Not Alone Anymore

Chapter One

AN: The POV is in third person, and changes around kind of rapidly in the beginning, so sorry if the first part is a little confusing.

Chapter One

He sat down at his desk, accustomed to the glum atmosphere in such a way that it didn't feel glum anymore, and looked over all of the useless pages but important information. There was really no reason he should be looking over these transactions anyway. But, as the leader of the pack, he couldn't help himself from checking every detail that went on around his people.

His second in command, Riley, had volunteered to do some of the paperwork recently, and had done a great job at communicating in an official manner with all of his own correspondents, but he found that there was no way he was giving up this part of the job. While Riley did almost exactly what he would have done, it still wasn't his own work that made it to the other packs, and that rubbed him all wrong.

He grunted in a way that sounded more defeated than displeased, and called Riley into his office.

Riley walked into the wooden office, void of any decorations or any indication that someone with any interests had ever graced the room. Riley assumed that his leader had never had those things anyway.

Riley stood against the door after shutting it, nodding at his leader and putting his arms respectfully behind his back. He had nothing against the man behind the desk- owed the man his life, actually- but that didn't mean he had ever felt comfortable around the guy.

"So... What's up?" Riley asked, with his usual disregard of formalities.

His leader looked at him with a lack of emotion that made him feared around the pack. It wasn't as if his face was hard as steel and ready for anything, though. It was almost as if a vacuum had been used to suck away any resemblance of emotion that may had festered beneath those dark eyes.

"I don't want you taking charge of my communications anymore. I appreciate your work as it is, and you did a fine job with this extra bit. But I simply prefer to do this myself, so I will keep doing it. Understand that you did nothing wrong," the leader informed with a bit too much intensity for Riley's liking.

Riley slightly lifted a brow. "You sure, man? I barely have anything assigned to me as it is, and I just wanted to help out. You already do everything around here. The least you could do is give me something to do that isn't checking up on the pack- which you do as well." He emphasized the last part of the sentence without too much resentment in his voice. When he first got the title as the leader of the Pack's right hand man, he envisioned a life of battle and heroic acts; being exhausted at the end of everyday from all of his hard work, and falling asleep with a smile on his face. Never once did he think he would be bored out of his mind, trying to convince his "boss" to let him at least write some papers for him. What a life this turned out to be.

His leader's eyes widened, and Riley felt like he took a step too far. No one really talked to this empty man because of what he did for the pack. Everyone owed him their lives at least  five times over. But the fear that lingered in the back of everyone's mind, the goosebumps that rose on everyone's arms when he walked by, the flashbacks of the utter beast that was this leader- these were the things that kept everyone from making friendly conversation with him. Riley couldn't remember if his leader became empty after nobody talked to him, or if he was so empty that no one talked to him. But whatever it was, he wasn't there to find out.

The man was still a bit rattled at being questioned like that.

"Are you saying you don't want to have the same responsibilities anymore?" The leader asked carefully.

Riley stepped farther into the room, away from the door he was using as a secure escape.

"No, not at all. I am just saying that I would love more responsibilities than I already have. I'm basically a glorified babysitter right now. You handle everything around the pack that could possibly need to be handled, plus you check over my work like you want to catch me in the act of some wrongdoing. Not only am I a glorified babysitter, but I even get babysat by you," Riley admitted with a bit of a rush. This was all of the stuff that he rambled about to his friends after another boring day of "work". He sucked in a rattling breath and continued his little speech, "I trained for years to get this job, but I have yet to have used any of my skills as a way to serve and protect this pack. You've got the monopoly on all of the glory, my friend." He realized he needed to cool down when his leader blinked at that. Riley waved a hand in front of him, wiping away his attitude.

"What I really mean to say is that second in commands are usually essential members of packs that do essential duties to keep it running, but you have taken it upon yourself to do every task needed, and not even acquire a third in command. It would just be great if I could take on some more responsibilities and become your actual second in command."

Riley felt the adrenaline fly through his bloodstream, making him dizzy from all of the pent up emotions that being undervalued caused him to have. He hoped he hadn't just signed his death certificate.

His leader sat back and his eyes glazed over in thought, as if Riley wasn't even in the room anymore. This happened all of the time. Riley knew to wait until all of his thoughts were in order for him to finally talk.

" I apologize if I have made you feel unimportant," the leader said after a long thirty seconds, making Riley flinch from the sound in the quiet room, "I just like my pack ran a certain way, and I don't quite trust anyone but myself to run it... but if you must, you can keep this communication section of the job, until you have proved yourself, and I will give you something else to do," the man said as if trying to decide which tooth he should rip out of his own mouth. "That is all I am comfortable with right now. Do we have an agreement?"

Riley was sure he was going to be killed, so this was better than that. "Yes sir, we have an agreement. Thank you for the opportunity to prove myself."

Riley nodded at him and went for the door, and his leader nodded back before going over the papers again. His last thoughts as he left the room was that his leader really wasn't going to change one bit.