Deciding to help him out, Theo broke in. "Let's get back to the point. The book that our mother covered that either does or does not indicate her initial love of power and strength, contains the incantation we need to free the demons and send them away for all time. We need a plan. Faith and I felt it was better to include the whole pack or we would have just gone off and done this by ourselves. In retrospect, perhaps that's what we should have done."
"No." Tristan's voice sounded firm and his wolf eyes flared. "This is pack business. You were correct to bring it to the pack's attention."
Nodding and silently pleased with Tristan's answer, Theo finished the rest of his thought. "That is just what I hoped, my Alpha, but I am afraid we cannot continue this conversation. Not while we still have a traitor in our midst. Someone reporting directly to Kendrick."
Shocked silence filled the room. After Tristan's near death experience, Cullen, Gabriel, and Theo worked tirelessly to weed out who betrayed them. Now they had bigger problems than they'd had even then. "I realize my mate has not had time to report to the group what the circumstances of our meeting were but let's just say that I was in the process of trying to figure out what to do about catching one traitor when a second appeared with a shotgun."
"Theo's abilities--and I guess probably mine now--allow him to see things we cannot and experience sensations the rest of the pack is unaware of. Someone took several shots at Theo's head. Although, at the time, I could not see or feel the bullet fired at us had it connected with my head I would be dead as was evidenced by the log that exploded where I had been sitting." Faith's eyes were clear and proud, she was sure of what she spoke and confident in him. The combination reminded him that he was the luckiest shifter in the universe for having found her.
Tristan stalked to the window and pounded his fists on the wall next to it. "Are we never to have any peace here? There are entities on this island plotting against us that we cannot see, hear, or scent?"
Theo walked to his brother and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Yes, my Alpha, but the blame is not yours. It is mine. I abandoned you for my own issues just when you needed me to act as your security chief. Perhaps if I had embraced the demon inside of me earlier we would have already handled these things."
Don't blame yourself. Faith's voice was soothing but he would not hide from fault when it was his to claim.
"They may be able to disguise their scent from me, Tristan, when they are running away on a boat or pursuing me in the woods. But someone is giving our father his information about our plans. It has always bothered me--and I know it drives Cullen crazy too--that Kendrick knew he, Gabriel, and Summer were going to Mexico to infiltrate his Institute. I'm not going to let another plan go astray because we are not cautious."
Raising an eyebrow, Tristan smiled. "What do you intend to do Theo?"
Privately, Tristan sent him a telepathic message. It's nice to have you back, brother.
"I don't know if the people who are invisible to others are related to the demon or some other kind of magic that only I can see because of the demon, so I will have to leave them alone until we get a hold of that book. But, I can still sniff out a traitor and I assure you, between Faith and me, we will find them, eliminate them, and then we will proceed with a plan unknown to Kendrick that will allow us to infiltrate him and take that book."
Tristan nodded. "Do it."
And make them pay.
"So how do you intend to handle this?" Faith had her hands clasped behind her back and she stood ramrod straight. He hoped he could alleviate whatever was wrong with her mood in a short enough period of time that they could get moving to discover the traitor.
"I have some ideas but I'd like to see what you think. Why is your back up?" Direct questions seemed to work best with Faith, which he appreciated because he was never any good at playing games.
"Oh, because you just took over my job."
He shook his head. "What?"
"Ah." She stomped over to him, holding eye contact, her pupils huge. He could hear that her pulse increased and the scent of her anger had his wolf pacing in panic. Neither one of them liked her angry with them.
"Before you go off the deep end here, try explaining it to me." Maybe not as gentle as he could be but truth was he wasn't a gentle man. She knew that about him now. He suspected she could handle him, regardless.
"I am the security chief of the pack since you ran away to play wolf-man in the woods. You just stepped back into that role like it was your given right without a by-your-leave to me." She didn't utter the words 'you insensitive jerk' but they were there loud and clear. He swallowed. It hadn't even occurred to him that she would have a problem with it.
But it should have. He dug deep inside of himself to the warm, loving place where Faith's soul was stored. Taking care of her responsibilities was part of the way she defined herself. The traitor was part of her domain.
"I didn't think you'd mind."
Faith threw her hands in the air. "Theo, we communicate telepathically. Did you think for one second that you should ask me before doing that? Just hey, Faith how would you feel if?"
"No."
Say you are sorry. His wolf didn't like anything about this fight and had started to pant in desperation.
I don't know that it will help anything.
"Well that's honesty. No. Okay." She nodded and he had no idea if she communicated with her wolf or if she talked to herself. Either way it didn't bode well for him.
"I'm sorry. I can try to do better next time. It was my first time back with the pack and I just stepped into my old role. I shouldn't have. I was wrong."
Faith blew out a breath. "It's okay." She shook her head. "I don't know why I'm making such a big deal out of this."
"Because I stepped on your toes and it bothered you. I would have felt the same way. It is your job. Would you like me to tell Tristan that I won't be pursuing the traitor?"
She laughed. "No, of course not. That has to be priority number one. We can't move on to getting that book until we find the traitor. I'm sorry Cullen even mentioned the book in front of whoever it might be."
"Actually, that's going to work to our advantage." He grinned and he knew his wolf was in his eyes. This had always been his forte. He could plot out scenarios and watch them come to fruition. It felt good to be back.
In the corner of his mind, he felt the demon stir and he pushed it down. The creatures would have to be content a little while longer. Nothing could be done until this was done.
Faith smiled, an open-mouthed grin that showed she enjoyed his enthusiasm for his course of action. "Tell me."
"Dad will believe he's above all of this. He thinks he's got us right where he wants us. Even when he was somewhat normal, he thought he was untouchable. He'll leave that book right out in the open now with that gold book cover exactly as Cullen described just to prove he's not the least bit concerned."
Faith nodded and crossed to the couch. He looked around the room. Truth was, he had very little stuff that was his, but it was going to have to be moved into here. He hoped she wasn't territorial about her things.
"Your father is amazingly bold. Why are you all so different? I thought it was because of your mother's influence but now I'm thinking she wasn't a peach either."