Kyle
"So, what's the plan?" Cade asked.
It was late. I rubbed my neck, feeling the slight tension that had set into my shoulders.
"I don't know."
"You're too involved." I wanted to argue but I kept my mouth shut. We both knew he was right.
If this didn't involve Crystal, I would have already been formulating a plan to extract our pack member from the property. I would use the Keeper as a bargaining tool. To swap the Keeper for our werewolf.
But this wasn't just any situation that I could handle as the alpha. This involved the life of my mate. Every scenario I ran through my mind, I was already weighing up every possible outcome and none of them could be executed without the risk to Crystal's life. It made me second-guess my instinct.
I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to figure out how to proceed. I'd never encountered this before and wasn't sure how to fix it.
"You're right," I said, feeling despondent.
"Don't take it too hard," Cade said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I would be a mess if it was Scar."
The difference was they had mated, they had a connection that I didn't have with Crystal yet. I knew who she was and I cared about her but I didn't have the same level of caring that would control my world.
It was hard to believe that the stress I was feeling would be so much worse if I had actually mated with her.
"But I need to have a clear head to be able to make the right decision," I said.
Cade dropped his hand from my shoulder.
"There will never be a right decision," he argued. He leaned over the map we had of the area where the Keepers were staying. "There will always be a risk."
I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I was tired and going around in circles.
"Do you think they'll do a swap?" he asked. His eyes were fixed on the map. He was probably doing the same thing I had for the last few hours, going over every scenario and trying to calculate the risk.
"It's hard to say," I answered while rubbing my brow. "They're not like us."
Cade gave me a questioning look.
"It's hard to explain. They don't seem to have that emotional attachment that I think will be necessary for Flynn to be our bargaining tool. We could be wasting our time and Crystal could be dead already."
"We have people watching the property," he reminded me. "They would have seen or heard something."
It didn't give me a lot of reassurance.
"Even the birthmark. They have the same but they don't have mates like we do."
"Really?"
I nodded.
"That's weird. I wonder why?" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
"I have no idea. With everything we've learned so far and with the similarities, you'd think they do but when I asked him about it he brushed it off with disgust."
Cade's jaw tightened. How he felt about my sister was evident in the way he acted around her. I could see every choice he made, he made with the welfare of my sister in the forefront of his mind. It was so engrained it was almost subconscious. So for Flynn to do that went against how we were brought up and Cade didn't like it at all. Making light of what we held so dear wasn't a way to win friends among us.
"He seemed to be very rigorous in his belief and priority. It's almost military style but I still get the feeling that he seemed a bit brainwashed. I think they're all like that."
Flynn's words echoed in my mind.We don't have mates, we're not like you.After he called us mutts it was clear we were not liked at all.
