pack, New York

Banff, Canada

Bitterroot, Montana

Blue River, Canada

Cascade, Washington

Casper, Wyoming

Denali, Alaska

Donner, California

Katahdin, Maine

Monongahela, West Virginia

Oxbow Lake, Minnesota

He rubbed his temples as he looked at the list; the names that had been crossed off were ones where people had left today. Five packs out of ten had pulled out already, leaving his Pack in shambles. He expected Oxbow and Adirondack were working behind his back, throwing their support to Rori since she was kin. Katahdin, Blue River and Banff were a surprise.

None of the Alphas would say why, just that events had occurred that forced them to withdraw their people now, and they did not know if or when they would be replaced. There was more to it, and he knew what it was. Rori King and her band of misfits were turning the Packs against the Council.

Time was running out on him and the Council. The deal they had made seventeen years ago, to turn a blind eye to one Pack taking out another in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation, was in danger of being revealed. The money was a bonus, a payment for services, but the real kicker was in taking out the former Alpha of the Pack, Lars King. He was only two years from Council eligibility, and was determined to oust Chairman Gruber from his post. Well liked and politically astute, the Council members were terrified the Packs would elevate him at the next elections.

If only Alpha Todd had done the job right, they all would have been happy. Todd would have raised the child as an orphan before mating her, the Pack would be a memory, and they would keep their power and inherit the assets of the dissolved Pack. Instead, his men let a young woman slip through the lines with her and leave her where humans could find her.

Given a second chance when she was closer to her age of majority, Todd screwed it up again. This time there was no hiding it; they had to swoop down on his Pack and decimate it before their secret could be revealed. Now Rori King was making a move, threatening them and restarting a dead Pack, and taking the others with her.

Some he understood; both Oxbow and Adirondack Packs had family links, but the others were a surprise. The challenge would keep the Cascade Pack on the sidelines until Sawyer won, which he was sure to do. The problem was that with two or three more defections, they could depose the entire Council. It wouldn’t take much investigation for a new Council to figure out what they had been up to, and then they all were dead.

He made the call, bringing in the rest of the Council. Twenty minutes later, they all agreed with his plan. Rori was threatening them with exposure, but probably was bluffing. Even if she wasn’t, they could survive being exposed. They could not survive her becoming Alpha of the Arrowhead Pack.

He called in his Theta, the leader of their security forces and his senior wolf with the departure of Beta Carlson. Thomas Manchin was from the Donner Pack, his son’s Pack, and was absolutely loyal to him. He stood in front of his desk, hands clasped behind his back as he waited for orders. “The situation with Rori King has become untenable,” he said. “She is a grave threat to the future of the Donner Pack and to all our Packs. She is at large, and I can’t trust the Packs to apprehend her and turn her over to the Council. Some may even be assisting her,” he told him.

“What are my orders, Alpha?”

“Take a dozen men. In order to establish herself, she is going to have to go to Minnesota. Here’s the name of the estate lawyer she will have to visit.” He handed him the contact information. “It is critical that she not complete the legal paperwork required to inherit the Pack assets. Capture her if possible, kill her if necessary. Anyone else with her or that gets in the way of her capture, take them out.”

“And if she is hiding with a Pack? Oxbow is in that area.”

“Don’t go onto their Pack lands and don’t do anything to attract their attention. If they find you, you are seeking a Council fugitive per the existing warrant.”

“I understand, Alpha.”

Alpha Forrest handed him a stack of reloadable credit cards. “Use these, I don’t want a paper trail that can lead back to us. Take men you trust, from this Pack or Donner. Stake out his house and the entrances to the Oxbow Lake Pack. I do not expect any contact from you unless you have her or need assistance,” he said. He gave him a burner phone. “Keep this on, I will text any updates to you. We are lucky that Rori’s injuries will prevent her from flying, so it gives you a chance to get into place before she can arrive.”

They talked for a few more minutes, and he got permission to take three warriors from this Pack with him. They then called Alpha Daniel, who agreed to get seven more to meet them in Duluth. He was sending them in a private plane, so they would be able to travel with the weapons, surveillance gear, restraints and chemicals they would need for the capture. “Good luck, Thomas,” he said as he walked him to his office door.

“I won’t let you down, sir,” he said as he walked out. Alpha Forrest smiled a little; one way or another, his problem would be taken care of and their plans would proceed. Their continued rule was more important than a breeder.

Avoiding the Packs meant moving south, instead of taking a more direct line to Minnesota. Rori set the next waypoint, Salt Lake City, into the navigation system as they headed east again. “Interstate 80 is not far from Casper,” she said as she looked at the maps. “There’s not a lot heading east-west to take other than that. Do you think they are watching the interstate?”

“They will be if they are smart, but the shortest route would have been north. I’m sure they have people from other Packs watching I-90 and I-94 up in Montana,” he said. “Shit, that’s the route everyone from our Pack is taking to Minnesota. What if they get trailed?”

“They got out before the Packs would have been alerted, but I'll tell your Mom to check for tracking devices,” she said. “You keep sunglasses on and a hat during the day and pay attention to the cars behind you. We can rest at night so I’m not driving. Don’t make it easy for them, love. If a car stays behind you when we’re making the slow climb up those mountains, we’re made.”

He thought about it for a while. “What about an escort? Even better, drivers?”

“My parents would be ideal, except they are looking for them too.” She broadened the map, looking to see who was in the area. There were two possibilities, the closest in Vegas. “I have an idea. I stayed with the Las Vegas chapter for a few months and have friends there. Do we have room in the back for another bike or two?”

“Sure, two easy.”

“Let me see.” She pulled out her phone and looked up the number for Bunny, the Old Lady of the Vegas chapter President. Bunny was great, she was in her fifties now but had been a cocktail waitress at the Playboy casino back in the seventies, and the stories she could tell of THOSE times were amazing. She had met Aces, who was working security at the casino, when one of the patrons trapped her against the roulette table and ripped her panties off. They both lost their jobs when he put the salesman in the hospital, but they had found each other. He had been President there for almost twenty years now. The phone rang, and her raspy voice answered. “Rori? Where the fuck are you, girl?”

“I’m in Idaho,” she said with a laugh. “In trouble again, running away to a new place with my fiancé.”

“Oooh, this story I gotta hear,” she said. “You aren’t hiding from your parents, are you?” They had been at the wedding of Possum and Roadkill, and had done a round of shots with her and Jenny.

“No, they love him, but people are after us again.” She briefly explained what was going on and what they needed. “If someone can meet us in Salt Lake, we’re pretty sure we can make it there without being noticed. They can park their bikes in the back and drive us to northern Minnesota where we have another safe place to stay.”

“Shit, girl, just come here, we’ll keep you safe.”

“I need to get to Minnesota, I have urgent business there. Can you see if anyone would be willing to do this for us? It would be a long ride home, but we’d pay for gas and expenses. We just can’t risk someone spotting us on the road and having Brotherhood bikers around us would just draw attention.”

“Hang on a sec.” She covered the phone as there was some talking, they were obviously in the main club area. “We’ll meet you at the rest stop on I-80 just east of Echo where I-84 joins up. Since you’re coming from the north, you’ll be taking that to avoid the city anyway. Aces owes me a vacation, and this sounds like fun,” she said. “We’ll leave in an hour. I’ll bring the tequila, you get the food. You’ll get there first, so find a parking space and wait for us.”

“You don’t have to come, you could send a prospect or something,” Rori said.

“Girl, you should know better. Nobody messes with a Lady, and Aces lives for this shit. He gets bored too easy sitting around the clubhouse, and we can stop at a few clubs on the way back. We’ll see you tonight. We’re going to road trip together, girl!” She laughed at that. Aces had made a fortune in real estate in the Vegas building boom, then got out before the market cratered. He was always around the Club, and Bunny was always bugging him to take her places.

Now they just had to make it through southern Idaho and Utah without being seen.