Agent Alpha

"Dad?" Analise's voice cracked slightly as she sat on the edge of the bed in the hotel in Riverton. She was idly thumbing the locket that she and Captain Forrester had found earlier that day while she phoned her father back in Boston.

Rhys had said nothing to her after she found the necklace and had actually been rather accommodating for the instant silence that followed as Analise Shepherd sank into her own memories. In truth, she felt foolish and she knew her case was going to suffer because of it.

"... Just kidding. Obviously I'm not around, so do your thing after the beep."

Analise's heart sunk a little further. How long had it been since she had called her parents that she didn't even realize her dad had a prank voice mail recording on his cell phone...

"Hey Dad," she spoke into the phone with a sweet tone that would have caused Rhys to do a double take. "Real funny. Hey, uhm... could you or mom give me a call? I'm out in the sticks so if you don't get through leave a message and I'll call you when I get it. I uh.... I miss you dad. Talk to you later."

She almost sounded like a different person and a part of that made Analise uncomfortable. The tension between her and her parents had been brewing for years, starting with when Laura had gone missing.

The event changed her. She was only five when it happened, but Analise clearly remembered the day as the one her childhood died. From that point on, her entire life had become devoted to finding the bastards that had snatched her sister away. Everything from her choice in college to the books she read pertained to this, and frankly, it exhausted her. Agent Shepherd had never had the life she had wanted. No boyfriends, which meant no husband, no children, no friends, nothing. She had given up everything with the singular hope of finding some justice for Laura.

A knock on the door pulled Analise out of her own misery. Without thinking, she quickly wiped the stray tears that had formed and tossed her cell phone into her purse while making sure her Glock was out and easy to grab if need be. "Just a second," she called at the door before giving it another thought. "Who's there?" She added, her tone having returned to normal.

"It's Rhys." Came the gruff, no-nonsense announcement, muffled by the door.

Shepherd frowned as she opened the door. "Are there any developments?" She asked.

Rhys cocked his eyebrow skeptically at her. Analise hadn't changed out of her jeans or zip up hoody and dressed like this, he could almost see himself being able to relate to her. Almost. "Nice to see you too," he answered dryly.

Analise was not amused and simply cocked her eyebrow in return as a response.

"No. No new developments," Rhys told her through a sigh. "Team searched that campsite but they didn't find anything." His piercing blue eyes settled easily on hers in yet another staring match. "Why didn't you tell me?" Came his firm demand.

Analise let out a tired sigh and closed her eyes to steady herself. She was definitely not in the mood for this. Rhys took her eye closing as a victory and had to muffle a smirk at the corners of his lips. "Look... You're right. I should have told you that they use poisons but honestly, I figured it would do more harm than good. Scaring people away is the last thing we need given how much area is still unexplored."

"Wasn't talking about that," Rhys concluded with a nod to her hand, still holding onto the necklace.

Analise bristled and took on an even more stern expression than Rhys thought possible. "Because it's none of your business?" She answered in an attempt to point out how rude she thought he was.

"Sure as hell is my business if it affects your job," Rhys countered firmly. "We're just a small no-nevermind town to a big shot like you. Some of the men out there searching for Allison are my family. Now, I'm not looking for you to bare your heart or --"

"That's good, Captain Forrester, because this conversation is over. If you are concerned about my professional performance, I am more than happy to provide you a DPO you can file with the headquarter office at the capital. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, how old was she?" Rhys continued, completely unphased by Shepherd's all business tone. He wasn't sure why he wanted to know and suddenly regretted even asking. Somewhere beneath her icy, stand-offish exterior was a young woman in pain. Still he didn't know why he even cared. Lots of people were in pain; what made her so special?

Analise dropped her head into her hand and chuckled to herself. "You are unbelievable," she muttered, still smirking in deprecation. "Heh, fine. What the hell. Her name was Laura. She's my older sister. They kidnapped her from the woods outside our house almost thirty years ago. She was fifteen at the time. I was five. Kinda sorta worshiped the ground she walked on.

That

is why I joined the Bureau.

That

is the personal tragedy that thrust me into this career. Any other personal facts you'd like to demand knowledge of, Rhys? Wanna know my favorite color or the name of my cat?"

Rhys's jaw went tight as he pictured himself slugging the woman in the jaw. He was never violent to women and only violent with men if it was a were threatening his territory, but this woman certainly challenged his self restrained.

"I

was

gonna express my condolences but maybe I should just get goin," Rhys turned to leave and then, his emotions got the best of him and he spun around, fully prepared for a battle. "You... I... Damn it, woman, you know it wouldn't kill you to be a little more... more... more human every now and then!"

Rhys suddenly questioned what he just said. Who was he to lecture her on humanity?

Analise had been prepared for a battle, as had Rhys, but his question only served to disarm her. The edges of her lips curled slightly into an amused grin that in turn frustrated Rhys further. "You know, Captain, I've been terrible rude," she answered genuinely. Rhys's expression indicated what she assumed would happen. Analise and kind were two words that scarcely seemed to go together and pretty much everyone was stunned when they did.

"I appreciate your concern, but no, my sister's murder isn't going to affect me on this one. If anything, I will be more interested in catching these assholes than usual, given their obvious connection with her disappearance." She folded her arms across her chest and took a deep breath, not once breaking eye contact. Analise, apparently, was just about as good at apologies as Rhys was.

Rhys sighed heavily, all of his frustration now having no outlet. "Damn city folk," he muttered under his breath. "Well, I am sorry for your loss." In truth, he really was. Rhys had fought for decades to ensure that no woman in their neck of the woods would ever have to endure what Laura did at the hands of werewolves hell bent on finding breeders. "But I am glad to hear your dedication to resolving this case."

It was an awkward moment of silence after that. Rhys had really stretched for a reason to visit her. After she so easily found the Rogue campsite, he was rather concerned about what she would uncover if she went snooping at any of the other locations she had circled on that little map of hers, and he decided it would be better if she were supervised for the rest of her stay.

Naturally, none of the police force weres wanted anything to do with her. Analise had an uncanny way of intimidating everyone she came in contact with.

"Well. I guess I'll see you in the morning."

Analise nodded once. "Yep," she replied, slowly closing her door.

Rhys was frustrated again as he returned to his beat up old chevy. His scowl hadn't left even well after he pulled into he gravel parking lot of the den. Isa was already waiting for him outside with her hands folded gently in her lap as she slowly rocked in the wooden rocking chair. Isa was impressive, and not merely due to her longevity. Among were's, living to be over 700 was completely unheard of and Rhys often figured that the only reason the Wylders, or any other pack for that matter,

hadn't

tried to destroy them was because of the respect Isa brought them. Even the elders on the council stopped and listened to her sage-like advice.

And so, when the old woman offered him the distant expression of a wise old woman, he wasn't terribly surprised. "Her scent lingers on you still," Isa replied flatly as Rhys started to walk by. It was sufficient for him to stop dead in his tracks.

"Wha... who's scent?" He inquired curiously.

"The human woman who will hunt us," Isa answered, only now looking up to offer Rhys a critical look. "She is powerful and her blood is ideal for mixing with ours." That was Isa's way of saying that the Lycan virus wouldn't kill Analise; it would convert her. "Some of the men are concerned. She is this era's version of a Werewolf hunter and she has found our den. Those with pups are speaking of fleeing. There is great fear in our pack. What will you do?"

Rhys let out a heavy sigh as he slid down the side of the building to sit on the ground next to her rocker. "Hell if I know," he said, the frown seemingly permanently affixed to his face. "And there's a small pack of rogues around too. I didn't get a whiff of whether or not the missing girl's with them. I suspect she is. Agent Shepherd said there's three others who've been grabbed too. This is spinning out of control..."

Isa frowned. "Will the human woman leave if the girl is found?"

Rhys shrugged, thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "Probably not. By the sounds of it, the rogue pack kidnapped her older sister back when the decree came out. Thirty years is a pretty long time to hold a grudge. She's built her whole life around rooting out dens as some form of revenge or justice or both and now she caught wind of the guys who nabbed her sister?" Rhys chuckled at his own misfortune. "No, she'll stay and finish the job. I know I would if I were in her shoes."

A picture of four inch heels and perfectly toned legs splashed vibrantly before Rhys's eyes. He shook away the mental image of Agent Shepherd's figure and tried to replace the thoughts with his hands throttling her neck. She was mind bogglingly irritating and apparently more dangerous than even he had considered, but she was also wildly attractive and he had yet to vent all the pent up aggression her arrogance and defiance was stirring inside.

Isa returned her distant gaze forward. "Then your choice is simple," she stated. "You must either turn her or kill her."

Rhys turned an alarmed look at Isa for such a brutal decision, but ultimately said nothing. Isa was probably right, of course, as always. Shepherd was a threat; probably a greater one than all the alpha and beta males in the Wylder pack combined. He wondered for a moment how many happy families she had destroyed by raiding dens. How many alphas would kill just to be in this position, after what she had personally done to their respective packs?

The alarm morphed into rage and his fists clenched down a little harder. Of course Isa was right. But then, it was not as simple as she made it sound. There was the problem of Analise's status. Rhys frowned slightly. "Can't kill her," he commented in the same nonchalant tone Isa was employing. "She's too important in the human hierarchy; someone would come look'n for her and then we'll have the whole town crawling with agents just as talented as her."

"Then you have your solution," Isa concluded with a nod. "Whatever you chose, do it quickly. We cannot risk what is transpiring around us."

Rhys offered an agreeing grunt as he pushed himself up, heading inside to what was sure to be panic and pandemonium. Oh what he wouldn't give to abandon this sort of responsibility to someone else...

Before he had a chance to storm off to the privacy of his own apartment, Brody, the most dominant of the betas stepped in his path. "We need to talk," Brody stated in his deep baritone.

Rhys didn't think his frown could get worse. "You didn't find the pack," he more stated than asked.

"No, but that's small potatoes. Micah just called. Apparently four of ours just got into a fight at the bar and your little girlfriend arrested all of 'em. They want you down at the drunk tank."

Rhys was torn between lunging at Brody for implying any sort of relationship between him and Shepherd and ordering the beta to slaughter all four men who would be stupid enough to pull a stunt like that with an FBI agent so obviously sniffing around. Rhys's jaw tightened in anger as he spun back around, storming his way out of the den and back toward the beat up chevy. Brody trotted along behind him.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Rhys snarled at him, unable to restrain his frustration any longer.

"One of 'em's a gamma and they're all drunk off their rockers," Brody replied curtly as he pulled open the passenger door and hopped inside. "Figure you'll need some help if we're gonna do this without shifting. Unless you don't care about that."

"God damn that woman," Rhys hissed as he jammed the keys into the ignition and slammed his foot down on the gas, sending the back tires spinning and kicking gravel all over the parking lot. "I should just kill her and be done with this."

Brody cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, she sounds like a threat. Boy's have been yammering all day about her."

"I'll take care of it," Rhys answered hotly. "What did you find at the rogue's campsite?"

"Whole lotta nothin'," Brody answered. "There were some tracks up the hill about a quarter mile. A male and a two females at the camp, definitely more in the woods around the area. Shifted at the crest and took off as humans by the look of things. Wandered back around where your search parties were looking so we would lose the tracks. Seemed to work, too. So far, with what Jameson and Micah spotted on our hunt earlier, I'd say we're dealing with about ten of them."

"

TEN

?!" Shouted Rhys. "You can't find ten sloppy rogues in our own woods after that bitch literally drew you a fucking map?!"

Brody's eyes averted slightly at this. "We're working on it best we can, boss," he answered as if his tail were tucked between his legs. "And they sure as hell aren't sloppy. They've been covering their tracks like pros; walking in lines and what-not to hide their numbers. This ain't normal. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if these folks came from the Council."

Rhys was not in the mood to coddle Brody's injured ego with this one. There were two threats working against them. Rhys was trusting Brody to handle the rogues, expecting it of him, in fact. "We'll go on a hunt for them tonight and end this now," Rhys said in a gravelly serious voice as the hair on his hands and arms began to thicken and raise. With a displeased growl, Rhys swallowed back the inadvertent starts of a shift to his hybrid form. It had been 75 years since he'd been angry enough to shift without meaning to.

"Fine," Brody muttered, obviously humiliated that Rhys had to step in to help him.

The truck took the turn sharply, causing the tires to screech against the pavement as Rhys brought the old pick up to a jerking stop. Both Rhys and Brody were out of the vehicle in seconds, each slamming the door angrily as they left. Rhys was rather surprised the old beast had stood up to so much abuse over the years and silently promised the vehicle that he'd make it up to her.

The pair trotted into the precinct to enter into the chaos ensuing there. Agent Shepherd was in the conference room barking orders into her cell phone while three of the four in the drunk tank were taking turns howling like wolves. The evening skeleton crew was running around like chickens without their heads, either attempting to calm down the energetic drunks or trying to talk down Shepherd, who was doing an excellent job ignoring them.

Rhys let out a small sigh at the scene. "We're fucked," Brody muttered under his breath. Rhys turned to regard him with a half-hearted smirk. He had pretty much summed it all up.

"Alright," he said, clapping Brody on the back. "You take care of those idiots. I'll handle the devil woman."

Brody chuckled and jogged back to the drunk tank, obviously shouting at the fools and trying to get a grip on this situation. Meanwhile, Rhys walked over to the conference room just as Shepherd had kicked out the remainder of the staff and locked the door. He rolled his eyes. Had to make it hard on him, didn't she?

Rhys knocked on the door, exercising as much restraint as he physically could. "Agent Shepherd, it's Captain Forrester. Open the door."

There was a pause, during which time Rhys considered just breaking the damned thing off it's hinges, before Analise threw it open and glared furiously at him. The woman was a mess. She had a bruised cheek that would almost certainly turn into an impressive black eye and a split lip. Her clothes were torn, blood stained, and disheveled. It had been one hell of a fight.

Rhys offered her a genuinely surprised look. "What the fuck happened to you?" He let out without thinking about it.

"Nice peaceful little community, he says. Hardly any crime at all, he says. Bull fucking shit," she retorted furiously. "You listen here, asshole," she continued in such dominant aggression that Rhys actually considered backing away with his hands up. Suddenly, he felt badly for laying into Brody on their drive here. This seemed to be a taste of his own medicine. "I don't give a shit what sort of corrupt district you're running here, but you are obviously withholding information on undocumented crime statistics that could have pertinence to this investigation and if you think I'm gonna let that shit fly, you're in for quite the surprise. You have no fucking idea what you are dealing with!"

Rhys was alarmed for the briefest of moments. No one in his entire life had ever spoken to him like this and it was only serving to provoke a challenging reaction out of him. If Analise knew how close she was to watching a werewolf shift before her very eyes, she likely would have shut her mouth.

Yep. Gonna have to kill her,

he told himself in sardonic humor. In reality, he questioned whether or not it was wise to turn someone with this degree of dominance. It was alarming even by wolf standards and worse, Analise was obviously holding back too. He was pretty sure he didn't want to see her as a pissed off wolf.

The true intimidation and challenge Rhys experience lasted only a moment. He rolled his eyes and latched onto her wrist, tugging her out of the conference room. "Your nose is still bleeding there, killer," he commented, which completely disarmed her momentarily as she paused to inspect. He took a couple of steps before depositing her in an office chair and stepping over to the mini fridge to pull out a frozen rib eye. "Ok," he said pushing her hand away as he placed the meat on her swelling cheek. His other hand cupped behind her head, to get a good amount of pressure on the injury. Much to his surprise and dismay, the move served to arouse them both. Had he been anything other than a werewolf, the scent of her arousal would have been her little secret. For a pissed off alpha, however, she may as well shoved it up his nose. For the second time that day, he decided that she smelled delightful, and, for the second time that day, that realization only further angered him.

"Now you're gonna calm your pretty little ass down and start telling me what the hell just happened here or I'm gonna toss your ass in the drunk tank with your new friends and let you all sort this out like big kids, got it?"

Analise offered him an unamused glare as her jaw tightened. She had, in fact, calmed down and pushed the offending rib eye away. "Seriously, what the hell sort of police department has frozen steaks on hand?" She inquired in an irritated sarcasm. At least she seemed to be sounding a bit more cooperative. Rhys relaxed a bit.