Braided Fate - A Werewolf Romance

Problem at RedTide

(Jaxon POV)

    I heard my phone ring for the 50th time that day and I sighed. Thankfully, My pack and I wouldn’t be in charge of security for an Alpha meeting for at least a decade. Three others packs and my own had formed a large perimeter around a majority of the pack territories. Hundreds of thousands of miles protected by four packs. I was an i***t for volunteering for this. But anything was better than being stuck at that meeting this year.

   “Jax speaking.” I sighed into the phone.

   “Hey, Jax, it’s Chris.” The Alpha hosting the meeting had a deep, calming voice. It did not surprise me that he often took the lead and hosted events like this one. My family had known his forever and I trusted him implicitly.

    “Hey, Chris, what’s wrong? We haven’t heard anything in the South Quadrant.” I scrolled through my messages, wondering if I had missed an alert. Something had to be wrong for Chris to have called me.

    “No, I have an internal issue. One of my packmates is mated to an Alpha in attendance. They leave for their pack in the morning, but another one of the packmates is having trouble understanding that the girl isn’t his. He threatened her in front of the girl’s Alpha.” Chris sounded irritated. I couldn’t believe it.

     “He thought he could interfere with a mated pair??” I asked in disbelief.

     “Yes. I was going to just send him out to work security, but know I worry that you’d have to spend all your efforts babysitting him. He escaped custody twice in the last hour. The Alpha that Aria is mated to is ready to burn our pack to the ground if something isn’t done about him.” Chris sighed. I knew Chris well. It surprised me to hear that his daughter had been mated.

     “Congratulations, Chris. I know you were worried about Aria.” I smiled softly. I had seen pictures of the tiny, sassy blonde woman with Chris and his Luna. I had been hoping that she would be my mate, but she had obviously found her fated mate. My dad and Chris were practically brothers. I had yet to meet her, but it sounded like that would be delayed yet again.

     “Thank you, Jax. I’ll send him out and if you guys could just toss him in the detainment cell and sit on him till they leave, I’d appreciate it.”

     “Of course.”

     “You doing okay, Jax?” Chris asked suddenly. I knew what he was referring to. The reason why I was the only Alpha to volunteer for guard duty. No one ever volunteered. My pack hated me right now, but they understood.

      “Chris- “ I began to warn.

     “ She’s magnificent. I can see why you wanted to marry her, boy.” Chris mentioned. 

      Even though he didn’t say her name, I knew who he was talking about. The woman I had been so close to making mine. She had seemed so meek and sweet when we had met. She was six at the time and I was 16 at the time. I never would have guessed her to be an Alpha. I didn’t know her any more than my memory of the small 6 year old, but I couldn’t help it. I still wanted Marigold. She was the reason I was hiding hours away at the South Border of shifter-country.

     “Enough.” I ordered hoarsely. Marigold had chosen her pack over me. I understood, but I had my pack to think of. I was hoping that an extra year of time before I had to see her again would give me time to find my own mate and forget the young female Alpha.

     “I’m sorry,” he immediately apologized, “The man should be there in a couple hours. They started on the road a couple hours ago, I just wanted to check with you before they got there.” Chris admitted. I chuckled. Of course he did.

     “It’s okay. Pass my congratulations to the little Luna.” I smiled into the phone.

     “Thanks, kid.” Chris hung up. I took a deep breath. Tonight was going to be a long night.

     “Alpha, we found a group of rogues headed toward RedTide’s lands.” A warrior poked his head in the office. I sighed. I hated dealing with any of the southern packs. But they were within the shifter territory.

It took me about a half hour to drive to the border of RedTide. I saw my Beta arguing with a large man. I knew it must be one of the leadership team. RedTide was one of the few that opted out of the Alpha Meeting this year. They had opted out the last three years. This would be the last time they could get away with not attending.

     “It took you long enough. I thought you were supposed to be protecting us! My men had to detain the rogues themselves. We've been dealing with these rogues for over a week.” The man growled. I had no doubt that I was dealing with another Alpha.

     “I’m so sorry, Alpha. My men have been concentrating on the packs that don’t have their leadership teams available to them.” I reminded him. He growled, but did not push it. I follow him through their lands, to their pack-house and into the basement.

     The condition of this place was not lost on me. This man did not care about his people. Any shifter I saw near him gave off strong fear-scent. On top of that, the grounds were not well cared for, the place was falling apart. The basement that doubled as his dungeon was horrendous. I frowned. Standing water, obvious mold, and the smell of urine were just three of the things wrong with this place. The five rouges or so were crammed into one tiny cell. I noticed a couple other men in the backs of the other cells.

      “Get these men out of here and loaded into the truck.” I growled to my Beta. He seemed just as livid as I was. I was hot headed and hard to please, but I would never let my people suffer like this.

        “Alpha-?” I dropped off, asking his name. He paused, but obliged.

       “Simon. This is my Beta Mitch and the man helping your men is my Gamma, Kirk.” He introduced the whole team. I was glad he did. Because now I would have names when I reported him.

      Carson, while you are helping make sure you and one of the other men takes as many pictures as you can discreetly. I will be reporting this the moment we leave.

       Yes, sir. Thank the Goddess. I was worried we were going to leave them like this.

       Never, Carson. This pack is not far from our own. If I have to, I will declare war on him myself. But, the other Alphas will not let this stand. Not at all. I promised.

      “It’s good to meet you, Simon. I am Alpha Jaxon of River Rock.” I smiled politely. Simon nodded in return.

       “Congratulations on becoming an Alpha, Jaxon. How long has it been now? A year?” Simon threw out a random time frame. I did my best not to react, but inwardly I was suspicious. I had been an Alpha for two, almost three years now. Every real Alpha that had access to our confidential network would know that. This man was not this pack’s real Alpha.

       “Thank you, sir. About that, yes. My mate and I are happy and doing well. I can’t wait for this year's conference to be over.” I lied to him to see how outdated his news was.

      “I was so happy to see that you and the Rey’s girl got hitched. What was her name? Marigold? Such a pretty little thing.” He complimented my supposed mate. The compliment fell flat as I knew what it indicated. A couple years ago, this man had taken advantage of this pack and made it his. He hadn’t taken over legally, so he didn’t have access to our inner network and all of the changes that had happened since.

      “Ready to go, Alpha Jax.” Carson called me. I nodded my respect at the fake Alpha.

       “Thank you for detaining them and I apologize for the inconvenience. We’ll get out of your hair.” 

       “No, problem.” His fake smile made me sick.

       Carson and my other men said nothing until we were well off RedTide’s land. They all started rushing me at once with mental pictures and demands to go back for the shifters trapped there. I listened and memorized all that they sent me until we finally reached the guard post. My Beta looked sick. I raised an eyebrow at him.

      “Jax, I may have done something stupid.” Carson admitted. I looked to him, surprised. Carson was so smart and calculating. He was not one to be impulsive. We got out of the truck and he opened the back of the large box truck. I saw what he was talking about immediately.

       Tucked in the middle of the scared rogues was a young woman and a couple of the other prisoners from the basement. I frowned and whipped out my phone. Carson had just declared war. I doubted that this Simon man could really do anything about it now, but I didn’t want to underestimate him. As I waited for Chris to pick up, I growled orders. Even the rogues looked badly off.

       “Get a healer here, now. Get everyone triaged and into beds. Do not tell anyone where they came from.” I hissed. Carson nodded. The rogues and the kidnapped pack members looked relieved.

        “Hello? Did he get there already?” Chris answered, confused.

       “No, we have a problem.” I felt like it was the biggest understatement ever said.