Bound By Betrayal

Ch. 11 Obligations

The pup brought me a plate of steak and eggs with hash browns, leaving them on my desk silently before bowing and backing out of the room. The fear on her young face caught my attention and held it much longer than the tempting scent of my breakfast. I could hear her stomach growl in hunger as she softly closed the door behind her, and the muted patter of her feet as she scampered down the tile hall that led to the dining room.

So much had changed in a year; it was almost the anniversary of my parent’s death, almost a year since I became Alpha Tyrus. The pack had looked to me for guidance, even as I grieved the death of my father and mother. I was wracked with guilt knowing that it was my idea for them to go on that stupid trip to begin with, well technically it was Jessica's but it was me who brought the idea to them and pushed for them to go.

Jessica. She had been a God send those first few weeks. Standing beside me, understanding that while she wasn't my true mate, the pack needed a Luna. She had willingly stepped into the role, even dropping out of school to make sure she had time to handle everything. At first everyone seemed so thrilled with some of her ideas. School was made optional for your Junior and Senior years, after all we are wolves and that stuff only really dealt with human issues, she rationalized. Rogues were to be killed on sight rather than questioned and given an opportunity to run or join the pack if they proved harmless, after all they may want to test my resolve she said. Respect became everything, if you were met by a superior you were to bow and couldn't make eye contact, she said it would cement my place as the leader and make it clear that I was firm. That rule was a favorite among the warriors and high ranking wolves.

Heck even before that she had the great idea to help make a statement about how strong a leader I could be by helping organize that trial for the Omega Ava. Ava... for some reason thinking of her always created a sense of longing, like I missed her or something. I mean yeah, we all struggled for a second when she left, I chuckled as I remembered the weeks of trying to figure out where the cleaning supplies were. By the time we found the vacuum we had more fur in the carpets than we did on our wolf forms. But that wasn't it, there was something more. I was pretty sure that Ava's sister was my mate. Every time I admitted it to myself there was an ache that couldn't be denied. Granted she was a few years older than me but that wasn't unusual. I remember when I first picked up her scent; I had gone to her house with the group that was looking for them. We found Ava and her mother emerging from some secret room where they probably planned their treachery. I was a few years older than Ava but being an Alphas son I looked far more mature than her as she looked up at me with a tear stained face. A scent drifted up; faint but it literally was enough to make my mouth water. It was like honeysuckle and spring rain. I was desperate to find the source of the scent and even though it was tantalizingly close, I had to accept that Avril had indeed left.

At first I denied her guilt, my wolf, Storm insisted that his mate would never betray the pack, she must have been taken. It seemed possible, until the mother started telling lies about how her daughter had found her mate and run to get help with her brother and his mate. Conveniently, the pack they supposedly had made their escape to had been destroyed with no survivors. More evidence was brought forward, including the fact that the attack had been too efficient to be pulled off without inside help. Information about patrols and tactics, our strengths and our weaknesses. The twins had become inducted into the pack warriors only weeks before the attack, giving them time to gather the information they needed. As for motivation, their mother was an Alphas daughter; their father was the second son of a Beta. They had joined our pack after they met, claiming they wanted a new start where no one knew them. We assumed their children had become power hungry, perhaps the rogues had offered them a leadership role instead of forcing them to earn their titles through service to a real pack. Either way, the need to find her was very real to me. That tidbit of scent hovered around Ava for weeks, not strong enough to be her own, but a reminder of what I lost when her sister betrayed us and broke my heart.