Fated

Chapter 39: Prepared

Xander POV:

As much as I would've loved to spend days with Addie, getting to know every single inch of her skin, the threat wouldn't let us. I isolated us as long as I could but unfortunately, we had to get to our responsibilities. Rego and the vampires wouldn't wait for us to bask in each other and so we had to act.

The Elders were permanently on my shit list. Lynn tried to talk to them and they did nothing. Addie's word meant nothing and neither did the word of the rogues we took in. They have no pack and their lack of loyalty makes them unreliable. That's what they said. Never mind these rogues banded together and were essentially an official pack. The way rogues were treated in our world was unacceptable. Just because a few of them made terrible choices didn't mean all of them did.

It was the one major point Alpha Rykan and I couldn't agree on.

We were trying to get Rykan on our side which was why we were currently in my office with him. I'd known him my whole life and his pack was in Washington, not too far from ours. Addie sat at my desk while I stood behind her with Rykan sitting across from us. He hadn't changed one bit since we were kids. The same stoic, grumpy expression, his dark hair still cut short, his copper eyes unfaltering to the point most leaders would take it as challenge. Except I knew him and this was just how Rykan was.

We explained the situation and although he appeared completely unaffected by everything we said, I knew the wheels were turning in there. He was better at stoic than even I was. The problem wasn't that he didn't believe us, it was the rogues.

Rykan and I had known each other since we were pups and while I understood that his hatred for rogues came from a very dark place in his past, it didn't make it okay for him to hate all of them. He would argue my good instances with some didn't make it okay to assume all were good. He was closest to Rego both geographically and in terms of alliance so Addie hoped we could sway him to help us but the moment he smelled rogues on our territory, it was a lost cause.

"You can be so fucking stupid sometimes," Rykan growled, crossing his arms.

"He's actually an amazing Alpha so you might want to check that tone," Addie snapped, meeting his glare just as fiercely.

"A good Alpha would not let a band of criminals onto his land, putting his pack in danger," Rykan snapped. "You have children that are less than a mile away from them, your own mate is less than a mile away and you're just trusting these rogues? Just like that? They were fighting against you for fuck's sake," he said, shaking his head. "What makes you think their switch of loyalty is genuine? For all you know, they agreed to this ridiculous arrangement just so they could feed information to Rego."

"You're not denying that Rego has a part in this," I pointed out.

"I can't confirm or deny it from any evidence except I don't think she's lying," Rykan said, his eyes darting to Addie. "I believe you, Luna, I truly do," Rykan said, meeting her gaze before bringing it back to me. "That being said, it unfortunately does not mean you can handle this however the fuck you feel like it with no physical evidence. You should wait for the Elder's involvement. It's the law, in case you've forgotten. Doing anything else would put you under their heat again and it would also put anyone helping you under that heat."

"Waiting on the Elders has historically gotten people killed for how long they take," I argued.

"Trusting rogues has historically gotten people killed," Rykan countered, narrowing his eyes. "I won't work with you while you have rogues on your territory. Find someone else," he growled, his eyes flickering for a moment. He had a worse temper than anyone else I knew.