"Where have you been? Ace has been freaking!" I rolled my eyes at my brother's first words to throw at me.
"I'm fine thanks." I yanked the dress that I asked him to bring me and threw it on in a swift movement. He stood with his hand on his hip like an expectant mom, while I just gave him a bored look.
"We had a fight so I took a run," I simply put it.
I left out the part about seeing Jace, since he would ask what we talked about and if Aiden knows that Jace knows about Ace, he would go into panic mode and probably ruin my whole non-existent plan. Jace can be trusted, but Aiden would see it as one step closer to dad finding out.
"Couldn't you link me and tell me where you were? The dude's got the whole house looking for you. "
I sighed, feeling a tad guilty that I worried him. A tad. "Where is he now?"
"He's on his way back. Lilly saw when you ran in so she linked him." He gave me the look that's normally followed by 'why'. "Why?"
"The fight was about our pack." He perked up at this. "I saw one of our pack members, and she just ran from me. I tried talking to him and he freaked. I don't like this Aiden. It's not right"
"I know Rox" He had a determined look on his face as he pulled me into a hug. "Don't worry, we'll get them back. I was actually planning on doing some searching today" He gave me a smirk which I returned smugly.
"Sounds good to me." A pang of guilt rushed me, knowing I'll be going behind Ace's back. But at this point, I had no alternative plan, I promised Aiden we would do it and I was still pumped from our fight earlier.
It would've been easier if Ace just listened to me, but I guess life never takes the easy route.
"Great meet me in the hallway by 6" He said as he turned to leave. "Oh and Rox, don't be suspicious "
.
I waited in the hallway for Aiden as planned. We already came up with the plan through our mind link, so it was now for us to execute it.
Despite my protest, I was to keep Ace distracted downstairs. Aiden would sneak into his office to search for some files that would be beneficial to us.
Files on the amount of pack warriors and their level of training, weapon inventory, pack number, border information, training schedules, days of most leisure, map of the pack-grounds and a few more things that I already forgot.
That's why it was Aiden's job to find them.
With all that information, my dad will be able to strategize a discreet plan of where, when, how and who they will be fighting.
By knowing all this, he can get the warriors trained accordingly and use the element of surprise, just like they did eighteen years ago. With this, they will have a better chance of coming out victorious.
Of course, I didn't intend for it to reach that level, but I still had to do this with Aiden. That is, until I find an alternative.
If I do.
Everything went smooth on his part, and luckily, I didn't have to do much but watch Ace eat dinner in silence. Once he got back, it was quite obvious that he was upset about me running off earlier. The only thing he uttered to me was 'I'm glad you're safe', and that was it. I tried to hide the disappointment after seeing that he wasn't making an effort to 'fix' things, but I was too stubborn and prideful to do it myself.
I forced down some also, in order to be less suspicious. So when I got the 'okay' from Aiden, I excused myself to meet him.
"That dude has a shit load of documents in there!" He exclaimed quietly as soon as I met him.
"I know, I've been in there. What did you get?"
"I tried to get onto his computer, but that was taking too long, so I went through some of the files and I found these"
He showed me a few pictures of the training schedules and the warriors' levels. I bit my lip as I saw that most of them were already at expert level.
"That's all you got?"
"Yea, I had to put them back exactly how I got them, and given the time span, I couldn't get more since I need you to hack into his computer and remove the footage of me in there"
I cursed under my breath as I remembered the cameras. I was more technologically inclined than Aiden, since he would prefer physical training than our tech classes.
"You got to hurry. Given my calculations, Ace should be done with dinner in about fifteen minutes, then he'll go for his shower and lock himself in the office till around nine, give or take a few minutes"
I watched him in awe as he mapped out Ace's evening schedule so well. I didn't even know that.
"What? We're supposed to study their behaviour so that we don't crash into them in the middle of an assignment. Now go!" I rushed inside the office, and stopped in front of the computer.
Without a glitch, I was in his system and already searching for the footage. However to my dismay, they weren't there.
"What do you mean they aren't there?" Aiden asked frustrated, running a hand through his hair when I told him what I found.
"They aren't there." I repeated sternly. "And don't tell me to look better"
"Does he have a laptop in his room? " I pondered the thought for a while. Surely, it was possible."Go check, and hurry Rox. You have approximately five minutes before he gets here"
I moved on impulse and sighed in relief when I saw a computer on a small desk tucked away in the corner of his room.
I quickly did my magic, feeling exhilarated when I found it. I quickly deleted the footage of the last hour, replacing it with an extended version of the nothingness in the office that should have been there.
~"Got it"~ I told him through our link, feeling the relief from him, but quickly it turned into panic.
~"Damn Rox he-"~
"Roxy" I tried to mask the shock and guilt on my face, as I stood casually in his room.
~"Don't worry, I got this"~ I quickly shut out Aiden so I could focus.
"Hi," I said.
"Hi."
"You must be wondering why I'm in your room..." I trailed, trying to find a reason to give him.
"Yes..."
"Well um.. I was thinking about what happened today."
"What about it? " He folded his arms over his chest and watched me curiously.
"I had a really good time before the whole ..you know.." I tucked my hair behind my ear and pulled my best 'cute and innocent mate' look to loosen him up a bit. "And I guess I might have overreacted with my temper"
"Are you trying to apologize?"
Uh no, my ego was way too big.
"Yes" I muttered instead and looked away.
"You had me worried as hell Roxy" He sounded hurt, and I knew then that he wasn't upset about our argument. He was upset about me running away.
"I know" I closed the distance between us and hugged him. A part of me didn't want to, but another part of me knew that's what we both needed.
He finally sighed and held my waist tightly. "You don't know the land like that Roxy, and who knows what danger could've been out there? Please don't scare me like that again"
I simply nodded at his request and mumbled a sorry.
I guess the matter of my pack wouldn't be brought up tonight, but it was nice being with him like this.
~"We good?"~ I heard Aiden poke inside my brain.
~"We good"~
And just like that, the night went well. I guess this is what killing two birds with one stone felt like.