Chapter 28

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"Good morning alpha Nick."

"Good morning David, hope you had a pleasant trip." they were seated in Nick's office.

"As pleasant as a trip can be" David hated flying, closed spaces was not his thing.

"So, what brings you to this part of the world?" Nick asked now that pleasantries were out of the way.

David smiled with a look that said do you even have to ask?

"The council has been concerned about the events happening here."

Nick remained impassive but raised an eyebrow "The council? Or just one member of the council?"

David leaned back in his chair. He hated politics.

"Even one member is a part of the council, alpha and if they are concerned it is worth investigating." as if he was not literally pushed out of the door by Gordon Lockbourne to come here.

"I am honored!" Nick said "But what I fail to understand is why now?"

David looked confused.

"Do you know how many packs are registered with the American council from Colorado David?" Nick asked.

He didn't and it was more of rhetorical question. So David waited.

"Seventeen." Nick paused and added "Do you know how many remain today?"

Again, after a moments silence he added "one. Mine"

"So my question to you, enforcer is where was the council when we were being hunted and killed like dogs?"

David did not miss the flash of anger in the alpha's voice. He was surprised at this information.

Gordon Lockbourne had sounded the enforcers off even before he or his team heard anything that there were going to be some disturbances in Colorado and the American council was handling it. So when some news had indeed come out, he had not paid attention to it. It was presented to him as if it was a minor skirmish that local alphas were handling. Not this, certainly not this.

Nick noted the surprise in David's face "Didn't know this did you?" he asked smugly.

"I wonder what else you don't know. What else your master has decided to keep you in dark on?" he whispered more to himself but was clearly intended for David's ears.

The master bit was a deliberate insult. David ignore it, he had bigger fish to fry.

"Nevertheless I am here to find what really happened."

Emotions flashed on Nick's face.

"Oh! I will tell you exactly what happened enforcer" He said with emotion.

"One pack at a time were hunted and eliminated by rogues. While we begged and pleaded with the seven." The seven he referred to were the seven members of the American council.

"No help came!" He bitterly spat.

"Why didn't you approach us?" David interjected "We could have helped" he added.

Nick gave a bitter laugh "Do you think we had the luxury or your council's bickering and internal wrangling while we were being slaughtered. I do not have the same faith on your council as you do. Especially with Gordon on the chair. What do you think he would have done when we bypass the seven? Don't you think Gordon did not know what the seven were up to?" Nick asked and continued "I don't think so. So I turned to the only source of help I could find. If they had not come in when they did, we would also have been wiped out."

"I called them to help me and they did" Nick said.

"Just like that?" David asked doubtful.

Nick gave a sardonic smile "Is anything in the world free?"

"There were conditions...That I agreed to, at that time I really did not have a choice. Any alternative was better that getting slaughtered."

"So what was the price?" David asked curious, what did those Roma wolves want from Nick.

"Freedom" Nick stated "That was their price. Freedom in exchange for our life"

"What do you..."David paused, his head spinning as the meaning of Nick's words registered in his brain.

It couldn't be!

No alpha in his right mind would do that, unless...unless he felt he had no other choice. At that point Nick did not have one.

"You can't possibly mean..." he couldn't even say it.

"Yes, I took the blood oath" Nick said in a calm steady voice.

David's brain was still reeling, trying to figure out the consequences of such an action. Nick could clearly imagine his line of thought.

"By the time Roma wolves saved us, the rest of the packs in Colorado were decimated, the remaining few scattered away and went into hiding. Once the dust settled down, I offered them refuge and financial assistance. They agreed to assimilate into my pack"

David's eyes widened as he took a sharp breath.

"Then" Nick said "I vowed my allegiance to Roma in a blood oath."

Nick finally dropped the bomb.

"The state of Colorado is now officially part of kingdom of Roma"

***

"Maxwell!" Alex rushed in to Maxwell's room early in the morning"She is turning!"

"What?" Maxwell asked confused "What are you talking about?"

"Evelyn!" Alex exclaimed "Your mate! She is turning"

"What! So fast?" Maxwell asked surprised, Alex simply shrugged.

Maxwell got up and started to step out "Where are you going?"

"To her, where else?" Maxwell said

"Bad Idea Maxwell" Alex said putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

Something flickered in Maxwell's eyes and Alex immediately dropped his hand.

"Why?" Max asked in all seriousness.

"She has fever, she is incoherent and most of all her mother and Jeff will not welcome you with open arms. Do you want to have a confrontation on her doorsteps?"

"What am I supposed to do then? Sit around doing nothing?" Maxwell asked frustrated.

"Like you have been doing anything else" Alex blurted back and an awkward silence followed "Shit!" Alex muttered running his hands through his hair in frustration "I didn't mean it that way!"

"I know exactly which way you meant it" Maxwell retorted bitterly.

"Look" Alex said putting his hands in surrender "She was a friend of mine alright! And what you did to her pissed me off! So I think you can cut me some slack here." They were all under stress.

To Alex's surprised Maxwell's shoulders slacked the fight going out of him.

"Every single day of my life I have to live with that" he whispered and looked at Alex with such guilt and emotion that Alex felt like a tool "She might forgive me for it one day, I hope she does. But, I will never forgive myself for that"

Crap! Now he felt horrible "Look, what we need to focus on is move forward. After all a very wise man once told me that we all commit mistakes but what we do about them, defines who we really are."

Maxwell smiled at that, he knew exactly who had told that to Alex, it seemed a lifetime away. He missed his father very badly!

"Listen!" Alex put his hand on Maxwell's shoulder and gently guided him back in to the room "I might have a plan to make things work, so pay attention to me."

Both friends walked back into the room Maxwell listening and Alex laying out his plan.

***

After a prolonged silence from David after Nick's declaration asked "What happened to the rogues?"

"Most of them were killed, the rest they were captured and then re-distributed."

"Re-distributed?"

"Yes, some assimilated into my pack, most of them were from the older Colorado packs who were forced to join them the others were split and packed up to be sent across Europe & Australia."

"Australia?" David asked surprised. Where did Australia come in to all this?

Nick simply shrugged.

"Yes, those bastards even had an alpha! Can you believe that? A rogue Alpha? So they had to be split up so that they did not ever think of regrouping again."

Today was a day of surprises for David.

"So they killed this alpha?"

Nick shrugged "They captured him, beyond that I don't know."

"You don't know what happened to the rogue alpha?" David asked surprised.

"I never asked" Nick confessed. He somehow felt there was a don't ask, don't tell policy on the topic of the rogue alpha.

"So, the rogue alpha just disappeared?" David asked with disbelief.

"I guess disappeared for good" Nick added, implying he was killed but he had not really cared at that time all he was more worried about staying alive and rebuilding his pack.

"So let me get this straight." David began summarizing what he heard till now.

"A pack of rogues who appear all of sudden out of nowhere, attack Colorado and manage to wipe out all packs, which meant their training and skill had to be same if not better that yours. Roma jumps in to your rescue your pack in nick of time, apparently ready in the wings to swoop in and save the day and the rogues they catch, they conveniently ship them off to god knows where. Did I get it right?" David summarized.

What was he getting at? Nick wondered but nodded.

"Alpha" David asked with all seriousness leaning over the desk towards Nick

 "Did it ever occur to you that the whole thing might have been orchestrated by Roma?"