Nate wasn't worried about Brody. Surely not. Well, he wouldn't be, except dinner had started twenty minutes ago and he had seen Annie come in with her friends ten minutes ago. If Annie was here, then where was Brody?

Nate had a plate of food in front of him but he was just pushing it around his plate with his fork more than anything else.

Surely Brody was fine. Nate was just letting his mind run amuck.

'What's wrong?' Nate heard Lucy ask him in that concerned voice that she only used when she was worried.

He lifted his head to look at the only other person at the big table they were sitting at. Lucy had very clearly had a shower just before she had come to dinner as her hair was darkened with water and her face was free of makeup. She was looking at him with a slightly concerned expression.

'Oh, nothing,' Nate replied.

'Nate..' Lucy wasn't going to give up.

'Where is everyone?' he asked her, giving her a distraction while at the same time answering her question. Their absences were exactly why he was worried. He looked down at the many free chairs at their table.

Lucy's gaze followed his, 'I don't know. I haven't seen Jace and Tye since wolf combat, and I last saw Brody outside your room.'

Nate was suspicious. Tye and Jace weren't the type of people to miss meals, and neither was Kayden for that matter. Then there was Brody, who wasn't exactly the type of person to skip out on plans. What if something was wrong? He's already injured, what if something happened?

Panic started in the pit of Nate's stomach and he had to take a few deep breaths to keep it at bay. He knew that it was the mate connection making him think irratically and yet that sinking feeling stuck with him.

Brody is fine, you are overstressing, he told himself.

'Your room is next to Kayden's, did you see him before dinner?' Lucy asked him. Nate was glad for the question as it brought him out of his mind.

'Nope, I haven't seen him since breakfast,' he explained.

'Strange,' Lucy commented, but she couldn't have been too concerned as she went right back to eating only a second later.

Nate pushed the food around his plate again. He pulled out his phone and typed up a text to Brody.

                Hey, where are you? — Nate

He clicked send. He waited about three seconds before going right back into full-fledged panic mode.

'Why is Brody not here?' He muttered to himself.

'I'm sure that your mate is perfectly fine,' Lucy assured him sincerely.

Nate didn't have the spare energy to send her a disapproving look for referencing Brody as his mate in public, his mind was too focused on the puzzle that was what had happened to their friends.

'I know,' he agreed weakly, to reassure himself of the fact more than anything.

'I know what you're feeling,' Lucy told him. 'My mate is the 'king of unanswered phone calls', and every time I end up at his voicemail I feel like my heart is going to explode, but it's always nothing. Usually he is just passed out on the couch after a hard afternoon of junk food and football,' she laughed. 'I'm sure that Brody will walk in that door any moment and be perfectly fine.'  

Nate knew that he should have just taken her word for it and push these nerve-wracking feelings down but not knowing where his mate was had put his body into a state of high alert, and he felt too unsettled and anxious to think about anything else but Brody. He just needed to see his mate, to make sure that he really was alright, and then he knew that his body would relax.

He looked over at one of the tables towards the centre of the room. Annie and Lucas were sitting with a couple of their friends, Annie was talking to another girl who she was sitting next to, and Lucas was texting on his phone.

He heard Lucy sigh. 'I can practically see the gears moving in your mind. You should go ask her if she knows where Brody is. If you don't you might have a heart attack,' she joked.

Nate smiled. She motioned for him to go and so he did. Standing from his seat, he made his way around the tables that stood between them and walked towards Annie and Lucas's table.

Lucas was the first one to notice him when he reached the table, and he smiled up at his mentor.

'Hey guys,' Nate greeted the group.

Annie looked up at Nate with a surprised grin, 'Nate!' she exclaimed. 'I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, come sit with us!' she offered, her hand patting the seat next to her.

Nate took the spare seat between Annie and Lucas. The other young Alpha's at the table started a conversation amongst themselves.

'What brings you over to us?' Lucas asked casually, leaning back in his chair.  

'Yeah, everything okay?' Annie asked with genuine concern in her young voice.

'Everything's fine,' he assured them. 'I was just wondering if you guys know where Brody is? I know that he was helping you with your homework, but I haven't heard from him since he left to meet you.'

Annie looked confused, 'He did help me, but he left ages ago.'

'Where did he go?' Nate asked. What did ages ago mean? Where did Brody go after helping Annie out? He had assumed that Brody would have gone back to his own room if he had time before dinner, maybe that was where he had gone? But then he would have made it to dinner on time, so that didn't make sense.

'He said he was late to meet a friend, and I assumed that was you, but it mustn't have been,' she told him.

Nate wondered who it might have been that Brody would have been meeting up with. He knew that he and Kayden had become closer inexplicably, were Brody and Kayden together somewhere? Nate felt a stab of jealousy and he had to push down the Alpha part of himself for a few moments so that he could remind himself that his imagination was getting the best of him. He knew that they would never do that to him, he knew it with every part of himself, and once he remembered that the jealousy left his body.

'If he isn't with you, then where is he?' Lucas wondered, his eyes travelling around the cafeteria as if he figured that Nate had just not seen him.

'I don't know,' Nate admitted. 'I'll give Kayden a call, maybe he knows where Brody is.'

'Okay, but I wouldn't worry too much, he can't have gone too far. This is a closed camp after all,' Annie assured him.

Nate told them that he would see them soon and got up from the table, typing Kayden's number into his phone. He was just about to click the call button when his phone lit up for a different reason.

Kayden was calling him.

Nate answered the call in the first ring, pressing his cell up to his ear. 'Hello?' he answered.

'Nate, shits about to go down. Come to the back of the main building, quick,' Kayden told him in a rushed voice.

Nate was panicked now, 'Why? What's going on?' he asked hurriedly, but the call had gone dead, his friend must have hung up on him.

Nate shoved the phone into his back pocket and hastily crossed the distance between himself and the main door of the cafeteria. He was just about to cross the threshold when a figure inserted himself between Nate and the corridor.

'Can I have a word with you Mr. King?'

Nate's gaze met that of the person who had so rudely blocked his path and realised that it was in fact Mr. Woods. The older camp leader was standing with his arms crossed, looking at Nate pointedly.

'I really can't talk at the moment,' Nate told him, knowing that whatever was going on outside was of much more importance than this. He hoped that Mr. Woods would understand and politely move out of Nate's path.

Michael, however, didn't move from his spot. 'It will only take a few seconds Mr. King,' he insisted in a tone that made sure that Nate knew that he had no choice in the matter. Mr. Woods wasn't going to accept any other option.

'Uh, okay, what's up sir?' Nate asked, giving in. He really did hope that it wouldn't only take a few seconds, as his panic was increasing with every moment.

The older man stood awkwardly on his feet, suddenly swaying nervously from side to side in what Nate assumed was nerves? Why would Mr. Woods be nervous to talk to him?

'I, uh, I just wanted to make sure that you were not going to mention today's incident to your father.'

From Mr. Woods' words, Nate felt like he himself held some sort of undeserved power that he was holding over the man who literally organised the camp at which he was just a student. His father's influence never ceased to amaze him. Nate quirked an eyebrow, 'I don't plan on telling him, but what would be so bad about him knowing?' Nate asked, genuinely wondering why Mr. Woods would care so much about a little incident getting out.

'We have a high reputation here,' Mr. Woods explained it as if the camp's reputation was something of upmost importance. 'And I value what the council thinks of us very highly. Safety is where this camp has always excelled, and so you wouldn't want some insignificant, and very isolated, incident to tarnish our reputation, would you?' The way that Mr. Woods finished the question made sure that Nate knew it was no question at all.  

Nate gave his best dedicated expression, 'Of course not sir. You don't need to worry.'

'I'm glad,' Michael nodded, those awkward mannerisms from before ceasing, and his normal confident stature taking its place. Nate almost sighed in relief when he finally stepped to the side and allowed Nate to pass into the corridor.  

He ran once he got into the deserted hallway, his sneakers hitting the ground with a light thump with every bound. He felt his heart race increasing every moment that he got closer to the main entrance, the fear of the unknown building up inside of his chest. He didn't know what Kayden meant, he didn't know what he was going to find once he stepped outside of those glass doors.

He finally reached the doors, shoving them open with one hand he ran around the side of the building. He could hear indistinct words as he ran along the green grass, the bricks of the building at his side.

Nate hadn't had time to even imagine the situation that he would find when he ran around that corner, but he definitely wasn't expecting the image that he received. Kayden had Jace in a headlock, the smaller guy looking terrified in the arms of who Nate had thought was one of his best friends. Well, he was wrong about that, he figured.

Then there was the two people standing only a couple of feet away from them, Tye was a step away from the wall facing Brody. Brody, Nate's sweet Brody, was ducking a punch from Tye. He did it well, in a different situation Nate would have been praising his mate for the skill, but not now. Definitely not now.

Then Tye threw another punch, this one Brody wasn't expecting, this one was going to connect.

Hot, white rage filled Nate and he ran forwards tackling Tye to the ground before he could hurt his mate. Nate's body connected with Tye's and they fell towards the ground, Tye's back hitting the hard ground with Nate on top of him. Nate pulled back and threw his fist into Tye's face, blood spurting from Tye's nose into the previously bright green grass that surrounded them.

Nate pulled his fist back to punch him again, but he was pulled off of Tye and placed on his feet. Nate turned around to punch the person who had pulled him off of the monster who had attacked his mate, but it was Kayden who he turned around to.

'Stop,' Kayden pled. 'It's okay.'

'It's okay?' Nate almost screamed out in frustration. 'What in all hell is going on here?'

Nate didn't wait for a reply, he turned around, looking at Jace and Tye who were on the ground. Tye was holding his bloody nose, the red liquid falling in thin streaks down his arm. Jace was next to him, his arm protectively around his friend. Nate didn't care about them, his gaze left them in a second to find Brody. He was standing against the wall, big eyes looking as guilty as anything.

Nate crossed the distance between them and pressed his hands to Brody's face, 'Are you alright? Did they hurt you?'

Brody shook his head even though it was being cradled by Nate's hands, 'I'm okay,' he told him.

Nate dropped his hands, turning to look at Tye and Jace, 'What is going on?' he asked them demandingly. Jace opened his mouth to speak, but Nate cut him off before he could even get a word out, 'And don't you dare lie to me,' he growled.

Jace closed his mouth quickly, looking across at Tye as if he knew that they had just been caught out.

'They have a lot to tell you,' Nate heard Kayden tell him.

Nate took a calming breath. 'Follow me,' he told them. He walked around the side of the building to where one of the main doors were, it was locked, Nate knew that. It had a small electronic lock system against the side of the wall, and Nate typed in the four digit code that he had seen his father type into other doors of the camp. There was a clicking sound and Nate pushed against the handle, the door opening under the pressure.

'In here,' he told the four of them who were standing behind him.

Nate walked through the opening and into one of the hallways, he knew that his father held small meetings in these rooms when he came to visit the camp and so he walked upto a random door, pushing it open.

This one was a small conference room, a wooden topped desk in the centre of the dark, windowless room, with six chairs pressed into its sides. Nate flipped the light switch and the darkened room illuminated.

He walked in and sat down at the head of the table, motioning for the others to take a seat. The seats were large leather chairs, and Nate felt like his father sitting where he was, but he pushed back that disturbing thought and focused on the people in front of him.

Tye and Jace sat on one side, Tye still held his nose with his hand, a sour expression on his face. Brody and Kayden sat on the other side, Brody looking at Tye and Jace with a half malicious expression that Nate had never seen before.

Nate sat up straight in his chair, 'Jace. Speak.'

Jace turned towards Nate, 'Come on Nate, this is just a big misunderstanding, it was Brody who ambushed us and threw the first punch.'

'Ambushed?' Brody exclaimed, his hands coming down on the table with an audible thud that echoed around the small room. 'How about you tell him how you were trying to kick me out of camp!?'

Nate held back a gasp, 'You tried to kick Brody out of camp?' he asked, looking at Tye and Jace, his officially former friends.

'Yeah they did, but got me in trouble instead,' Kayden told him.

Nate met Tye's eye line, 'Explain.'

Tye's hand left his face, the bleeding had mostly stopped but the blood now ran in half dry stripes down his neck and into his shirt. 'We wanted to get rid of Brody, so we hired Bruce and Mitchel to start a fight at wolf combat and blame it on Brody so that he would get kicked out for indecent conduct.'

'It would have worked,' Jace chimed in, 'but we told them that Brody would be the one partnered with you.'

Nate ran his fingers through his hair, a sigh coming from deep within his chest. 'I honestly can't believe this. I just,' he looked up at them, 'I trusted you two! I did, and now this. Why do you want Brody out of here so badly? What did he ever do?'

Jace looked at Tye, as if needing permission to say whatever it was. Tye nodded reluctantly, and Nate could see the hesitation in his face.

'Yeah,' Brody cut in before he could say it. 'What did I do?' Brody spoke with a hurt and anger in his voice that made Nate want to hug his mate.

Jace didn't answer Brody, instead he turned to Nate. 'We need a loan,' he explained as if that cleared everything up.

'A loan?' Kayden repeated, confused.

Jace stepped in, 'We don't need a loan, well, our packs need a loan.'

Nate was confused, what did that have to do with him? 'How does Brody leaving camp get your packs a loan?'

Jace explained, 'Our packs are only a few miles from each other, and we like to live large, you know. Our pack leaders spend money on everything, I mean, we have huge combined pack parties like every week. The pack members gamble with other packs, and over the years, our packs have gotten into debt. Lots of it.'   

He looked at Tye, who continued. 'Every year we keep ourselves afloat with loans from the council, and then last year the council stopped giving us loans, something about the packs never making payments, and so last year both of our father's got loans from your dad.'

Nate was confused, 'My father is personally funding your packs?'

'Yeah,' Tye nodded. 'But only because we were such good friends with you, otherwise he wouldn't have.'

Jace looked down guiltily, 'We need more money this year. Lot's more, and our father's told us that we had to stay close to you, so that your father couldn't say no. Brody was getting in the way of that.'

Tye interjected, 'We thought that once he was gone that you would need us, and there would be no reason that we couldn't be as close as we were last year. It's not like we were using you.'

Nate rolled his eyes, 'It's exactly like that.'

'But-' Tye tried to speak but Nate raised his hand for him to stop.

'Pack your bags, both of you.'

'What?' they gasped. 'You can't do that! You can't kick us out of camp!' Tye exclaimed.

'Go now.'

Tye and Jace got up, both of them sending malicious looks at all three of them, but they walked out without a word. Nate could feel Brody's relief the second that they left the room. Kayden just looked betrayed.

They sat in silence for a few moments, no one daring to say anything and the silence of it all seemed to fill the room like a suffocating cloud. Nate desperately wanted to apologise to Brody, to hold him in his arms and tell him that it was over, that he didn't have to worry, but then came the cloud of guilt that settled over his chest. Nate couldn't think of anything then but the fact that he had been the one to let them into his life, he had believed their lies, he had let himself be fooled, and it had put his mate in the middle.

Nate looked over at Kayden, 'Can you get Brody back to his room?' he asked softly.

It seemed to snap Kayden out of his trance, 'Yeah, sure.'

Nate stood up from the dark leather chair, pushing it away from the desk and taking a few steps towards the door. He stopped when Brody called out after him, 'Where are you going?' he asked.

'I'll come find you later,' he promised Brody, but a part of him wondered what he would say to his mate when he did find him. Sorry that I didn't believe you and instead trusted two people who were just using me for my family's money? He was sure that would go down well. He wouldn't blame Brody if he was angry with him, he just hoped that his mate would be able to forgive him.