The Alpha 8: Protect. Procreate. Prevail., page 25
“That’s crazy, man,” Brenden replied.
“Tell me about it,” I snickered. “So, did everyone get to the Jansen house safely?”
“Yeah, we’re all good.” He nodded. “I received a message from Kristina when they all arrived, and apparently they’re making some lunch for when we get there.”
“Good, because I’m starving,” I laughed. “Those pastries I had for breakfast weren’t enough to fill me up.”
“Lily made us some banana and buckwheat pancakes,” Brenden replied. “They were good… but they weren’t IHOP good.”
“Are you saying the pancakes didn’t come doused in maple syrup, cream, fruit, and with some scrambled eggs on the side?” I asked playfully.
“They came with fruit.” Brenden shrugged. “But it was literally just some sliced bananas with a drizzle of agave nectar. So, like I said, it wasn’t exactly a stack of IHOP pancakes.”
“Hey, I bet they were better than the pastries I took from the hotel,” I said.
“Probably more filling, too,” Brenden laughed.
Despite how desperate I was to get to the Jansen house, the journey didn’t take that long, and Brenden and I passed the time by talking about everything and nothing. I rarely had the time to talk to Brenden alone, and it was usually with other people around us, so it was nice to really talk to him.
I hadn’t even realized we’d arrived until Brenden pulled into the winding driveway and the mansion was seen in the distance. Various cars were parked in the driveway, and a number of my betas roamed around the deserted area with their eyes trained to the sky.
“I never thought I could hate a flock of birds so much,” Brenden mumbled as he stepped out of the Jeep.
“Get in line,” I said. “It’ll be nice not having to check every damn tree we pass.”
As we headed for the house, I took a few more anosmiacs before my current pills ran out. I knew everyone else in the house had taken some, too, and the main scent in the air came from some herb-crusted meats, potatoes, and other foods which I couldn’t quite identify.
My mouth instantly began to salivate, and I couldn’t wait to take a bite of the delicious food my betas had been busy preparing.
But before I could eat, something even more satisfying and delicious ran into the foyer.
“Jesseee!” my omegas squealed in unison as they darted toward me.
“We’ve missed you, Alpha!” Arielle said as I brought my omegas into my arms.
“I missed you, too,” I replied.
A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I held my women close to my body, and I placed a kiss on their foreheads as they tried to snuggle against me. It was already hard to hold them all at once, but while I still only had the four omegas, I made sure to hug them all together as much as I could.
My small army of betas wandered around us as they headed to various parts of the house, but they all gave me a smile and a wave as they passed me.
“Lily and Gia have cooked up a storm in the kitchen,” Blair informed me as we reluctantly ended the hug. “We have enough food to feed a village, so there should be just enough to go around.”
“I can’t wait to see what they’ve made.” I smiled.
“Gia has catered to most everyone’s needs, and Lily has catered to the vegetarians specifically,” Nikita giggled.
“Are there many vegetarians in this house?” I asked.
“Not really, we are predator species, after all.” Hailey shrugged. “But when it comes to Lily, she has to make sure there’s always something vegan, or at least vegetarian.”
“Fair enough,” I snickered. “Let’s go and see what they’ve prepared for us.”
Gia, Lily, Aunt Eva, Frederick, Finn, and Cameron were all standing around the breakfast bar, and I spotted Finn slyly stealing a spoonful of potato salad when he thought no one was looking.
“Is that good, Finn?” I asked with a smirk.
“Oh.” His green eyes widened. “Oops… But Alpha, it’s so fucking good, man!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Gia laughed.
“We thought you might be hungry,” Aunt Eva said sweetly as she handed over a paper plate. “Frederick thought it was a good idea to make everyone some lunch, and Lily and Gia were more than happy to help.”
“Really?” I asked. “This was your idea, Freddie?”
Frederick simply nodded his head.
He was a man of few words, but apparently he couldn’t stop talking when he was around Aunt Eva.
“Now you know why I’m going to spend the rest of my life with this man!” Lily squealed as she grabbed onto Frederick’s right arm. “He’s just the sweetest, cutest little lynx!”
“I’m glad you’re happy, Lily.” Blair smiled. “You deserve someone like Freddie.”
“I know.” Lily winked, and Frederick simply nodded again.
“Okay, let’s eat!” Nikita cried out. “I can’t hold off much longer.”
“You heard the omega,” I chuckled.
As well as the potato salad, there was also ribs, glazed chicken wings, marinated pork chops, a variety of salads, baked potatoes, bread rolls, chips, salsa, and even a vegan meatloaf.
“Did you make all of this while I was in Redding?” I asked as I helped myself to some ribs.
“Sort of,” Gia said with a light shrug. “I love making my own bread and marinades, but we didn’t have that sort of time, so I had to cheat a little. We just had to cook the meats, prepare the salads, and then dish it up for everyone.”
“But still, that’s very impressive,” I replied.
“Thank you, Alpha.” Gia smiled.
I started off an orderly line as I walked around the breakfast bar and collected little bits of everything. My omegas were behind me, and the rest of the betas followed after.
“Make way, make way!” Benji cried as he ran in from the backyard. “There better be enough food left for me! Oh, hey, bro.”
“Hi,” I laughed. “I’m surprised you weren’t the first person to get a plate.”
“I didn’t know the food was ready!” Benji sighed as he took a paper plate from the pile. “I was down near the trees with Connor and a few others. Otherwise I would have been on my second plate by now.”
“What are they doing?” I asked.
I’d noticed Connor outside, but I thought he would have come in when I arrived.
“They’re patrolling the area to look out for eagles,” Benji replied. “We’re going to have groups watching every corner of the house while Connor tells us everything about Reuben. But until then, we just wanted to make sure we didn’t see anything.”
“Good idea.” I nodded. “This conversation has to stay between us, we can’t allow the avians to hear a single word. So if any eagles, shifter or not, are spotted, we end the conversation immediately.”
“Of course,” Benji said as he began to fill his plate. “We’ve got this sorted out, bro. Don’t worry, we’re going to get those winged motherfuckers.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Aunt Eva said. “I called Arthur Mordaine this morning, just to see if he knew anything about the avians. He said he’s heard of Reuben’s name before, but it was a few years ago, and he’s honestly shocked that Reuben has started this whole thing in the first place. According to Arthur, these bald eagles are picture-perfect shifters.”
“That’s like what Connor said yesterday, how Reuben didn’t cause any issues when the werecoyotes first arrived here,” I replied. “So it sounds like something in this alpha has changed, after all.”
“Yes, probably.” My aunt nodded. “And hopefully we can find out what that change is.”
“That’s my plan,” I said with certainty.
As Benji made a mountain of food on his plate, Connor and some of the werecoyotes came inside, and my new beta captain walked up to me with a smile.
“I bet you’re eager to hear everything,” he chuckled.
“Only slightly,” I said sarcastically as I shoved a forkful of pasta salad into my mouth. “Did it take long to find the information?”
“It was a good few hours of running around,” Connor replied. “But it didn’t take as long as we thought it would, and we made sure to triple-check the details until we were confident with what we’d found.”
“Excellent.” I smiled. “Then let’s get set up in the living room, and you can tell us everything.”
“Sounds good.” Connor nodded.
Once everyone in the house had a plate of food, we decided who was going to watch over the house while the rest of us had a discussion in the living room. Everyone had the ability to listen in, so none of them would miss out on the plan, but it also meant they could tell us if we had to suddenly stop talking.
I took a seat on the couch in between Hailey and Blair, and Arielle, Nikita, and Aunt Eva sat on the couch beside us. Connor pulled up a seat in front of the TV, and he glanced across everyone in the room before he started to talk.
“Firstly, Reuben Dillard is still the alpha, and that hasn’t changed,” Connor explained. “I just wanted to add that in before we got started.”
“Excellent, thanks,” I replied.
“Yesterday, the coyotes and I managed to find out exactly where the flock lives, but we also have a rough idea of how many eagles we’ll be up against,” he continued. “But if I’m being honest, I’d say that getting into their territory might be the hardest part. I had a vague idea of where they were based, but I don’t think any of us were actually prepared for what we came across.”
“What did you find?” I asked.
“The flock lives on an island off the coast of California,” Connor replied. “I’d say it’s about halfway between here and Sacramento. There are two bridges that run from the mainland to the island, so there’s a way for us to get there by car or on foot, but we constantly spotted eagles flying over the bridges, like security.”
“Fuck,” Benji sighed.
“Agreed,” I muttered. “So they’d see us coming from a mile off?”
“Probably.” Connor nodded. “However, there’s nothing but a blanket of trees before you reach the coast, so we could probably sneak through the trees and get to the bridges before they realize we’re there.”
“What about swimming toward the island, or getting on a boat?” Kiri asked. “That worked well not just with Aiden’s islands, but also when we attacked Theo Finch.”
“Because cars are faster,” Nikita replied.
“Also, these eagles have better vision than we do, so they’d see you from a mile off, even at night,” Connor said. “Unless you’re a really fast swimmer, the eagles will attack you before you even set foot on dry land.”
“Okay…” I rubbed my jaw with one hand. “We probably wouldn’t get very far without someone noticing us anyway, so as long as we can get to those bridges and onto the island, then we can go on from there. How long would it take to get there from here?”
“About two and a half hours,” Connor said with a slight shrug. “It’ll be about four hours from Redding, but I’m assuming you’ll want to leave from here?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“That’s fine, then it won’t take too long,” the werecoyote replied.
“And you said you have a rough idea of how many eagles we’ll be up against,” Arielle said. “How many is that exactly?”
I gave my omega a proud smile. She had taken the question right out of my mouth.
“I’d say anywhere between one hundred to one-twenty,” Connor answered.
“One hundred?” Nikita gasped. “They’d completely outnumber us!”
“Not necessarily,” I said calmly.
“But how are we going to kill that many?” Hailey asked.
“Easy.” I smirked. “We have a room full of rifles downstairs.”
“Fuck yeah!” Kristina yelled as she punched the air with her fist.
“And that’s another reason why we wouldn’t want to swim,” Connor laughed. “So driving across is the better option.”
“Have you been showing the others how to handle a rifle?” I asked Kristina.
“Not as much as I’d like to,” the beta mumbled. “But I made sure everyone in this house held one, and some of them took to it like a duck to water.”
“Others… not so much,” Cameron chuckled as he picked a piece of meat out his teeth.
“Hey, I wasn’t that bad,” Finn complained.
“I also wouldn’t say you were brilliant, either,” Kristina snorted. “It’s just a good thing no one was shot.”
“Alright, well, Finn can stay away from the rifles,” I laughed. “Connor, have you got any experience with firearms?”
“I’ve used a rifle a couple of times.” He nodded. “I haven’t used one for a few years, but I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay, excellent.” I smiled. “Aunt Eva, I’m assuming you’ll want to have one?”
“Try and keep me away from the rifles,” my aunt laughed.
“That’s right, Auntie.” Benji grinned. “Show them how it’s done. And hey, Jesse, maybe you’d let me take one of the guns?”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “There’s plenty of them to go around.”
“What about me?” Blair asked with a twinkle in her honey-colored eyes. “Can I take one?”
“Uh…” I hesitated as I looked at my omega.
“C’mon, Jesse, please?” she begged.
I really didn’t like the idea of my omegas handling something as powerful as a rifle, especially if they hadn’t shot a gun before. However, it could mean that my omegas had more protection if anything happened to the security around them.
Plus, the idea of Blair holding a rifle was pretty fucking hot.
“Fine,” I said with a playful roll of my eyes. “But only if Kristina teaches you everything you need to know.”
“You got it, Alpha,” Kristina replied.
“Yayyy!” Blair squealed as she gave me a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“What about me?” Nikita giggled.
“And me,” Arielle added.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Hailey laughed. “I’ll just watch from the sidelines, thank you.”
“Good,” I snickered. “Because one omega with a rifle is terrifying enough, let alone all four of you.”
“So… are you saying there’s a chance I can fire one?” Nikita smirked.
“I’m not promising anything,” I laughed. “Plus, you won’t have any reason to fire one with the amount of betas you’ll have around you.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever had an omega around for me to protect,” Kiara said from the other side of the living room. “It’s a weird feeling, but it feels incredible at the same time.”
“Yeah, if you think you’re protective now, then just wait,” Brenden chuckled at the werecoyote. “Adding omegas to the mix always makes things so much more interesting.”
“And also terrifying,” Aunt Eva sighed. “You better prepare yourselves for what’s about to happen…”
“Oooh, I wonder if Reuben has any omegas.” Benji smirked.
“Does he?” I asked Connor.
“I don’t know.” The werecoyote shrugged. “We didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I couldn’t smell any, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t have any. He clearly knows you’re in the area, and if he’s caught on that you’re The Alpha, which I can’t imagine he hasn’t, he’ll want to keep his omegas as hidden as possible.”
“Well, I suppose we’ll find out soon,” I said with a smile.
I’d barely had the time to think about myself, let alone think about Reuben Dillard’s potential omegas. But now that the idea had entered my head, I wanted nothing more than to race off toward the island and search every corner of it for any avian omegas.
“So, what’s the plan, Jesse?” Marco asked.
“Simple,” I replied. “We’ll get to those bridges, shoot down every motherfucker we can see, and then I’ll kill Reuben Dillard and take everything he’s got.”
“Nice,” Benji snickered.
“We’ll all meet up here and pile into several cars,” I explained in more detail. “Every shooter will have their rifles locked and loaded, the rest of the rifles will be in the trunk ready for when we get on the island. Like Connor said, the eagles will see us coming, so as soon as they notice us, we’ll start shooting them straight out of the sky. I want to have some of you running beside the cars, but you’ll need to be careful. Those eagles are much bigger and stronger than regular bald eagles, so look out for their talons. They also have the ability to simply fly away from the threat, so I want to have other shooters hiding in the trees on the mainland to catch any flyaways. The fight doesn’t stop when we reach the island, but that’s when you’ll all need to be extra careful, because we have no idea what’s hiding on that private plot of land.”
“And you’ll want us to shift as soon as we leave the cars?” Brenden asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “The shooters will stay as they are, of course, so it’ll be up to us to protect them, too. They’ll be more vulnerable, even though they’re armed, so we’ll need to be looking in all directions.”
“Got it.” The beta captain nodded.
“There is a chance that some of the avians may be in their human forms,” I continued. “In which case, we’ll need to do everything we can to make sure they don’t shift. The less birds in the sky, the better.”
“How do we do that?” Connor asked. “I thought we couldn’t fight off the desire to shift during a fight?”
“There’s one way to stop it,” I replied. “You’ll need to block off their air supply as much as you can. I’m assuming you haven’t experienced it before, but we can find it extremely hard to shift if there’s something blocking our airways. Whether that’s paws, hands, rope, whatever. You don’t have to be in your animal form in order to do it. Also, it doesn’t matter if you’re a bit too strong. We want to kill anyone who’s intent on attacking us anyway, so don’t be fearful of strangling them.”
“That reminds me,” Hailey said quietly from beside me. “It’s obviously illegal to kill bald eagles, and even though we’d be on a private island, it’s still possible that someone might witness us shooting at this enormous flock of eagles. So… what should we do about that?”
