Chapter 22: Royce - Marked By Love

“We will find him and destroy him!”

His wolf snarled a list of gruesome tortures and deaths he wanted to inflict on Gage Prescot. While Royce agreed with most of them, he wasn’t about to encourage his wolf’s fantasies. He was still livid at the furry bastard for trying to bite Theo.

“If I had thumbs, I would use rusty hedge clippers to remove his head. Oh, I know! I can bite out his hamstrings. Once he’s down, you can use your thumbs on the rusty hedge clippers. Then we can display his severed head on a pike in front of the cabin as a warning to all who wish our mate harm.”

Royce had parked at the enforcers’ office by now. He’d called Argus while he was driving. As luck would have it, Elk Cove’s head alpha was there for a meeting with Lucy, head of the enforcers’ office.

“Royce,” Amelia called. “Where the hell have you been?”

His co-worker jogged up to him in the parking lot and accompanied him into the building.

“Five days ago, Buford shows up, covered in blood, saying you need an extended leave of absence. No explanation, nothing. What the hell happened?”

Before he had the chance to answer, or invite her to his meeting, their enforcer trainees caught up to them.

The young alphas were being boisterous and talking in detail about another group of omegas that had moved to Elk Cove. While Royce was always annoyed by this type of banter, today his fuse was nonexistent.

“That one, Cecille, is a piece of work,” Nick said. “She smelled like fucking croissants.”

“You know what fucking a pastry smells like?” Matt quipped.

“Warm, buttery, and slippery—just the way I like it.”

Matt snorted while Nick continued to detail the different omegas he preferred and their various assets.

Royce growled. Amelia put a hand on his arm and stopped their group.

“Boys, be quiet,” she commanded.

Either they didn’t hear her, or they didn’t care because they continued in the same manner. Then Matt said something that made Royce’s stomach drop out and his blood turn to ice.

“Those new ones still got nothing on Doc. Have you met the vet? He’s got the tightest little—”

Royce grabbed the boy by the neck and slammed him into the nearest wall.

“Royce!”

“What the?!”

All around him, shouts erupted, and hands grabbed at him, but Royce ignored them. His hand flexed around Matt’s neck, his teeth elongated as he snarled.

The blood drained from Matt’s face, his eyes blew wide, and he was quick to splutter apologies. The only problem was Royce had already heard his crude thoughts and knew where they were going, and Royce’s hand was currently cutting off Matt’s air supply, successfully ending his hollow placations.

Royce’s vision was laser-focused, watching the young alpha’s face contort as he paled, then turned red. Matt’s eyes bulged, and his mouth gaped, desperate for air. His wolf growled in satisfaction.

Somewhere in the haze, several pairs of hands gripped him and yanked him back while others wrapped around his fingers and pried them open. He snarled unintelligibly as a group strong-armed him down the hall.

Something slammed into his chest, and he was knocked backward into a bright room. The door banging shut cut off his visual connection with the alpha who was talking about Theo. In an instant, Royce slumped over, bracing his hands on his knees, panting. He was winded and covered in a cold sweat; his fingers trembled as he stumbled into a wall for support.

“You better?” Amelia asked.

“What? What the fuck just happened?”

“Well,” Scott said, “a few things simultaneously, actually. First, we figured out why you were stalking the vet. Second, you tried to kill Matt for making gross comments about your mate. Third, we figured out where the hell you’ve been: holed up with your omega, I’m assuming? Congrats on the new bond.”

Scott clapped him on the shoulder. Royce winced.

The door opened, then closed as Lucy came in. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re asking to meet with me and Argus has something to do with you trying to commit homicidal cut-throat in my hallway.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Shut up,” Lucy interrupted. “Those young alphas need to learn to keep themselves in check before they grow into bona fide alpha-assholes. The way I see it, you’re doing a community service.”

“You requested a meeting with Lucy and Argus?” Amelia asked.

“Yes, and I was going to invite you before … well, you were there,” Royce said. “Where’s Argus?”

“Yelling at Matt and Nick,” Lucy said. “I guess the kids had another strike before this one, and Argus is currently reading them the riot act.”

“They’ve been especially rowdy lately,” Amelia said. “I think their first rut is about to start; they’re at that age. Not that it’s any excuse.”

They all groaned in acknowledgement. Every alpha had one at the end of puberty, but they needed to work through it and learn to control their shit so they didn’t become an unbearable nuisance.

“Don’t you need to call your mate?” Scott asked. Royce must have looked as confused as he felt, because Scott continued. “After that influx of rage, Doc woulda felt that. He might be worried.”

“Oh, right, about that. We haven’t exactly sealed the bond yet.”

“What? But it’s been days. Is something wrong?”

“Yes, but I’d rather only explain it once.”

Scott nodded, and they waited in silence until Argus joined them three minutes later.

“Those two are on cleanup duty for the foreseeable future.” Argus sat in one of the chairs in the little conference room. “Now, why don’t we get down to what’s really going on, Royce?”

Royce started the arduous task of relaying the events of the last several days. Buford came into the conference room with homemade honey, nut, and berry granola bars around the time Royce got to the part about Theo vomiting blood. Buford helped fill in some of the technical details. Eventually Royce got to the part about the trafficking ring in Seerinoga and the alpha that was hunting Theo because of the data his dad had smuggled out of the territory.

The room was deadly silent. The type of silence that not only rings in your ears, but hangs heavy over your chest, suffocating you.

“Scott,” Argus said at last. “What omega settlement was Freddy from?”

“Waynezville,” Scott whispered. “There were rumors of something similar there. He always suspected it was one of the governing officials or security guards who kidnapped him and sold him.”

“Royce,” Argus asked. “You said Theodore’s father had evidence. Has any of that evidence survived?”

“It’s all still on his flash drive.”

“Do you have that with you?”

“No. He’s … a bit skeptical of sharing that. But he did tell me the name of the alpha running the trafficking ring in Seerinoga. Gage Prescot.”

“What? No, that can’t be. He’s the head of security at Waynezville,” Scott said.

“Perhaps,” Lucy said. “He’s both.”

“He would have an entire empire right under everyone’s noses,” Amelia said.

“I’m not sure how ‘under the nose’ it is when the government is participating,” Scott said.

Argus threaded his fingers together in front of his face, his brow knit. He was silent for a long time before responding.

“Here’s what we are going to do. First, Theodore cannot under any circumstances be left alone. We need to schedule round-the-clock guards on him and the vet clinic. Next, anyone from Elk Cove who has contact with omegas living in these omega settlements needs to reach out to them. At this point, we need to assume every omega settlement is a trap. We can invent a damned omega retreat in the mountains for all I care, just get as many of them out as we can. I’ll turn the Town Hall into a second omega house if I have to.

“Lastly, and most importantly, Royce, I need you to get me that flash drive. Make copies of it before you come over if it puts your mate at ease, but we need what’s on that drive if we have any hopes of shutting this down. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Argus nodded. “I have contacts across the North American Union, I’ll start poking around, but everything needs to be done discreetly. If anyone involved with this trafficking gets suspicious, they’ll start destroying evidence, and in this case that means eliminating any omegas they have in their control. While we need to move swiftly, we cannot underestimate the need for caution.

“Royce, do what you need to do so you can go back to that cabin and stay there until we have a proper security rotation set up. The rest of us will worry about everything else. You just keep that omega and that flash drive safe.”

“Yes, sir.”