Cole's Redemption (Alpha Pack #5)(44)

Zan sighed, wiped his hands in the grass, and stood. “I’m the guy who exterminates creeps like this one. Just think of me as the Orkin man.”

The Fed failed to see the humor. Imagine that.

“You—you tore out his heart.”

“Only way to keep them from rising again.”

“Rising again?”

His face was white.

“That was a rogue vampire,” Zan informed him. The horse was out of the barn anyway. “Some vamps are good, and some have gone bad. That one was bad. And there are a lot more of them where he came from, FYI.”

“What are you?”

Zan let his muzzle elongate, showed his fangs. The claws on his hands. Let them stay just long enough to convince the man he wasn’t having a nightmare.

“Holy shit!”

“I’m a wolf shifter, and my team is like me. This is what we do—we rid the world of paranormal bad guys before the general populace has any clue stuff like this really exists. But secrecy is getting harder to maintain, as you can attest.”

“What do we do now?” The man was regaining some of his composure, the agent in him returning to the fore to give him some stability.

“I go about my business with my team. You keep your mouth shut about your newfound reality. If you can do this, we might have an alliance at some point that’s mutually beneficial to both of our employers.”

Now he had the guy. He was all agent again, thinking on his feet. Assessing. “That could work. Okay. I’ll keep my mouth shut. May need to call on you guys sometime. My name is Kyle Garrett.” Fishing in his wallet, he gave Zan his card. “That’s got my cell phone on it.”

“I’m Zander Cole. I don’t have a card, but here’s my cell number.” He recited that while Garrett punched the contact into his phone.

As they finished up, Nick and Jax waded through the creek and came jogging over to them. As soon as Nick took in what was going on, he cursed.

“This is Agent Kyle Garrett, boss. He’s in the know.”

“Goddammit.” He pinned Garrett with a steely look. “You breathe a word about this to anyone—”

“I won’t. You have my word.”

“Good. Let’s get this shit cleaned up.” His gaze rested on the poor human’s body, and he cursed again.

The cleanup took longer than expected, so it was well after noon before they were ready to go. As the Feds prepared to take them back to the copters, Zan posed a question to Nick.

“Why did that rogue stay behind? What was his goal?”

“You’re assuming he had one. But yeah, that was odd.”

“Was he left behind to watch us from back there? And he was just stupid enough to leave the blood trail?”

Nick blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Seems more likely he wanted to lure someone else back there. Maybe he was working on his own, maybe not.”

There was nothing else to be gleaned from the scene. At the copters, another car arrived bearing a young man. He was dressed in jeans and a hoodie pulled up over his head, sunglasses on his face. To protect his skin and eyes from the sun, now that he was a new vampire. Poor kid.

The boy ended up riding with Zan and his group. Zan tried to engage him some, but between the noise and the young man’s trauma, it was a lost cause. He hoped the vampires would be able to help the kid start over.

What would it be like to be nineteen for eternity? What a strange thought.

The boy settled in and dozed, so Zan did the same. His thigh throbbed from time to time, but other than making a mess on the leg of his jeans, it looked worse than it really was. He could have it tended to at Prince Tarron’s stronghold.

He awoke fully when he felt the descent. They came in for a landing, putting down in a decent flat area close to the mountains. The sun was starting to dip in the sky, and the scenery was stunning. It wasn’t unlike where the Pack lived, but the prince and his coven lived in the mountains, not at the base of them, from what he understood.

The copters powered down and everyone got out, stretching. Zan was already tired and hoped they’d hold off on the meeting until tomorrow, but vamps were night creatures, so he didn’t count on it.

Within minutes, two stretch limousines appeared around the bend and drove up, rolling to a stop.

Aric whistled. “Now, that’s what I’m f**kin’ talkin’ about! Why can’t we have limos instead of SUVs?”

“Um, because we don’t want to attract attention wherever we go?” Nick said, lips quirking.

“Oh. There is that.”

Their banter was interrupted when a tall, impressive figure emerged from the first limo. If Zan had been expecting a dark cape, he would’ve been disappointed. The man he assumed could only be Prince Tarron Romanoff was dressed in a stylish dark suit and light blue shirt with a tie. His dark brown hair was touching his collar, all one length and tucked behind one ear. He had a youthful but handsome face and vivid eyes Zan could only describe as purple.

The guy looked like a movie star or a model. He was also wearing a wide smile, and his expression reflected genuine welcome. He strode forward to shake Nick’s hand.

“Nick Westfall? Tarron Romanoff. It’s a pleasure to meet you in person.”

“Likewise.” Nick smiled. “I’ve heard lots of good things about you from our mutual friend.”