Three

“Did you see a woman come this way Alpha? Our Alpha’s ward has gone missing.” one of them asked. So that’s who she was, his ward. He remembered hearing something about this alpha keeping a young girl under his care, but what kind of man needs to send guards to find his ward? What has he done to her that would make her feel the need to run away? The thought of anyone mistreating her made his blood boil. “No, I've been alone since I left the dinner your Alpha rudely left me waiting at.” Cole responded, allowing his rage over her mistreatment and irritation at their interruption to reach his eyes, the displeasure on his face a clear warning to them that he should not be pressed further. “Apologies sir, we will continue our search.. elsewhere.” stammered what he assumed must be the officer among them, while turning and motioning his men to follow him as he proceeded back inside.

Smiling inwardly, I turned back to the garden,leaning on the railing with my elbows. I used my keen eyesight to scan the outermost edges, looking for any sign of the girl, but there was none. She was gone. Suddenly I felt like I was suffocating, a powerful need to know where she’d gone and if she was safe started in my chest and began permeating through every cell of my body, demanding I follow her, to protect her at all costs. Grabbing the rail in front of me I was barely able to keep my feet in place, my mind spinning while trying to understand what had just happened. If she was running from this alpha and his men, I thought, my interference would only make her situation worse. The best way to help her, I decided, was to do nothing at all. While all this made perfect sense to my rational self, it had my wolf howling in my head with  rage and frustration. “Run if you must, but know now, I Will find you.” I whispered to the night air. “You may not know it yet, but you are MINE.”

I waited there a while longer, wrestling with my wolf’s desire to follow after the girl. I had to get myself under control, my wolf was clawing at the back of my mind, howling in outrage.  If I were to face Eric now with this kind of anger there’s only one way it’ll end, with me tearing his throat out. Yet my rational side knew my priority needed to be me and my pack mates all walking out of here alive -and I couldn't guarantee that would happen if i lost my temper. What is going on with me? Why is my wolf acting this way? I stood there, gripping the railing and taking steady calming breaths, what I needed was to get out of here. I needed to get home where I could find some answers about what was happening. Having finally convinced myself that the only way to protect the girl and get the answers I wanted - no, the answers I needed - was to hold myself together long enough to finish this dinner, keeping up appearances and occupying this pathetic alpha as well as his household so they couldn’t focus themselves fully on finding the girl. I would give her the best head start I could, and with that thought I was finally able to appease my wolf enough to rejoin the dinner party.

I moved through the halls back towards the dining room silently, hoping I'd come across more of Eric’s men, but no luck. I made it all the way back to the dining room without hearing or seeing anything of value. I steeled myself before opening the doors, I've never been much of an actor, I've never had to be. My way of handling things has always been straightforward, direct and to the point, perhaps that is why I hate politics so much, too many games. 

I took one more deep breath before I opened the doors. It appears that Eric finally decided to appear, standing to greet me as i entered “ Ahh, Alpha Cole, i was just about to send someone to see if you were ready to rejoin the party, I am so sorry i rudely kept you waiting, someone in my household has turned up missing and i’ve been so distraught looking for the dear girl i lost track of the time” Eric on the other hand, was a very good actor i see, i’d almost believe him if i hadn’t heard his earlier outburst. “An understandable reason to keep anyone waiting Eric” I said, purposefully leaving out the honorary title of alpha as i addressed him, taking my seat i looked at the assembled and said “now how about we finish what we started earlier?” Apparently I was a better actor than I thought as well, because everyone was smiling at me like I was giving them some kind of gift. If they only knew my real intentions, I doubt any of them would still be smiling.