Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret

Chapter 290

It’s a text message from Ryker, not a call.

But it’s still just as shocking.

He went rogue.

He ordered his pack to sla ghter most of the Council.

And then he took the dangerous Al tech.

What could he even want?

“What does it say?” I ask in trepidation as Aaron reads the text.

“It’s an address, nothing more,” Aaron replies, seeming both thoughtful and suspicious.

“It could be some kind of trap,” I tell him, not able to think of why Ryker would send us an address with

no other information.

“Could be,” Aaron says, getting to his feet. “But I’m going to check it out anyway. Coming?”

Aaron holds his hand out for me, and I smile as I take it and get to my feet.

It fills me with love and gratification that he respects me as an Alpha in my own right.

That he just assumes I’ll be coming with him and can take care of myself.

Instead of telling me I’m weak or need protecting or some other baloney.

I gently pick up Ethan from the bed where he’s fallen asleep, and then take him across to his nursery.

He fusses a little as I put him down, but Aaron calls Tara up to settle him back down again, and then we

go down through the house and out to where James and William are waiting in the SUV.

Not much is said as we drive.

Interestingly, the address in on what used to be Karolina’s pack lands.

Although, I assume they’re Ryker’s pack lands now, as he would have absorbed Karolina’s Alpha

power when he killed her.

I wonder how tortuous it would feel, to possess the Alpha power of the dead mate you killed with your

own bare hands.

It’s the stuff of nightmares, and I shudder to think about it.

We roll up slowly on the address-a small house in a modest street-trying to figure out of there are any

other wolves around.

There doesn’t seem to be anyone around, so we park and cautiously approach the house.

James and William go around the back, while Aaron and I walk up to the front.

Aaron rings the bell, but there’s no answer.

He looks around to make sure we aren’t being watched, and then uses his supernatural Alpha strength

to simply wrench the handle hard enough to break the locking mechanism inside.

We walk in, finding the house quiet, dusty and seeming abandoned. James and William come in from

the back, but say they didn’t see anyone around either.

Ryker’s scent lingers in here, so he can’t have been gone that long.

We explore the house, until we come to the dining room.

There, on the dusty table is the solid-state drive from the

quantum computer that runs the Al tech.

There’s also a note, and Aaron picks it up to scan the contents. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Ryker has gone back to The Old Country,” Aaron reports. “According to this, he’d already be on a flight

to Romania by now. He says he only took the tech to make sure no one else. got their hands on it-there

still might be people within the Council we can’t trust. He says he’s not sorry for ordering his pack to

attack the Council, but he’s ready to go home and face the consequences of his actions.”

“Do you think he even really went rogue?” I ask as I check over the SSD, but it doesn’t seem to be

damaged, and I’m pretty sure it’s not a fake. “Or was it just some kind of cover for what he really

intended to do-get the drive?”

“I don’t think there’s any way to ever know for sure,” Aaron replies. “But at least we finally got this dabn

software out of their hands.”

“Thank g d!” I say adamantly, and Aaron laughs in relief.

This da n piece of tech that my father and brother put so much of our pack’s money into.

Except all it’s done it cause problems and death since the day I found out about it.

“The real question is,” I say to Aaron. “Is what do we do with it now?”

B