Shades of Green

Chapter 17: From a Packs View

The day Hope left....

"Tabitha, would you please get the suppliers on the line." Nicolas asked his secretary. He walked into his office with a lunchbox on his desk. He smiled and was so grateful to Hope for always making sure they all had lunch at least available. They might not always have time to eat it, but it was there for them.

"I can't believe they want that much for all the work they want us to do. This isn't some discount store." Josh said as he arrived in Nicolas's office carrying his lunch and a notebook full of the notes from the meeting.

"Me either. We can't take that order," Victoria said as she followed Josh carrying the same things in her hands. The of the members followed her. They ate their lunch and carried on with their day. At the end of the day, Nicolas and Sergio decided to stay a few extra hours to see if they couldn't come to an agreement with the client. The rest of the pack decided there was nothing they could do, so they went home.

"I can't wait to go home. Oh, I need to text Hope and let her know we are on our way." Katie said. She pulled out her phone and sent a text telling her they were on their way and if they needed to stop and get anything before they got home. She looked at her phone for a minute. There was no response. "That's weird," she said.

"Humm.. What is baby?" Janet asked, sitting beside her.

"Hope didn't respond. She is always quick to respond," Katie replied.

"She may be in the bathroom or cooking. I'm sure she is safe at home." Janet said, leaning on Katie's shoulders. The Omega just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. When they arrived home, everything looked the same but something was different. They took off their shoes at the door.

"Hope we are home," Katie said. Silence filled the air. "Hope?" They could all smell the food that was cooking, so they headed to the kitchen. There they saw three crock pots filled with hot food, and an envelope placed besides it. Katie's Omega was practically howling at this point, because Hope wasn't responding. She reached the envelope. On top of it was a sticky note.

Again, sorry I wasn't enough.

~Hope

Confused, Katie opened the envelope and dumped the contents of it. Out fell a letter, a debit card, credit cards, keys to the house and Hope's car. With wide eyes, Katie looked up at the rest of the members, who looked confused as to why Hope's stuff was in the envelope. The Omega turned and ran to Hope's room, screaming her name over and over. Praying that this wasn't happening, she told herself. Her only prayer was to please be alive. Once she got to her room, she saw that it looked the same and one wouldn't be able to tell anything was missing unless you knew Hope.

Her desk was clean from where all her notebooks were lying. Katie checked the closet and her heart fell. Gone were most of Hope's clothes and her suitcase. Katie fell in front of the Beta's closet and wept.

Nicolas's and Sergio's phones both go off at the same time. They answer it and they both get the same message to get home now without an explanation as to why. Once they arrive, an overwhelming smell of rain fills their noses.

"She's gone, I can't believe she left." They heard someone say crying. They took off their shoes, put their things down and walked to the living room.

"Who's gone?" Nicolas asked, looking at his pack. Janet held out a letter. Nicolas took it and read it, growled , looked up at Josh. "Did you call her Pack Family?" Josh shook his head, with tears in his eyes.

"They said to call them when we were all here and not to expect to hear good news when we do call." The Alpha said as his voice kept cracking on him with hints of Josh about to sob. Nicolas pulled out his phone and called Hope's Pack Alpha. When Alpha answered, he put it on speaker phone.

"Hello Nicolas, can't say good to hear from you. To be honest, I am disappointed in you and myself." The Alpha voice boomed. "We trusted you with our precious Beta. I am sitting here with her parents as well on this call."

"Please sir, tell us where she is and we will fix any problems there are." Nicolas begged.

"Yes, that would seem like the right thing to do, but Hope had told us she had tried multiple times to fix this. Every time she was dismissed, she was even called childless one time. Is this true?" Hope's mother said in a warning tone. The ones who had called her hung their heads and began to cry again. "I see, your silence is not only concerning but heartbreaking as well." The Beta mom scolded.

"I knew from the start Hope had told each and every member of this pack she wanted to be treated like an equal, not a Beta. Yet here we are, and something about mating? You are all mated and Hope tried to approach each of you and every single one of you brushed her off? Did I understand that right?" Hope's dad was now speaking. None of them could answer because of the sobs coming from each of them. "I see, well, even if we knew where she was I would have my reservations about telling you. You do realize you did this to one of your own. Yes, she may be a Beta, but the ONLY difference between her and you is her Beta. Well, clearly a few other things, like love, and morals about how to treat another wolf, but to each their own." Hope's father was now scolding them. Nicolas took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"I am sorry, I knew something was off. I was so wrapped..." Nicolas stopped as he was talking. "No excuses, I should have done better. Treated her better. She was working so hard, I just... This is all my fault." Nicolas rambled.

"Well, in my opinion, you are all at fault. Like my Beta said, all are equals. No, we don't know where she is, but we know she is safe. Hope told us she was. You are just going to have to wait until she calms down. Maybe she will return to you." Hope's Head Family Pack Alpha said.

"Sir," Victoria's shaky voice said. "May we come and stay with you for a week to see if she comes and visits please." Hope's pack family agreed and they were on the next plane that was available. For a week they retraced every step they made, hired a detective and did all they could in order to find her. Victoria even tried stealing Hope's mom's phone so she could try and get Hope's new number. Although it appeared that she had deleted it because it was just filled with calls to and from Hope's family members. After a week of trying, they all packed up and headed home. They still had a company to run with employees to pay.

For weeks no one really talked to each other. The maid Hope had gotten them they kept because this was all they could do to keep Hope's wish. With the maid, they realized just how much they had put on Hope, which made them even more depressed. Their scent now souring, they all had to take scent blockers to talk to clients. The detective they hired never found anything. In his last report he gave them he had missed her by a few days. She had lived in this hotel for weeks. When he had gotten there, they had already sanitized the room and de-scented it. All the traces of Hope are now gone. Hope was gone. Hope was their sunshine on a rainy day, their laughter in the dark to guide them out. Now there is no sun and no laughter.

Weeks turn into months and months into years. They stopped calling Hope's family years ago, but would sometimes pop up at their house just to catch everyone off guard. They could all smell that Hope had not been there for years. Her youthful scent was weak but it would blow through their noises, but it was the only real reason they even came. Her scent had left their house years ago, because everyone would take their turns sleeping in it and it finally started to smell like a pack room rather than Hope's.

Heats and ruts were the only times they touched each other. That was because they had too. The Omega's went back on birth control because if Hope wasn't there to be pregnant with them they didn't want to. Although the Omegas talked and said, they began to believe that they would never find her and that it wasn't fair to the Alphas to not give them pups.

"Just wait a little bit longer." Victoria begged and the Omegas agreed and that was the end of that discussion.

All hope was lost. Inside they had lost a mate. Even though they didn't deserve to ever find her, they hoped she was happy and healthy wherever she was. The pack would get nervous when certified mail came in fear that it was divorce papers, because Hope maybe had found a new pack that loved her better than they had. Even though it was hard to imagine her with someone else, they did hope she was at least getting the love she deserved. The love she gave to them all those years ago. They all hoped she wasn't alone. Her pack family never said she was with anyone. When they asked, they would just say she was happy and left it at that.

"Are you all ready?" Victoria called out.

"I want to see our set up at the furniture show before we have to be on the floor." Janet yelled to the Alphas were the only ones not in the living room ready to go.

"We are coming!" Josh said as they turned the corner to the living room.

"Paula, thank you for finding this. I have been looking all over for my scarf." Katie said.

"My pleasure, ma'am," Paula the maid said with a smile and walked out of the living room.

"Lets go," Nicolas said. They all piled into the van and left for the show. Once they got there, other vendors were setting up. Some had really great ideas, and one was children's furniture. It was set up very well. As they passed, they saw a little girl helping an Omega. The Omegas paused to cooed at the little girl. There was something so familiar about her between her face and scent.

"Hello, can I help you?" The little girl said.

"Oh my, I didn't know you were the owner of this store." Victoria smiled. The little girl giggled and they all melted.

"I am not the owner, my Mama is. She makes lots of beautiful things. I am just her cute helper she calls me." The little girl stated. Katie looked at the Omega.

"Your little girl is so cute," Katie stated.

"Silly, that's not my Mama. She is my mom's assistant. Her name is Alison and I am Sarah." Sarah said.

"Well, Sarah, tell your mom I think her store is great. How old are you?" Janet said. The little girl held up three fingers. "Oh wow, such a big girl," Janet cooed.

"If you want to tell my mom she did a good job, you can tell her she is right there." The little girl pointed. They all looked in the direction in which she was pointing. A gasp was heard among the Omegas.

"Hope!" Someone gasped.