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Chapter 16
- Alpha to the North -

-Demarco-

"Alpha Bennett is on line one" .

"And what does he want?"

I had nothing against Alpha Bennett, it's just that I've been waist deep in paper work since I returned to work this morning.

Don't get me wrong, Jordan did a great job handling the pack while I was gone. But he did as much as he could as a Beta. Everything else was my sole responsibility, so here I am with a million things to do.

Overwhelmed was not the word.

"Not sure" Oscar shrugged his shoulders, putting his windbreaker on and pulling his backpack on over his shoulder. "Jordan didn't tell me the situation, just told me to pass the message on to you before I leave for my rounds".

Oscar was another reminder of one of the many important tasks that I had to get to today.

Since yesterdays rogue run in, I made the decision to have 24/7 surveillance around the perimeter of my house in addition to Denziel personally staying with Clover when I couldn't be there. Being that this decision was made recently without advance notice, it's been a hassle to find trained board patrol wolves that had the time.

Oscar had kindly volunteered the little time that he had between his college classes and training. It brought me great comfort knowing that one of my close friends would be looking after my home, and more importantly, my mate. There was no amount of  "thank you's" that I could say that would show him how appreative I am.

Smiling, I nodded my head. Grateful for my friends sacrifice. "Thanks Oscar. I appreciate it".

Throwing a salute my way, he took his leave. The red blinking light on the landline reminding me of his message.

"Alpha Bennett, how are you?"

There was a deep humor filled laugh on the other end. "Really Demarco?"

I cracked a smile, abandoning the paper work on my desk. It's been a couple of weeks since I've last spoken to Tyler Bennett and every time I did speak to him he was always the same laid back, informal big brother I never had.  He was humble, kind and always dependable.

"How are you feeling Demarco, I hope it's a lot better from when I last called and spoke to Jordan".

"Well I'm back and feeling 100% better". Thanks to a special someone.

"That's what I'm talking about" he loudly cheered. "We both know a certain Alpha to the west would've taken his chances at grabbing that neutral territory if you stayed away any longer".

I automatically knew he was referring to our neighbor to the west. The Alpha that has left me 3 voicemail messages today and who is the same Alpha that refused to speak to Jordan these past couple of days while I was gone. I've opted into thinking that whatever he has to tell me isn't important or else he wouldn't have gave Jordan such a hard time to begin with.

However, I wasn't surprised.

Both Tyler and I knew this was typical behavior for Romeo Griffin. He preffered to handle business with other Alphas only and in the process showed a huge lack of respect for anyone who carried a lesser title than his own, especially Betas.

"Jordan nor Cleon wouldn't have let that happen. They're well aware of Romeo's little games".

Tyler's tone fell to a more serious one. "True but lets be honest. Since niether of them are Alpha's he would've stupidly taken that chance, sooner or later".

"You're right".

Tyler had a point. Romeo was very implusive, just like his father. From the moment I took over as Alpha two years ago, he's done nothing but test my limites and push my buttons. His dislike of me only grew when the counsel approved my request to expand my pack into parts of the neutral grounds that boarders all three of our packs.

Romeo have been requesting the expansion of his packs boarders for about a year now and every time, he was denied because he didn't have a legit reason.

However, even though his fustrations was quit odvious, as of recently he's been making a great effort to somewhat be civil with me. I wasn't stupid, I knew he was only doing this because he wanted something in return. Like how he called last week to tell me about the rouge that's been spotted by our boarder that he wants to capture and kill illegally.

"Anyways, I know you must be busy since it's you're first day back--"

Understatement.

"I just wanted to check to see how you were doing and thank Jordan for keeping an eye out for a missing pack member of mine".

"Wait, you had a missing pack member?"

Although Tyler Bennett was such an easygoing Alpha, there were a few things that triggered him into becoming a member completely unrecognizable person and having a missing pack member was one of them.

He never openly spoke about the situation, but about 10 years ago. His mother disappeared off the face of the earth. It took weeks, but eventually trackers figured out that she didn't just disappear, she was abducted and possibly murdered.

His father, Charleston Bennett, who was Alpha at the time, took drastic measures to protect what was left of his family. He limited their exposure to the werewolf world and single handedly trained his son to take his title.

He re-entered the werewolf world six years ago as an Alpha and it was to no surprise that his appointed Beta was his younger brother, Andrew.

With all that his family has been through, no one blamed him for taking a member of his pack missing seriously.

Tyler sighed heavily, I could tell her lost sleep dealing with this missing pack member.

"I spoke to her this morning. Thankfully, it was a big misunderstanding" there was relief in his voice, as his tone lightened up."I'm just glad she's okay".

We sat in silence for what felt like a couple of minutes, I didn't mind, I could tell that he needed it.

"You know if there's anything you ever need, don't be afraid to ask".

It was an open inventation that I always made sure Tyler knew was there.

He always had my back and in return I always had his. He was a great Alpha and an even better human being.

"Yes and the same goes for you too, Demarco".

With that said, I trusted him to be apart of my plan. I thought about it long and hard last night as she drifted off to sleep.

Being that the rouge has succeeded at crossing my boarders once undetected, the chances of it happening again were moderate to high, even with me doubling up on wolves at the boarder.

If my territory became compromised again, there was no way I could keep Clover here. The second best safest place I could think of was with Tyler Bennett.

As much as I didn't want to resort to this, I had to think realistically and make sure these steps were put into place.

Taking a deep breathe and letting it out slowly, I forced myself to speak before my better half could selfishly tell me not to.

"Yesterday the rogue that's been lingering in the neutral territory crossed my boarder and was litterially spotted in my backyard" I informed him.

"A rouge?"

This was news to him.

"Yeah, Alpha Griffin didn't tell you?"

Last I remember, two weeks ago he informed me that he was going to let Alpha Bennett know about the rouge that's been loose.

"Last I heard from Romeo was a month ago" he said happily. "The less I hear from that man, the better, but he hasn't contacted me about a rogue wolf".

"All I know is that she's been lingering near the neutral grounds. I'm surprised you didn't notice her. She use to come within a couple of yards of my boarder and would run once she was spotted".

Tyler stayed silent, listening and processing everything I was saying.

"She's was able to cross my broader last night for the first time and she was completely undetected. She was standing in my backyard until Cleon and the others on boarder control noticed and chased her back into the neutral territory".

"Oh shit" he cursed realizing the seriousness of the situation. "Do you need me to send men down to help catch her?"

"I'm not worried about having enough men". My pack was a pack of 522. With half of that being men and women who were fit and of age to fight. "I had my mate over when the rouge was spotted in my backyard".

There was shuffling the the background before Tyler voice came through the phone clearer and louder. "Wait—-mate?"

The thought of her made me fully breakout in a smile as I leaned back in my chair, my work fully forgotten.

"Yeah, its a couple of weeks but I haven't announced it to the pack yet".

"Congratulations bro, it's about time you've found your Luna".

"I know, but I don't think it's safe right now to tell the pack because once the pack knows the news will spread like wild fire. The last thing I want is for the rouge knowing I have a mate".

"Smart move, but didn't the rouge know she was with you that night?" Tyler said quickly catching onto what I was saying.

"I don't think the rouge had enough time to process who she was, let alone stay long enough to know that we were sleeping together".

For once, the fact that I was the only one that can smell her scent served as a benefit.

"Just in case things don't go as planned, as a last resort I'd want you to take her in. Just until I'm able to —-".

"Say no more" Tyler cut me off mid sentence. "I know how it feels to have your family in danger, I wouldn't want anything happening to yours".

"Thanks man".

The second I hung up the phone to get back to the paper work in front of me, there was a knock before Cleon let his self in with more paper work in his hands.

"Denziel faxed the papers over from your house" he plopped the doctuments the size of a textbook down on my desk. "You sure you still want to do this?" He asked.

I shook my head 'no'. nonetheless it had to happen.

I took the papers into my hands starring at the lengthy documents.

"For what its worth, she'll appreciate this".

It was no secret that Clover wanted her freedom since the day I took her away from the world. Even though I felt that as of recent, she's become use to living underneath my roof, I knew she craved her independence.

As if the moon goddess was giving me a sign herself, the odds were against me and worked in her favor.

She'll be returning back to society under my terms and condition.

Before I could change my mind, I quickly signed, initial and dated the bottom of each page and handed the stack back to Cleon.

"Now let's talk about this rouge" I said getting down to business.

I needed the distraction and what better distraction than my number one problem out of a million.

"How are we going to catch it?"

"I have a few ideas" he smiled.

Just as we were about to start strategizing the office phone begun to ring and for the fourth time today Romeo Griffin was calling.

I guess it's about time I picked up his call.

—————
First off, Happy Birthday to one of my best friends, Craig. xo
Welcome to the real world of Demarco!
Hope you liked it!
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