Claribelle's Mate

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Blaze's POV

"Good morning, grandmother," I said into the phone as I studied the paperwork in front of me.

"Good morning, Blaze honey," her sweet voice replied. "How's everything at home?"

I smiled. She was always asking after the pack when she called. She cared about them very much. "Everything is going well here, grandmother. How are you and grandfather?"

We chatted for a half hour about the pack and their trip before she had to go for breakfast. I'd already eaten and just said goodbye to her and went back to my paperwork that I had to get taken care of before lunch. It was for one of the many businesses that the pack controls.

It seemed that I might need to fire a few people. We just didn't have enough revenue to support the number of employees that were working.

I went through the employee records and called up the manager. "Lloyd, there's a few people I need you to lay off," I informed him.

He was very accommodating, agreeing to take care of the short list of employees that I gave him the next morning when they came in for work.

Before hanging up the phone, I made one last request. "Tell them that if they have trouble finding another job to come see me. I'll see what I can do for them."

"Yes, sir," Lloyd replied. "I'll let them know."

I hung up the phone, sighing and filling out the necessary paperwork to lay off some employees. I put it in the outbox on my desk and grabbed the next pile of papers from my inbox.

About a half hour before lunch, Cale came into the office, his face grim. "Two of the rogues came back and want to speak with you."

Startled, I sat up straight. "Two? The third? Claribelle?"

Cale shrugged. "They refused to speak to me. They want to speak to you and only you, but it doesn't look like they had any luck with the girl."

I sighed angrily. "Bring them in," I growled. Why couldn't they just tell Cale instead of wasting my time? If they didn't have Claribelle, then I didn't care about them anymore.

Cale disappeared and came back moments later, followed by two of the rogues, their leader missing. That was strange. Their leader should be the one coming to speak with me, not these two.

I stared at them stonily, waiting for one of them to speak. Neither did. "Are you going to speak or stand there like idiots?" I asked of them.

They looked between each other before the auburn haired one began to speak, pissing me off more and more with each word. "We found the girl, but she's a fighter. She took down Marcus, then me. When we woke up, John was dead, killed by another wolf and the girl was gone."

Standing slowly, I glared at the two of them. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "How the hell did one little girl get the drop on three full grown werewolves?" I asked them in my most dangerous voice.

They cowered in fear at the anger in my voice, their voices failing.

Growling angrily, I slammed my fist down on the desk. Cale watched me warily, knowing full well that my temper was not something to be messed with. "Take them to the dungeons," I ordered. They'd failed me, they would pay the price. Three full grown werewolves against a single teenaged vampire and they'd lost. They were pathetic.

They growled angrily, but Cale and another guard were able to manhandle them out of the room and downstairs to the basement where they would be put in cells until I decided what the hell I was going to do to them now. They'd failed me and I'd need a suitable punishment for that.

I paced the room, anger coursing through me as I thought of what to do next. They were my entire plan when I sent them. I had no idea what to do now. I wasn't going to send them out again. Their leader was the only one with brains, they'd never succeed without him. Not that they'd even come close to succeeding with him. I needed to come up with something better.

I slammed through the door of my office and stormed past several frightened and startled members of my pack as they jumped to get out of my way. I went right through the back door and shifted the second I felt the grass between my toes.

With an angry howl to the heavens, I took off running to the woods. I needed to burn off my anger before I'd be able to think properly and come up with another plan to capture Claribelle. I had to do this. For my uncle.

~~~*~~~Author's Note~~~*~~~

Okay, so this is like the shortest update of all updates and I apologize, but I wanted you to see Blaze's reaction to finding out that the rogues failed to capture Claribelle. I don't think that I'll be doing another of his points of view.

Also, I'll be posting another chapter either tonight or tomorrow due to the fact that this one is so short :) I would never leave you with this short of an update for a week ;) that would be incredibly rude of me!

~Haley~