Damien’s POV
The knock on my office door ca at exactly the wrong ti.
I was elbow-deep in budget reports that should have been reviewed a week ago. My eyes burned from staring at spreadsheets. My third cup of coffee had gone cold an hour ago.
"What?" The word ca out sharper than I intended.
Lucas stuck his head in, undeterred by my tone. "Got news. About our friends."
I sat up straighter. "Voss and Valerie?"
"Yeah." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. His expression was grim. "And it’s... complicated."
"Complicated how?"
Lucas dropped into the chair across from my desk with a heavy sigh. "Our scouts tracked activity in three different locations over the past seventy-two hours. All of them matched the pattern we’ve been following."
"Three locations?" I frowned. "That doesn’t make sense. They can’t be in three places at once."
"Exactly." Lucas pulled out his phone, swiping through what looked like surveillance reports. "Which ans either they’re moving faster than we thought possible, or..."
"Or soone’s feeding us false information."
"Bingo." He tossed his phone onto my desk. "Half of these sightings contradict each other. Ti stamps don’t line up. Descriptions vary. It’s like chasing ghosts."
I picked up his phone, scrolling through the reports. He was right. The details were all wrong. Too vague in so places, too specific in others.
"They know we’re hunting them," I said quietly.
"Yeah. And they’re playing gas." Lucas leaned back in his chair. "Question is, what do we do about it?"
I set the phone down, my jaw clenching. Three years. Three fucking years of hunting these bastards, and now they were toying with us.
"We keep looking," I said. "What other choice do we have?"
"Actually..." Lucas hesitated. "I might have an idea. A different approach."
Sothing in his tone made look up sharply. "What kind of approach?"
"Hear out before you say no." He held up both hands. "You rember what I said about recruiting from the underground? The fight circuits?"
"Lucas—"
"Just listen. These rogues are recruiting from sowhere, right? They’re getting fresh blood, new fighters. Strong ones." He leaned forward, his expression intense. "What if we did the sa thing? What if we went to the source?
I stared at him. "You want to recruit from human fight clubs."
"Not just any fight clubs. The real underground stuff. Where wolves go when they don’t want pack affiliations." His eyes glead with sothing that looked like excitent. "Think about it. These fighters are trained. Brutal. They know how to survive outside pack structures. They’d be perfect for tracking rogues."
"They’d also be unstable. Dangerous. Impossible to control."
"So are the rogues we’re fighting." Lucas shrugged. "At least this way, we’d have the dangerous ones on our side."
I rubbed my temples. A headache was forming behind my eyes. "Even if I agreed with this insane plan—which I don’t—how would we even find these fighters?"
"I’ve been doing research." He pulled out his phone again. "There’s a circuit in the city. Runs out of an old warehouse district. Big money. Serious talent."
"Human talent."
"So of them are human. So aren’t." Lucas’s grin was sharp. "That’s the beauty of it. These places don’t care what you are as long as you can fight."
I leaned back in my chair, studying my Beta’s face. He was serious about this. Actually, genuinely serious.
"Why now?" I asked. "Why push this so hard?"
Lucas’s expression shifted. Sothing uncomfortable flickered across his face.
"What aren’t you telling ?" I pressed.
"It’s..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, the pack’s training program has been struggling since—"
He stopped. Didn’t finish the sentence.
But he didn’t need to.
*Since Sera left.*
The unspoken words hung in the air like a accusation.
"Riley’s been handling most of the training," Lucas continued carefully. "But with the baby, she’s had to cut back. And honestly? We’re short on female trainers. The won in the pack, they need role models. Strong fighters they can look up to."
The anger flared hot and imdiate in my chest. I shoved it down.
"Fine," I said. "We’ll go look. Once. If it’s a waste of ti, we leave imdiately."
Lucas’s eyebrows shot up. "Seriously? Just like that?"
"Don’t make change my mind."
"No, no. I’m just surprised." He was already pulling up information on his phone. "There’s a fight tomorrow night. Big one. Supposed to have so of the best fighters in the circuit."
"And if the fights are disappointing?"
"Then we grab a beer and go ho." He grinned. "Co on. When’s the last ti you and I did sothing that wasn’t pack business?"
"Fine," I said again. "Tomorrow night. But I’m leaving if it’s boring."
"Deal." Lucas stood up, looking way too pleased with himself. "Trust . You won’t be bored."
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