1

Alarms blaring, I jump from my bed.  This is our third perimeter breach in a week. What the hell is going on? I throw on some leggings and a t-shirt, and whip my blonde hair into a messy bun and head straight for the war room. Thank the Goddess I designed this place so I’m just down the hall, the lack of sleep is starting to get to me.

“Talk to me!” is my only command walking into the war room. I step up to the round planning table towards the back of the room ready for information to start flying at me. I really love this set-up.  It’s one of the things I am most proud of bringing to the compound.  I have always felt with the amount of people that contribute to the greater good of all the packs we should meet more King Arthur style.  No head of the table, ultimate leader crap.  We all contribute equally and each of us takes lead as needed based on what we are good at. I look out at the circular room to all the Gammas and Omegas that volunteer their time here everyone can be seen and heard with this set up. Technically this group doesn’t exist, which means the Elders and most of the Alphas know nothing about it.  I came up with the concept when I first entered full time training here at the compound and it grew from there. I have funded everything myself and even built it right under the Elder's noses.  But that's a story for another time.

“We have a disturbance at the Black Lake borders, Alpha.” my Gamma Jason states as he walks by handing me a large cup of coffee.  I swear he can read my mind. “We are pulling up the footage from the surveillance cameras, give us a few minutes.” 

“That's where all of our rogue refugees were staying. Were we able to finish relocating all of their women and children?” I ask the room at large before I savor the caffeinated goodness, almost purring as it immediately hits my system.

Sometimes I think you like your coffee more than you like me. My wolf, Nyx snorts in my head.

“Right now, I do. Someone was super antsy last night and refused to let me actually sleep.” I retort with an internal eye-roll. “What was up with you anyway?”

Well, actually…

“Hey Alpha Leah.” someone calls breaking me from my thoughts and my coffee enjoyment. I tell Nyx to hold on while I listen.

“Yes?” I look over to Travis the Dark Forest Gamma

“It looks like we were able to get all the rogues removed that wanted to leave, they were divided amongst the Rising Sun and Crescent Moon territories. It seems like not as many were willing to leave as we thought though.” He looks over at me confused. “We have been working on the integration project for 2 years, why would so many refuse help now?” He questioned more to himself than to me.

“Because they are a bunch of ungrateful moochers that didn't want to have to earn their keep by contributing to pack life.” Ellinore chimes in as she walks through the door in a white cropped t-shirt and black military style cargo pants and combat boots. Her outfits are usually chosen to piss off the Elders who, mostly, believe females should be seen and not heard. And women should definitely never wear pants outside of training. “Now that they can’t live off the Concordat for free they are going to just cause problems.” huffing her way over to the coffee pot.

“Ah, my little ray of sunshine, I have missed you.” I smirk at her over my coffee cup.

Ellinore is one of my best friends, we met on and off when we were really little at alpha gatherings our fathers were allowed to bring us to.  We really hit it off once we started attending rank training at the Concordat Compound when we turned 12.

Small for a werewolf, she only stands at 5’2 with very few curves, dark chocolate brown hair in a pixie cut styled like an 80’s punk rocker. Her heart shaped face and almond shaped eyes add to her fairy appearance. She makes up for her small stature with her personality and can back up all of her threats physically. When she’s really fired up you can see swirls of gold in her dark brown eyes showing her wolf, Flare, is close to the surface. And to be perfectly honest, Flare is rarely not at the surface. Ellinore got a wolf just as hot-headed and quick-tempered as she is. She is the voice for every snarky and rude thing that has ever crossed my mind, which I love her for. And she tends to voice everything she thinks with no filter or thought to how anyone might perceive it.

“That doesn't seem right, though.” Elyse, the third amigo to our trio chimes in as she walks in behind Ellinore. “We have been in negotiations with them for so long and made sure everyone’s best interests are taken into consideration.  To just switch over like that, is strange.  There’s definitely more going on than meets the eye.  Has anyone talked to the warriors stationed near the rogue camp?”

Ah, there it is our voice of reason, I think. Elyse is our light in the dark.  She can see the positive in just about everything and refuses to believe anything bad until it's proven conclusively.  She also has this amazing way of calming Nyx and Flare, allowing Ellinore and I to come back to our senses.  I swear, somedays, I really think she could or should be either of our fated mates with the level of calm she can bring to both of us just by being present. She’s closer to my 5’6 with long wavy light brown hair that reaches almost down to her waist. Her round hazel eyes give her an innocent ethereal look.  To top all that she has all the right curves in all the right places, I’m not ashamed to say I have noticed. She knows how to dress to accentuate her assets too. She’s wearing a long sleeved v-neck t-shirt that can’t contain her large C cup cleavage and black skinny jeans with black ballet flats. Because even she thinks the Elder’s dress code is stupid

“I just walked in before you two, I have no idea what has been communicated.” I take another quick glance around the room. “I want a check-in with all border patrols, all my communicators make sure you are nice and refreshed, I have a feeling this is going to be a long day.” I say looking at the 8 communication omegas standing around our circular planning table watching as all their eyes glaze over, a sign they are mind-linking with their pack members.

I wish we didn’t have to use the middlemen communicators, but our Elders have denied our request to be able to mind-link with other pack members.  It’s absolutely ridiculous, as Elders can mind-link with anyone in the Concordat, so we know it's possible.  Although many of them rarely communicate with anyone lower than the Beta of a pack.  And I only know of three who will even speak to the Lunas, the sexist a**holes.

“Alpha Leah.” Mary, my omega pulls me from my Elder hating thoughts. “I have a check-in from the Crescent Moon and Night Fang patrols. They have seen nothing unusual for the last few hours.”

“All clear from Silver Mist.” “Same with Dark Forest.” “Blazing River is good.” I get from their respective communicators.

“Ok, tell them to double up on patrol and report any suspicious activity, something isn’t right I can feel it.” I tell them. “Anything from Rising Sun, they are the closest to where the breach alarms are?” I look over at Ellinore, since it's her pack she has a direct line to that branch of communicating.

“No, nothing yet.  They didn’t even acknowledge Brandon’s check-in. Brandon, you keep working on patrol, I’m going to see if anyone else can get me some info.” She barks off an order.

“We are just waiting on Blue Moon and Red Claw, but who knows if either will actually check-in with us.” I grumble to no one and roll my eyes.

“Alpha Leah” Jason mind-links me. “I have the footage up and you're not gonna like it.” Jason says “It looks like a couple hundred new rogues crossed into Black Lake territory over the last 2 hours.  That’s probably what triggered our alarms for that area.  We haven’t seen that much traffic in years.”

I almost dropped my coffee. “What?!” is all I can respond for a moment. I take a deep breath “Does it look like they are attacking, or planning to?” These cameras are all newly installed, only a select few people know about them, since we think someone is using the blind spots in our system and trying to make it look like the rogues are guilty.

“No action yet, Alpha, but it is a majority of males and there are no young children in the group at all.” Jason responds, his face mirroring my thoughts. This is not good.

“Keep an eye on all their movements, grab Bruce and Travis if you need help following them.” I mind-link him. 

Out loud I get everyone in gear.