Chapter 278
Hacker
Besides nearly getting killed when I told Striker and Cyra that the money her mother left her is a ridiculously large amount, I feel on edge. when we pull into their pack lands. I haven’t seen Wendy since Alpha Leo’s court, not face to face. Since that time, it feels like she and Nav gotten closer. I know Hijack is interested in her as well, but I feel a possessiveness towards her that I’m unused to fealing about anyone.
When we get out of the car, I’m a bit disappointed that she isn’t waiting for us. I was hoping that maybe she was as desperate to see me as i am to see her. If I’m reading this wrong, I need to dial myself WAY back. I won’t do anything to jeopardize the Tech Team and if my attention is unwanted, I won’t push it.
We’ve just opened the truck to start unpacking when I hear feet rushing toward us. I turn and there she is, all beautiful long Brown wavy hair and dark green eyes.
She stops, staring at me, her cheeks going pink.
“Dad waited to tell me you were here until you had already pulled up,” she says. I don’t bother fighting the grin. I’m happy that she’s excited
to see me.
“Did you tell them what we found?” she asks excitedly, rushing to hug her brother.
“I did. Your brother nearly ran the car off the road,” I say, watching as she looks up at her brother, laughing at him.
Damn, I can’t see that sparkle in her eyes through the camera. I planned on giving her one of the laptops that I brought, since it’s got added security on it, but now I’m really glad I am. The camera on it is MUCH better than the one on her current computer.
She goes over the hug Cyra as the rest of the family walks out to greet us.
“Good evening, Alpha Warren, Luna Yara,” I say, greeting them.
“Mom, Dad, you remember Hacker, right?” Wendy says, coming to stand beside me.
“How could I forget the man who has helped my son and daughter–in–law with so much,” Luna Yara says, walking over and pulling me into a hug. My eyes go wide and I look at Alpha Warren to make sure he’s not going to punch me.
“Mom’s a hugger,” Yorick and Wendy say together.
Yara pulls back and looks at me. “You’ve done so much for our family, you feel like family already.”
“Thank you, Luna.” She reminds me of my own mother, loving and kind, and no one ever feels like a stranger in her home.
“You haven’t met my youngest children yet, have you?” she asks.
“No, ma’am.”
“Such a respectful young man,” she says so softly I’m not sure I was meant to hear it.
“Mom mumbles to herself a lot. You get used it,” Wendy says quietly.
“This is my daughter, Yana,” she says introducing me to a female version of Alpha Warren. Unlike Wendy who looks takes after her father, although her eyes are lighter like her mother’s where Wendy’s are darker with brown flecks in them like her father.
mother, Yana
“Hey, Wendy’s told us all about you,” Yana says in an obvious tease to Wendy. From the corner of my eye, I can see Wendy’s lips press tightly together as she glares at her sister.
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“Only the good things, I hope,” I say, teasing her right back. I come from a large family too, so brothers and sisters teasing rachou mercilessly is very familiar to me.
“According to Wendy, there’s nothing bad about you. I’m Yvonne,” the youngest daughter says. This one looks more like Wendy and thei
mother.
“Yvonne!” Wendy groans making me chuckle.
“I’m Wade, Yvonne’s twin,” he says, stepping up to me and shaking my hand. He may be the youngest son, but the look he gives me is no less protective of his sister than Yorick’s.
“I’m Hacker.”
“Is that your real name?” Yvonne asks me.
“No, it’s a codename. In our line of work, it’s better
ople don’t know your real name. It makes it harder for them to find you.
Both Yana and Yvonne turn to Wendy. “Do you
know his real name?”
She looks at me like she’s not sure how to answer. “Uh…”
“Sphinx is part of our Tech Team. She may not be at the Academy yet, but she’s already been accepted. As a junior member of the team, she’s given access to confidential information that others aren’t,” I say, making Wendy stand a little taller and smile proudly.
“So, what’s this I hear about my son nearly running off the road on the way here?” Alpha Warren asks.
“Dad, Hacker and I found the money!” Wendy says excitedly.
He blinks at her, staring before responding. “And you didn’t think that was important information for your father to have?” he asks, his voice
stern and disapproving.
“It’s appropriate to tell the requestor the results of our investigations before telling anyone else who may have access to that information,” I say, once again jumping in to defend her.
“Already so protective of my daughter. What a nice young man,” Luna Yara says softly, cutting the tension in the air. I look at Wendy again, not
sure if that was intentional or not.
“Mumble,” she mouths to me.
How very curious. The woman is intriguing but she’d be terrible with classified information.
I see Alpha Warren noticeably relax as he pulls his mate into his arms and kisses the top of her head. “Shall we head inside? Apparently, I have some information that I need to hear, and I think you’re going to have a busy weekend, Hacker.”
“I’m prepared, sir.”
“Is all of this for this weekend?” Wendy asks, turning back to the car.
“Most of it. Three of the laptops are staying here. One for each packhouse and one for you,” I tell her, making her smile at me again.
Damn, my new favorite hobby is making this woman smile at me.
“Can I help?” Yana asks.
“I need to see what I’m working with first, but there’s plenty of work to go around,” I tell her. Wendy looks a little disappointed, but she doesn’t realize yet that I mean what i’m saying. I could have used Hijack this weekend, but I wasn’t willing to share my time with Wendy
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“How about you show Hacker to his room, Wendy. Then you can take him on a tour of the two packhouses before dinner, Alder that Ha you can decide if you want to get started tonight or tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Luna.”
Wendy, Yana, Yvonne, and Wade all grab boxes and help me carry them up to the room where I’ll be staying. They put me on the Estation which is good. I might struggle if I was sleeping in a room next to Wendy. Being in the same packhouse with her, spending the weekend with her is already going to try my ability to remain professional. Unless, of course, she acts like she wants more, if she does, I’ll happily show her that a Hacker’s kiss isn’t something that she’ll ever forget.
I pull the two laptops that I intend to leave here out of the box and turn to Wendy. “Okay, I want to see everything so I can get a lay of the land, literally, but for now, why don’t you show me where the security equipment is.”
“And, I’m out. If you need any more help with lifting, let me know. But I’m more like Yorick, I’d rather spar than sit in front of a computer any day,” Wade says.
“Yeah, me too,” Yvonne says. “See you at dinner.”
“See you then.”
“I’d like to stay if that’s okay?” Yana asks. I can tell Wendy would rather she didn’t, but I do need the extra hands. And since nothing that I’m doing is illegal, it’s perfectly fine if Yana helps.
“Like I said, I could use the help. Although sometimes our work is really boring, but it has to get done to make sure everything is set up properly,” I say.
“Okay, lets start with the security system,” Wendy says.
She leads me back downstairs and I take the opportunity to get to know Yana. If she’s interested in technology, she could end up on our team
when she’s older.
“How old are you, Yana?”
“Fifteen, almost sixteen,” she says excitedly.
“And are you interested in tech like Wendy is?” I ask her.
“It seems really interesting. Wendy’s always at her computer these days,” she says.
“Sphinx is a sponge with information, absorbing it as fast as we give it to her,” I say proudly. I’m rewarded with another huge smile.
She knocks on a closed door and when I hear Striker tell her to come in, I realize this must be the Alpha’s office.
“Hey, Hacker wants to see the security system in here. Is it okay if we come in?” she asks.
“That’s why he’s here. Do you need us to leave?” Striker asks.
“No. You won’t bother me as long as we won’t bother you.”
“Yana?” Alpha Warren asks.
“He said I could watch, Dad. I asked,” she says defensively.
“If you have another techy in the making, I’m happy to encourage her excitement,” I say, grinning at Alpha Warren.
He frowns at his daughter. “You’re interested in technology? Since when?”
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“Since Wendy started talking about it non–stop.”
“I don’t tell them anything confidential,” she rushes to tell me.
“I know,” I say, and I do. We’ve tagged her phone to alert us with keywords or phrases so we can monitor if she slips at all. So for she’s been perfect.
She frowns at me, obviously wondering how I know. I lift my phone up and wave it.
1 watch understanding dawn on her face. “I want to know more later,” she says softly.
“Okay.”
When she opens the panel to show the security system, I see right away that there’s a problemn.
“Uh, yeah, this isn’t a security system,” I say.
“What do you mean?” Striker asks. He and Cyra come over to look. “We have monitors that watch the borders.
“Yep, you do and that’s all they do. You have a monitoring system, not a security system. If someone breached your borders, you wouldn’t know it until your patrols alerted you or they reached your packhouse. This though…” I say, looking at what is most definitely a security system. “This is a security system.”
“For what?” Cyra asks.
“Wendy, can you go get the small toolkit in my room. It’s in one of the boxes. It will have the equipment I showed you that measures power and where it’s coming from. You know the one?”
“Yep, I’ll be right back.”
“I’m guessing this is the security system for your internet protection, but we’ll see here in a few minutes,” I say, answering Cyra’s question.
When Wendy returns, I hook up the device to the wires and set it to track the destination. A moment later, the computer on the desk pings..
“Bingo. It’s the internet protection. We knew your father had it, that’s why Hijack had to hack into his computer. He was smart enough to know that he needed to hide information from others.”
“That is fire!” Yana says, excitedly.
“I’m more than just a pretty face,” I say, making her giggle. Since Wendy obviously doesn’t like me giving her sister attention, I put her to work testing the other lines just to make sure I’m right about them going nowhere. While she does that, I set up the computer that I will leave in this packhouse:
“Okay, Yana, you’re up,” I say once the computer is ready and Wendy is done confirming that the other lines have no security protocol.
“What do you need?” she asks excitedly.
“I need you to watch these lines as they connect. Periodically, the system will ask you if you want to continue. Always say yes. As the security system starts activating, these lines will go from red to green. If any of them turn yellow, we’ll have to fix them. I’m going to take Wendy to the other packhouse and get this started over there. When I come back, I’ll need to know how many are yellow and how many stayed red.”
“You got it!”
I smile at her, then grab my tools and the other computer.
“Let’s go straight to the other packhouse. We can do the pack tour tomorrow. If that security system is as bad as this one, it’s going to take a
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while to get things started and we can let the system drone through it overnight,” I say to Wendy.
We walk outside to an SUV similar to the one we drove in to get here. Wendy hops in the driver’s seat and I get into the passenger seat. Once she turns on the car, I turn to her.
“Finally, I get you all to myself,” I purr.
I hear her soft gasp as her cheeks begin to turn a lovely shade of pink.
