The days start and finish quickly as I rinse and repeat my basic existence. My life has reduced to a simple daily routine. I wake, see to Rox, work at the clinic, support a fragile Ellena and then end my day pushing my wolf to the limit on the boundaries as fast as I can until my wretched heart is too exhausted and to broken to think about the drama that has unfolded with a certain large but lacking Beta.

The tracker and warrior crew have been gone for six long days, on the hunt for Gia and any answers to her sudden disappearance. It has bought a deafening and palpable unease to the pack. Both the Alpha and Beta are gone. The elder male wolves who were warriors of their day and a few younger wolves with young families are all that remain on the reserve to watch over the pack. This now includes me.

There is no imminent danger but it still causes a certain feeling of unease. The balance of the pack is off without the two leading bodies and it shows. Still, the pack left behind do all that we can to try to make things run smoothly. After a rough few days, Ellena stepped up and handed out our assigned places in the pack to assist. We take turns patrolling. We watch the young pups. We check on the older wolves who live alone or on the outskirts of the community. I head into town for supplies daily, check on the town wolves and also keep a stealth eye out for anything that gives indication that rogue activity is present.

That part is my own addition.

Nothing seems out of place or unusual but even that scares me. I know how fast things can change. The blink of an eye is all it takes for things to take a turn for the worse. Every second counts when it comes to outrunning a rogue or an attack and now I have a pup and a weakened pack to think of.

Misery loves pressure.

As I sit by the window in Ellena's cafe, eyes peeled to the snow frosted town, I feel the mounting stressors in my chest and my head. The Cronut and coffee in each hand are helping a little and with Rox in the pram at my side, my eyes are constantly skimming the outlook and beyond. I meticulously search for something out of place. A danger. An unknown.

Maybe even a Beta.

My sneaky heart skips a beat at just the mere passing thought of him and my internal disappointment is epic.

No matter what I do or how exhausted I make myself, each night as I pour my wasted body into bed, my mind switches on and presses play on our little suck face fest before he left.

I also continually replay the odd look on Benji's face as he caught us. For the life of me, I can't figure out why he would seem so disheartened by what he walked in on. Unless it's because he...likes me.
I scoff out loud at the ridiculous notion and earn a frown from Ellena who is standing at the register.

The mere thought of the Alpha having interest in me is ridiculous. I'm his Betas mate. I have so much baggage that I could start my own garage sale, not to mention he has his own destined out there somewhere. The idea that he has developed feelings for me just seems more crazy by the second.

I smile to myself as I stuff the last of the crusty pastry into my mouth. As if the Alpha is into me. He most likely just didn't like the idea of a half rejected pair making it harder on themselves. Or him. Or the pack. And yet, his confusion was clear as day on his face. There was shock there yes, but also a sadness. Something so fleeting but evident enough for me to notice it.

As I wipe the crumbs from my mouth and dust my hands, I decide to put that mystery aside for now and discuss it with Ellena or one of the gossip girls back at the pack house.

I have no clue what Benjis deal is on a personal level so for all intensive purposes, I may be missing out on a vital clue as to his feelings about the Beta and I. Or mates as a whole for that matter.

As much as I feel at home here, I don't really know anyone beyond pleasantries, so digging deeper into the personal lives of the wolves hasn't even been on my radar.

Ellena slides into the seat opposite me as I try to rid my mind of both the burley wolves that confuse me.
Looking at her face only serves to make me feel like
Crap for even entertaining such trivial thoughts.

Here I am day dreaming about a bullshit double romance and her life is spiralling out of control.

Nice one Alice.

"Heard anything?" I say, the same question I ask her every morning, knowing the answer is most likely no but I ask it anyway. Going through the motions is all we have right now.

I find it hard enough pretending to care about what Gia is up to but I know if I intend to stay I need to actually care. Kind of. Regardless of who she is, her dealing with rogues is a bad sign and we need to know how deep the rabbit hole goes with that bad little bunny.

Plus, I have a sinking feeling that she is all shade and no light and I can't wait to be able to say told you so out loud to the smarmy Beta.

The whole situation stinks. 

As if she can read my mind, Ellena shrugs her shoulders and sinks further into the chair, shaking her head in slow motion.

"Nothing we didn't already know. Gia wanted to disappear, and she has. What keeps me up at night is how she could leave her mate and her pup. What kind of wolf does that? What did I miss?" She questions, the same words and worries every day.

I wish I had more of a response for her than just nodding my head but that's all I've got.

"I don't know Ellena. I don't really know her. Tell me about her, her mate. Maybe I'll hear something important that you may have though trivial?" I suggest half heartedly. It's more of a comforting gesture. I could care less about that she-witch and her horrible attitude but I love her mother.

And so I listen.

Ellena tells me about Gia as a pup. She was difficult, no surprise there. Surly. Stubborn. Ellena calls her strong willed. I have several other ways I would describe her. But I nod and smile and laugh along at all the right intervals, all the while painting a profile in my head about this horrible woman.

Gia was not happy with her lot in life. Gia wanted more and as the daughter of the former Alpha, she thinks she deserves it.

When Ellena brings up how she met her mate, I strike information gold.

"Oliver is not her true mate you know. No. She met him years ago, at a camp. They were young and she wasn't ready. When she came home, she told us she found her mate and that she had rejected him. She gave us no further details, only that she did not like him and that was it. She chose one instead, at the very same camp. He was the second son of a wealthy Alpha from Maine." Ellena continues on about Gia but my mind is reeling.

She had a mate. A destined. But she chose to forsake him and chose another. Why Oliver? Why not the other? Who is he?

Ellena must have stopped talking but my mind was too full of wheels in motion that I failed to notice.

"What's happening in that head of yours Alice? I can practically see the gears moving in your eyes." She says with a small grin and I nod.

"I'm sorry, I was listening I swear. It's just? The mate stuff, that might be something. Can I be frank?" I ask, pleading with my eyes for her to go with me on this.

Her small nod gives me permission.

"For give me but, Gia gives me the impression that she wants more than her lot in life. Wants to be more. Especially with pack rank. She was not too pleased about my mating with the Beta." I say, sneaking a look at Ellena and praying she doesn't find this topic intrusive.

She sighs and places her hand on mine.

"You are right Alice, don't look so concerned. I'm not so foolish to think that my daughter is a saint. She can be a real pain in the ass. Especially with things she thinks she deserves. And Gainey is one of those things, that's no secret." She says with a small grin smile.

I try to contain my wide grin but a small chuckle escapes and is quickly wiped off my face with the napkin that Ellena throws at me.

"Now don't go all smug on me. Gia isn't an Angel but she is pack. Family. My family. And for all her faults, I promise there is goodness. She is a good mother. Kind when she wants to be. But lately, she has been off. Secretive. Now,  we all know she has a thing for Gainey. Blind Bobby can see that honey, but I just thought it was a crush. But recently, I don't know, something has been different. She was arguing with Oliver constantly." She wipes a small tear as it escapes down her rosey bloomed cheek and I squeeze my hold on her hand.

We call for a refill of our coffee and I coax her to continue. Something about this mate business has me peaked. I know this has something to do with Gia leaving.

After calming herself down with a latte and enough sugar cookies to warrant a dental visit, Ellena rests back in her chair and continues.

"Gia had it in her head that she wanted to leave. Explore her mates pack. His father was unwell, getting ready to hand the pack on and Gia thought that his second son should make a claim for the pack. Make him and Alpha and her a Luna. But he wasn't keen. Not at all. He is brains not braun and he didn't want to fight his brother. He never wanted the pack, happy with his lot. Happy here. And that made Gia mad." She swallows deeply and folds her hands in her lap.

Something about this story is putting me on edge. And for some reason, I feel as though Ellena knows more than she has let on before now.

Call it a hunch, sure. But my hunches are never wrong.
My hackles rise under my shirt and I feel a little cold sweat coming on. Ellena must scent me because she squeezes my hand in comfort, not a threat.

"Alice, don't get all riled up. I swear I thought nothing of all of this until recently. You see, I think Gia wanted to be a Luna so badly, she may have done something bad. Something she can't take back." Her voice croaks on the last part and I already know what she is going to say.

"What did she do Ellena?" I whisper out, my voice low, barely restraining the wolf inside.

"You know." She whispers, begging me with her eyes to say what she can't.

"How do you know for sure?" I can barely contain my wolf now. If my suspicion is right and Gia has done what I think she has, we are all in so much danger. Even if we ran right now, it would be too late.

Ellena's face is white as a sheet and I know that she is about to say the words that change this entire game.

"Because when I went through her room this week, searching for any clue I could,I found a box hidden in a case under her childhood bed. Things from her childhood. Letters. Mementos saved from her days at camp. Pictures." As she says this, she fiddles around in the pocket of her apron under the table and produces a crumpled old Polaroid, placing it face up on the table.

I peer at the picture, looking over the faces of the young teen pups. Gia is there, in her camp finest, her arm around her mate, his young pimpled face staring down at her with adoration. Her face is a picture of a bold and proud young she wolf. But it's the wolf behind her that takes my breath away. The look on his face is enough to send a shiver of dread straight down my spine. He looks at the two of them with pure hatred. Regret. Evil.

I have seen his face before. I have seen this very look before.

When he stormed into my home and massacred my entire pack. My family. And Rox's parents.

" The Demon is Gia's mate." I say, with an involuntary gasp loud enough to make diner occupants pause and turn my way.

But I don't see any of them. I don't hear anything. I can't. Because the thrumming of my blood rushing through my veins is loud enough to drown out any other sound.

I don't know what kind of war Gia is bringing to her own door but I will not go down without the fight of my life.

Everything I loved has been taken from me, stolen and killed and forgotten in the doomed pathway of a deranged murdering moron. And now his equally deranged mate is bribing him right to us.

I thought that my best choice was to run. Hide. Stay safe until this was over. But I know now that there never was a place to be safe from this morose plan. He won't stop until everything is destroyed. But what is behind all of this? What twisted hand is turning all of these keys? All this time here in Willow, i have been sitting on  more of an insight into his broken beginnings that anyone else. Gainey and Benji are his family. Gia is his mate.

This is it. It's now or never. We need to regroup and use the pooled information we have to take this fucker down. From the inside out.

The Alpha and Beta may not like it, it will definitely cost us lives, but this is the time. The plan. This is the way in. I know in my bones that this is the way we get behind the curtain of his broken mind and rip it open, The Demon, exposing him for all to see. Before we put him down for good.

Because no way am I losing anyone else.

Now we just need to find bloody Gia. And Ellena better pray I don't rip her to shreds before she helps us.