Alex's Point of View

  I'm not far from here.

  I thought that commanding a gas station employee to smash open a charity donation container was a sure-fire way to get the cops called on us. The man behind the counter seemed almost relieved at the request though, he probably thought we were going to shoot him. With the container open, I quickly grabbed the labeled paper and pushed the boys out the door. "Thank you so much sir, sorry for the inconvenience!" 

  We hadn't even made it back to the car before the paper had been snatched out of my hands and scoured over. It was only a five word sentence, but immediately we were formulating a plan of attack. 

  Rayne pulled out the map we had been using for reference on our search and spread it across the hood of the jeep. "This is the area that could be considered close in proximity, probably a twenty mile radius--half of that being forest."

  "I think it's safe to assume that they wouldn't want to be drawing attention to themselves, so they're probably in a house in the woods somewhere," I chipped in, and since I wasn't immediately shot down I took it as a good addition to the debate.

  "After last winter's attack, I can guarantee a large group--even if in the woods--would cause a stir, so they're probably scattered across multiple estates that aren't connected. However, they will have a way to easily access the other estates without drawing suspicion," Wes said, pointing at a stretch of forest land along the length of the river. "This is our best bet in terms of anywhere with the square mileage to house all of the remaining pack members." 

  "Then let's go," Tristan growled, making way towards the drivers side of the jeep. Rayne was quick to grab him on the forearm to stop him.

  "We need to call in for backup, there's no telling how many pack members they have in a consolidated area. I'm not sending us in to get slaughtered."

  Tristan yanked his arm out of his brother's grip, "I'm not just going to sit here while we wait on the rest of our fighters to drag their asses out of bed. Sam is out there right now with Ian doing God knows what."

  It was night time, with the full moon rising in the sky but the way Rayne's eyes hardened was unmistakable, "You aren't to do anything without my permission. If we act too soon and without enough man power, we will just end up getting killed and them taking off to another location. No one will ever find her then."

  There was a loud bang as Tristan's fist connected with the metal hood of the jeep, but his glare showed that he wasn't going to outright disobey the order. 

  The next few minutes involved all of us making calls to the houses of the prominent fighters in the pack. Many of them were roused out of their sleep or from time with their families, but with an order coming from their Alpha they obeyed the call without a seconds hesitation. They would come here whether they wanted to or not; whether they personally agreed with the reason behind the recon mission or not. That was the meaning of the pack, if you didn't protect the whole of the pack then there was no purpose of it at all. 

  After the calls went out and we knew the time frame it would take the rest of the fighters to get here, Tristan and Rayne dissolved into a argument. We had moved further away from the gas station as to not attract any attention that could get us in trouble with human police, but I wouldn't have been surprised if people were startled by angry voices in the woods off the highway. 

  Wes leaned against the jeep with me facing away from the brothers to give them some semblance of privacy for the family feud. I couldn't tell if my blood was running hot because I was ready for the thrill of the hunt or if it was because every time one of us took a deep breath our arms brushed against one another. We hadn't spoken since the calls ended and before that hadn't even said anything of substance to one another the whole day.

  I wanted to look him in the eye so I could try to discern where his thoughts were, but I could only look down at my hands as I nervously picked at my nails. What had yesterday morning really meant to him? Mates were strong suggestions towards our best chances of successful offspring. It was all down to biology and the attraction to carry the best lineage, but that didn't mean that we were completely destined to be with one another. He could very well want someone else over the thought of being with me, regardless of what our wolf sides thought was best.

  My face lost some color as I realized I didn't even know if he was seeing someone. He could very well have been dating someone from the pack or another smaller pack nearby without me ever knowing. My body wanted to cry out at the thought of it even though my mind was totally fine with that idea. Well... maybe not completely fine.

  I wanted someone who I could argue with but would also be there for me emotionally. I wanted a mate who would be there to protect me, to start a life with me. While I'm sure Wes was capable of protecting me from almost any threat, I wasn't sure if he had the capacity to love someone enough to provide the rest of my requirements. That didn't mean that my heart didn't race when he finally spoke up in our silent bubble.

  "They're going to have to come to some sort of agreement soon, or we're going to have an angry neighbor out here come at us with a shotgun," he said dryly.

  I couldn't help the small laugh that escaped me. I don't think I had ever heard him say something jokingly before. Of course, he could be completely serious, but I heard something in his tone that suggested otherwise. "I'm not sure a shotgun could stop Tristan at this point."

  "You're not wrong," he agreed with a slight shift in his placement that touched his arm against mine again. And this time it didn't move away with his next breath. My own inhale hitched as I stabilized myself--this was not something I should've been panicking over. 

  "Do you think we should be running preliminary perimeters at least?" I asked to distract myself, and him just in case he had the ability to read where my mind wanted to take my thoughts.

  He glanced around in the dark where even the highway had stopped showing headlights, but shook his head. "We can't risk it, we only have four people and no way to contact each other over great distances if any of us get caught. Our best bet is to wait until the rest of the men get here, but I know that Tristan won't be happy to wait until morning to start surveillance."

  I looked up at the full moon, feeling the call in my soul towards shifting and knowing that whatever I was feeling was a million times stronger with Sam. "I just hope that she can hold on for another night. We have no way of knowing what is going on with her anymore."

  "She'll handle it," Wes said definitively, "She's stronger than she looks."

  "Yeah... she is," I said softly as our conversation drifted off into silence again. The crickets and Tristan's snarling were the only things in my immediate hearing vicinity so I started to zone out to the trees in front of me and the warmth of Wes's shoulder. 

  I wish I had a way to not feel so hopeless in such an awful situation. 

  By the time the brother's had come to some sort of agreement, the moon was already high in the sky and even the lights at the gas station had gone dark. I wasn't nearly as energized as I should have been with a full moon, all the tension had sapped the energy right out of me. The fighters were still a good four hours away if they sped, and it was doing us no good to be standing around in a populated area. 

  The final decision was to pull towards a campground off the beaten path and try to get some sleep around a campfire so that we could be ready to go when everyone caught up to us around dawn. Wes was in the back seat with me and I was so tired I could have leaned my head on his shoulder and promptly passed out. Instead I forced myself to stay alert by digging my fingernails into the skin on my thigh. The slight pain kept me tense, but awake. 

  It didn't take long to establish a very rudimentary campsite, we only needed a fire to stay warm and have something to focus on if we stayed awake. I doubted that Tristan would be sleeping at all tonight, especially since he knew what a night like tonight would mean for Sam. I pitied him for being forced to sit still while everything in him was screaming to search every inch of the forest for her. The time since she had disappeared had unraveled his can't-be-bothered facade that he wore all the time, I had seen the full range of his anger and sadness. Love like that couldn't be faked. 

  The men sat by the fire, all huddled in the seats talking in hushed tones with each other. At any other point in time I would have been demanding to be in on the planning for our attack, but I was too tired to do anything more than prepare the jeep to be a semi-decent place to get a few hours of sleep. Since I wanted to be accessible at any possible moment, I decided my best bet was to open the trunk and fold down the back row of seats so I could sleep across them with the trunk door open. Grabbing my hoodie as a pillow, I sighed as I finally laid down facing the back of the trunk, keeping an eye out on the flickering fire and outlines of the boys.

  I lingered on Wes as I studied them all. They were all very good looking--after all we were a species that survived well on providing the best possible pedigrees for packs. Good looks happened to go along with the traits we sought out in pack members. They were all tall and well toned, the physique that was more conducive for endurance cardio than weight training, we needed to be able to chase down our prey. 

  But there was something about Wes that made it very clear he was the correct choice for our head of defense. He was slightly taller than the other two and had a little more definition that came natural with endless training. It wasn't just Sam and I that he had taken to training, he was in charge of making sure everyone eligible to add to our defense was able to fight.

  In the back of my mind I could remember when I had been little and he had been younger, he had been all long, lanky limbs. Anyone else probably would have thought he was just destined to be normal, but my father had saw the spark behind Wes's eyes and took him under his wing as his protege. Not just anyone could take over the defense of a pack, it took the right personality to put everyone else first for the sake of safety and order.

  How many times had my father disappeared into the night, leaving my mom, sister, and I alone? He had missed so many events in my life because as much as he loved his family, the pack always came first. To be the head of defense meant that you couldn't just be happy with protecting your own family, you had to make everyone else your family too.

  I had always followed on his coat tails, trying to become like him. It wasn't that my father was against me being is successor, but the timing hadn't been right when he had been forced to step down. I was still too young, too inexperienced, too headstrong. I had the drive and determination to be able to take over, but Wes had been the better choice.

  Maybe it was because when you broke it down enough, he and I had the same drive--the same purpose for our placement in the pack. That had to be why my whole being wanted to believe that he was who I was meant to bond with. It was just all his other layers that made it so hard to believe that he would be anything other than a drill sergeant to me. And I'm sure I wasn't the best choice either. I was still young in comparison, not even graduated from school yet, and I was hot-headed and defiant. Weren't mated couples supposed to be compliments of each other? Two people with our kind of personalities would only create a hostile environment where neither of us would be happy.

  I groaned as I tried to shake my head out of those thoughts again. I had a task to focus on and that was finding Sam and bringing Redwood pack to justice. There was too many open wounds between us for this to go unpunished, there would be plenty of bloodshed and turmoil going on once we made our attack. I didn't need romantic turmoil also in my head.

  I purposely closed my eyes to force myself asleep--I was going to need my strength.