The Silent Heart

Forgotten Protectors

The sun was just rising, its golden light spilling over the grey of the land, sparkling on the lake. The man stared out at it. He had always loved Silver Lake. Not just because his pack had been there for as long as anyone could remember, but because the lake was just as it was named. The shining silver of it in the tips of the waves during the day, shining with stars at night. Even on moonless nights, and on cloudy days, the lake was bright and brought a sense of peace to him. He could stare at it for hours, sit there at its shores and read, and swim at night while all else was still and quiet.

“Hey! Stop daydreaming! Just for that, twenty laps!” Cole yelled out to his team. Which only caused the rest of the Alpha team to groan and for Lucas to elbow him hard in the ribs before they all took off at a run.

“What the hell, Aidan! We were almost done and ready for breakfast!” He shook his head and ran alongside the Gamma.

Aidan felt his ears get red. He had been daydreaming more than often and he had no idea why. He wanted to retort but he was never as clever with the one-liners as their Delta, Kai. Not that Kai was about to bail him out. Luckily, he didn’t have to. Beau joined them and pulled up between the two before elbowing Lucas in the ribs.

“Oh come on, twenty laps is nothing! You’re lucky you aren’t in my training class! We start with twenty! Getting old already, Lucas? I can ask Cole to give you some extra time with me if you want.” He grinned and ran past them. Beau was the Epsilon and constantly trained the warriors and the younger ones that hadn’t even gotten their wolves yet. He was big on letting everyone have a chance at warrior status. He himself was alpha-blooded but never wanted that responsibility. Instead, he would rather make the pack stronger, and he did. The elite warriors were hard to get into, but already four Omegas had done so and raised their rank. Of course, as far as Beau was concerned, they earned it fair and square.

Beau raced past them before Lucas could complain and then ran backward in front of them as if taunting them about how easy this was. Lucas and Aidan looked at each other and didn’t need to mind-link to know what the other was thinking. They narrowed their eyes and nodded to each other. With a sudden burst of speed, they took off past Beau and left him behind. With a glance back, Aidan started laughing at his face. Cole caught up with them and shook his head as if disappointed in them, but they all saw the smile.

*************************************

After a shower and changing clothes, they had breakfast and then met in the Alpha’s office. The truth was, they were all still getting used to it all. Cole’s father decided to hand off the pack to him just three years ago, and they were all surprised. Most Alphas didn’t hand off the pack until their son was already in his thirties, settled with a mate and even a few pups. When he handed off, Cole was only 24, and the rest of them were around the same, with only Beau being older by a year and he himself younger by two still. Of course, as is usual, everyone already knew who Cole was choosing for his team, the only surprise being Beau. Typically, the trainer and elite warriors were only elite warriors. With Beau being alpha-blooded and a good friend, they brought the Epsilon position back to him. He didn’t need to be a part of the pack business, but everyone liked being able to bounce ideas off of him as well. Aidan was a seventh generation Gamma and so not only was he ready, he was the calmest person anyone had met. Lucas was always teasing him for not having a temper. Even when she-wolves got murderous, he remained calm. No one knew how he did it, but he had seen his father and grandfather working as Gamma and learned from a young age, so for him, it was just natural.

Cole was already behind his desk with his Beta, Lucas, standing behind him, leaning up against the side of the desk. Beau had flopped into the large leather chair to the side which just left Aidan and Kai a position on the sofa to the side. While Cole was still looking through the papers, they were all quiet. No one had expected there to be so much damn paperwork when it came to the running of the pack, so they would stay quiet not just to keep from distracting him but to make sure he didn’t push any of that paperwork their way. Well, all of them but Beau. He had his own paperwork, so he was never roped into office work.

“So, what’s up, boss man?” Beau asked as he leaned back in his chair. When they glared at him, he just gave them all a big grin. Beau was built like an alpha and was actually a bit bigger than even Cole. Which worked to his advantage when he was playing guard, as well as when he pissed off the rest of them. No one was going to challenge him and he knew it. Well, not seriously anyway. Kai reached for a pen on the coffee table and threw it at him.

“Shut it Eppy!” Kai half growled at him. That took the smile off of Beau’s face. He was not a fan of Kai’s new nickname and Kai knew it. Kai was now the one with the big grin and Beau took the pen from his shoulder where it landed and narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward. Luckily, before an all-out war with office supplies erupted, Cole looked up at them.

“Come on guys, we have actual work to do today.” His lips were pursed in a tight line and that got both Aidan and Lucas’ attention. Aidan kept quiet, which was what he usually did, even when he was concerned, he was much more a sit-back-and-watch kind of guy. Not that he wouldn’t be right there in a fight, just that he was the one to defuse things when he could, and a lot of times, that meant letting people talk. If only to get it off their chest.

Lucas looked over Cole’s shoulder. “What’s this?” He reached for it and Cole let him before he looked at the team and sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose.

“So there’s this huge international company, Camlan Industries, they want to hire us to build for them.” Cole started. Aidan could already tell there was more, so he said nothing but waited. Lucas looked over the papers in the file and then handed them to Beau, who shrugged, looked them over, and frowned before passing them to Kai.

“So what’s the problem? We have the time, don’t we?” Kai asked. Their construction company was always busy but they have an opening now.

Cole nodded, “We do, it’s just that, it’s weird.” He muttered, unsure how to answer it.

Beau nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll agree with that. From that file, they haven’t been here before but suddenly need a huge amount of work done. They are really secretive about what they want, and that logo, I don’t know but there’s something weird about it. Like it might be a pack’s but it’s not one I recognize.” Kai handed the file to Aidan and he started looking through it. The more he read, the more his fingers felt tingly and warm, and his brow furrowed. He was barely paying attention to the conversation.

“It’s not,” Cole answered, “we checked with all the packs overseas and here. No one is claiming it but they all agree it’s weird. We even did a background report on the company and its owners and there’s barely anything there. If you go with the usual stuff, it looks fine, at least on the surface. But dig any deeper and there’s nothing. Like none of it really existed before it was written up.”

Beau looked at Aidan and then at Cole and nodded his head in that direction. Now all of them were staring at Aidan. They all knew that Aidan wasn’t much into talking. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, just that he didn’t say anything unless it was needed. If others had already voiced their concerns or ideas, there was no reason to jump in. So they waited until Aidan looked up at them. He realized they were all staring and closed the file before handing it back to Lucas. He knew they wanted to know what he thought and this time, he had something to say.

“I get a weird feeling reading that stuff. Probably what you all said, but. . . “ He pursed his lips, unsure if he should continue.

“But?” Beau said softly, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. Beau knew that Aidan wouldn’t just say something was bothering him, but he respected Aidan’s opinion on things if only because he didn’t speak about them as often.

Aidan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He always wore his a little longer than the others. His hair was deep mahogany and fell just around his ears. He preferred it a little longer to hide his features. His high cheekbones, tanned skin, full lips, and Roman nose made him look like something out of a renaissance painting. His dark bushy brows and bright green eyes didn’t take away from the beauty of his features and he preferred not to be bothered by the she-wolves who would happily take up with any of the Alpha team. “There’s more.” He started. “Something about the logo, yes, but it’s the owners too. I feel like they are somehow familiar and not in a good way, but I think we should take it.”

Now they all looked confused and looked at each other. Cole spoke first. “Aidan, if it’s giving us all bad feelings, why should we take it? It’s not like we are hurting for work.” He motioned to the piles of files on his desk and looked at his friend. They had all grown up together and were like brothers. Lucas had actually been taken in by Cole’s family when he was a kid and the last to join their friend group. Every one of them had grown up in this packhouse, with their families being the previous Alpha’s team as well. So they knew they could be honest with each other, and even though they might tease each other when it came to seriously considering something, they trusted each other.

Aidan’s lips squeezed to a flat line as he thought about how to say what he needed to. Closing his eyes, he let his breathing go soft, a sure sign that he was finding the calm inside himself that allowed him to see things clearly, and feel them fully. “Because we are supposed to.” He opened his eyes and he knew that sounded weird. “There’s something weird about it, yes, but we need to find out what it is and make sure it’s not going to bite any of us in the ass later. Does that make sense?”

He half expected them to laugh him off and think he'd just gotten too in his head, which happened from time to time. Instead, they all looked at each other seriously and then nodded. Cole did the same and grabbed the file to give to Lucas. “All right then. Set up a meeting at their offices. Beau, you can probably sit out the first meeting.”

Beau looked at Aidan and sat back, his arm draped over the back of the chair. “I think I might just tag along. Is that cool with you?” He was asking Cole, but his eyes didn’t leave Aidan’s. They all knew he didn’t speak this much about things, and certainly not about something he was still feeling unsure about. So they all took seriously that this was something to be wary of, but that they needed to deal with.