Choices: Alpha City, Book 3

by Bryce Evans

  Brody walked over and stood beside him. “We need to leave. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  “From Vanguard?” Judd asked, concerned.

  “No, but something doesn’t feel right,” Brody said. Usually when Brody had these feelings they went with it, because nine times out of ten he was correct. Right now Brody was very antsy, and that meant trouble was brewing or coming back home for them.

  “I will walk you out.” Vanguard escorted them outside. When they got to their vehicle, he leaned in to hug Maggie again, but they all heard his whisper: “I’ll be in touch. I have a spy in my clan.”

  Maggie pulled away smiling, but he knew her smiles and this wasn’t one of the good ones. “Ride with your mate, Maggie. All of you, ride together. I will get your vehicle to you.” They piled into Brody’s vehicle and drove off.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Brody waited until they had cleared the gate. “Judd, you know where the weapons are at.”

  Maggie watched as Judd hit a button and a hidden compartment came out from under the seat. He reached in and grabbed the pistols. He gave MJ one, and she popped the magazine out, checking to see if it was loaded, then slapped it back into place. Brody narrowed his eyes as he watched the woman, who paid him no attention. Judd turned in his seat, looking for anyone who might be following them.

  “Why does he allow the spy to continue? Why doesn’t he just kill them?” MJ asked.

  “Because Mick Vanguard is a genius at this cat-and-mouse crap they’re pulling. He wants to know who the spy works for and take them both out,” Maggie answered.

  “Does this go on a lot?” Brody asked.

  “Not often, but it has happened before. Mick knew he had a spy someone who was getting information for another clan leader. And once he figured it all out, he wasted no time in killing them both. But you can’t just kill a clan leader and expect nothing to happen. At first he was brought in before the council, and Mick is on the council, too. Some of the other leaders accused Mick of just killing him to try and gain more property and members, but Mick is smarter than that and had recordings. Lots of recordings. He couldn’t be seen giving us information, so he put something in the notebook.” Maggie picked up the book and flipped the pages until she came to an address. Mick didn’t put a name, just the address.

  “What does it say?” Judd asked.

  “We need to talk when we get back,” Maggie answered, then flipped the book closed. Damn, man had just gone and done the complete opposite of what she asked. They had both agreed on going together, but no, he left while she was out. She couldn’t trust his word. Typical man, just like MJ said he was. Always trying to protect her. How could Maggie stay with someone who continually went around her, instead of being her mate and doing this together?

  “Don’t be mad,” Judd leaned over and whispered in her ear.

  Don’t be mad? That’s all he had to say to her? Narrowing her eyes, Maggie leaned in and said, “But I am, and I’ve got a huge problem with what you did today. A very big problem with how you just left me unconscious with a stranger to watch over me.” Maggie knew everyone in the car could hear them. “No offense, MJ.”

  “None taken, Maggie. I told him this was going to happen, but no. ‘Me Alpha, me have to protect woman.’ And by the way, we have a tail coming up on our back end.” Everyone turned around as a black SUV picked up speed, heading straight toward them. “Can this tin can go any faster?”

  “Hey, who are you to call my baby a tin can?” Brody growled, but pushed the pedal to the floor, forcing the vehicle to pick up speed despite the engine’s protests. He punched some numbers into his phone, but didn’t say anything until a voice came over the speakers.

  “We got you, Alpha,” the voice said as something flew over their vehicle.

  Maggie turned around and watched as the small drone dropped something onto the black SUV; then a loud boom sounded and the vehicle flipped over and over into a ditch. Two more black SUVs sped past them.

  “Who was that?” MJ asked.

  “Friends,” was the only answer Brody gave as they watched two more vehicles speed past them.

  Maggie was good and pissed at Judd. She didn’t want to cause a scene in front of everyone, especially in front of MJ. She liked her a lot. Maggie didn’t have any friends; she wanted to keep the one she had just made. Judd needed to know he couldn’t continue to disregard her when things like this happened. She should have been there with him when he got to Mick’s house. She would have seen the camera and known something was off with her father. Judd hated vampires and wouldn’t be able to know if he was acting differently. It was a good thing she showed up, or he wouldn’t have gotten the information, whatever it was, in the book.

  She opened the notebook again and flipped through the pages until she found the one with the address written down on it: 410 Oak Field Road, Marggius, GA. Why did the place seem familiar to her? Maybe she had been there before.

  Judd tried to hold her hand, but she pulled it away. Rule number one: she wasn’t going to allow him to push her around. And she wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet. He had a lot of groveling to do if he wanted Maggie to hold hands with him.

  Brody’s phone rang and he put it on speaker so they could hear what his friends had to say. “Alpha, it looks like two of Claudia’s people. The driver is dead, but the passenger is still breathing. We’re taking him to the coven to have the Healer to come and take care of his wounds.”

  “Make sure you put the binding rope that Me-Len came up with over him and his mouth. You don’t want him doing any spells when he wakes up,” Brody answered.

  “First thing we did before we removed him from the car. Talk to you in a few. We got you covered all the way in. I suggest you take the car to the garage first to check for bugs.”

  “Already on my way. Thank you, and be careful.”

  “How did they know where you were going?” MJ asked.

  “Don’t know. The phones are swept daily and the computers have traces on them. Most of the time we meet in person instead of talking on the phone, and we don’t share anything with anyone. So to answer your question, I don’t know,” Brody said.

  “I like the drones, but I think it’s time to start putting traces on them now. It’s time to turn the tables, and I’ve got the perfect way to do it,” MJ answered with a smirk.

  “How?” Brody asked.

  “Just something I’ve been working on. I haven’t seen a system I can’t get in, so I’m going to be doing some looking into their system. I invented a bug so small that not even sweepers can trace it. I’ve tried every kind of sweeper on the market and nothing will pick it up. But we have to find out where they’re at before we can put the bugs in the places we need.”

  “You’re a hacker?” Brody asked.

  “If that’s what you want to call it. I don’t steal anything from anyone, but this witch took something precious from me, something that I can never get back, and now I plan on taking everything from her one piece at a time.”

  Maggie watched as MJ looked out the window. She could hear the sorrow in her voice, but something told her that MJ was a very lethal weapon, and Maggie planned on helping her. That was something she wouldn’t tell her mate either. She slipped her hand up and squeezed MJ’s shoulder. What surprised her was the squeeze she got back from the woman.

  Judd checked the area one last time before he went into the house. He was already getting the silent treatment from Maggie, so he wasn’t in a hurry to go inside and get cussed out for leaving her behind. There were some things she had to understand, and one of them was that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. Keeping her safe was his top priority.

  He had already lost one family member, and he didn’t plan on losing anyone else. The witch needed to be hit back. Tonight they were going to meet again and go over a plan that Me-Len had come up with. He was afraid that MJ was going to do something stupid, and he needed her to be careful, but he also needed her to let them in on the plan. They
didn’t need any members to turn rogue on them. Someone always got hurt.

  They needed to attack and attack hard, but they all needed to work together. He opened the door, figuring that Maggie would be in the living room waiting on him, but he looked and she wasn’t there. He walked down the hallway and checked her room, but she wasn’t there either. Then he heard someone talking as he walked over to MJ’s room. He opened the door and found the two girls sitting cross-legged on the floor.

  “What are y’all doing?” Judd asked. He stepped closer into the room, narrowing his eyes at what they had in their hands. “Are those…”

  “Yep!” MJ answered.

  “Bees. They look real.”

  “That’s what I want. I want them to look like bees flying around. It took me two years to make one, but I finally did it. Now I need to test them to see what the range is. I want to make sure they hit off several different antennas, that way we don’t lose anything.” MJ picked up a remote and the bee started flying around the room.

  “How do you get it to go where you want?” Judd asked, curious.

  MJ smiled and turned her laptop around so he could see it. She typed in a code and his body and face came to life on the screen.

  “Holy shit. How did you do that with something so small?”

  “I was playing around one day and figured if they could put a small camera on a button, then I could put one in a fake bee. Button-cams is what they’re called. I have a bird too, but I’m having trouble getting it to perch on a tree limb. I need to perfect that before I send it out. It’s not the flying, it’s the landing. A bee is simple; it keeps moving around flowers and if it flew up and peered into windows nobody would think anything about it, but a bird who can’t land on a limb would look suspicious.” Judd and Maggie both stared at the genius sitting in front of them.

  “Your brother said you were smart, but this is science-fiction shit you see on TV,” Judd said.

  “Don’t count your chickens yet. We’ll need to get antennas on some tall buildings or trees if we want these little beauties to continue flying. The signals have to be able to reach them. If we can set up some around the whole town, then we can have the computers take pictures of everyone who is moving in and out of Alpha City. Once the program recognizes the ones who are going in and out of the city, then I think we will find out who some of your spies are. Then we can put tails on them this time. We can find out where she is staying. They will lead us right to her. This is the best chance we have at finding Claudia Blackwood.”

  “This time we take the battle to her front door and take out the ones she needs. Without her minions, she’s left with the dragon. They will make a mistake, and then we can take them both out,” Maggie added.

  “This is a great idea, MJ. Later tonight, I need for you to go with Maggie and me to a meeting with the other Alphas. I want London and Zoey to see this stuff too. I believe you’ll get along great with them. They’ll love you and your designs.”

  “Sure,” MJ answered, but went back to working on the bees.

  “Maggie, can I talk to you for a minute, please?” Judd waited until she got up and walked out of the room. She went into her bedroom and sat on the side of the bed. “I know you’re mad, but I needed that information and I didn’t know when you would wake up. I was hoping to already have it and be back before you even woke up.”

  Maggie laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “What you just said. I needed that information. ‘I’ seems to be a theme with you, Alpha. ‘I didn’t know when you would wake up.’ I…I…I”

  “It’s not like that, Maggie. I did this for us. I want to know what will happen. I want us to be together.” Judd watched as Maggie threw her hands up in the air.

  “You just don’t get it, do you? Do you hear yourself talking? Everything is ‘I.’ Do you hear this? I can’t live like this, where I don’t have a voice. Did you hear me say I? Because I did and I’m not playing. I’m going to stay with Judith. You can stay here and do all the ‘I’ things you want. What I’m seeing has nothing to do with ‘we,’ just you.” Maggie got up and went to the closet, and pulled down her suitcase. “I have no clue why I thought this could work,” she muttered.

  “Maggie?” Judd pulled her hands away from the suitcase, tugged her over to the bed, and sat her down. “Look, I heard you and I understand why you’re mad, but I’m so eager to mate with you that I’m screwing this up. I want us to be together, please just give us a chance. Better yet, give me a chance and understand that I’ve been an Alpha a long time and never had to answer to anyone until you. I do think about you before I jump, but you’re my mate and I’m terrified that you’re going to be taken away from… ” Judd’s voice trailed off. He turned around, trying to get control of himself before he lost it. She already meant so much to him that he only wanted to protect her. “Me.”

  “Judd, you can’t protect me by putting me in a glass house and never letting me out, or never giving me a voice. I can help you with this. It has to do with me too. Plus, you went to my family’s house without me. My Sire. We’d already discussed this. There were so many dangers there that I would have sensed before anyone else, including you. Don’t you see? I immediately knew something was wrong with Mick, but you thought he was being arrogant and withholding information from you. Yet you went without me. You could have waited, but you made a decision without me again. And to be honest, I don’t care if the mating pull kills me, because I won’t live with someone, share my life with you, and not get a voice. I love you, but I won’t put up with that.”

  “I understand that, but can you give me a little leeway too and know that I’m going to screw up a lot? It’s in my nature to protect my mate. What I’m trying to say is that I screwed up and I won’t do it again.” Judd smiled, “Did you say that you love me?”

  Maggie shrugged. “Maybe. And don’t say you won’t do it again, because I know you will.”

  Judd leaned in closer and licked her ear. “Do you know how much I want you?” He could feel her shiver as her eyes closed.

  “Uh hu-” Maggie’s eyes opened and narrowed in on him. Yeah, maybe he went a little too far this time. “You—” she pointed her finger at him “—are trying to use sex to get me to change my mind. It’s not going to work.” Oh yeah, she was so sexy when she was angry. He really had no clue what she was saying, because all he could see was the way her lips moved and the way the fire lit up her eyes, making them dance around. Man, this woman did it for him, and he hadn’t even had sex with her.

  “How about we get MJ to help us find out where the address is, and then we can go see them after the funeral tomorrow.” Judd offered. She stood there and blinked a couple of times. “I did say we.”

  “I know. I thought maybe you said it by mistake, so say it again,” Maggie asked without cracking a smile. The woman had a great poker face, and all he wanted to do was kiss it, bite it, and then suck on it; and that’s what he did. Judd leaned down and licked her lips so they would open. Lightly, he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, tasting her lips as his tongue eased its way inside. He loved everything about this woman. Even when she was angry, she did things that no other woman could. The woman could kiss like nothing else, and her taste was blasting in his mouth.

  “We have to stop.” Maggie pulled away, putting her hand up against her mouth.

  “I’m sorry, but you taste so good.” Judd licked his lips, tasting her still on his tongue. “We have got to find these people.”

  “I know, but first we have to have the funeral.” He smiled, hoping that she wasn’t mad at him anymore. “Besides, you’re not out of hot water yet. Just because I let you kiss me doesn’t mean I’m not mad. You could’ve gotten killed, or gotten Brody killed. It doesn’t matter that you both came out of it okay, I should have been there, Judd. I should have been there.”

  Judd hated to admit that she was right and he was wrong. Maggie had already shown that she could handle herself, but the fear was sti
ll there, after losing a member of his pride. And not just any member, but a best friend and family member. Penn had lived with him, and he had yet to grieve for him. He couldn’t afford to right now if he wanted to stay sharp. Judd needed to stay vigilant, or something else bad would happen. That’s how he handled everything. If he didn’t he would fall apart, and Maggie needed him.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you behind.” That was all he could say. The only way to keep Maggie safe was to have her with him at all times. Nobody would protect her like he would.

  Judd watched as her eyes widened. “I just can’t believe you said that. I never thought you would apologize.”

  Judd smiled and put his hand up to her face. “I do apologize, sometimes.”

  They both laughed. “Like you said, sometimes. I’ve just never seen it.” Judd heard his phone beeping. He hated to pull away from her, but this was probably important. The meeting was going to be on Malone pack land. He figured that Me-Len and the coven members had probably gotten some information from the wizard they caught earlier.

  “Let’s get MJ and her stuff. We need to go meet the others. I hope they got some information out of this last guy. We need something that will help us for a change.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Judd could tell that Maggie missed her cousin Judith and was excited to see her again as they pulled up at Ryder Malone’s residence. “You said that Ryder’s mate is a witch?” MJ asked.

  “Yes she is, and a very powerful one, but she’s also a nerd like yourself. Zoey, Ryder’s sister, is her partner. They own a computer business; you should see some of their designs. That’s why I’m excited about you three getting together with them. God only knows what sci-fi things you girls are going to come up with.”

  “All I want to do is help—and of course annihilate that bitch into a million pieces and send that dragon back to Hell,” MJ answered. Maggie listened to how confident MJ was. Not just confident, but determined. Maybe that was how they needed to keep seeing this. They had to believe that they were going to win no matter what happened.