Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 246: Loose Ends

Eli

I’m still not sure what to think of Tristan’s idea, but the rest of the Alphas seem to want to run with it. Personally, I’d rather see Gene’s head strung up on a pole, but I guess since we’re all going to be running a kingdom together, we need to compromise. I suppose I’ll see how I feel about it when we finally catch the bastard.

It doesn’t seem like that’s happening very soon. We’re being pulled in different directions, all for dead ends. Right now, we’re following up a lead of some guy with a long beard in Mark’s territory who’s been holed up in a shack on some agricultural land. Apparently, the owner saw him and thought he was suspicious, so he reported it to Mark’s warriors.

Gene didn’t have a beard when I saw him last, and it’s a pretty cheesy way to disguise himself, if not just flat-out stupid, so I suppose it could actually be him. He’s not exactly the brightest bulb.

We’re at the main house on the property talking to the owner, a man who is ironically also named Mark. This Mark is whispering to Alpha Mark about the guy on his land.

“He showed up a few days ago,” Mark the farmer says. “He didn’t ask if he could stay there, and I’ve been noticing produce gone from my storehouse, lots of it. The guy eats like a two-ton bull. I can’t afford to feed some guy who doesn’t even work for me.”

Alpha Mark nods. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.”

The farmer nods back and quickly retreats into his house. I guess he doesn’t want to see what happens next. Maybe he thinks that if it is Gene, we’ll slaughter him right here. I can’t say he’s wrong. At least, that’s what I want to do.

But I’ll keep that to myself for now.

We head off in the direction that Mark the farmer gave us and sure enough, there was a little shack out on the outskirts of his fields. It’s out in the middle of nowhere with no trees for cover, so we collectively decide after a quick mind-link meeting that we’re just going to march right out there. This guy is no match for four powerful Alphas, after all.

The entrance is on the opposite side of our approach, so we’re hoping he doesn’t spot us in the window and try to run. I’m in no mood to run, and if it’s Gene, I can’t promise he won’t accidentally get a wolf jaw to the neck.

But as we get closer, it looks like there won’t be a chase at all. As we round the corner and see the shack entrance, we spot the guy with the beard sitting there drinking a cup of what looks like coffee but smells awful just sitting on the board that’s serving as the front porch of the run-down house.

“Aw, I din’t know I was getting’ visitors,” the man says.

I squint, trying to see if it’s Gene, but I can’t tell. And I can’t get a whiff of his scent because whatever is in that cup smells so awful, I don’t even want to try.

But then the guy stands up, and we have before us a lanky guy who’s taller than all of us. Nope, this isn’t Gene for sure. I try to calm my nerves so I don’t yell at the guy for making us come all the way out here.

“Hey, ain’t you Alpha Mark?” he asks.

“Yes, I am,” Mark says. “I hear you’ve been causing problems for the landowner here.”

“Oh, I ain’t mean to cause no trouble, Alpha sir,” the guy says.

He certainly sounds sincere. I’m ready to just get out of here and leave him to his boiled mud, or whatever it is he’s drinking. We have a rogue ex-king to catch.

“I’m sure you don’t, but unfortunately, the farmer is having some problems with missing food,” Mark explained, calmer than I would have been able to if these were my pack lands. “Why don’t you come with us, and we’ll get this all straightened out?”

I sigh, unable to believe that we were going to waste even more time dealing with this, but then I force myself to calm down. These are Mark’s pack lands, and he needs to help the people who live in them. I follow them and the other Alphas, who haven’t said a word but look a tad annoyed as well, back to Farmer Mark’s house.

“That’s him!” the farmer yells. He’s finally brave enough to come outside because we didn’t fight anybody, I guess.

“All right, what’s your name, sir?” Alpha Mark politely asks the guy.

“Smithy,” he says.

“Okay, Smithy, did you steal food from this man’s storage unit?” Mark asks.

Smithy looks at the farmer, and there’s guilt all over his face. Finally, he admits he did it and apologizes, and Mark works out something with Farmer Mark so this guy could do some work for him and earn regular meals. Apparently, the farmer needed the help anyway. Everyone seems happy with the arrangement, so we finally get to leave.

We all check in with our teams as we’re heading back to Mark’s castle, which we’re not doing very quickly since we might have to go off in another direction at any time now. I really miss Rose and my little Ethan, but I know we need to get this done so we can stop worrying about loose ends. And Gene is the loosest of all ends, that’s for sure.

My thoughts freeze when I get a mind-link from one of my warriors on the south part of my territory.

‘Alpha Eli, sir, there’s something you need to look into out here.’

‘What is it?’ I ask in the mind-link.

‘Well, there’s a nice house here, and I’m not sure who these people are, but something is fishy here, that’s for sure.’

‘Can you give me something more solid than fishy?’ I ask.

‘Sorry, Alpha, yes,’ he says. ‘There’s a short guy who looks a lot like King… a lot like Gene, and he’s been staying here a few days.’

He goes on to describe him more, and the more I hear, the more I know we’ve got him. I quickly tell the other Alphas, and the driver turns immediately toward the south of my territory. I ask more questions as we drive, and my warrior affirms that he won’t let the little weasel go anywhere. He uses that very term, and I have to laugh.

“What’s up?” Tristan asks. “I’m supposed to be the funny one, you know.”

I shake my head and smile. “It’s nothing. I’m just positive this is our rat. We’ve finally flushed him out.”

I’m glad we’ve found him, but I’m even happier to know that this is almost over, and I can just spend all my time—at least, my allotted time since we’re splitting nights with Rose—with the love of my life and our tiny little son. I just want us all to be a family again, together, without any worries about kidnappings or anything else.

It’s quite a haul to my territory, especially to the south end, but Mark’s driver makes good time and we’re there fairly quickly. We head straight to the house in question and meet up with my warrior, James.

“He’s inside,” James says. “I have guys watching all the exits and even a few places that aren’t exits, and he’s definitely still in there.”

I nod. “Thank you, James. Please keep a look out while we approach. If anyone tries to run, catch him, but leave him for us.”

“Yes, Alpha,” James says, then he gives me the sign of respect.

Tristan, Mark, Reece, and I walk right up to the front door and knock. Once again, we know there’s no one inside who would stand a chance against the four of us.

The door creaks open lightly, and a young maid asks, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Alpha Eli,” I say firmly. “Let us in.”

“I-I have to check with the master of the house first.”

I just look at her. She knows she has to do as I say, so it doesn’t take much more than that for her to open the door the rest of the way.

“What’s the meaning of this?” a man’s voice bellows from down the hall.

Soon after we see the man, and it’s clearly the property owner.

“I need to see the man who is staying with you,” I say.

“Man? I have no man staying here,” he says. “Only my servants are here, and they’re all women.”

I look around and see what he’s talking about. Boy, he has a lot of maids. Most of them are young girls, and it makes me wonder what’s going on here.

We do a thorough search of the house and come up empty handed, so we’re just about to leave, though I vow to check into this homeowner and find out why all these young girls are here. I mind-link James to have him get started on that right away.

I sigh. All these bad leads are getting me frustrated and angry.

“Hey, you.”

I turn at the sound of Tristan’s voice and notice a short, odd looking maid who’s trying to walk quickly down the hall. There’s a strange waddle to the maid’s step, and I hitch up an eyebrow.

In my best Alpha voice, I call out, “Hey, you. Get back here!”