(COMPLETED) Hunted by the Alpha

Logan - Part Thirteen

I hadn't slept. I had been worrying about her all night. Had I been too forward? She hadn't said anything at the time but maybe she regretted it now? Stop it Logan, I thought to myself. You're overthinking now. Maybe she loved it so much she was literally speechless? HA! Who was I kidding, I'd probably crossed some invisible boundary. She was my guest, she had just been through hell and I'd wanted to give her a distraction.

Turning over again and again, I couldn't stop my mind from racing. She had no idea about her parents? Really? How could she not when she'd lived with them her whole life? Then again, neither had I and I was meant to be taking over as alpha soon. How was I supposed to do that? I had no idea what was even going on in my own pack! The alpha ceremony was four days away. I was not ready. I would not be ready. What if I let the pack down? I was never going to be as strong and courageous as my father.

I was facing the wall, the way I would sleep most of the time, when I heard it. The loud groan on my heavy wooden door was unmistakable. I snapped my head over, ready to attack whoever or whatever was trespassing. I could vaguely make out a small figure from the light in the hall. "I... I couldn't sleep." Emily. She started to walk towards the bed, "you haven't been to sleep this whole time?" I looked at my clock, it was 2:40am. I'd left her just after eleven.

"I.. I couldn't- The... the house-" She stumbled over her words. I don't think she knew what sentence she was even trying to make. I opened up my blanket, scooting all the way over to the furthest side. "C'mon princess, you can sleep here tonight." She wiped her eyes, I hadn't even realised she'd been crying. Man I was so bad at this. She dropped to the mattress, made herself cosy under the blanket and turned to face me. "I couldn't sleep either," I told her honestly. "There's a lot of pack stuff going on, I just can't seem to wrap my head around it."

"I still haven't heard from my parents." Guilt ripped through my chest. I wanted to tell her. For the sake of the pack I couldn't. But what about the sake of Emily? She moved her body closer looking for comfort, I enveloped my arms around her, drawing her to me completely. "I wish I could tell you something Emily, but I've never been through this, so I don't know." Her face sank. I ran my hand across her cheek and pulled her chin back up to look at me. "What I can tell you, is that once upon a time, I thought I'd lost everything too." The words resonated within me as I spoke them, "now I know it was just a stepping stone and when something terrible happens, like your house, something brighter and better will always show up eventually."

I wiped a tear away from her eye with my thumb. "You think so?" She asked, sounding so small, in my quiet room. I clutched her tighter, thinking of all the ways my life had instantly gotten more interesting this past week. "I know so Emily."  We stayed up talking like that until dawn, she fell asleep shortly after eight and I took a shower and dressed before going to see what pack duties I had to take care of today. I left her asleep, wrapped up in my bed, I hope she wouldn't panic if I was gone.

I ran to my desk and quickly made a note.

Doing Alpha things. Wish I didn't have to leave, I didn't want to wake you.

Help yourself to the food in the house, my father knows, he's fine with you being here...

Take it easy, Princess.
Logan.

I left it folded on my pillow. Hopefully she would find it and hopefully she'd find me at some point.

Half of my day was spent sat in meetings with the patrol wolves, we were going over security plans for the alpha ceremony next week. I was actually staring to get into this. This part about being alpha, I knew I would like, very much. We filled them in on what we knew as much as we could without actually saying anything. That was the hardest part, how do you get around telling people to be extra secure but not giving them a reason why? My father had it handled, I was still getting used to the whole secrecy thing. I was surprised that he'd actually sat back and let me take control of every single meeting so far today.

One minute we were talking numbers and the next, a messenger had come running through the door, huffing and puffing. We all looked up from the plans and shuffled them away quickly. "Yes?" I asked. "It's your guests Alpha Choal, they're here." what? Already? That letter had only been sent out three days ago. "Escort them to the study, we'll need to meet with them straight away" My father commanded. "As lovely as this was gentlemen, myself and Alpha Choal have some business to attend to." I stood up and everyone else in the room stood up with me. I felt a bullet of pride shoot straight through my heart. This felt good. This felt right.

We hurried out of the room and my father debriefed me on the packs that we would be meeting. "There's the Shadow pack, their alpha is Peter." He informed me, "He's okay, but he's older than me and still has no successor. They choose their alphas very differently." I considered this, absorbing the information like a sponge. "The Blue Blood pack are extremely violent, try not to get on the wrong side of Alpha Harley. He doesn't give in easily." Noted.

"The Eclipse pack have an alpha more your age, he's been sheltered for most of his life, they've been under attack a lot. They were the last ones to experience... well you know." My dad eyed me. I got it, they were the last pack that experienced the 'situation'. The report in the briefcase had addressed their pack directly.

"You'll get time to make up your own mind up about The Rising Dawn pack. Their alpha is quite strict and their way of life is very different to our own, or any of the other alphas here actually. They work with witches." Witches? What? - before I could ask any more questions and before my father could finish briefing me on the packs, we had reached the study. I did a body count before we began the meeting.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

...

One alpha was missing. They were all meant to be here together. Where was number eight?