Blood Rose

29

I rubbed my cool yet clammy hands repeatedly as I paced Fox's office, my heartbeat in my throat. I felt nauseous and anxious and fearful all at the same time, the emotions not mixing together well.

Striker was supposed to be here over an hour ago, and during this whole time I had been I had been pacing and thinking the worst of every possibility. I couldn't be alone. Not now.

Just as my hand had itched to reach for my phone once again a familiar boy with black hair hurried in the room and closed the door, even though nobody else was going to overhear our meeting.

"You're late." I stated, but Striker just shrugged as he laid out different papers on Fox's desk.

"Cleo had another episode. I had to take her back to the hospital." The elephant in the room was heavy on my chest and made it hard to breathe at the mention of Cleo's condition. Fox wasn't much better.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat for the better of this meeting that needed to occur. "Any of these have reports on unusual behaviors of pack members or unidentified people waking around and suspicious?" Striker grabbed one of the papers and handed to me, explaining as my eyes scanned the information.

"There's only been a few, but they ended up with wolf DNA."

"Maybe we should have everyone on the lookout." I suggested without thinking.

"It'd be a mistake to spread word to anyone other than a guard to look out for these faeries. It would cause mass panic and distrust with everybody around any other pack member. We'd have too many reports and by then the fae would know to hide and disguise better."

I sighed and put the paper down, running my hands over my face. Striker seemed to notice my stress and crossed his arms. "You should sit down. You look tired, Luna."

"Well that's because I haven't had any sleep." I hissed with an attitude I immediately regretted. Striker didn't deserve to be snapped at. He was going through just as much pain as me. "I'm sorry." I shook my head and sighed.

"Luna, please, sit down." I looked back at the chair I hadn't touched. His lasting smell warmed my heart and only eased it so until the worry for my mate took over my emotions and I felt disgusted by what I had done.

"I can't." Striker opened his mouth to protest, but I continued. "It's wrong. That's an Alpha's chair. I am no Alpha to this pack. Only a Luna who is taking the reign until the true Alpha is healed and healthy again. However, until then this work can not be put off and it is my job to de-stress his work for his return."

Striker's eyes dropped and we both stood in silence as we thought over what the hell we were supposed to do. Neither of us had signed up for these jobs. Others would be happy to have the higher title and govern a pack, but it was only because of how easy every ruler had made it seem. If they saw the inside suffering of every choice and the fear for your loved ones they'd scramble.

Maybe that's why I had been fighting so hard for helping Striker and Fox in this job. They made it seem easy, honorable. And I felt bored.

"We need to find their way in." Striker declared, making me look up again. "Obviously it wasn't through the sky because they wouldn't have been able to survive the force fields."

"Then how could they be fitting through the borders and walking through our town among our pack?" I thought aloud, tapping the desk with my hand as my eyes wandered the office I never seemed to care for before.

"They would've needed something set up before the force field was even that developed." MY eyes scanned the papers without reading, and before I even had to think too hard an idea sparked in my head.