The Last Lycan (On Hold)

Twelve

The Snow Stone Pack were rushing around the grounds, Mason was doing everything he could to locate Ava, at first they thought she had fallen asleep somewhere, being injured and training as much as she had been it was possible again.

However, minutes turned into hours and hours into days. The pack was one day from welcoming other packs into their territory for the ceremony that very evening and they had lost a head warrior.

Six days Ava had been missing, after two days Mason had no choice but to call his old friend and tell him what had happened, the worst part was they couldn’t even track her because she held no scent like other wolves, in fact they knew nothing about how she disappeared, after her morning independent training session she vanished.

Samuel left this pack under the charge of his Beta so he could come and look for his daughter.

When he arrived, he saw his old friend for the first time in person in four years. His face full of remorse and guilt. She had gone missing under his watch after all.

The Alpha’s embrace one another “I’m sorry Sam, I should have looked out for her better”.

Samuel separates from the embrace, his hands still holding onto his dear friend, “It’s not your fault Mason, Ava is her own person, she wouldn’t have become the first female warrior if she couldn’t handle herself”.

Though he was beginning to worry, it wasn’t like Ava to disappear and not leave a message even if it was linking her own father to inform him that she was going away for a while. And on top of that she was working, she never leaves in the middle of a job.

Samuel embraced Luna Sarah to console her too, “Oh Samuel, I’m sorry”.

“Sarah it isn’t your fault, it isn’t anyone’s, we’ll find her”.

Mason guided his old friend into the pack house. Kyle was stood waiting to speak to Alpha Samuel.

“Alpha” he speaks stepping forward.

Samuel glowers at the boy and growls, “I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did to my daughter, your father may be my best friend but it will not stop me from ripping your heart out, I have other matters to tend to”.

Kyle bowed his head in submission to the Alpha and heaves a sigh. He only wanted to help, but his past wrongs were now causing him issues.

Mason showed his old friend to the office where he had already gathered maps of his territory and surrounding areas “We’ve cleared the pack territory and a five mile surrounding radius, Jason is currently out now searching the east and is moving south and around to the west, then north, so far there is nothing”.

Mason wished he had better news for his friend but there was no way to track her,

“We’ve tried to use her clothes to gather her scent, but she hasn’t shifted, so there’s nothing to trace” Mason added on when Samuel remained silent.

The Alpha’s take a seat and remain silent for a short while until Samuel sighed.

“Ava shifted when she was eight years old” Samuel finally expelled to his friend.

Mason looked at the other Alpha with shock, that was impossible

“Why can’t we sense her?” Mason asked, his jaw hanging low upon hearing the new information.

“Because she isn’t like every other werewolf, she’s special”.

Mason huffed out a chuckle, “I can see that she has made extraordinary strides in her short life”.

Samuel nodded in agreement “Alana said she would”.

Both men were surprised at Samuel’s mention of his late mate, he never spoke about her, Mason never asked the reason as to why that was but respected his decision to do so.

Both men believed Alana to be human which was why she died shortly after the birth of the werewolf child Ava, and Mason also believed it to be the reason Ava never shifted, but he was clearly mistaken.

Samuel moved back to talking about his daughter rather than his deceased mate, “Ava shifted when she was eight years old, I never expected it, there was no record of anyone shifting that early and I didn’t want anyone to know, so I kept it a secret from everyone, my pack, the council everyone, I had no idea what it meant and spent years looking for an answer without raising suspicion but I found nothing and we decided to keep her shift a secret until she was of an age, but then Ava was never able to access her wolf when she came of age, it was only after Kyle did what he did that Ava’s wolf Alana came back, by then she had already passed the section an Alpha’s daughter should have sifted so we just pretended she never did and would only expose her wolf in the middle of the night when no one was about”.

Mason listened to his friend speak about his troubles, suffering he would have known about had he still been at the Night Star Pack.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you” Mason consoled with guilt.

Samuel chuckles, “Even if you never left the pack, I still wouldn’t have told you”.

Mason laughs. He knew what Samuel said was true, even though they were best friends, Samuel wasn’t one to explain his entire life, Mason knew the most about him out of everyone but not all of it, including his daughter and wife.

Samuel makes himself comfortable while he thinks about where to begin, he himself, didn’t know the entire story, only Alana did and kept it to herself until her very last breath.

“We always thought Alana was a human” Samuel begins.

Mason nods his head in confused agreement, Alana was dainty woman, but her might was huge. The pack loved her despite not being a wolf, and only being there for a short time.

“Thought?” Mason questioned.

“I never got a scent from her, other than the mate pull I had for her, everyone else at the pack said she had no scent, so we assumed she was human. The night Ava was born, Alana told me she was special, at first, I thought I was because she was our daughter, we all think that way about our pups”.

Samuel inhales a sharp breath to ease the emotions threatening to explode from within. “When Alana took her last breath, I saw something I have never seen before, her eyes they glowed”.

Mason looked at Samuel with wide eyes, “Human’s eyes don’t glow” he states and Samuel nods in agreement.

“Weeks after Alana’s death I kept Ava with me all the time, I locked myself away in the library and office looking for anything that would tell me why her eyes glowed, I had never seen her do it before and I got consumed by it. It was when Ava got sick that I realised I neglected her, she never felt the sun on her skin for four months and I almost killed her keeping her inside in one room all the time. It was then that I dropped it and focused on Ava and the pack, then when she shifted eight years later I began to research again, her wolf isn’t the colour it should be, it should reflect her hair, and size should reflect her human form but her wolf is black and is bigger than my wolf” Samuel finishes.

Mason listened to Samuel in amazement and utter confusion, none of this made sense.

“How?” he asks, Samuel shakes his head in response.

“I don’t know, but Alana knew she was special, I didn’t realise how special till I watched her grow up right in front of me, how from a very young age I could talk to her anywhere she went, no matter how far we had the ‘ to keep us connected, I and now I can’t feel my daughter, it was as if she never existed”.

Mason places a hand on his friends shoulder to console him, “We will find her, like you said, she’s tough” Samuel nods and both Alpha’s head out of the office and head to the kitchen where Sarah was cooking up a storm, Rose was sat in her highchair playing with her toys.

“Sweetheart there’s so much food even for the pack and they eat a lot” Mason says as he embraces his mate stopping her from cooking.

“I cook when I’m nervous, you know that” Sarah spoke quickly, it was the only thing that had her entire concentration, and within in an hour her nerves usually disappear, but this was different, Ava was missing and she couldn’t do anything to help.

“There are some packs coming early, four are to arrive tomorrow so they can enjoy this food too, besides I don’t think I’ll stop cooking until Ava is safe and there is still so much to do with the pack games” Sarah rambles on with words no one understood.

Mason grabs onto his wife, embracing her in his arms and holds her until she calms down, when her breathing was back to normal and her mind wasn’t running a thousand words a minute Sarah clicked back into Luna mode and had every female and unshifted child doing things to get ready for the games whilst Mason focused on finding Ava.

And luck would have it Harris came running into the pack house “We picked up a scent North east of the boundary, we can’t figure it out, we sense rogue and pack wolves, we can’t figure it out” Harris informs his Alpha.

Samuel and Mason follow Harris to their discovery in human form, Samuel was too focused on his daughter to shift, but it didn’t stop him from keeping up with Mason and Harris who had shifted.

A group of Snow Stone Warriors remained in the area trying to figure out what had happened here, but they struggled.

Hours Mason and Samuel along with others searched the area for any clues but they came up with nothing, eventually the wolves had trailed over it so much the scent they had originally found was gone, only their own wolves could be found.

Samuel wasn’t going to give up and Mason wasn’t going to let him do it on his own, the Alpha’s travelled around the Snow Stone Pack borders looking for any sign or scent they could.

By one in the morning both men had exhausted their wolves and walked into the pack house with a slump in their step.

A note was left on the kitchen counter with a large stack of food on two plates. A note left from Sarah telling them to eat the food and then get some rest.

Both men devoured the food in minutes, both reluctant they headed to bed, tomorrow was a new day and packs were arriving which meant Mason would no longer be able to help Samuel search.

Early morning; day before the pack games were to begin, Samuel was back out searching for his daughter, his pack wasn’t arriving till tomorrow morning, they were currently getting ready to set off for the journey to the Snow Stone Pack, everything under control by Beta Leon and second warrior Carter.

Samuel had covered a two-mile radius around the large pack territory and was yet to find anything that could lead him to his daughter.

The hours soon ran together and every pack was almost at the Snow Stone Pack, the pack land was littered with packs from across America, children meeting and playing together, adults conversing, there was even several wolves finding their mates for the first time to which celebrations rung throughout.

The high council were yet to arrive, always the last ones to do so and only on the day of the blood moon, never before, it was then that the ceremony begins, starting with the telling of how wolves came to be and how life has changed since then.

Samuel had no choice but to leave his task of finding his daughter and get to a meeting with all the Alphas and their heirs, it was chance for them to talk and discuss any problems they had and offer help to those in need.

Many of the Alphas were too proud and stubborn to ask for help so most of the time was spent gloating about what they had and mocking others for rumours they had heard through the great vine.

Mason and Samuel sat side by side, Samuel wasn’t focused at all on any of the conversations happening in front of him, not even when someone was talking to him.

Mason had to nudge him.

“How’s Ava doing? I haven’t seen her about” Alpha James Knowles of the Red Crescent pack asks.

Ava had been to Alpha James’ pack a few times to help out with training, it was because of her that the Red Crescent pack survived a rogue attack a few years ago and as a ‘thank you’ signed an alliance with the Night Star pack.

In fact, of the forty-seven packs in the room twenty-eight of them had an alliance with the Night Star Pack, it was a record in that department. And it was all thanks to Ava.

Samuel thought for a second and reacted differently to how Mason thought he would, “She’s good, been working hard, she is somewhere never a resting moment with her” what he said wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth either, Samuel didn’t want to worry anyone because he knew that many of them would drop what they were doing; including the games that weekend and search for Ava.

Mason raised an eyebrow at his friend, Samuel shook his head indicating to drop the subject and he did.

Kyle who was with the heirs to their packs listens in the conversation and was confused as to why he didn’t mention Ava being missing to them.

Mason saw his son about to say something ‘Say nothing’ Mason ordered him.

Kyle still confused did as he was asked.

The conversation in the room turned to Ava at the mention of her name, many of them discussing the progress they had made since she was there.

“A bright young girl she is, any wolf would be lucky to have her as a mate” Alpha Anthony Reed of the Silver Shadow Pack says.

“I’m sure it would be an Alpha, a strong-willed girl like her, she needs an equally strong mate” Alpha Killian Williams of the Black Sky Pack added in.

Kyle ducked his head at the mention of Ava’s mate, he was already hating himself for everything he had done.

Samuel however was still wanting to rip his head off, just the mention of Ava’s mate had Samuel’s emotions raising in anger, he growls and many of the Alphas look at him quizzically

“Don’t want her to find her mate aye, she was always a daddy’s girl” Alpha Viktor Raid of the Eastern Nighthawk Pack chuckles. Others join in agreeing with Alpha Viktor’s observation.

Samuel was going to tell them what Kyle did, but he couldn’t do that to his friend, to reject a mate was a rare occurrence in the wolf community, they had mates for a reason and to reject them was to rip half of yourself away.

It was even more rare for high ranking wolves like Alphas and Betas to reject their mates, because of the power they held, they needed their mate to keep them in control and have them balance their emotions.

The conversation quickly changed subjects thanks to Mason and Samuel took the time to calm down again, but it was proving difficult with Ava still out there missing and not answering his calls.