Just like Hadley was sweet-natured, liked to be helpful, didn’t like to be a burden, and usually did exactly what she was told. The only difference was that Hadley did have Alpha blood, and could be, at times, defiant and strong willed. Though only where things were important to her and if she felt guilty about Piper Harper, or Piper Whitlock, as he now knew, that was her real name. This could well have set off Hadley’s defiant nature and combined that with her need to help others.
He sighed when he got her voice mail like everyone else did: “Hadley, it’s Bradley. You will call me back when you get this message. Or I will be personally searching for you.” he told her.
Hadley knew that he was out here in Portland trying to get Piper to talk to him, not that he or his unit had even laid eyes on the woman. It had been 2 days and only Izzy and some other human women were working in the store, he and his unit had stayed out of sight, or he and Cooper had due to the fact that Izzy would recognise both of them.
Eddie and Harry had strolled on by the store a few times, the woman’s office was closed up and the lights were out. As it had been on Saturday, when he had last been in the store. No such luck and it was now Wednesday night.
The store had been closed up by Izzy at 1730 on the dot, just like the day before. Opening hours were 0900 to 1730, that’s what the golden lettering on the door stated, and Izzy was prompt to open and close up.
Eddie had offered to snag a human and stroll in there to sus this Izzy out, but Bradley got the distinct impression, Izzy was not stupid and would see through it, his Gamma was just as big and muscled up as his Beta was. And he’d had people calling all weekend trying to get an appointment.
Eddie was full of charm, literally could charm any woman with the acceptation of his Mate, when he found her. But he was also what humans would call damn good looking and Izzy, he thought, would hazard a guess as to Eddie being one of Bradley’s men.
Considering the amount of calls he’d had put in, and that Piper had shut him down, this Izzy would likely be on the look out for anything that was out of the ordinary or even slightly suspicious. So now they were waiting. Piper Harper was a bit of a mystery.
Owned 3 stores and nothing else, not even a house in her name, no car in her name and all her stores and the land they were on, were all purchased through her company, Piper Harper Designs. There was no company car that he’d seen, and none registered to this store. Both the store managers of her two other stores had company cars. Izzy did not and he had no idea if Piper Harper owned a car at all. No car registered to one Piper Harper that he could find.
She had changed her name when she had left the pack. That was all he knew, though every Piper Harper he’d tracked down to an address was not her and there were only 5 Piper Harper’s in Portland, and not one of them had been the one he was looking for. She had hidden herself not just in the pack, but had also taken great lengths to hide herself out here within the human world as well, it seemed, it was odd.
He didn’t like it. His father had freaked him out a bit. Telling him that Whitlock’s were few and far between, that she would be in danger out here all alone. That he had to get back out here to Portland and bring her back to the pack as soon as possible.
Had not really elaborated, but his actually worry and concern over the girl had shone through in full. So here he was back in Portland trying to track a lone she-wolf, who constantly masked her scent, which he supposed she did now to protect herself from those that would kidnap and sell off a lone rogue female. At least she’d been safe all this time and was well known in the human world. If she went missing, Izzy would report her missing. He was certain of that, there would be a state wide search for sure.
That brought his thoughts around to the fact that he just couldn’t go and snatch the woman off the street himself, he was going to have to find a way to get her to agree to come with him. Maybe he could get her to tell Izzy she was taking a trip or something. He wondered if he could actually get Piper to agree to date him for a bit. He didn’t know, could only ask, he supposed.
His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts, there it was Hadley’s number. “Where are you?” he grated out, didn’t even bother to state hello “Father is worried sick.”
“I just went for a drive. Heading home now.” she told him calmly.
He didn’t believe her. “So where did you drive to?”
“I’ve been in Helena all day. Just shopping, watched a movie.” she answered him.
“I don’t believe you, Hadley. Not considering you left My Pack at 3 in the morning.” he spoke to her, his Alpha tone rolling out of him, not as her brother, but as her Alpha.
Got silence from the other end of the line.
“We have ways of getting answers, Hadley. That poor guard,” he sighed, he would use her sweet nature against her.
“You didn’t hurt him!” she whispered, sounding mortified to his ear.
“What do you think it takes to get passed and Alpha Order?” he commented, saw both Cooper and Harry, shake their heads at his tactics but also smile at the same time.
“I don’t believe you, you’re not even there in the pack.” she suddenly snapped at him, her alpha genes kicking in.
“No, but father is, and he’s much more hot headed than I am, you know this…That poor guard.” he sighed sadly, “you’ll really have some apologising to do to his Mate and his 2 children, when you get home.”
“No.” she sounded more than horrified now.
“Tell me where you are.” he asked her softly.
“Bradley, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean… I just…Oh you bastard.” she suddenly snapped those last three words at him and the line was disconnected.
Heard both Cooper and Harry laugh but it was Cooper who stated “Oh, she’s on to you and your tricks.”
“Ah, it was worth a shot. Used to work on her all the time.” Bradley smiled to himself “Guess she is not so little anymore.” he dialled his father’s number.
The girl when little had been easily swayed into talking by her guilt, not so much anymore, it seemed. Damned Alpha genes, but at least she was alright and had not been kidnapped at this point.
“I spoke to Hadley, she sounded fine. I nearly got her to tell me where she is. I’m betting here in Portland, trying to find Piper Harper to clear things up.”
Heard his father sigh, “It is her nature to fix things.”
“Eddie’s out now looking, where tracking her pack card, she hasn’t used it yet though, she must have cash on her.”
“Ah, that would be my doing…I’ve always told her to carry cash, in case of an emergency.”
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