Unscentable
Chapter 29

Bradley POV

Bradley was about to crash out and sleep in his hotel bed. He'd not slept a single wink on the plane out here, hadn't even tried, had been awake now for almost 30 hours now and was exhausted, needed to sleep so that he could have a clear head in the morning, when they made plans to go and get Piper, Brandon and Izzy.

Did not want to be a grumpy, surly S.0.B. that would yell and rant and rave.

That would not help his cause at all. Nope, he had to be rested and calm, Piper was unlikely to want anything to do with him and he was going to have to make her. Though he did want to do that gently. Cooper was right.

He needed tact where she was concerned.

His phone was ringing and to be honest, he just wanted to leave his face buried in the soft pillow and ignore it, heard its incessant ringing tone and snarled at it, as he blindly reached for it, with his hand, knew it was on the bedside table on charge right this minute, somewhere over there, probably have better luck reaching for it, if he actually opened his eyes and looked at what he was doing. But was to damned tired.

Put it to his ear after hitting the green glowing answer circle on the screen, "What?" he snarled annoyingly with his face still half buried in the pillow.

"Alpha it's Luke, heard of your removalist team, we've hit a snag on moving that she-wolf's belongings."

"What's the snag?" he groaned. Of course there was a problem. Nothing about Piper was ever easy. He pushed himself up and rolled over, hit the speaker button and dropped the phone onto the bed. Closed his eyes and wondered if he could catch a break just once, where she was concerned.

"The neighbour across the road called the police and reported us as thieves." Bradley frowned and shook his head. "How would she know?"

"I don't know, the police want the paperwork, for the move."

"So give it to them. I sorted that out. Put my signature on it."

"Hmm, but...her signature is not on that paperwork."

"fvcking humans," He muttered. In his world it was not required, he was the Alpha and his Word was law. He scrubbed a hand over his face, so damned tired, he didn't have the energy to deal with this. Sat himself up completely and leaned on the headboard. "One of them police officers near by. I can talk to?"

"Sure though..."

"Though?" he asked tiredly.
"We're all getting arrested, I believe."

Bradley shook his head. "Put one of them on the phone, find the one in charge, Luke."

It took less than a minute for a voice to come down the line "Senior Constable Greyson, who am I speaking with?"

"Good morning." It was barely 7 in the morning over there, "Senior Constable Greyson." used the man's full title, he knew they hated when you got it wrong. "I'm Bradley Drake, of Drake Industries, those are my movers and I think this is just a miss understanding." "Is it now? Not from the call that we received."

"Who may I ask made that call? Was it my lovely Piper herself, which I doubt, or was it one of her busy body neighbours?" kept his voicelight and calm and addressed Piper, the owner of the house, they were all standing in front of by name and with familiarity, so that the officer knew, Bradley knew who the owner of the house was.

"It doesn't matter who made the call, Mr Drake. Until I see or hear from Miss Whitlock about this matter, its trespassing at the least."

Bradley shook his head. "Actually it is not. Piper Whitlock is moving to Montana, and will be working along side Drake Industries. Which is my company. My movers are there packing up her belongings, that is all, helping her to move."

"I'd like to hear that from Miss Whitlock herself. Is she there with you to confirm this information?"

The man, it seemed, did know how to do his job, "Not at this said moment no. off in Australia I believe, readying to open her knew store." had to keep this man thinking he and Piper were friends and that him knowing her schedule should help with that. "My men do have moving documents."

"I've seen it. Nothing on that paperwork, has Miss Whitlock's signature on it at all. So that is not proof she has agreed to this."

Bradley sighed, "I assure you, I am not stealing her belongings, just moving them to her new residence in Montana."

"I'll need her to confirm that, till then your men are all being arrested and detained."

"That is not necessary, I assure you."

"It is. That call from her busy body neighbour stated it was Miss Whitlock herself that told her to call the police, that those men of yours were thieves. So I will arrest them all. Detain them for as long as I can, until Miss Whitlock calls and clears up this matter herself or states to press charges, have a good day Mr Drake, was it?" then the line clicked off.

So much for getting any sleep, bloody human neighbours. If that was the actual case, he wondered just how much information Piper now had on his movers. Had her neighbour reported the moving company or would Piper think it was Timothy? That man had threatened her and had been going to take her to his pack.

Put a call into his father and told him what was going on, that the pack movers were going to need lawyers and bail money. His father had huffed at him in annoyance and stated "Have you got Piper yet?"

Informed the man that they had only just landed barely an hour ago and just made it to their hotel, that he knew she had checked into this hotel. Izzy had not used her credit card to check in anywhere so it was likely both women were together. He did not want to go banging on her hotel door, because it was late at night here, it would wait until morning.

"Son, that woman is always a step ahead of you, got away from you at the store, stayed hidden from you even when she was there, helped out Hadley and still got away from you. Got away from her own cousin and left the damned country unchecked. Do you think she's so easily catch-able? You can't smell her, none of you Can."

"I know that." Bradley snarled right at his father.

Maybe if you hadn't screwed this all up when her mother died, when she was just 10 years old. This wouldn't be happening." He turned his tired and angry thoughts on his father, needed to yell at someone, might as well be the man who lost the girl in the first place. "Don't you blame me for that boy! You had your bloody hands on her, how could you not tell she was your Mate?" he snarled right back.

"I couldn't fvcking smell her." he roared back "Who's bloody fault is that?"

His bedroom door banged open and Cooper was standing staring at him, "Brad?" he questioned. Bradley sighed and pointed at his phone on the bed.

"Sorry Coop, it's fine." his temper had brought his Beta right to him, thinking something was likely wrong. Waved him away back to his room, saw as Cooper glanced at the phone's display, likely read his father's name, then stepped back out of the room and closed the door.

"Enough Bradley, were both likely at fault to some degree." his father muttered. Bradley didn't really think that, his father should have found that little girl when she was 10, and when he had not found her should have confirmed with her mother's pack if she was there or not.

Not just presumed she had gone there.

Yes, a lot had been going on at the time. They were dealing with a massive rogue attack. Then his new baby had arrived the next day, just hours after the attack ended. Then there was clean up after the attack, and one little girl got lost in the process, and now she was a rogue and likely more human than wolf, from what he could tell. Had abandoned their ways.

"Deal with the movers, I'll try and talk Piper into calling off the police in the morning. It's late at night here like I said. And I'm not going banging on her door at this hour. Just deal with it please."

"Fine, you just bring that girl and my grandson, back here asap." the line clicked off.

Bradley sighed, glared into the darkness of the room, might not be so easy, she was well ensconced into the human world. He'd seen no evidence at all that Piper Harper ran in any circles that were not human and he'd been looking into her a lot, trying to figure out the best way to handle her.

From what he had read, she lived as a human, worked as a human and had no interactions with her own kind at all. Not since she started her company, she lived and worked in Portland mostly, had opened her first store there, a year after she left the Pack and had remained there.

Only one pack close to her, The Pale Moon Pack, but they did not have any connection to her at all that he could find. She lived alone in the city and the Pale Moon Pack. They were out near the Tillamook State Forest.

Well away from where she would have been and Bradley was certain Piper made a point of staying away from wolves. She'd been through enough pain due to him not knowing about their Mate Bond, so he doubted very much she would be willing to go near wolves again.

She had voiced her rejection and would not be looking to find another Mate that also could not scent her. In all likelihood, she would be actively avoiding finding one at all cost.

She was likely to be more human now than wolf he thought, saddened him more than a little. But she still had her wolf, Harper. Though how much interaction or shifting she had done was unknown to him.

It was nice that when she had changed her name, and built her company for herself, she had named it for herself and her wolf. He really did like that, showed him how much she cared about her wolfen counterpart, that perhaps a part of her might still cling to her wolfen side.

Put his phone back on charge and lay back down, prayed that tomorrow wouldn't be a nightmare, that between he and Eddie they could talk to her, keep her calm and get her to be open to the idea of coming back to the Pack.

At least now he did have some idea about her, and her linage. Not all of it, but maybe enough. He was hoping enough to get her to come back with him, talk to her family and try to sort this out.

Bradley also had to know if their Mate Bond had actually been severed that day, or if it was still intact. He had no idea. Needed to figure that out first, she should know, would still be able to scent him. If they were still bonded to each other, he was hoping so, might give him a better chance of her listening to him. Then there was the issue of if it was? would she openly admit it?

If not, he'd likely have to touch her, put his actual hands on her, she'd felt so damned hot to him, that he'd lost all control of himself. If that feeling was there still, he would be able to tell himself. Wondered how that would go, would he be able to handle it, and he was very curious what Benson was going to do about it. His wolf had been quiet now, for days.

Was still annoyed because he couldn't sense his own pup. They knew the boy was theirs, not only did he have Bradley's unique eyes, the timeline fit, his age was right, they also knew she'd never been with another before him.

Needed to stop thinking about it, needed to get some solid sleep so he would be calm, when he came across her tomorrow. Breakfast and then a plan to be made. Then they were going to find her, knew she was somewhere in this very hotel. Unfortunately, Eddie couldn't scent Izzy out either, so that was not helpful to him at all, likely going to have to have Cooper go and charm one of the female receptionists after breakfast.

Eddie wouldn't do it at the moment, not with Izzy's past history. Eddie suspected her ex had cheated on her, Harry wouldn't do it, he had a mate and pups back in the pack. Bradley was not going to do it, had other concerns about that, so it was up to Cooper. The man likely wouldn't mind, as Hadley had stated, 'Take one for the team., not that Cooper would have to go that far, most humans would find him insanely attractive and answer all his questions.