Contemplation – Part 1

One Year Later...

It was summer break; most of the young wolves were relaxing or playing in the lawn in front of the pack-house. Randall Hart, Alpha of the Blue-Moon pack watched from the windows in his study, at the peaceful atmosphere in his pack. His daughter, Erza was training in hand combat with other wolves her age. He wasn't surprised at the change in her, in fact, he welcomed it. A year ago, she was just a normal teenager with all girly dreams, but everything changed after her kidnapping. He remembered the nightmare he went through when he found she was kidnapped. Randall still didn't get a grip on the untimely help he received from the mysterious she-wolf.

**

"Did you search everywhere?" Randall yelled at his beta.

Matt recoiled at his anger, but responded, “Yes Alpha! School grounds, parks, everywhere, but we were not able to find Erza and two other girls."

‘Damn!’ They had been searching for two days now, but couldn’t find his daughter. His frustration was welling up, gnawing at him.

“Alpha, we got a situation on the western side of pack grounds." Reese, his third in command was yelling through the mind link.

"What is it, Reese?”

“Seems like rogue attack, except the attack is not on us, but on another wolf, not from our pack."

"Hold on," said Randall as he rushed to the scene.

They reached the western border in five minutes, what he saw halted him in his tracks. There was one she-wolf against five rogues. No, make that four as she took down one at that very instance. His men wanted to help but were stopped by the sheer ferocity the She-wolf was displaying. Her mane coated in blood and dirt, made it hard to figure out the color of the wolf and she was wounded very badly, but she never showed even hint of backing down. She looked behind, right at them and let out a warning growl, a growl showing her dominance and demanding, to back off.

“Men back down,” He ordered. “She clearly does not want us to interfere."

They watched in awe as she took down those wolves one by one. The last wolf left, tried to flee, but she pounced on him in one lunge and tore off his neck. She finished all the five wolves in a matter of minutes. When she looked back, he was amazed at the rage and power radiating off her.

‘This is no ordinary She-Wolf. She displayed the strength of a high ranking warrior,' mused Randall. When they tried to approach her, she ran away. They followed her only to find her stop at the edge of the forest, transform to her human half and collapse. The wounds must have finally gotten to her.

They brought her back to their pack-house, and the doctor started working on her immediately. Four hours later he reported back, "Her wounds are healing, but there is one wound which will take time to heal.  The rogues were desperate in trying to kill her. She has a knife wound on her right side, and the knife showed to be coated in silver.” Randall and others gasped at that information, “She fought in that condition?” one of them exclaimed.

The doctor surged, “She is out of danger now; we just need to wait for her to wake up."

The next day there was in a meeting with his pack’s elite. They were still trying to find his daughter and the missing girls. There was no clue as to where they have been taken. With no further option, they decided to enlist the help of nearby packs.

"You don’t need to do that," a hard voice chimed in.

Randall looked up to find the source of the voice standing in his doorway, Casually leaning near the entrance without showing a hint of being afraid in an unknown pack's territory. Even with all the bruises and the bandages covering her, she seemed ready for action. Randall remembered her fight the previous day, wondering what she had to go through to reach that level of ferociousness. She was way too young, probably fifteen or sixteen.

“And how do you plan to help?" asked Alpha Randall.

She walked in like she owned the place, “The renegades that I killed yesterday belong to a group that my pack has been tracking for some time. I got a lead and followed them and found a hideout, about ten to fifteen miles from here. They were transporting some prisoners, I did see three girls among them."

Her news startled him. He stood up throwing the chair back, shattering it in the nearby wall. "How can we trust you?" he snapped, "You could be one of them and staged the act."

She smiled standing before him with an unwavering gaze and said, “You are smart, and yes, you should never trust me, but it’s your call. Either you take my offer and try to take the lead or just rush in and get them killed yourself."

Randall peered into her eyes, they were staring straight without any fear or hesitation. Against his better instincts, he decided to trust her.

**

Alpha Randall had been quite happy with the decision. It was a good thing he trusted her; they were able to retrieve his daughter safely. Despite her injury, she led the mission successfully, but in the end, she was even more injured. His beta, Matt was the one who found her unconscious body, again. He realized that she had not followed them and decided to go back to the rogue’s hideout. He also brought some interesting news on what transpired between herself and her mate. She remained unconscious for two days.

“Evelyn Skyler,” that’s her name, but that was all the information Randall was able to get. Any details of where she is from and which pack she belonged to, was never found.

Two days after the battle, unusual wolves from an unknown pack visited them. They waited on the border requesting permission to enter but never gave any information about themselves. The only reason Randall allowed them in was when they informed that Evelyn was from their pack.

Randall recognized the wolves were quite fierce. “Must be of the Warrior class,” guessed Reese. Each men were over six feet tall and had a muscular physique. Initially, their faces were devoid of expression, but quickly turned into masks of tightly repressed rage and anxiety when they looked at her lying unconscious on the bed. Clearly, she was someone important. But no matter how much they were questioned, they never gave any clue except, "The Alpha will answer you if needed."

The next day when Evelyn woke up there were huge shouts of arguments and angry words thrown across the room, most of them chastising her on the careless actions. Amidst the entire rebuke she was receiving, Evelyn just kept smiling. Not even flinching a little on the amount of temper running across in the room. She was not in a position to travel; hence she had to stay in their pack for at least a week.

During the week Erza took care of her and they both seemed to have formed a bond. The current change in Erza was due to her influence. They left after a week. Alpha Randall continued to contact them when any incident arises. During the past year, Evelyn visited them sometimes and stayed a few days. She also helped in training Ezra with hand-to-hand combat. But the only annoying aspect of Evelyn’s and her pack was, He never knew the name of the pack she belonged, or where they are from.

Alpha Randall could have persisted until they shared the information, but Evelyn had given her word that all would be explained when the time comes. There was something about Evelyn and her pack. Friendship seemed to grow with them without actually trying to.

“Alpha! He is here," Matt interrupted him from his memories.

The news brought a smile on his face. Apart from Evelyn, they have also been visited often by another Alpha.

“Ryan Snyder.” Alpha Randall pitied the guy. He has tried to find his mate since a year ago but never succeeded. Randall was unable to help the fellow Alpha. Evelyn had made them swear an oath not to reveal her identity to anyone, specifically to the Alpha of Fire-Moon Pack and her mate-Ryan Snyder, in return of her services for finding his daughter. But Ryan has still not given up. He occasionally came to try to get some information about her.

"Have the other Alphas arrived?" he asked Matt.

"Yes! Alphas from the Northern and Western packs are here. We are still awaiting the arrival of the other four Alphas."

Today was the day of the Big-Meet. There was a unanimous decision to have a meeting with all the packs to try to find the issue of many wolf disappearances across their territories. In the beginning, the random disappearances went unnoticed. But now the problem was becoming a big issue across all the packs. No one was able to explain the disappearances. The Alphas were not able to reach the missing wolves via a mind-link either.

"Bring him in now. We still have time to chat before the others arrive," he ordered.