Have you found her?

DANIEL

I tapped impatiently on my desk as I waited for a any news about my mate's whereabouts.

It was a weird feeling waiting for her news as I am not used to waiting for anything. It was quite annoying.

It was also puzzling that she would steal from me before leaving.

Was she a fugitive?

Her family didn't seem quite fond of her too which might be a result of her appearance. Something I would have to address that later.

A knock on the door brought my attention to it and I looked up to find Andrew there with a frown on his face.

"Have you found her?"

"You can afford to think of other things except your mate, Alpha," he replied. "I am working on it and already commissioned her family to do the same."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I just can't find this sense of urgency."

"Well, there's not much we can do," he shrugged. "The person in question doesn't want to be found and she must have blended perfectly into the human society by now. After almost six years, even her scent would be perfectly masked.

"Are you saying I can't find her?" I frowned.

"No," he sighed. "I am saying you'll have to be a lot more patient than you're being now."

"I've been patient for almost six years," I gritted my teeth.

"And you'll have to give us a little more time," he retorted. "Getting agitated now isn't going to help anyone."

I glared at him for a few minutes, eager to blame him for the delay but I changed my mind as I let out a sigh.

He was right.

What I needed at the moment was a grip on my emotions and a clear plan on the path forward.

"So?" I asked him as I adjusted my expression so I wasn't glaring anymore. "Why are you here?"

He strolled over to a desk and sat down with a heavy sigh and a slump of his shoulders. It felt almost like he melted onto the seat.

"Trouble at the borders, rising concern of the citizens and basically, dumb fucks trying to spark a sort of coup."

I stared at him calmly as he rubbed his temple. He seemed quite exhausted, like the affairs have taken a more mental than physical toll on him."

"So, I assume you have everything under control?"

He looked up to glare at me but quickly corrected his expression and sighed.

"I can do my best with it but I'm not the Alpha. We need you to be more active. Leave the search for Allison Hawthorne to her pack and myself. Focus on leading the pack like you've always done. That would go a long way for all of us."

"What do you want me to do then?" I asked. "If you came here then you must have a reason for coming other than talking."

"About the coup, we caught some of their members and they've been quite tight-lipped," he explained. "We've even had to stop their bastard leader from committing suicide at least twice or thrice."

"I see," I nodded. "And?"

"I need you to come threaten him into submission. These guys are extremely careful. Most of the guys we caught are just grunts. With the leader's eagerness to seal his own mouth, we're assuming he is a lot more than a grunt. He's been stopped from doing everything that could remotely impair him, even closing his mouth as we fear he would bite his tongue off. The presence of the most powerful Alpha would at least force some fear into him."

I mulled it over for a little bit and shrugged as I made to stand up.

"Take me there now."

He nodded and lazily dragged himself off the chair as he led me out of the office.

We walked down the twisting hallways of the mansion. The hallways were built as both a training for the Alpha and Beta and a defense mechanism for the pack to preserve at least the Alpha's bloodline in the case of an attack.

The confusing hallways have been quite a chore for the workers and only a select few have been allowed to memorise the path leading to my office.

These few have been brainwashed and are under an oath to never reveal the path to anyone as all who should know already know. They have been made to instead choose their death before they reveal that information.

For the Beta, he is under a strong binding oath with me his Alpha that would kill him should he try to leak the path in anyway.

As we walked down the branching hallways, navigating it quite easily as we headed for the dungeons, I couldn't help but think of how fruitless it was to go through all of this just to protect the most powerful figure.

It would take a lot to hurt or kill me and those are resources these guys are unwilling to commit.

I can protect myself quite well.

We reached the dungeons soon after and I frowned at the noise as the prisoners either groaned and sobbed from their pain and desperation or jeered and insulted the guards in their arrogance.

I made my presence known once I was in their midst and the dungeon fell silent as no one was willing to intentionally annoy the Alpha.

A fate worse than death awaited them and they knew it.

I was led to an isolated smell where I could already feel the malice from the imprisoned rebel before I saw him.

I walked in to see a man seated and chained to the floor, with a ball gag in his mouth to keep him from moving. He was chained so tightly that he could move any part of his body except his neck as his torso was also chained to his seat.

I stared at him for a little while and gestured for someone to remove the ball gag.

Once it was off, he was about to talk but I held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't be in a hurry now," I smiled. "I haven't asked you a question yet."