Chapter Two -Nate
1536 Words
Nate’s POV
“Sophia? Why aren’t you answering the mind-link?”
I open the door to her bedroom before a scream greets me
“What the f**k, Nate? Get out!”
A loud snarl comes from the male body standing between Sophia and me as I back out of the room and close the door.
A chuckle leaves me as I yell, “Meet me in my office if you can tear yourself away from your mate.”
A loud crash is the response I get as my twin sister throws something hard against the closed door.
I walk into my office and find my Beta Matthew and my Gamma Grayson already sitting there.
“So where is she?” Grayson looks at the open door, expecting Sophia to walk through it behind me.
“She was in the middle of some fun times with her mate, and I may have seen more than any brother should ever see of their sister.”
“Oh, I bet she loved that! Poor thing, they’ve only been mated for a week. You couldn’t give them another day or two before dragging her back to work?” Matthew says, looking at me with knowing eyes.
He had only been with his mate, Bonnie, for just over six months, and during the first month, trying to get him to do anything productive that didn’t involve him being naked with his mate was almost impossible.
“I know Matt, and I had planned on giving them at least two weeks to get it out of their system, but something has come up, and it can’t wait.”
Both Matt and Grayson regain their serious expressions at the mention of an urgent matter. I am just about to start telling them when my very frustrated Delta walks through my door and sits in the remaining empty chair.
“Okay, you ass, I’m here. Remind me to repay this favour when you find your mate,” Sophie grinned.
The kind of grin only a newly mated wolf could wear.
Content.
Happy.
Complete.
The joke lands exactly where she intended it to.
It is almost unheard of for an Alpha to reach twenty-eight without finding his mate.
Yet here I was.
Twenty-eight.
Unmated.
The longer it went on, the harder it became to ignore the possibility that she wasn’t out there waiting for me.
Maybe she had died.
Maybe she had never made it to adulthood.
Maybe the Moon Goddess had decided I wasn’t meant to have one.
I was on the verge of giving up and taking a chosen mate. Silver Falls needs a Luna.
And I was running out of time to keep pretending it didn’t matter.
“Yes, well, Soph, I promise that if I ever meet her, I will gladly let you interrupt our private time. But until then, we have work to do.”
“I’m sorry, Nate, I didn’t mean….”
I cut off Sophia with a raised hand before she could continue her sentence. I hated pity.
I had spent eight years watching people look at me differently after my father and Harrison died.
Like I was something fragile.
Something broken.
I wasn’t.
I was still standing.
That was enough.
Yes, a pack is a hierarchy; however, my father and I believed that you could be anything you set your mind to. Your birth rank doesn’t define who you are any more than it represents your abilities.
I have an open-door policy, and if I am not available, I make sure that one of my ranked members is.
“Let’s get down to business. I received a call from the Beta of the Crystal Rock Pack. They have been getting an increase in rogues entering their borders. Initially, they assumed it was because the rogues were looking for food and supplies; however, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Last night, the Alpha’s daughter was killed.”
Sophia openly lets out a sob while Grayson and Matt grip their chairs until their knuckles are white.
“She was five”
The room falls silent.
Five.
Not a warrior.
Not a ranked wolf.
Not even old enough to understand why someone would want to hurt her.
Just a child.
Sophia’s sharp intake of breath echoes through the room. Matt’s jaw clenches. Grayson’s hands curl into fists.
For a moment, all I see is my mother’s face the day we buried my father and brother.
That same look of devastation.
That same helpless grief.
“They aren’t sure how the rogue got far enough onto the grounds to reach where the nanny had taken little Emily; however, both the nanny and child were killed in broad daylight, and the killer was able to escape the lands before the warriors arrived.”
“How was she not under the protection of guards?”
“Gray, they are only a small pack; they have had no trouble for years and live in peace with all the packs around them. Their lands are small enough not to be coveted but large enough to be self-sufficient. There has never been a need for the security that would be around other Alpha’s families.”
All three of my ranked wolves ponder my words and continue to try to process the information I have given them.
Sophia looks up first
“So, what’s your role in all this?”
I take a beat before answering.
“I want to go there.”
The words are out before I can stop them.
Matt and Sophia exchange a look.
I know exactly what they’re thinking.
That this is personal.
That I’m too close to it.
The problem was they were right.
Because I’d heard this story before.
A small pack. A desperate situation. A call for help.
The last time my father answered one of those calls, he never came home.
Neither did Harrison.
Every instinct I possessed was telling me to stay away.
Which was exactly why I had to go.
“I want to meet with them and find out why this innocent little girl was targeted. Rogues are not normally planners, but sadly, we all know that isn’t always the case. The rogues that killed our father and brother were meticulous and scheming; they planned and plotted and came up with the perfect way to lure them out to be slaughtered… by attacking a small pack for seemingly no reason…leaving them struggling and needing help…”
Sophia gasps, and Gray and Matt both click on the same thoughts I’ve had since I took the phone call an hour earlier.
Matt says the one thing we are all thinking, “It’s the same Rogues.”
“I don’t know. Some things are so familiar, and others are different. The ones who attacked my father didn’t hurt anyone; they killed the smaller pack’s livestock and harvest and polluted their water source, so they had no means of food and water.
This is more sinister and daring. It sounds like it was aimed to hurt the Alpha, which in turn hurts the pack, but it’s hardly leading to the same humanitarian-type visit that father and Harrison undertook back then.”
Matt starts to pace the room. He turns to look at me. “Nate, you know I’ll follow you wherever you want, man, but are you sure you want to take this risk in person? Why not send some warriors to find out what happened and see if they can help?”
Sophia comes over to my side of the desk and sits on the edge, taking my face in her hands.
“Matt’s right; I love you; you’re my twin, my other half. This is screaming at me that it’s a trap. When we lost Father and Harrison, it almost killed Mom. Hell, it almost killed us, too. She won’t survive losing any more of her family, Nate. Please send the warriors and then make decisions from there”.
I look at my twin’s face, so identical to my own. Her ash-blond hair was the same shade as mine, although hers was longer; her deep blue eyes drilled into mine, tears pooling in her eyes as they threatened to spill over onto her high cheekbones.
The worst part wasn’t that they thought it was dangerous. The worst part was knowing they were right.
And still wanting to go anyway.
I sigh in defeat.
“Fine, I will send a team this time to scout the situation and report back. I will only involve myself personally if I deem it to be necessary”
I look at Grayson.
“Take your Elite Team.”
He nods.
“Find out what happened.”
“And if it’s the same rogues?” Matthew asks quietly.
A strange feeling settles in my chest. The same feeling I’d had since the phone call came through.
The same feeling I’d spent years trying to ignore.
Because if I was right, this wasn’t the beginning of something.
It was the return of something that should have stayed buried.
“Then,” I say, “we finally find out who killed my father.”
For the first time in eight years, nobody argues.
- Writer
