Little Red's Riding

Their Brother

Silas, Oliver, and Soren had picked up and lost the scent of the two missing guards at least a dozen times. They had begun on the portion of border that the two were known to have been guarding and had headed to the last spot that the trackers had scented them on. Beyond that they'd managed to pick up their scent again repeatedly. But they kept running into constant dead ends.

And Soren, obviously had questions, the foremost of which was why his Alpha had suddenly requested he come along on this particular mission.

Soren Moriyo did not yet know that his little sister existed, much less that she was the new pack Luna, although the rumor had reached him that his mother was back on packlands, and he did not appear to be particularly overjoyed with the news, since he had yet to come to see her.

Soren and Silas were not good friends. In fact they weren't friends at all, although they'd know each other for years.

It wasn't that Soren wasn't a good man. Silas was certain that he was. It was that it was rare for two Alpha wolves in the same pack to be friends. Usually a wolf like Soren would have a pack of his own. Perhaps he deserved to have a pack of his own, Silas found himself thinking, not for the first time. And Silas couldn't help but wonder if it grated on the other man to be ruled over by another, especially a man who wasn't a direct relative.

Soren never said a word to him. But year earlier Silas had noticed how Soren would bristle when he gave orders to his warriors, a group which Soren of course numbered among.

Silas had spent months, maybe even years, wondering if he was doing the wrong thing, letting the young man stay in his pack. In other packs, young men who were clearly Alphas, were sent away if they weren't directly in line to inherit the position, and if there was a worthy heir. It was an extremely rare occurrence, but it happened.

The current Alphas usually recognized them early for the threat that they were. In the not-so-distant past they had been killed when they reached puberty and really began challenging the current Alpha for his position, but now they were simply sent away. Usually they became strong on their own and after a few years as a Lone Wolf, in the forest or living amongst unsuspecting humans, they ended up taking over a pack of their own. A few even came back and took over their old packs. Some decided toc continue to live among humans and take on leadership roles in that world, forever.

But Silas just didn't have the heart to do it. He remembered the Widow and what her husband had done for his father and he just couldn't send the boy, who was most definitely now a man, away from the pack. He almost felt as if the pack was as much Soren's as it was his, which as Alpha, wasn't an emotion he should feel, but he couldn't help it.

"Are you finally going to do it?" Soren asked Silas, when they'd lost the scent yet again and were standing silently in a clearing as Oliver tried to pick up any sign of the two missing warriors on the far edge of the field.

"Do what?" Silas asked, although a small part of him immediately understood what Soren was asking him.

"Kick me out of the pack. Or kill me. You didn't really bring me out here to find two guards, did you? Is anyone even missing?" Soren said the words so quietly that Silas was quite sure that Oliver didn't even hear them.

"What? No." Silas closed his eyes for a moment as he shook his head. "I mean, yes, two guards are missing. And we asked you because we needed to bring the strongest pack members along because this is a truly dangerous mission that we're on and the more people who come along the more lives we endanger."

Soren's eyes narrowed. He obviously did not trust his Alpha and he was waiting for the trap to be sprung.

"I know you've been told that your mother is back, haven't you?" Silas shifted the conversation, realizing that he needed to try a new angle if he was going to convince Soren of anything. The other Alpha stood up, pushing back his dark hair as he looked off into the forest, his expression pained.