Saturn

Solis VI

Xavian scanned over documents and documents full of testimonies and reports from daily patrols. "Vera and Bryan," he whispered under his breath. "They have to be here somewhere."

He stopped on an entry from 7 years ago, the summer season.

Patrols came across a family of three wolves, two females and a male, just outside of pack territory. Young female, identified as freshly shifted at age sixteen, fled upon discovery of the group. Older male and female put up a fight in order to protect younger female. Older female killed a patrol wolf, Ophelia Creek. Patrol Member Forrest Duban went after young female, brought her back to older pair. Pair was killed in scuffle after death of Ophelia. Warned young female to stay away from pack and released her. Brought bodies of pair and dead patrol wolf to territory and buried them.

This had to be them. Xavian printed the page and the documents that went with it. Pictures. There were pictures of the dead wolves. Two deep grey coated wolves. They had wounds around their throats and abdomen. He folded the papers up and put them in his back pocket. He kept one in his hand, the photo of a startled young girl with tattered clothes and the same green eyes he saw in the rogue currently in the infirmary. It had to be her.

He opened the door to his office and his father was just outside, nearly making Xavian jump out of his skin.

"Have you made your choice yet?" Lucian asked, either unaware of his startling affect or didn't care. He was more focused on the task at hand. He was beginning to feel like his son had a lot more to learn before he could hand over the position to him. Lucian wasn't sure he could wait too much longer. Leading a pack was aging him faster than he cared to admit.

"She hasn't given her answer yet." Xavian fiddled with the papers in his hands. He would remain strong in his decision to let the rogue decide her fate, even if his father's intimidating stare nearly made him question it.

"If you give her too much time, you'll allow her to come up with a plan to betray us," Lucian warned, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Or she could decide to make a decision that will save her life." Xavian raised his chin to appear more confident in his choice,

Lucian crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. He was unable to stifle the sigh that left his nose.

"Xavian, you're putting too much faith in this girl. You will have to make these hard decisions at some point," he pushed. He needed his son to realize that leading a pack meant making quick and difficult choices. These choices could mean life or death one day.

"Dad, she wasn't lying." Xavian reached for the papers in his pocket and handed them over to his father, including the photo of the girl. Lucian opened the sheets and skimmed over them and the photos for a moment. "I don't know how you missed them. They were only protecting their daughter."

Lucien raised an eyebrow and folded the pages closed once more. "They killed our pack member." The killing of a pack member was a reasonable offense to have the pair killed. They posed a threat, committed a punishable crime by pack standards, and they were rogue.

"The notes are brief, there may have been a reason." Xavian tried his best to keep his father from teetering to the decision to have the rogue dealt with himself. Xavian needed to keep this case for himself, to prove his worth to his father... that and the gentle tug he felt that there was something more they were missing.

"Your priorities seem to lie with this girl, Xavian, rather than with your pack. Behave like an Alpha. You need to make your choice by the end of tomorrow." Lucien kept a face of cool composure. He had been making these same choices for a long time now. He knew the consequences of waiting too long, of dwelling on small cases instead of tending to other Alpha duties.