Another chapter from Derrick's point of view. I'll get back to Greg and Igor in a bit. I want to explore Derrick a bit more. Question for you all... am I making Derrick's memories clear enough? What I mean is, should I set them apart with italics, or put a line of **** above and below, or some other trick?

In the course of writing this story, things have evolved in my mind, and I've found things I wish I had done differently in earlier chapters. I'm not going to go back and re-write most of these things, but one thing I am going to correct, with these `Derrick' chapters. Previously, I had used search dogs. I then realized that with a vampire's sense of smell, the use of dogs would be ridiculous, so I won't mention them again. The use of drones, and heat sensitive cameras does still make sense though, so those will remain. If I make other adjustments in the future, I hope you will just roll with it. I do apologize if it causes any confusion or pain, but as the story has grown, so have I.

Your feedback is taken to heart at Jst4fun2nyt@gmail.com.

The sex isn't a major part of it, nor is it graphic. If you're looking for masturbation fodder, look elsewhere. There will be many slow times in this story, just like there are in life. Other times, things will fly at you too fast. There will be boring days, and exciting days. It's just how it's flowing.

This work is fully protected under the United States Copyright Laws © 17 USC§§ 101, 102(a), 302(a). All rights reserved. Placing or posting any or all of this story on any website, or distribution of any of these works in any way (in part or in whole) without the explicit consent of the author is strictly prohibited. Any and all copyright infringements will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Any names, characters, or incidents are the product of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental, and no harm or slanderous intent is implied or intended.

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Chapter 79

Derrick

"Too late. I've sprained my ankle twice, and broken my thumb and index finger each once. Lucky I saw how Opa set Jesse's arm and I have the blood handy. The ankles took five minutes, the thumb an hour, and the finger is still a little tender. Give my love to Papa and the pups."

After I ended the call, I climbed down to the ground and told Grace and Brandon about the call. I watched as they gently carried Sarah's body from the rubble and laid it down beside her mate, Patrick, and Amanda. I had told the volunteers to take a break so we could use the drone, and they were all gathered at the catering trucks, getting sandwiches and drinks. I turned to Brandon and he handed me his phone. I gave him a questioning look, and he said "Sarah's daughter, Monica Munroe."

I put the phone to my ear and heard the ringing. I was still shaking my head, wondering how Dad ever got used to Papa, when a female answered.

"Is this Monica Munroe?"

"Yes?"

"Monica, my name is Derrick Warnick. I'm the Alpha of the Pittsburgh, PA pack."

"Oh, you're Mom and Dad's new Alpha? I thought Mom said your name was Greg? I guess I got things confused. What can I do for you Alpha?"

"Mrs. Munroe, is your husband there with you? Or a friend?"

"John's here, do you need to talk to him? What's going on, Alpha? Is there a problem?"

"Put your phone on speaker, if you would please?" When I heard the change in the background, I went on "John, Monica, I wish I was calling for another reason, any other reason, but there was an explosion at our home this morning. I'm not going to drag this out, I'm sorry to say that both your mother and father died in the explosion."

I heard the phone hit the floor as I heard Monica cry out. Her husband was trying to comfort her but she was just wailing, inconsolable. After several minutes, someone picked up the phone and John said "Do we need to come to Pittsburgh, Alpha?"

"You need to do whatever you need to do right now, for your wife. The FBI is investigating things, so I don't know how soon they'll release..." I paused and took a breath "how soon they'll release the bodies, but once they do, I'll take care of anything you want to do."

"I understand, Alpha."

"John? I want you to know that your in-laws served my father with honor, and as long as I'm Alpha of this pack, you and your family are under my protection. Anything you ask, if I can do it, I will."

"Thank you, Alpha. We'll wait for your call."

I handed Brandon his phone and turned to Grace. I fought to keep my beast down as I said "When the search is done, you will find out what happened here. If this was intentional, whoever did it had better pray that Father finds them before I do, because there won't be enough left of them to rot in a jail."

Grace nodded and said "Understood Alpha. If you'll excuse me?" I nodded, so she stepped away and made a phone call.

Brandon said "Your voice had Alpha echo, and your eyes were glowing. I'll just assume that was intentional, until we go hunting together and we can both practice control."

I smiled at my brother and said "Maybe it was intentional, but practicing control is always a good thing."

An FBI agent approached us saying "Alpha, the drone is finished, and there are no hot spots."

"So this was a waste of time?"

"Oh no Sir, we do a scan, hoping that we'll see some heat, so we can focus the efforts where we know someone is alive. Not finding someone, at this point, doesn't mean there's no one there, it just means the camera can't see anything. With the temperatures, and the time that's elapsed, anyone that's still alive is under at least five feet of debris, if not more. Please don't give up hope, Sir."

"I don't plan on it, but thank you for explaining. I'll pass this on to Grace when she's off the phone. Anything else?"

"Yes Sir. We can see several computers through the rubble in this section." He said, pointing towards the office wing. "If you'll allow it, we'd like to attempt to retrieve them, before anything else falls on them and destroys the hard drives? If one of them is the server for your security system, we might recover video evidence of what caused this."

I looked at Brandon, then back to the agent "Do it, if you think you can, but I'll need to speak with the King about you examining the hard drives. Do you want pack members to help you?"

"We have more experience on sites like this, so we'll do the digging, if you don't mind Sir? You can have a pack member come along to help by scenting, if you'd like."

Brandon waved someone over and we sent them off to dig for computers as Grace came back. I told her what her agent had told me, and she told me about her conversation with Dad. Ricky was getting the pack back to their digging, as Grace, Brandon and I walked towards the office wing to watch her agents.

"When I was talking to your father, the Director called me. He told me he had just hung up with the White House, and we are to treat this as a terrorist attack, with no restrictions on our powers, until a cause is found. He also made a point of mentioning that this house, as the private property of the King, isn't US soil, and our laws don't apply here, so what you do with anyone that we catch, isn't within my jurisdiction."

"I'm glad we understand each other, Grace. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, though. My father is a fair man, an honorable man. I have faith that, before he takes any action, he'll need more than just suspicions and rumors."

Grace started to reply, but stopped when we heard the crash of the balcony in Father's office, falling to the floor. The three FBI agents and two pack members all came rushing out of the dust carrying a computer, or the crushed remains of one. If not for the looks on their faces, I would have laughed, but it didn't seem right to laugh at their genuine fear after having such a narrow escape.

I looked at Grace, and could tell she was holding back a reprimand for the same reasons. I was about to say something when my phone rang. "Yes Papa?"

Papa told me about a secret room under the office wing, where he and Dad hoped Frederick and Grand-pére were supposed to be working this morning. We talked about it, and decided that, if they were in there, they were safe for another day or two. I got Dad's permission to send the computers to Quantico, so while Grace made a quick call to stop the plane from taking off with the bodies, I caught Papa and Dad up on everything we knew. When I hung up, Brandon started to slowly clap his hands.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You just stood up to your Dad, and your King, and did the right thing for your pack." He said, smiling.

I thought for a moment, and realized he was right. "I wasn't trying to argue with him. I wasn't disrespectful, was I?" I asked, hoping I wasn't.

"No, I think you made your point, and I'm proud of you, Alpha!" Brandon said, as he looked to Grace for confirmation.

"Don't look at me, I was on the phone!" She said, laughing.

"Did you catch your plane?" I asked.

"Just barely. They're heading back to the hanger to wait for the computers." She said, then added "Our technicians will start work on the computers as soon as they arrive. So will the Medical Examiner. She wants to start with Sarah, since she's burned so bad. She agrees with your theory about her being near the blast."

I shrugged my shoulders "Well, there was some fire, so it could also be that. Let's not make up our minds before we see the evidence. I'm sure your lab will..." I stopped because Jamie had just sent me a message.

Grace and Brandon were looking at me, waiting for me to finish, but I turned and ran towards the corner of the garage wing as I shouted over my shoulder "They smell someone alive!"

As I came around the corner, Ricky was calling for blood and a stretcher. I stood back and watched as they passed him a bag of blood, and several of his firefighters brought over an orange plastic board that had handles molded into it. I lost sight of the board as they handed it down a hole, but a few minutes later, it was pulled up with Samantha strapped tightly to it. She was unconscious, but there was fresh blood on her lips, along with the dried blood on her face and arms. I hoped the fresh was from her feeding, but I didn't know.

Ricky climbed out of the hole, talked to his firefighters a bit, then turned to me. "She's alive, and seems stable. She swallowed the blood I put in her mouth, but didn't actively feed. We're taking her to the house you're using for first aid. Do you know her?"

I nodded, trying to find my voice. Brandon spoke for me "That's Samantha, Joshua's mate. He's our brother."

I found my voice and added "He's the Crown Prince. I have to call him." I turned and walked a distance away as I found Joshua in my contacts and called him. I could hear the fear in his voice when he answered, and the rush of relief when I told him we had found her, alive. Behind me, I could hear Brandon talking to Papa, giving her details, so I ended my call with Josh before Dad could talk to me.

I sat down on a pile of rocks that had been pushed aside by the skid steers. Craig's guys were doing a great job keeping the debris that had been moved by hand, well away from the house so there was a clear path all the way around.

I was tired. Tired from the searching and tired from the emotions of the day. I didn't want to talk to Dad, or Papa, and have them second guess my actions. I didn't want to have to give them details of my call to Monica Munroe and re-live the pain of telling her that she'd never see her parents again. I didn't want to hear the fear in my father's voice, fear that he'd lost two of his mates and two of his pups. I just wanted a short break from the pain, just a short break from the pain...

The money the nice driver had given us lasted two weeks, and I'd learned that I could get some cash by blowing drivers in their trucks. Some of them even paid me just to let them blow me, so it wasn't all bad. Several had offered me a lot of money to let them fuck me, but I'd never gone that far, and I wasn't sure I wanted my first time to be for money. None of them ever got mean about it, but some of them did offer even more money. I won't lie, I was tempted, but I hadn't sunk that far, not yet.

The trucker seemed nice enough when I was talking to him in the McDonald's, and was still calm and nice when I climbed between his seats and sat on his bunk in the sleeper. It wasn't until I was naked and he was on top of me that he turned into the monster I learned he was, but by then, it was too late.

"I'm not paying you fifty bucks just to suck my cock, you little whore. If I'm paying, I'm doing what I want, you got that?"

"Just let me go, please? I won't say nothing to no one, I just don't want to do that, please. I'll blow you for free and I'll go, how's that?"

"You'll do what I say, and like it, now shut up and lift your legs, bitch."...

Sometimes, when you try to escape one pain, another one sneaks up on you.