The Alpha Summit

Chapter Thirteen

"Okay, you all should know how this is going to go, " Achilles said, sitting tall behind his desk. "But for those of you who might not, I will briefly explain."

His eyes drifted to Mel, she knew that she was the one he was referring to.

"I will ask you each your side of the story. Everybody else will stay silent while each individual is speaking. Everything will be recorded for the sake of looking back on the conflict at a later date. Punishments will be decided by myself on what I see is fit."

Mel glared at the four girls that sat there smugly. They had the audacity to take up this silly little matter to Achilles. Mel was barely holding on to her sanity. All she and her wolf wanted to do was put those girls in their place.

Achilles looked directly at the girl sitting closest to him. He didn't want Mel to go first out of fear of these girls crying over him being unfair. Everybody in the pack already had speculation that he and Mel were a thing. But would it really be so bad if everybody knew? Achilles shook his head and spoke to the girl.

"Lucinda, you will go first. When I start the recording you will state your full name and then tell your side of the altercation."

Mel held back a growl. Altercation? What had they told Achilles?

Achilles started the recording on his phone and nodded to Lucinda who flashed him a flirty smile. Mel suddenly knew what this was about. Her wolf growled possessively in her mind.

"My name is Lucinda Beatrice Temples, the daughter of Warrior Gray Temples and Pack Supply Manager Serina Temples," Lucinda said proudly.

Achilles cleared his throat, "Begin your recollection"

"Okay, so Mel came to the Garden late and was taking to Zora. Naturally, us girls were curious about who she was so when he came over we decided to get to know her. We were asking her question and she just ignored us. Then Kasey said that I should shut up,"

Kasey was glaring at Lucinda early as she effortlessly lied.

"I told her that was rude and that she needed to apologize to me. Kasey refused to apologize saying that she didn't have to because she has Autism," Lucinda put her hand over her heart feigning sorrow. "I never liked Kasey, but I never thought she would fake a disability to get sympathy."

Kasey stood up abruptly, "I didn't say any of that!"

"Sit down, Kasey," Achilles growled.

At that Mel couldn't stop the growl that left her, "Lucinda is spewing lies. Kasey is right to defend herself. Maybe your procedure is just obsolete, Alpha."

"Mel," Achilles growled.

"No, we are done here," Mel said lethally.

"See, this is what they are like!" Lucinda cried, "You need to punish them."

"Oh, go throw rocks at children, Lucinda," Kasey spat.

Achilles let out a terrifying growl, which gripped everybody's attention immediately. He stood there with his fist on his desk and shook slightly. To say he was furious was an understatement.

"Melody Sars and Kasey Clements stay here," Achilles growled. "The rest of you get out."

The girls reminded solidly in place, which only served to anger Achilles further.

"Get out now!" He shouted.

Within three seconds the girls were gone and only Mel and Kasey remained. The thing that made Mel the most annoyed was that she wasn't sure whether to be angry, scared, or absolutely turned on.

Achilles ran his hand roughly through his messy hair and turned around to face the window. He forced himself to calm down before she spoke.

"How dare you disrespect me in front of several pack members. Do you know how that makes me look, Mel?"

"You are seriously worried about your reputation right now?" Mel asked incredulously.

"Yes, I am, and if you can't see why you are more clueless than I thought."

Mel laughed humorlessly, "Do you wanna know what those girls said to Kasey? Do you Alpha?"

Kasey pushed Mel back and walked over to Achilles' side of the desk. She fearlessly lifted both of her sleeves.

"They said that they hoped you would have me sent away so that I would finally be gone because clearly, my suicide attempts didn't work."

Achilles stayed silent.

"So, Alpha, punish me. Kill me if you have to. Unlike you, I don't care about what other people think of me. Not anymore," Kasey walked back around the desk and sat down. She left her sleeves up, almost a reminder to her Alpha.

"Kasey, I can't even begin to tell you how disgusting that is of them to say. I won't make you tell me the entire encounter again. You are free to go."

Kasey got up swiftly and exited, leaving Achilles and Mel to face each other.

Achilles looked at Mel and spoke, "If you had waited I would have let you both tell your side too. You realized I wouldn't have believed anything they said over you?"

Mel picked the skin off of her thumb, "It wasn't about that Achilles. It was the fact that those girls thought that they could say whatever they wanted to Kasey and have no consequences."

"I was going to punish them," Achilles sighed.

"But you were going to indulge them first! They don't deserve to be listened to. They need a punch in the face and to, move the Hell on with their lives!"

Achilles smirked, "This isn't just about Kasey is it?"

Mel's breath caught in her throat. Her wolf growled as if in agreement. So maybe it wasn't just about Kasey. Lucinda thought that she could just come in and get Achilles to send her away. There was no way that brown-haired, old-time-named, b***h was stealing her mate.

"Are you jealous, Mel?"

Mel glared at Achilles and he only smiled wider.

"I'm not the one who wanted to keep us a secret, Mel. What I remember is me actually hating that idea with my entire f*****g being."

Mel sighed deeply, "I just don't know what to do. Because if we tell everybody in the world that I am here and I am your mate, Circes will be here. I don't want your pack to get pillaged because of me."

"So then we prepare," Achilles said strongly. "We train everybody extra hard and we have every warrior interrogating everybody in the pack for information. We will find out what Circes' motive is and we will find out what went down in your pack."

Mel picked harder at her fingers. She still felt like they needed more of a plan, but she guessed this was a start.

"And what if this goes to war? Are you ready for that just so that we can be mates?"

Achilles placed his hands on Mel's shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. She nearly shuddered at his closeness.

"I am prepared to do anything for you to be my mate."

Mel looked at him and smiled, "Then let's solve a mystery."

The pair stood there admiring each other. They both still had so much to learn about the other, but at that moment they were just happy at the prospect of what they could be together. A lovely fantasy that would be built on blood, fear, and lies.

Mel pulled apart.

"I need to go find Kasey," Mel blurted out.

Achilles' eye became unfocused and blurry and Mel knew he was mind linking.

"Nobody knows where she is," Achilles said.

Mel felt a feeling of panic cloud her mind and make her heart speed up. How could nobody know where she is?

"Who did you ask? Did you ask her parents?"

"I mind linked the warriors and her parents. None of them have seen her. Achilles paused and threw his hand through his hair. "I will mind-link the whole pack and we can get a search party. We will find her Mel-"

Mel's jaw tightened, "What is it? Tell me."

"There was a border breach."

It was like the entire universe went silent as Mel realized the enormity of the situation. Kasey could be dead by the time anybody found her. Before telling Achilles where she was going, Mel was out the door. She sprinted down the long halls as her nose told her where Kasey's room was.

"Kasey!" Mel screamed while she pounded on Kasey's door.

No noise came from behind the door, but somehow that was scarier than if there had been. Mel knocked the door open and fell inside. Kasey's scent was strong in here, but Kasey wasn't anywhere to be seen. Mel slammed the bathroom door open without hesitation, and to her relief, and further stress, Kasey wasn't there either.

Mel's head was now spinning and pounding. She wanted to start crying, but she wouldn't let herself. She couldn't hide while Kasey was out there somewhere.

"The bushes," Mel whispered.

Her body stood up on her own and started running as she mind-linked Achilles.

I think I know where she is. Meet me near the edge of the forest.

I'll be there, Achilles answered.

Everything was blurred until Mel stood by the edge of the forest and Achilles was next to her. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along with her.

"Her scent is getting strong," Achilles stated.

Mel stopped in front of the bushes and took a deep breath in. Kaysey's scent was the strongest here. She had to be in there.

Mel ran into the two bushes. She was meet with the sight of Kasey's blue shirt neatly folded, and a piece of paper folded in a triangle made to stand on top.

Her fingers needily clutched the paper and shirt. Mel couldn't bring her eyes to look at the words on the page. She walked clumsily out of the bush and shoved the things into Achilles' arms.

"Read it."

Achilles stood still, showing no emotion on his face. He opened the paper and forced his eyes to look at it.

"I have taken the girl. She's quite a fiery little thing, very easy to kidnap though. Anyway, it is obvious what I desire and if I do not get it the consequences will be dire. I'd advise Melody Sars to either turn herself over to me or be turned over by force. I have no issue turning blonde into a tasty snack. And as you know, I am a large man so she will not be enough. Either turn over Melody or have your entire pack massacred one by one. Get it Melody because-"

Achilles cut himself with a ferocious growl. His eyes were turning black.

"Forget waiting, we are finding this man and slaughtering him!"

"No, we are not," Mel said scarily calm.

Achilles are turned pitch black. Cain was in control now. Cain didn't say anything just growled.

"You know what, you can just growl to yourself while I actually do something."

Mel turned around and ran to go find somebody that would help her. She would go the training grounds, maybe Jax, or Bently, or somebody sensible would be there.

A wave of nausea washed over Mel as she neared the training grounds. She wasn't sure if it was the stress, the running, or a mix of both, but just as she reached the edge of the people training, she collapsed.

Dry heaves raked her body as people started to surround her. A shirtless guy kneeled down next to her.

"Are you okay? You came running in here and collapsed. What's going on?"

"I need to, " another dry heave cut Mel off before she composed herself. "I need Jax and Bentley."

Barely after the words left Mel's mouth, the man flew away from her. Silence spread like a wildfire as Achilles stepped over Mel.

He roughly picked her up and growled violently at every man even remotely near them.

"Mine," He growled out boomingly. "My mate."

Nobody, not even Mel, interjected as Achilles carried her away like a small child. It was like wordless knowledge, that it would be a death wish.

Snuggling into Achilles' chest, despite her mind yelling at her to get up and find Kasey or do something about Circes, Mel began to sob. Pent up frustration and anger exited her body as she sobbed.

Everything around her felt like it was on fire and all Mel had was a single cup of water. It was like one problem was solved and more just popped up around her. A deadly game of Whack-A-Mole that she would never win.

Before Mel could protest she was thrown onto Achilles' bed. Mel could tell Achilles was back now. She guessed that Cain decided everybody knowing that she was he was enough.

"I'm sorry," Mel cried. "I'm so sorry. I just want to fix everything, but I just keep making things worse."

Achilles let out a long sigh, "It's not your fault. Everything is just an astronomical f*****g disaster."

Mel laughed, "Well to check one thing off of the to-do list, everybody knows we're mates now."

Achilles raked his hands down his face. A deep-seated disappointment washed through him. Not only had he lost control and hurt somebody, but he now put his mate in more danger than he ever could have imagined.

He could lose her.

He could lose her before he even had her.

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Here ya go... tell me what ya think.

Reading questions:

-What is Circes' endgame?

-Do you think Achilles knows what it is?

-What is Achilles going to do now?