Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

29. Guilt and anxiety

RAFE

After Nat left, I gave Aiden a call to meet up, but he was busy, so I decided to go and train with Tom instead. My wolf had been so on the edge lately that the only way I felt I could calm him down was to burn off some energy with fighting. Luckily, as Tom and I were the best fighters in the pack, we had no issue with training for hours.

I didn't even know how much had passed when I heard my phone ring next to the training area. I wouldn't usually interrupt my training sessions for any reason but I feel the need to pick up this call. When I looked at the screen I saw Lucien's name appear, which was strange.

"Lucien. Have I forgotten about a Council meeting or something?"

"Rafe, it's really not a good time to joke. How quickly can you make it to the Blackwood estate?"

"I'm kind of busy right now, mate. Can I come by later? I'm sure that whatever it is can wait for a while." I didn't mean to be rude but I really hated it when people interrupted my training sessions.

"It can't, Rafe." Lucien's voice became more serious, somewhat commanding even. Whatever was going on was bringing his Alpha wolf to the surface. His voice softened though as he continued. "It's about Natalia... she's missing."

I felt like dropping the phone when I heard him say that- it was like he conjured my worst nightmare. "What the fuck do you mean that she is missing, Moreau? She went out for a walk with your sister just a couple of hours ago."

"Callum and his bears found Riley in the forest close to their grounds thirty minutes ago. She is unconscious and the doctors think that she has been knocked out with tranquillizers, so we don't have any information about what happened. But Callum confirmed that Natalia was nowhere to be found."

This couldn't be happening. How could I have let my sister down again? My wolf was raging.

"There is more." The moment I heard Lucien say that I knew it couldn't be good news. "The reason why Callum and his men were scouting the area was because they had reports of suspicious activities by a group of humans. We think it might be the same guys that set up the trap."

Fuck! This was bad, really fucking bad.

"I need to inform my father, and then Aiden and I will be on our way. And I want to know the moment your sister is awake, Lucien;" I commanded him and hung up the phone.

I rushed to the packhouse and found my father in his study. He was reading through some paper before he looked at me, annoyance written across his face.

"Son, why are you bothering me?"

"Nice to see you too, father. Didn't know that I should make an appointment when I need to talk to you."

My tone was cold and nothing like how father and son should talk to each other but since my mother's death something had broken between us. I am not sure whether it was because he blamed me or he blamed himself for her death but things were not the same anymore. He was never exactly the warm, cuddly father figure a kid might hope for but we were certainly closer than this.

"Stop irritating me, boy. Don't you know that the Alpha is the busiest person in the pack? Maybe if you stopped thinking only like a warrior and embraced the fact that you would need to take over one day, you might actually start appreciating more what I do."

"Natalia is missing," I said coldly again, although on the inside I was barely keeping calm.

"What? What do you mean that your sister is missing?" He looked alarmed but not shocked or surprised, as if he expected that this would happen. What the fuck was my father hiding?

"She was out with Lucien's sister and it looks like they were attacked by possibly the same humans who have been setting up the traps. Lucien's sister is unconscious at the Blackwood packhouse and Natalia is nowhere to be found."

Suddenly he looked all pale. "Lucien's sister? Margot Moreau's presumed dead daughter?"

Was he seriously more concerned about the Moreaus than his own daughter right now?

"Are you listening to me, father? Natalia is missing." I was practically shouting angrily at him now, which seems to have brought him back to his senses as he composed himself again and returned to his unreadable look.

"I heard you loud and clear, Rafe. As the future Alpha and Natalia's brother, I task you with investigating the matter. Do your best to find your sister and let me know as soon as you have any news." And with that, he returned to his reading.

"That's it? That's all you have to say and all that you want to do?" I struggled to comprehend what kind of father could be so uncaring about the disappearance of his own daughter. If my child was missing, I would turn the world upside down until I found him or her.

"Well, it goes without saying that you can make use of any of the pack resources that you need- money, warriors, connections... It's all at your disposal."

I couldn't take this bullshit any longer, so I turned around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door on my way out. I jumped in my car as quickly as I could and started driving to the Blackwood estate, calling Aiden on the way- I knew that I could at least count on him to do whatever was necessary to get Natalia back.

It wasn't long before we were both in the Blackwood pack's infirmary, Lucien and Callum already standing by Riley's side. My wolf growled inside my head at the sight of the bear Alpha, probably because he had failed to find Natalia.

I looked at the woman lying on the bed in front of me- she seemed so peaceful, the complete opposite of the fiery girl that I had met the week before. Her silver-grey hair was gone and was replaced by luscious brown locks, which made me wonder whether I had imagined it all. She looked like an angel and I found myself soothed by the fact that she was fine, despite being unconscious.

But then the anger came back to me. What the hell was wrong with me again? Why was I also now seemingly more concerned about her than my missing sister? It felt like this woman was a sorceress of sorts- everyone around her seemed to care enormously about her, even those who were not her friends or family, like Callum and Aiden. I felt the relief in Aiden's voice earlier when I told him that Riley was apparently okay - it didn't feel intentional but it was definitely there.

Then I remembered that my sister was missing because of her. She was meant to protect Natalia. Lke she was meant to be her wing woman at the party before she ran off with that bear fuck each other. I shouldn't have let Nat go with her - Riley Moreau had not proven herself to be reliable so far.

The commotion in the room interrupted my thoughts. Riley was finally awake, although she seemed confused where she was. As she spoke with Lucien and Callum, I felt more anger bubble inside of me, waiting to erupt like a volcano.

The tipping point was reached the moment that I heard Riley Moreau say that she was human. It's not that I cared what she was, although it was shocking that a member of the Moreau family was no longer a wolf- I was fuming that I had let my sister be protected by a human. No matter how well shifters lived and worked alongside humans, despite them not knowing about our existence, humans were defenceless in the supernatural world that shifters were a part of.

I wasn't sure if it was my wolf or the human in me that was angry- my head was all messed up right now and had been for the past week, so what was about to be unleashed was not going to be pretty.  I couldn't stop what was about to come out of me. Then again, I was not sure that I wanted to stop it.

A loud, angry growl escaped from me. "What the fuck happened, Moreau? What did you do to my sister?"