Broken Blades

TWELVE

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S U M M E R

"Thankyou for this, alpha. It's been so long since we got together like this." Mary, a young wolf about the age of nineteen with light brown skin and hazel eyes says, grinning at me very widely. I feel quite awkward and nod my head, staring at her.

"I'm glad you like it, Mary." I say, staring at the large groups of people interacting and having fun. I could see a bonfire from here where a groups of teenagers are hanging out, laughing and making silent conversation with each other. I tune out their voices not wanting to interrupt or make them uncomfortable.

"Would you like a drink?" Mary asks and I shake my head. She nods and walks away, picking a tumbler with some orange juice in it.

I see Micah in the distance laughing quite loudly with his mother and i don't hold the smile that falls to my lips. Micah is always quite afraid of me ever since I took Daniel and James out of the council of elders. He has the irrational fear that I would take the beta position from him, something I would never even consider doing.

As if feeling my stare, he turns towards me his laugh dying out. He walk to me until he is right next to me.

"This is beautiful, alpha. Thank you." He says.

"Thank you too, Micah. You planned everything and it turned out amazing." I grin and he nods going silent.

"You know I won't take the beta position from you, right?" I say and turn to stare at him and he goes still, eyes going round in shock and shame.

I take my time to run my eyes through his feature. His skin is quite pale and his cheeks are flushed from laughing too much. Micah is tall, like all the male wolves are, standing at 6'2 and muscles straining his white t-shirt.   He grins at me, heaving a sigh.

"I...I was scared I wasn't doing enough because Alpha Logan rarely shared anything with me. When I told you I didn't know anything, I thought you'd appoint someone for sure. I just... didn't want to disappoint you." He explains and I understand his thoughts.

"That's Logan's fault Micah, not yours. There's been some changes here with Logan gone and it takes time to learn and catch up. I am learning too." I say, feeling my throat close up slightly from speaking this to him. Micah is an efficient beta and I know he can perform his work well.

He sighs in relief and turns to look at me.

"Thankyou, alpha." He says bowing slightly and I smile.

"Just call me Summer like you used to." I state and he nods saying nothing. He is not going to.

"Has their been any news from any other packs on missing wolves?" I ask, recalling out current predicament.

"Yes, a few packs on Aventia are reporting the same. From what I've gathered, whoever the kidnapper is, they are targeting eighteen to twenty five year olds. It's only been that age bracket that have gone missing." Micah says and I nod, realizing that I had completely missed that fact. Annalise's pack lost a nineteen year old and a twenty two year old. Definitely something is wrong.

"Is there anything else?"

"Well, there's an alpha requesting to come here. He's looking into missing wolves himself. It looks like he has lost a few." Micah explains looking at me for a reaction.

This was the first time in a year that an alpha, let alone a male, is interested in my pack. The packs I'm in alliance with rarely came here.

"Why Dark Storm specifically?" I'm intrigued.