Her previous pack.

Alpha Ollen Kingsmen...

I followed the soldier to the border he said Markus was at, disturbing the peace of the pack we earned after years of mad chaos.

"Did he say what he wanted to talk about?" I asked, annoyance evident in my voice.

I wanted to sit next to my mate in front of the waterfall for a few more hours, pretend like I could have her and she could have me, pretend like she would return my growing feeling for her even though I knew she was going to leave five months from now.

"He didn't say, Alpha. He insisted that he would talk to you and only you." The soldier replied.

Another sigh escaped myself.

"Finally." I heard Markus call out the moment I assumed he saw me. "I've been waiting for ages. It's rude to keep a guest waiting outside..."

I resisted the urge to curse him out.

"Why are you here?" I asked, even though all I wanted to do was kill him.

"No need to be hostile, Alpha Ollen..." He started in that smug way of taking he has, almost as if he was mocking me.

"Hostile?" I scoffed. "You think I'm being hostile after your people came into my pack and killed two of my own?"

That shut him up, but not for as long as I needed him to remain silent.

"That was an irrational mistake made by teenagers. If you must know, they have been punished." He replied

"Tell me, Markus. How exactly did you punish the people who burned a specific warehouse here? we stored out food and killed two of the soldiers guarding the place?"

That once again made him silent for a few seconds.

"I'm not here to argue with you on what had already happened in the past. I'm here to talk about new pressing matters, and I suggest we speak alone." He commented.

The nerves on the guy were unbelievable. He came to my pack and wants to make demands.

"This serious, Ollen. Please." He added.

We were out in the open, not even in the woods. He was the one who was vulnerable, not me. Never me. So I knew it wouldn't kill me to hear him out.

I told my men to step back through our mind link and healed their footsteps as they shuffled away.

"Happy? Now talk." I ordered.

"Maybe we should go somewhere private..."

"Markus, I have very little patience for your kind right now. Either speak of get they heck out of here." I snapped, having enough to his crap.

"Fine." He breathed out, and I could almost imagine him looking from left to right to make sure there were no one around in ear shot.

"If anyone asks, I came here to give you a warning, to ask you if you have learned you lessons, and if you are willing to accept Alpha Brian's mission to send fifty of your men to our rival pack. If anyone asks, I am here sent by my Alpha to taunt you until you give in to the mission and do as you are told, so the air will continue and your people can eat and work like before." He commented.

I could feel the frown cover my face.

"But that is not what you came here to tell me?" I asked.

"Well... it's part of it. At least, it's the excuse I made when I left the pack to come here. So it would be really nice if you threw your hands around and pretended like you were enraged while I told you the real reason why I'm here." He said.

"You have two more minutes to talk, and I am not throwing my arms around to sell your little show." I hissed.

"Fine." He breathed out, and I knew he rolled his eyes at me too. "Remember how I helped you last time when you were about to accept the mission by telling you Brian's plan?" He asked, waiting for me to say yes.

"One minutes, Markus." I replied.

"Well, I have a piece of information you ought to know about if you want to keep up the good work and continue healing your pack."

"Go on." I nodded my head. "And get to the point."

"Brian is getting pressured by the elders to bring you in to best you up until you fall in line. The plan to kill you mate is still on top of their to-do list. However, they have been talking about using her against you. Surely, she would cooperate if she finds out she can be freed from this hideous life."

My throat bured at the last bit, he said, but I made sure the pain didn't show on my face.

"How exactly are they going to use her against me?" I asked.

"Well... Brian has been talking about reaching out for her previous pack and getting to her through her family, especially her sister." He commented.

"What?"

"Listen, I don't know how he's planned to do it yet. But what I know for sure is that he contacted Alpha feathers, you know, your mates father, and was on the phone with him for an hour straight. He made sure none of us heard what he was talking about with the other Alpha, saying he would let us know once the plan was formed. But whatever it is, he is going to use them use her to either do something to you, or convince her to leave the pack, break the bond, and let your pack land continue to die. Either way, it is not good news for you."

"What kind of trick are you playing here?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

"The only trick here is the one Brian is going to play on you. I'm just giving you a heads up." He whispered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why do you keep asking me that when you know damn well why?" He snapped, then cleared his throat before continuing with his voice low. "I'm trying to protect her. And with your mate..."

"You're trying to protect a woman you rejected without even giving her a chance. Why now?" I asked.

"Because... we have a chance now." He replied. "If you and your little mate manage to break the curse, we can finally be together. We can take our rejection back and..."

"Your rejection, Markus." I cut him off. "Not our rejections, but yours. And what makes you think she wants anything to do with you now?"

He didn't give me a reply, but I could feel the annoyance radiating off of him.

"Anyways... I've warned you. You can't blame it on anyone else but yourself if something happens to your mate."

With that, I heard him turn around and walk away.

"What did he want?" Sam asked through the mind link.

"He just wanted to gloat." I replied, needing a little bit more time to digest everything before I share it with those close to me.

"Make sure he left." I ordered before returning to the main pack house.

I sat in my office thinking about what Markus said. How would Joyce's family make her kill or leave me? With what means? What currency?

I thought it through for a while, wondering if I should tell Joyce or not. A bigger part of me wanted to tell her. She would mean me no harm. Heck, she even told me that the Luna's wanted me dead, that the pack would survive, and the curse would be broken if I died. She trusted me enough to share that even though it meant I might lock her in to prevent her from telling anyone else or from following the orders.

Instead, she made me promise not to tell anyone else, not even though I trusted my life.

Yes, I knew I could trust her, and that was what I was going to do. I just didn't want to worry her for nothing or cause a rift between her and her family.

I couldn't just go off of Markus' words. I needed my own proof. So, instead of opening the mind link to Joyce and calling her to my office like I wanted to, I ended up calling Laura instead.

She walked into my office a few minutes later.

"I heard Markus came." She commented. "That bastard. I bed he keeps showing up just to disturb Heaven."

"Did she hear he came to the pack?" I asked, worried about Heaven.

"Every single person heard, Ollen." Laura replied, letting out a sigh as she sat down across from me, the chair softly squealing.

"So, what exactly did he want?" She asked.

"He said Brian had contacted Joyce's previous pack. He wants to use her against me. Basically, if he couldn't kill her, then he would use her family to convince her to leave or to kill me. Either way, Markus claimed that they still have Joyce as the main target." I replied.

"Those bastards..." Laura hissed again. "Who the heck do they think they are?"

Clearly, she was upset. Because Laura is not the person to say a curse word twice within a few minutes.

"Have you told Joyce?" She asked.

"No..." I shook my head as I leaned back against the uncomfortable wooden chair. "I want to have proof first before I go to her. I don't want to worry her and make her thing wornlgy of her family without having evidence. For all I know, they are just trying to distract us."

Laura sighed one last time.

"What do you need me to do?" She asked.

She and I, or any other person who is a member of this pack, would not do well on the quest I needed to happen. But there was one person not tied to the pack, a person who doesn't carry our scent, who isn't directly affected by the curse, and who is quick and smart enough to do what I needed to be done.

"I need to send someone to her precious pack, check our what's happening, see if there are any people from the Sea and Moons pack, or any talk about joining their pack. Just anything... I need anything to prove that Markus was right and that this wasn't a trick. Because if he is right, then we have yet another enemy we need to worry about."

The room fell in silence. I realized that she already knew what I was asking of her. I knew she wouldn't agree right away, as she had been doing everything in her power to keep him in pack land after the fire and death of two of our people.

"You want to send Vice." She stared, not asked.

"I do."

She sucked a deep breath in, loudly audible to showcase her nerves.

"I don't think it will be safe, Ollen. After the attack and the fire... I just..." She stopped.

"It's okay." I said, feeling guilty for even asking her to send her husband off when she'd even worried sick when he used to leave the pack land for his hunt.

"I'm not saying no, Ollen." She whispered. "But can you give me some time to think about it and to talk to Vice when he wakes up?"

"Of course." I replied. "And whatever your decision is, I would like our conversation to remain between the two of us. No one else, not even Sam, Mini, Heaven, and especially Joyce, will hear about this, okay?"

"Okay." She whispered. "Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

I heard her push herself to her feet, the chair giving her movement away. Her heels clocked as she walked to the door and left the office.

I felt worse once she left. It was selfish of me to ask her that. No matter how desperate I was to find the truth, I didn't want to distress any of my pack members.

But sometimes, sacrifices are made. And I found myself admitting that I had to do it, had to ask for Vice to go, so I would be able to protect Joyce.

Joyce, the woman I was meant to kill...

Joyce, the she-wolf I have been opening my mind to almost twenty four- seven...

Joyce, the woman I gave my mother's promise, rang to...

Joyce, the soul mate I thought I would never get or would never deserve...

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back as her name echoed in my head over and over again.

My goodness, I was deeply infatuated with her. The mere thought of her presence made my hesrt jolt awake. My messed-up wolf actually felt calm when she's around.

I never thought I would be able to enjoy having a woman in my arms, to sit next to another person and feel at home. I've only known her for two months and have only been close to her for one. But it felt like I've known her for a very long time.

Even if my wolf doesn't whisper the word Mate in my head when she's around, I realized that I didn't mind. All I wanted was for her to stay close, and I had to take advantage of the excuse of keeping her safe to be with her.

I was acting in ways I had never acted before. Mate or not, she felt like she was my person, and I was hers.

The thought of her leaving in a few months made my heart squeeze in the most painful way possible.

I don't think the pack would survive if she walked away, and to be honest, neither would I.