Palming her nape purely because he wanted to touch her, Alex called Vinnie and brought him up to speed.
“I’ll gather a few cats to come with us to scout out the location,” said Vinnie, a note of keenness in his voice. “Can you be ready to leave in twenty minutes?”
“I’ll be ready,” replied Alex.
“Then I’ll meet you at the antique store shortly.” The line went dead.
Bree clutched her hands together. “What did Vinnie say?”
Alex swept his gaze over each person in the room. “He’s going to gather a small group—we’ll leave in about twenty minutes.”
“Why only small group?” demanded Isaak, scowling. “Why not more?”
“Because we’re not heading there to have a war.” Alex almost rolled his eyes as disappointment flashed across his uncle’s face. “We want to survey the area, confirm the hyenas are there, and then I’ll leave my message.”
“War delivers biggest message,” Isaak pointed out. His brothers nodded.
“But if what Dale Bray said at the mediation was true, the only thing the hyenas are guilty of is sending the ex-cop to talk to Bree.” Alex wasn’t happy that the wolf approached her, especially since he’d pulled out a gun, but it wasn’t a reason to start a war.
People died in wars. They lost mates, children, parents, siblings, friends. Alex had already attended a memorial for two of his pride mates; he didn’t want to attend more.
“Then why act at all?” asked Sergei.
“Because I don’t trust that they’ve truly given up on trying to find Paxton. If they haven’t, they might harass Bree again. I just want to penetrate their territory’s defenses, leave a little message inside so that they know they’re not safe from me if they ever come after my mate, and then I’ll come home. That’s it.”
Each of his uncles let out heavy sighs, their shoulders slumping. Well, they did like a good fight, even if it was over jack shit.
“We will come with you to see location,” announced Dimitri.
Alex’s brow creased. “Why?”
Dimitri lifted his mug. “We are nosy. Why else?”
“Whatever.” Alex chugged back a cup of coffee and scoffed down a Danish so fast he barely tasted it. He headed to the bedroom with Bree hot on his heels, who was nervously tugging on her earlobe.
As he pulled on his clothes, he spoke to her. “Stick with Greg while you’re outdoors. When you’re done …” He trailed off, realizing it might not be best to ask her to return to his apartment. It was doubtful that Paxton would manage to get inside, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try it. That was a risk that Alex didn’t want to take. Asking her to head to his parents’ place—and essentially hide—would only rub her up the wrong way, though.
“After the meeting, I’ll go hang out with Elle in her apartment until you come home,” said Bree with a sigh, obviously sensing his internal struggle. “I don’t want you distracted worrying about me while you’re trying to infiltrate an underground hyena den.”
Crossing to her, Alex rested his forehead against hers and squeezed her nape in thanks. “I won’t be long.”
She laid a hand on his chest. “What kind of message are you planning to leave?”
“I don’t plan on killing anyone, if that’s what you’re asking.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “I just want them to know I can get in or out of their territory unseen. I want them to know I could have easily killed one of theirs if I’d really wanted to.”
She blew out a breath and then gave him a soft smile. “Be careful.”
“Always, baby girl.”
While the primary read the notes from her file aloud, Bree snuck a glance at the wall clock. Yep, it was a whole minute since the last time she’d looked at it.
Really, she felt shitty. Because no matter how hard she tried to focus on what Dani was saying, Bree occasionally found herself zoning out. She just couldn’t concentrate.
She’d thought that going to the meeting would keep her distracted. Well, she was wrong. Was that any surprise, though? Hell, her mate meant to infiltrate an underground hyena den alone. It was hard to think about anything else. She couldn’t stop obsessing over what could go wrong. If it all went to shit, if they sensed his presence and captured him …
She found herself constantly fussing with her clothes, twirling her ankle, and crossing and uncrossing her legs. She was so damn edgy her skin tingled, as if every nerve-ending was hypersensitive with anxiety.
Her cat was equally tense. She had faith in him, just as Bree did. But she’d worry nonetheless, because that was what mates did.
Bree had thought about insisting on going along to check out the coordinates—she could have hung back with Vinnie while her mate crept into the den. But Alex would have been so distracted by her being close that he wouldn’t have had his head on straight.