The Unmarked Mate

Beta Confusion

Quintin POV

We maintained a tight formation till we got to the patrol line as commanded. I may be future Alpha but I wouldn't deter from my father and Alpha's wishes lightly.

I still didn't understand. He sent us to that house. He knew it was there. He knew there was something wrong and sent a whole platoon. He knew it wasn't something a small household had issue with. He knew a few of us wouldn't cut it.

Our territory was vast. One of the largest on the continent as far as I knew. But we also had a lot of remote areas. Areas where people just didn't live. And if they did live there, they wanted to be alone and they knew they were under the protection of our patrols.

Our land was beautiful but it was well forested and sprawling. It was perfect for wolves. Wolves thrived in environment where they could run and be free. Our land got cold but not so cold that it was snow all the time. It wasn't hot like the South where the heat created a humidity that made you sweat all the time.

And there was the perfect game for our beasts. Elk, deer, mountain goat, bison. We didn't worry about the winters being so cold that the game hibernated so much that we saw little. Or the opposite too hot that all the game was swamp rats and gaters. Yuck.

There was really no better place in my opinion than the Pacific Northwest for a strong pack of wolves.

Large space of land meant a large space to patrol and keep safe. And govern.

My Dad did it with wisdom and grace. He wasn't just a strong powerful Alpha who could throw his weight around, he was smart. Other Alphas often sought his counsel. It was a lot to live up to. It was a lot to take up the mantle of Alpha after. Those are big shoes to fill.

My Dad had to have known something more about this. To send so many and to know our territory so well. He is too great of a strategist to not know more.

There was too many loose ends to this story. Dad had to know more.

Once we crossed patrol lines, only head warriors stayed with me. The others peeled away as we got close to town. They were returning to their lives and other day to day. This assignment was a special summons. They had other plans I was sure.

We approached the pack house. It was large compared to the others in the surrounding area. Honestly, it was an extensive compound really. It was built to house not only the Alpha family but several others besides guests. It had a huge auditorium for pack meetings and several different entertainment rooms. That didn't include Omega housing quarters in the outbuildings. It was placed on the top of the largest vantage point in town with sightlines on every direction. It was kind of like if the Pentagon and one of those old timey plantations had a baby. That baby would be the pack house.

It was built for focal point for our community, a gathering place. But it was also built so other community to easily take on a small army. We could fit our entire pack inside these walls if necessary. It would be tight but they would fit.

The walls surrounding the compound were too high for any wolf to jump or human to scale without effort. They were always patrolled. My Dad believed in a 'Prepare for the worse, hope for the best' vibe. So our warriors were always prepared and always training.

From a young age, children were being assessed for their skills and encouraged to flourish them. If you had a knack with technology, cool, here was some STEM activities and robotics lab. Want to play and get out energy? Sweet go to the training center, scale a wall, run the track. The goal was always to play to the person's strengths and build them.

Unless you are the Alpha's firstborn son, then you better learn them all and be great at it. No pressure or anything.

But that is also why Dad is a great strategist. He knew how to use people the best way possible. When I was a kid, I used to love the human game, Risk. The problem with playing Dad is that he always won. He was just too good at it. He would evaluate his players and build where he needed to in order to win every campaign. It didn't matter how we stacked it against him. He still won.

So that's what I know he knows more about this situation that he just isn't saying.

There was no way he would respond to a distress call with the number of warriors we had and not know more. He had to have known there was a witch living there. It was clear that the witch lived there with those broken items in the house. And it was a clear extraction. So what were they doing out there? And why was my Dad hiding it?

We walked into the conference room. My Dad was already present. He asked everyone to sit. He went around the room and asked each warrior to recount their version of the events. They retold the same information in different versions.

It took us a few hours to get there. By the time we arrived, we saw the smoke first. We didn't need to track the place down my the coordinates. The smoke led us to the area. There were footprints everywhere. It was clear they fan out from different points. Most likely a drop from above and set up a perimeter of the house. Then after whatever happened at the house, they set the house ablaze with some kind of excelerant and were extracted from the lake. Most guessed by sea plane of some kind. There were no bodies left but most assumed the people in the house were taken before the fire took place. Only Beta Robinson smelled the rogue. The others had a hard time placing that the footprints were wolves in their human form. Odd. Then Beta reported that he saw the other set of tracks that didn't make sense, how they vanished by the clearing and when he started to track them backwards that started much further off then the rest of the tracks. He was called back before he could track them to the origin.

No one noticed the witch's herbs and potions in the ashes of the house.

Dad sat and listened to each of them on turn. Asked questions when appropriate. He was good at coaching people into speaking what he needed to hear from situations. He thanked them for their service.

Then he sat for a good five minutes before dismissing everyone but myself.

Once they all left, he turned to me and said "Quintin, we need to talk about Beta."

"Beta Robinson?" I queried.

"No, Beta Stone. The actual Beta of the Moon River pack."