Kade's POV

I woke up with my head against Joey's chest as he ran his fingers through my hair. It's been about two weeks since the whole gray wolf incident and today was finally the day that one of the elders was coming down to discuss everything with Joey, Cody, Melissa, and I since they've been doing their research of the rogue packs in town.

After we got out of the car on that day, I wouldn't let go of my boyfriend all day because of how scared I still was. I found out later on that it was a rogue and he had on some sort of bracelet that had some number on it that one specific rogue pack made their members wear, so they went to the elders for them to help them figure it out since they didn't have the resources for that.

Within the past two weeks, I had barely gone home because Joey and the rest of the house, including me, were worried that some rogue in the same pack would recognize me and try to attack me, so now I was never allowed to be alone until they get everyone else in that pack in case anyone has any bad ill towards Joey, which means they could go after me for revenge.

"How are you today, baby?" Joey whispered, brushing some of my hair out of my face as I snuggled against his chest. I haven't been the best person to be around the past two weeks since I was always on edge and never wanted to leave Joey's side. The only time I'm really calm is when we're in the room together because that's when we're alone and we either have sex or go to sleep and both of those options are great.

"I'm okay, just a little nervous to figure out all the information today," I tell him and he nods, setting his forehead against mine as our noses lightly rub against each other.

"Whatever we're told, we'll figure it out," he whispers.

After laying there for about another 15 minutes, we get up to get dressed. I decide on some maroon joggers that are actually Joey's that I stole and a black t-shirt while Joey puts on some dark blue skinny jeans and a dark flannel shirt with a white t-shirt underneath it. When we walk out, the smell of breakfast assaults our noses, making me smile because it means Lila's been busy this morning.

We walk through the living room to the kitchen where there are waffles piled up on a plate at the bar along with a plate of eggs, scrambled and over easy, also a plate of fruit, and a pot of coffee. When she sees us, she gives us a big smile as Conner looks up at us from his paperwork that he has in front of him as he sits at the bar. "Good morning!"

"Morning, what's all this for?" Joey asks, motioning to all the food laid out.

"Well, we have an elder coming over. I had to make some food for him," Lila says as she starts to throw some fruit, protein powder, and yogurt into the blender before starting to blend. While the noise distracts her, Conner looks over at us. 'She's nervous', he mouths.

Joey nods, taking a seat before pulling me onto his lap as Melissa and Cody come down the stairs. Melissa wears some black leggings and a light blue t-shirt that seems to be from Las Vegas with her hair up in a bun. Cody wears some black joggers with a yellow t-shirt that makes his tan skin look even tanner.

Cody motions towards all the plates that are lined up in front of Joey and I. "What's with all the food?"

"Don't ask," Joey and I say at the same time, making everyone in the room look up at us in confusion. I look over at my mate, seeing a small smile on his face and I chuckle, wrapping my arm around his shoulder.

"Such newbies," Melissa said as she picks up a grape and pops it in her mouth. I look over as Lila sets the smoothie in front of me that she just made with a small smile on her face.

"What's this for?" I ask, taking it in my hand as I smell the mixed berry aroma coming from the cup. I notice the way Conner looks up from his papers to give his wife a concerning look as she starts to wash the dishes that are in the sink as we all stare at her in confusion because something was definitely wrong and I think we were all starting to worry for her.

"I just know you like smoothies and you've kinda been freaking out, so I made you one," she rushes out as she starts to scrub a plate that's covered in last night's dinner that we had delivered to the gas station about two blocks away since we can't have anyone deliver to the pack house.

"Mom, what's going on?" Joey asked as he hand wraps around my waist as I set the smoothie down to look at her when I hear his worried tone in the way he spoke to her. She looks up with blank eyes before turning back to the dishes as she bites her lip and I can see her eyes start to fill up with tears.

I make the first move, immediately jumping up from Joey's lap to go over to her and give her a hug. She collapses into my arms, making everyone else in the room start to worry even more as they try to figure out what to do. I hold on to her in case she falls down for some reason. "Hey, what's going on?"

"There's just so much going on and I'm worried that something very serious is going to happen to anyone of you because you all are my whole world and I don't know what I do if something happened," she shakes her head against my shoulder and I look up at Joey to see his eyes also filling with tears and that's when I noticed the extremely soft spot that he has for his mom and it made my heart lurch to my stomach as I saw two of the best people in this world crying.

I motion to Conner to come and get his wife because by the way Joey's hands were shaking in his lap, he needed me. Lila's husband jumped into gear, coming over to me to take her in his arms to lightly whisper things in her ear. Joey turns the swivel chair away from the group as he breaths out, trying to contain his emotions in front of everyone. I walk around him so I can see him and a single tear has fallen down his face as he stares at the wall to take himself out of his thoughts.

I get back into position to sit in his lap and once I'm comfortable, he lets his head fall down to my chest as he tries to contain his crying. I hold his head against my body as my other hand runs over his back. "Oh, baby, it's okay."

I see Melissa whispering something to Cody before he takes a step back to cross his arms. "Hey, look, no one's going to get hurt, okay? We're going to figure everything out from Elder Collins and then we'll create a plan of action. We won't let anything happen to anyone, no matter what."

Lila looks up at the beta as Conner uses the pad of his thumb to wipe her tears away as she nods at Cody. "Okay."

I look down at Joey to see that he hasn't moved his head from the spot on my chest as his hands shake against my thighs. I kiss the top of his head, leaning down to be next to his ear. "Did you hear him?"

He lightly nods his head against my chest and I start to get worried because I've never dealt with Joey like this, which means I have no idea what I should do to make him feel better. Since he wasn't talking, I was assuming it was because there were people around us, so I started to concentrate on contacting him through our mind link. Talk to me. What's going on?

His hands stop shaking as he moves to set his head on my shoulder instead of my chest to show his face with tear trails running down it. I can literally feel my heart break in that moment when I see him look so broken and so tired and I realize that his job, being an alpha, must take so much out of him because lives are literally in his hands. "Joey, it's okay. Everyone's okay. You're doing so good."

He looks up at me with a small smile. "Really?"

"Really," I whisper to him, reaching up to wipe away his tears. He recovers quickly after hearing my compliment, sitting up to look around the room at Conner and Lila still holding each other while Cody and Melissa watch all of us.

We all jump when there's a knock on the door and Cody makes the first move to go let whoever it is in. I get off of Joey's lap so he can stand up to follow his beta to the front door while keeping his hand intertwined in mine. I watch as the door swings open to reveal a blonde man with a friendly face giving us a smile. He's wearing some black dress pants with a light blue polo shirt as he has a backpack slung over his shoulder. I'm assuming this is Elder Collins by the way everyone instantly gives him a hug like they've known him for years.

When he reaches me, he puts his hand out to shake mine which I immediately do. "Hi, you must be Kade, I'm Elder Collins."

"Nice to meet you," I tell him with a smile before settling back against Joey's side as we all move towards the living room to sit on the huge couch. We all watch as the elder pulls out a binder with papers held together by the rings before flipping through to find the paper he was looking for. He takes out a picture of the same wolf that chased us two weeks ago and I turn away, not being able to look at it anymore since I was only a few feet away as he died.

"This is a member of the Red Guardian R rogue pack," he tells us and I notice the way Joey turns his head to look at Cody. They both think for a second, like the name is familiar to them or something and the beta's eyes widen before looking up at his alpha.

"What is it?" I ask, extremely curious at to what he just remembered.

"They're a neighboring pack with the one that attacked us about a month ago," Cody says, making memories flash of Lila, Melissa, and I sitting on this very couch while all of our men were outside fighting the rogue pack that had raided into the camp. I remember that they told us that most of the members were killed in the attack while a few of them were able to get away during the fight.

"That was the Sentinel Canines R and after the elders council did some research, we figured out that their camps are only five miles away from each other, so we're under the assumption that after the rogue attack that happened to the pack, they went there for refuge," Elder Collins tells us.

"What's with the R at the end of the names?" I whisper to Joey.

"It's so werewolves know who's who. If you're a part of a traditional werewolf pack, then there's no R, but if you're a part of a rogue pack, you use the R," he tells me.

"But why would someone a part of a rogue pack out themselves like that though? I mean, if they don't put the R at the end, then people would just assume they're a part of a traditional pack, so why don't they just pretend so they blend in instead of standing out as a rogue?"

"Rogues hate other werewolves that aren't rogues because they've been kicked out of their packs, obviously, so they feel betrayed by everyone who's still a part of a pack," he tells me.

"Oh, okay," I tell him before looking back up at Elder Collins who still flips through the binder before taking out another picture to hold up for us and I can instantly feel the tension heighten in the room. I look around to see Joey looking to the side and I can feel the anger radiating off of him while Cody looks super guilty along with Melissa.

"Reece Sutter, remember him?" Elder Collins ask and he even looks a bit angry and I immediately realize that something huge had happened between everyone in the house, including the elders and Cody must've caused it by the way he was acting.

"What's going on?" I ask, needing to know what had happened to help give advice on how to figure out how to deal with this situation.

Lila sighs, looking a bit tired as she looked between her son and Cody. "Reece Sutter was a member of the pack, his brother was assigned to help the elders with a mission. If we ever had some hunters poking into our stuff, then the elders would sometimes assign someone to look into them."

"And hunters are people who try to kill werewolves, right?" I ask.

"Yeah," Joey whispers to me, gripping my hand in his and I can truly feel his anger by how hard he's holding it. Cody sighs, leaning back against the couch as his face looks even guiltier than before.

Elder Collins speaks up. "The elders sometimes have secret missions where we have someone that's prepared sneak in with the hunters to get inside information for us if we have an idea that they're planning to hurt a member of our pack."

"So Reece's brother, Alfie, had done these secret missions for them in the past and he'd gotten really good, so the elders always went to him first when they needed to do things like this. One time, we had gotten word from another pack that a hunter had gotten onto their property a few weeks prior and as they had been tracking them, they realized that they were coming towards ours camp so they wanted to warn us," Conner explained.

"Okay, so he pretended to be a hunter and joined the group of them that were coming close to the pack?" I asked, still extremely confused.

Cody nodded his head, finally speaking up for the first time since Reece's name had been brought up. "Yeah, we prepared him for about a week before sending him in to pretend to be a hunter that was being transferred into this new group. Alfie was very good on his feet and whenever something bad was about to happen, he always made contact with us to warn us before slipping away. But this time, it was a lot more extreme than we had through and the group that we had placed him with, the one that was planning to attack us, was practically planning to start a war with us."

"The entire time that Alfie was with them, we didn't get any contact from him and we assumed that it was because he was trying to figure everything out. Then the hunters show up to our camp," Joey said and I realize how shaken up he still is about this whole situation.

"They had figured out that he was actually a wolf and instead of killing him on the spot, they decided to use him. Joey, Conner, all the elders that were already here, and I go out where the guards told us they were and when we go out there, we see Alfie has a gun to the back of his head and he also has one in his hand," Cody tells me.

"What happens?" I ask.

"We figure out that they were basically using him as a shield because they believed that we wouldn't kill someone that was in our pack. So we try to come up with an agreement with the hunters, but they weren't budging," Conner says.

"We notice how they're telling stuff to Alfie and all of a sudden, we notice how he points his gun at Joey and obviously, he didn't do it by choice because they would have killed him if he didn't do what he was told," Cody tells me.

"He's dead, isn't he?" I ask, looking up at my boyfriend.

"I noticed that the man who holds the gun to the back of Alfie's head doesn't even have his finger on the trigger, which means if I planned it right, then we could get Alfie out of there alive," Joey tells me before motioning to Cody, who now looks so upset as his fingers ring together.

"I had a momentary lapse and didn't look at the whole situation. I was at a place where I could see that the hunter behind Alfie wasn't actually holding the trigger, but I didn't even think about it," Cody tells me and Melissa reaches over to grab his hand as she sees how close he is to breaking down. "I killed Alfie because I didn't look at the whole situation and I ended his life without thinking."

My eyes widen as I look over at Joey who's face is just covered in anger as he basically relives the moment that must've caused such an uproar with everyone. "Oh."

Conner clears his throat, trying to move on with the story in case anyone tries to say anything else. "Once Reece, Alfie's brother, hears about what happens, he starts to act out against us because he felt like we hadn't protected his brother like we told him we would. Reece ended up doing too much harm to the whole pack that we warned him about 10 times that we were getting closer to having to kick him out."

"So you did kick him out?"

Joey nods his head. "Yeah, he basically forced us with how much he was acting out. Every time we would try to have a pack meeting, he would speak out to tell everyone how we weren't good at our jobs. He would show up at the quarter house in the middle of the night to yell at us about how terrible people we were. He broke so many rules that we have had implemented for years before all of this happened."

"He had just lost his brother though," I tell him, kinda understanding why he was acting out so much.

Elder Collins nods his head. "We understood that and we let him get away with it within reason. But after it kept happening after six months, we knew that we all needed to do something because he was starting to set an example for everyone else that made other people start to act out. The elder council talked and we all agreed that kicking Reece out after he didn't listen to our warnings was the best thing we could all do."

Joey shakes his head, sitting up. "So Reece is the leader of the Red Guardians R?"

"We believe so because the alpha of the Golden Eclipse Pack described Reece exactly when we asked who the leader of the rogue pack was that has continuously showed up on their land," Collins tells him.

"So don't you need to just locate the pack and sort it out?" I ask.

Joey shakes his head, pulling me closer to his body. "It's not that easy. Rogue packs move every so often and once they do, they're basically impossible to track."

"We're going to keep working on trying to figure out where they're relocating at the moment, but now that two packs have merged into one, then they have a lot more people than we're used to, which means..."

Cody sighs. "They're preparing for a blood bath."

"Yeah," Collins tells him.

"We'll start interrogating any of Reece's friends that still reside in the pack to see if they know anything, but I assume that once he left the pack that he also left them behind so they won't know anything," Conner says.

"It's worth a shot," Collins said.

Joey stands up, making everyone in the room look over at him. He walks towards the back door before turning around to look at us. "I need a few minutes."

He walks out the door and I watch as he goes to sit at the picnic table to put his head in his hands as he lets out a long breath that seems like he had been holding in the whole day. I stand up, hoping that me talking to him might be able to help him through the stress that he was going through. I walk out the door as the rest of the room stares at me as I go.

I sit next to him on the picnic tables, setting my hand on his back before letting it slide up to his hair. "Hey, we'll all put our heads together and come up with a plan once we find some more information on where they'll be."

"I should've controlled Reece more instead of automatically telling him that he might be kicked out of the pack because that seemed to make him push even further, like he was trying to be pushed out," he tells me, rubbing his eyes with his palms.

"From what I was just told, he had a problem with the leadership, so I think you trying to help him might've come off as a threat to him with how mentally unstable he seemed. He lost his brother, Joey, it's not an easy thing to go through and I don't really think anyone could've helped him deal with it better than he did. You did everything you could, so don't be too hard on yourself."

He looks up at me. "I should've stopped Cody before he pulled the trigger. All of this would've been avoided if I had just somehow told him my plan."

"No, don't do that," I tell him as I push his hair out of his face. "don't focus on the past that you can't change. The future, that's what you need to be thinking of because that is what you can help change."

He nods, leaning over to give me a soft kiss as he places his hand against the side of my neck. "Thank you. You're honestly the best."

"Only the best for my baby."