The meeting room in the white faction's base was always quiet. It's already the fourth time they were called to this building, yet the seven people gathered here seldom talked with each other.
Only a few chairs had been set out, spaced far apart to indicate caution rather than comfort – revealing the true nature of relationships between all the people here.
Keith swiped his gaze across the room. As the Queen of this faction, he was responsible to take care of the members when the King wasn't available. But Haide often gone missing and he hadn't instructed anything, making Keith – who was supposed to be his right-hand man – left confused.
'He doesn't trust me and it's not as if I can read his mind either, so what the hell can I even do here?'
Haide totally frustrated him.
Since the first time they met, Haide had shown hostile tendencies toward him. And no, Yolan wasn't the only cause. The moment they locked gaze, Keith knew Haide's hatred was planted way before their first meeting – and they had never met before.
'When we first talked, he only revealed his name and chased me away.'
Back in Yolan's house, they were both not in a great condition as they had both entered their rut after inhaling Yolan's pheromone.
'Isn't Yolan a recessive? How come his pheromone is that strong?'
Even when Yolan wasn't in heat, he gave off a fresh flower fragrance that attracted alphas to him – a trait no recessive could have.
That was definitely news to Keith, and that might be the reason Haide got interested in Yolan as well.
"Those bastards from the black faction! They really know where to plant their bombs don't they?"
Rachel mumbled as she scrolled the tablet in her hand – face filled with fury.
That caught the other members' attention.
"It's definitely their first declaration of war. It's only been a few days and your building is already targeted. But still, I prefer their way of working, fast and bold." James Heart, one of the Bishops in the faction commented, which prompted Catherine Lewis, the other Bishop to speak.
"Hey Keith, when are we going to move? Does our King even have any plan at all?"
Keith didn't have an answer to that. He only silently shook his head as he shrugged.
Pietro Perez, one of the Rooks rolled their eyes, "I certainly don't want this war to last for years. We should arrange a plan to kill the black faction's King within months. If Haide won't do it, I will."
A laugh could be heard from the person next to them, Liam Cordon one of the Knights grinned, "True, what did you say your job was? Professional sniper was it? As long as I can find the right person on the database and you could kill the target, the war could end within days. I still can't understand why Haide keeps delaying things."
The other Rook, Violet Amery, whistled, "Must be nice working with the government huh? You can snoop around and dig into a person's private data. Not that I'm complaining though, it's better if this thing ends fast."
"Then should we do it? No, let's do it! Who cares if Haide told us not to? As long as we can win, even he can't complain." Rachel said as she raised her head, eyes glimmered with anticipation. But her anticipation was nipped in the bud when a presence slowly approached the room.
"Who said you can do as you please?"
A low thunderous voice echoed in the hall, with it a strong scent of musky timberwood with a hint of metallic copper filled the room.
Out of instinct, Keith's body trembled in fear, signaling him to quickly run away from the man who had just stepped inside.
The other alphas – Rachel, James and Liam – also trembled as they bowed their head low. Although their beta member, Pietro, was standing still, the two omegas in the room already fainted the moment they smelled Haide's pheromone.
It was definitely a recognizable scent, because there's no alphas other than the underworld family Torentto who had those kinds of contradicting elements in their pheromone. Yet, it blended together so well, creating a scent that evoked horror in their minds.
With a lazy but confident smile on his face, Haide shifted his gaze to Keith.
"Isn't it your job to interfere when the members are having a rebellious intent against me? Or do you also have the same thoughts as them?"
'He's angry… Definitely furious.'
Keith knew if he said the wrong word, a head would be flying right now.
'But if I denied it outright, I would be lying.'
And this ghost in front of him might know if Keith tried to lie to him.
Gulping as sweat trickled down his cheek, Keith chose his words, "Yes, it's true that I have the thought of doing it myself."
Then he gathered all the courage he had to look up at Haide, "But I'm more curious about what you'll do if a fight actually breaks out."
Haide scowled as he went deeper inside the room. Sitting on the only sofa in the room, he crossed his legs as he propped his chin with his hand on the armrest.
Keith could finally breathe after Haide held back his pheromone. The other alphas in the room also heaved a sigh of relief and slowly stood up with shaky breaths.
This was how it was if a group was led by a dominant alpha. Though Keith was also a dominant, Haide's pheromone was able to overwhelm him.
It crawled at the back of his mind, instilling fear that he didn't know could be possible. It felt ancient, and out of instinct, Keith willingly bowed down to him.
'At least I'm in a better shape than the other three.'
The three others still couldn't snap out of their frightened state, making Haide click his tongue in annoyance.
He shifted his gaze to Keith and said, "You lot want some action right? Then I'll give it to you. I've caught wind of the black faction's base location, so be on standby after I have made sure of the exact location. And tell those two omegas the information I'll be relaying right now."
Grinning, Haide continued, "Let's have some fun with our enemies."
.
.
"Pistols? You mean we can choose one from all of these?"
"Yes. I usually go by the principle of 'choose which ever suit you, not the one that interests you' but for this time, I'm curious which one gains your interest. We can adjust the model after you've picked your choice."
Gathered in our basement, I laid out a few types of guns starting from handguns, rifles, shotgun and many more.
Using my connection in the black market, I could easily acquire these firearms without spending too much money. It's almost time for my members to train using guns anyway, might as well go all out and stock our supply while we were at it.
"Does any of you have any experience with guns?"
My question was answered first by Ornil, "I've trained in a military camp before and I was allowed to use guns back then, so I know a thing or two."
Eliot was the second to answer, "I know a few things about guns, my uncle opens a firearms shop and he often teaches me how to shoot."
"I see… Anyone else?"
The others kept silent, so I assumed they had never touched a gun before. That meant other than me, Cassius, Azazel, Ornil and Eliot, the other three had no experience and should be trained to use it.
My plan with Haide would be executed in two days. Until then, I needed to at least prepare my members to be able to fight for themselves.
Cramming a training program within weeks was impossible, so rather than me teaching them the theories, it's better for them to gain experience directly from real life. All I needed to do was equip them with items so they could learn things by themselves.
Gazing at my member one by one, I put on a smile as I spoke.
"Let's get into shape, shall we?"