Grady looked at the werewolves around him and he cursed internally when he realized that the only one not looking at him with malice or disgust was Varya.
If he knew things would turn out like this, he would stay in the human town and not seek werewolves. But then… if he did that, he wouldn't be able to inhale the addictive scent of peanut butter and feel the goodness of the sparks that came with Varya's touch.
Grady didn't care about Tristan and he definitely didn't care about these people that surrounded him. The only person he cared about was the brunette he knew as Varya, and she wanted to be with him, but things got complicated and he needed to use his wits to come out of it alive and with his mate.
"How about you ask questions, and then you can decide if you will believe me or not?", Grady asked.
They all looked at Maddox who took this as his cue to start.
"Tell me about your mission. Why did you come here? When? How?"
Grady didn't delay with answering.
"A few days ago, Nick told us that we will be heading to the Blue River pack for a mission. They said it will be easy. Infiltration, scouting, nothing more than that. We heard that there will be a big party for Luna and it was not unusual for us to take advantage of people celebrating so that we can gather information. Two days back, we were preparing for departure when we received additional information. They said that we confirmed our target will be attending this event and that our mission will change slightly. There was a crate of cube-shaped devices we needed to hide. Nick said that if we are nearby one of those, Alphas won't be able to find us or harm us."
Grady looked at Talia. "We each got to see photos of the same woman. Our main mission was to bring Luna Talia to our camp. If we encounter her, we were to persuade her to come with us with the only limitation that she shouldn't be harmed. Nick showed us a map of this area and assigned us spots where we will hide. If we encounter patrols, we were to run and not cause a commotion."
As Grady spoke about Talia, people looked at her and Damon nervously, fearing that Damon will explode into violence. However, Talia and Damon were not surprised to hear that she was the target. They heard it before.
"What would you do with Talia after you get her?" Maddox asked.
"That is how much our group got to know," Grady responded honestly. "I was just a messenger. In the last few months, I collected a few packages in a human city. I would go to the address that was either a nightclub or a bar, and a package would be waiting for me. I never saw who left it there, or what was inside, and the bartender who was holding onto the package was just a human who did it for extra tips."
"Is that how you got those devices?" Maddox asked.
"As I said, I never looked inside packages. They told me to pick up whatever is there and bring it back without questions asked, and I was not allowed to look what was inside."
Maddox guessed that would be a dead end. Rogues don't have loyalty toward anyone. Whoever was pulling the strings would keep as much as possible to himself. Betrayal meant death, and most of the rogues hated packs so much that they would kill themselves when caught out of spite.
It's not that rogues were crazed fanatics out of choice, but the lack of a pack link changed them.
Wolves are social creatures, who live in packs with a strict hierarchy, and they see themselves as part of something bigger. When that is taken away from them, their wolves turn feral and they go… rogue.
Some wolves are born outside packs, and they accept individuality as normal, even though they always feel that something is lacking. However, when a werewolf is banished from a pack later in his life, the missing pack link is a hole he knows that shouldn't be there. There is a pain of rejection and the pack link breaking, and that wound festers and grows until they lose their compassion and empathy. The weak-minded ones succumb to it faster.
Banishing one from a pack is the death penalty for a werewolf.
Maddox was genuinely surprised that Grady knew that much, and he was collaborating.
Now, was he collaborating because of Varya, or because he was deceiving them, that was another thing Maddox needed to figure out.
"Who is Nick?" Maddox asked.
"That's Tristan's second in command."
"Who is Tristan?", Cornelia asked.
"It's a small-time rogue who causes us trouble occasionally," Caden responded.
"Are you saying that rogues we met last night belong to Tristan's group?" Maya asked. "There were hundreds of them."
Grady shook his head. "No, no. Tristan said that many groups came together for this. Some had a task to attack storages, some were to distract the patrols, and our group had Luna Talia as the target."
Talia thought of asking one thing that was bothering her from last night. "How did you know Luna Talia will attend this event?"
"We got information that Alpha Damon left with his Luna," Grady responded.
"From?" Talia continued probing.
Grady's brows came together. "I already told you all that I know, but I can tell you the rumor that's circulating."
Damon waved at Grady, indicating to keep talking.
"There is a woman by Tristan's side. I believe she is his mate. I'm not sure what her name is. The word is that she has access to confidential information from the Dark Howlers pack."
Maddox frowned. That was so vague. "Is that the rumor?"
"No. Those are facts. The rumor is that she grew up in the packhouse of the Dark Howlers pack and is very close to their Alpha. Her mother still works there or something like that, and that's how Tristan found out that Luna Talia left the packhouse. There was also something related to her telling Tristan about a scent-concealing potion and where it was made."
"Scent-concealing?" James asked. "Is that what you used last night?"
Grady nodded. "Tristan sent a group to the Dark Howlers pack and they got their hands on how to make it. I don't know if they bribed someone, stole it, or..."
Grady's voice trailed when he noticed that Talia, Damon, Maya, and Caden were staring at him like he was growing a second head. Or did he burst into flames? Grady quickly looked down to check himself. No, everything was normal.
"Did I say something wrong?" Grady asked apprehensively.
"You say you don't know the woman's name," Maya said. "Did you see her? What does she look like?"
"I caught a glimpse of her once. Dark brown hair, or maybe black." He gestured just below his shoulder level. "Not very tall, nor curvaceous, but not skinny either. I wouldn't say she stands out in any way, other than having Tristan's mark on her neck."
"Could you draw her?" Maya asked, desperately hoping that it was not Lisa.
Grady made a face. "My drawing skills are horrible. The female will look no better than a stick figure. If you have a picture, I can identify her."
Unfortunately, no one had Lisa's photo handy, but considering the information Grady told them, they all suspected that Tristan's mysterious mate was Lisa. Now what?
