Page 30 of Guardians
“He just disappeared,” his companion insisted.
“Goddamn it. He’s a Shadow. Look for moonlight gleaming off the cases.”
It was great advice and for anyone else it would have worked. Luckily, Diego wasn’t an ordinary Shadow. He was the original, the pattern from which all the other Shadows had been created.
Lowering the cases to his sides, he risked allowing them to swing so he could run faster. The village was so disorderly that he feared that he’d lost his way with all the direction changes. Then he heard Travis call out.
“D, over here.”
Diego pivoted on the ball of his foot and followed Travis down an alleyway. They emerged near the back wall and a few seconds later, Diego was sprinting through the forest beyond the lupine village.
Elias paced the common room, hands fisted tightly at his sides. “What a fucking disaster! I can’t believe Caleb would be so careless.”
“He has seemed scattered lately,” Armando agreed. He stood nearby, leaning against one of the long trestle tables. “I’m not sure why.”
“I don’t give a shit why,” Elias snapped. “If we don’t get those scanners back, we have no hope of locating the nanobots. The fuckers are microscopic. It’s not like we can find them with a flashlight.”
The main door opened and three of the hunters strode into the room. They all avoided looking at Elias, so he knew the news wasn’t good.
“We lost him in the forest, alpha,” the largest hunter admitted, head lowered submissively.
Fury rolled through Elias like a toxic tsunami. He clenched his teeth and sucked in a steadying breath. Instinct urged him to rip out the hunter’s throat. His canines lengthened and his pulse throbbed. He needed to shift, to shed his humanity and chase down the enemy. It was getting harder and harder to resist these impulses. But the hunters weren’t the cause of this disaster. “Gather the pack alphas and escort Caleb here personally.”
“Now?” Armando asked, clearly confused by the order. “It’s after midnight.”
“Gather the fucking alphas!” he shouted. His eyes burned as his animal nature surged. His features started to transform, but Elias stubbornly pulled back the shift. He could not speak in wolf form, and he had questions to ask and orders to issue. His fingers became claws and his voice deepened to a menacing growl. “When I give an order, goddamn it, I expect it to be obeyed. Have you forgotten how I became village alpha?”
Four pack alphas had challenged him that day and all four had fallen to his teeth and claws.
Armando lowered his face. “I’m sorry, alpha.” Then he hurried from the room.
Elias went into the adjacent storeroom and found two coils of rope, one only a few feet long, the other much longer. Then he went to his office and retrieved his favorite whip. With a synth-leather grip and a long, braided lash, the whip was capable of delivering excruciating pain without causing lasting damage. His go-to implement was a flogger. Most infractions didn’twarrant a whip. But tonight he intended to make a point. The packs no longer feared him. Well, that was about to change.
Twenty minutes later, ten blurry-eyed alphas stood in a semicircle in front of Elias. Caleb knelt in the middle of the circle, looking rumpled and annoyed. What he didn’t look was afraid, which angered Elias even more.
“It has been months since I administered ahumbling.” He paused, waiting for the word to register. The humbling was the harsh form of punishment used by alphas to establish control and dominance. His gaze landed on Caleb and Elias fought back a smile. Finally. Fear widened the doctor’s eyes and the color drained from his face. “My leniency has made everyone careless and disrespectful. That ends tonight.” He motioned to the ashen-faced doctor. “Caleb failed to secure several important pieces of equipment. As a result, the equipment was stolen. My ongoing plan is completely dependent on access to that equipment, so Caleb will be humbled.” Elias faced the doctor and ordered, “Take off your clothes.”
“Alpha, please. I screwed up. I admit it, but this is excessive.”
Elias backhanded his friend across the face, leaving long, bloody grooves in his cheek. “I do not repeat orders.”
Hands shaking, eyes wild, Caleb stripped off his clothes. When he was completely naked, Armando stepped forward and bound his wrists together with the rope Elias had just handed to him. He looped the second rope through the center of the first then tossed it over a support beam high above their heads. Using the beam for leverage, Armando dragged Caleb’s arms upward until he was stretched to the balls of his feet.
Elias uncoiled the whip and snapped it in the air dramatically. “I will no longer accept excuses for failure.” He swung his arm and the lash cut across Caleb’s back, leaving a livid welt in its wake.
Caleb yelped, then groaned, spinning as far as the rope allowed.
“When I give an order, it will be obeyed.” Elias swung again, raising a welt across Caleb’s butt cheeks.
The doctor cried out. His entire body tensed for a moment then released in a violent shudder.
“There will be consequences for failure.” Elias motioned toward Caleb’s striped skin to make sure the others understood the threat. “Let this be a lesson to everyone. The village alpha will no longer tolerate disrespect in any form.” Hardening his heart against his close friend’s screams, Elias continued the humbling. When he was finally confident that everyone understood the warning, he looked at Armando and said, “Cut him down and dump him by the fire. He will lay there naked until he recovers enough to walk home. No one will assist him.”
“Yes, alpha.”
Elias motioned the other alphas to the table on his left. He sat down at the head as was his right. “Caleb’s blunder has created a galactic-sized mess.” He heaved a sigh of frustration then explained. “As some of you have likely heard, the cats are frantically working to solidify an alliance with the humans.”
“What the fuck for?” Paul burst out, disbelief twisting his rugged features. “There is no way I’d stick my cock in a human unless I knew damn well I’d plant a pup in her belly.”
