Dave -
Daisy crashes into the chair in front of my desk and crossing her legs she begins tapping her foot on the edge of the desk, “so, what's up?” She asks, “you sound even more stressed than usual this morning, did something happen?”
“Yeah, something happened, Mark has got it into his head that he is going to find Ace and take him out, Brian has tried to talk some sense into him, but he is worried it hasn't worked, so we have had to adjust the plan slightly to keep Brian and Mark safe.” Rubbing my temples with the tips of my fingers, I continue, “we are now sending extra men out there in secret, Brian knows about them but Mark doesn't, and Jack has just messaged me saying his extra men are leaving his pack in 45 minutes and that they will meet with ours at the agreed upon location along our adjoining border. I haven't even had a chance to brief my guys. Thankfully they are due to arrive any minute so I will have a good 30 minutes to go over the plan with them before they have to leave, otherwise they won't be at the rendezvous point on time.”
“Wow, OK, big change, who are you sending? Are you sure we can trust them?” It's a reasonable question in light of recent events and one I don't answer immediately. Could I trust them? I was pretty confident about Tasha and Aria, but Harry gave me pause, the main reason I did trust him was because he was Aria's mate, I trusted the girls because Tasha had been mistreated by Ace, and Aria being her sister was on her side, naturally, and both had been penalised simply for being female so obviously they both had reason to want Ace gone, Harry gave me a slightly funny vibe, but because he is Aria’s mate I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.
“The warriors are Tasha, Aria and Harry, and we will be sending a tracker as well, I chose Keith for this.”
“OK good, they all deserve this chance to prove themselves, they earned it.” Daisy answers after a moment of silence, she was obviously thinking through what I had told her and I feel better knowing that Daisy agrees with my decision, it is like a weight has lifted off of my shoulders.
A knock on my door stops our conversation and Daisy jumps up to let them all in.
Aria leads the way with Harry on her tail, Keith walks through the door next followed, finally, by Tasha who is bringing up the rear and showing clear signs of high anxiety. Poor thing, I don’t know specifics, I never wanted to dig too deeply into the trauma that some of the women of this pack had to endure, I didn’t want to cause additional stress for them having to relive it, but I have contacted a couple of nearby packs for assistance with female doctors who can help these women move through the trauma, it is all I felt I could do for the time being.
“Great, thanks so much for coming so quickly, this is time sensitive as well as confidential, you will not have time after this meeting to say good-bye to anyone, but if you wish to have a message passed along then Daisy and I will be happy to do so.”
“Can I ask what this is about Alpha?” Says Harry, looking around at the others who had been summoned.
“I have a task for you all, but it is of the utmost importance that this remain secret, we do not know who we can trust completely and we need no word of this to leave this group of people,” I say solemnly hoping that they will all appreciate the gravity of the situation and the trust I am placing in them.
Daisy -
So today begins with a long, tedious and hefty to-do list as well as the added delight of constant concern and worry for a handful of our pack members, who are working alongside a handful of Jack’s pack members (still feels weird thinking of them as Jack’s pack) to assist Brian and his mate Mark (without Mark’s knowledge) to try to discover how Ace's man, Frank, keeps losing our trackers. We also plan to have the area in question fully investigated and catalogued with notes and photos of the area so that we can update our seriously outdated maps, which if I am being candid about, don’t seem to have been updated in at least a decade looking at them. The caves that run around and through the mountains seem to be interconnected and almost endless, but the maps we have only indicate that the caves are shallow and not much more than that. Once that is under way we can hopefully get some more useful intel and Goddess willing, we will be able to stop Ace before he is able to put his latest plan into action. Because you know for a fact that scum like him always has a dirty plan up their sleeves.
And then, to round out the day, Dave tells me that he wants me to go on a trip to another pack, a pack that has a similar history to this pack’s recent history, for advice…. I mean don’t get me wrong, I kinda wanna go, see if maybe my mate is there and all that, but I am not diplomatic at all. I mean, what are the chances I offend someone, it could cause issues for the whole pack. But Dave is depending on me, I need to do this to prove myself I guess, to earn my position of Beta within this pack. Physically, I am a better fighter than everyone but Dave in this pack, the lack of training and structure has weakened them all, but give these guys a couple of months and no doubt someone will challenge me for the position simply because I am an unmated female. Maybe if I travel I might get lucky, find my mate and he might even be willing to be the one to relocate. A girl can dream right?!
Author POV - Brian and Mark departed from their home in Rival River pack and made their way on foot through the woods that separate them from Twin Lakes, they chat idly as they go, talking about the things they want to accomplish in their lives, they talk about anything that comes to mind except the mission they are currently heading towards. Brian dreads the topic coming up, hoping that as their opinions differ on the task at hand that they can just make it through the coming days without any accidents, injuries and more specifically without any fights between themselves. He feared their bond was too new for them to risk a fight no matter how much he disagreed with Mark’s plan, they had after all only been mates for a month and still needed some time to really strengthen their bond to one another.The bond, though accepted by them both was still delicate as they had not yet mated and marked one another, they had originally decided to wait a while and get to know each other better as
Author POVAfter walking for another 45 minutes they find a decent spot that they can set up camp in, in between the trees for cover. Mark starts getting nervous about confessing to Brian, he hopes that Brian understands why he behaved the way he did. The back-up were doing a great job of staying out of sight, Mark only knew they were there as he had heard a man voice faintly when they paused to have a drink, he had pretended not to hear a thing when Brian had looked up sharply in the direction of the voice and continued on as if alone.Brian, having heard the male warrior, made a little more noise for the rest of their journey. They were now at the base of the mountain in the shadows of the trees that wrap around the base tightly. Setting up camp was a quick process for them and it had been planned that they would do their first excursion after s
Author POV - Over at Rival River pack at that very moment, Cassie and Jack were cloistered in Jack’s office having just spoken with Dave over at Twin Lakes. Concern is evident in the air at both packs as nobody has heard from the teams sent out to gather intel on the mountains, their caves and Ace.Jack missed having one of his best friends around all the time and was struggling to add Dave’s Beta duties on top of his own, but he was happy for his friend. Happy that he was going to have the chance to show the world what he was truly capable of.Jack had always felt Dave was meant for more than just a Beta role and he knew that Dave was going to be an amazing Alpha, especially to the Twin Lakes Pack which desperately needed a strong leader after the torment of the past few months. They all knew just how quickly everything can change for a pack, there are many in history that proved that just a few short weeks can change everything. But having his beloved mate close by helps.Cassie ha
Cassie - This last week has been very emotional for me, I have been thinking about my mother a lot in the last week, for some reason she is constantly in my thoughts, I miss her so much. I also keep dreaming of everybody else I have lost recently, Luna Lily for example, seems to be a constant feature in my dreams, telling me everything will work out as it should, and Thomas, my darling Thomas, who sacrificed himself so that I might survive, sacrificed himself because he felt my life was worth more than his. I’m not sure why this last week has been so trying, maybe because I knew what was about to happen, maybe I’m seeing all my lost loved ones because I am terrified that others I have come to love will be leaving me and joining them. Brian and Mark are so close to Ace’s hiding place, I know it, even if we don’t know exactly where he is, I know they are close, and I pray to the Goddess almost hourly to spare them, they don’t deserve to lose each other, not when they have only just fou
Cassie - I roll my eyes the heavens before I look her straight in the eye and reply, “Plenty of people call me Luna, you are my friend, not to mention you are a ranked member of this pack, you are free to call me by my given name, please Tara, I thought we were friends by now?”“Of course we are, I wouldn’t have survived without you and your kindness,” she exclaims.“And I would not have managed to become the Luna you see before you without your help, please, I don’t want to have this argument again,” one good thing about repeating this conversation with Tara is, it has driven the ghosts of my past to the back of my mind and we have managed to arrive at the hospital.“Very well, Cassie, I will try not to call you Luna as it seems to be such an issue for you,” she concedes finally, this is the closest we have gotten to her agreeing to call me Cassie and I take it as a small victory.“Thank-you, now let's get this over with” I pull my shoulders back and head into the hospital with my h
Daisy - So Dave has me packing for this mission, that's all we seem to do lately, plan missions. I am heading to Forest Haven Pack.He is sending me to this pack for two reasons, the first and main reason being that there are some questions regarding finances that were moved between their pack and ours, and the second reason is that they had a similar situation to our current issues with Ace in the past and he is hoping that someone there will remember what happened and be able to advise us on what our next steps should be.Forest Haven knows that I am coming, they are expecting me in a days time, so I don’t have much time to pack up and get going. But I do take the time to call my best friend and let her know my plans.The phone rings out when I try to call Cassie, but I’m not worried. She is often busy with her Luna duties and always calls me back quite quickly, so I leave my phone on the bed and continue to fill my bag with the items I am likely to need for a quick visit. Hopefull
Daisy -I pull up to the pack house at Rival River minutes later, having driven a little too fast around the twists and turns the roads make us take to get to each other and I am jumping out of the car before I realise I haven’t undone my belt. The force of being held into the car by the belt stops me and I hasten to undo it, frustrated when I can’t get the damn button to click and release me.Finally free from the damn car, I race through the pack house, up the stairs and slide to a halt outside the Alpha suite. I don’t bother to knock, they know I am coming, I throw the door open calling out to Jack and looking around the spacious sitting area with the small kitchenette in the corner.Jack appears in the doorway leading to their room and I stride over to him quickly, peaking around his broad chest
Cassie -“I want pups with you,” I can sense him now, finally, and I am hit with the realisation of the guilt he feels because he thinks I am unhappy with the news. “I love the idea of carrying your pup,” I reassure him quickly.“But, your emotions, they disappeared and when I found you with Tara you were unresponsive, you wouldn’t look at me, you wouldn’t speak, it took me having Daisy come by for you to utter a word” the hurt in his words rips me in half.“I’m so sorry, I never meant to block my emotions from you, I didn’t even know that was possible until I realised I couldn't feel you anymore, I was in shock, and I will admit, a little upset, but not because I am pregnant, because of the timing, if Ace wasn’t still out there, a risk to every s