Running With Wolves [On Hold]

Chapter 2, Orson

"Alpha, it's taken care of."

Looking up from my desk I nod my head to my pack member and dismiss him with a wave of my hand.

'Adan, come to my office.' I mindlink my Beta.

I throw the message from the border scouts into the fire and watch the words melt from the heat, that way no one can intercept messages about security within the pack.

A knock at the door makes me snap my head towards the door, Adan enters instead of me raising my voice to come in.

"I heard it's done, are you sure it was the right play?" He asks, closing the door and leaning against the wall.

Fucking Carmine's, because of them I lost ten good fighters today, but I surely paid them back for that, as soon as they get my little 'gift', which should be arriving by the night to their pack lands, the head of an Alpha that was loyal to the family, one I had great pleasure in snapping off.

"That bastard will soon learn to never enter my land again."

Adan nods knowingly with amusement in his eyes. 

"Oh, that reminds me." 

"What now?" I ask annoyed.

A hint of playfulness swirls in his eyes and whatever he is going to say next, he takes great joy in whatever it is.

"June Carmine was slain last week, I just got wind of it." He laughs out.

"Looks like it was a hit, although it looked like she died from natural causes if it wasn't for the claws at least."

I shrug my shoulders. "So?" I pause. "That shit doesn't concern me or the pack, if that's all, get out."

Leaning back in my chair I close my eyes and think about taking a run, not remembering the last time I let my wolf run through the pack lands since this whole mess with the Carmine family started.

I open my eyes and Adan is still standing there, pissing me off with a look in his eye.

"Are you fucking deaf?" 

His lips twitch. "I wasn't done." 

"Just come out with it, I have shit to do!" I snap out, losing my temper from him dragging this out, as usual, he does it on purpose.

He moves from the wall and I watch him take a picture from his jacket, he steps towards my desk and places the picture onto my desk in front of me.

I pick up the picture, it's a young woman, no older than 25 with flaming red hair and strange yet unique blue eyes in a black dress standing outside what looks like a human church, she's beautiful with soft delicate features, she's standing next to a man, a human priest? Just from her standing beside this man I can see how small she is compared to him.

Grey eyes, red hair... "Who is she?" I ask Adan who has a smirk on his lips.

"They had a fucking daughter Orson, she could be the key to making the Carmines surrender, if we get her then all of this is over, I already have men on the property awaiting your orders to take her." He says, excitement in his voice.

Joseph and June had a daughter? How did I or anyone not know about this?

Which makes me wonder, why did the Carmine family not mention anything about her? Did they also just find out? No, impossible...

Looking at the photo again, I see a lot of resemblances, she has the family's eyes and that fucking red hair that disgusts me, yet- there is something about her that I can't place, a knowing of sorts, but I don't remember ever meeting this young woman.

Taking her could put me two steps ahead, so then why does it make me feel uneasy taking her?

"Are you sure she's a Carmine?" 

He scoffs. "When has my information ever been wrong? Her name is Eleanor Marie Carmine, I had my men look into her, the humans in her village know of her well due to June's mateless rants, she came back for her mother's funeral, she is inside the house and hasn't left since the funeral."

Eleanor Marie Carmine.

A sense of nausea and uneasiness washes over me at the thought of hurting her or one of my pack wolves harming her.

Adan watches my face quizzingly so I keep my thoughts hidden from the surface, I stand up and head towards the door. 

"Alpha?" Adan looks at me confused.

Opening the door I turn back to stare down at Adan. "No one touches her, got it?" I say slowly, watching his face turn serious as he nods.

"How many are watching her?" I ask as Adan walks beside me as we walk through the packhouse.

"Two, Silas and Mark." 

I grunt in response and push open the front doors, the sound of laughter and chattering dies down when my pack gets a smell of my Alpha presence. "Tell them to stand down, for now, the two of us will sort this out." I tell Adan who looks at me skeptically.

"Alpha are you sure, she's-"

I snarl and stop in my tracks, I reach out and grab Adan by the shirt, and glare into his eyes. "Did I fucking stutter?" 

I shove him back and scoff out when she shakes his head and lowers his head. "Sorry Alpha."

Ignoring him I begin to run, then shift into my wolf, after shifting I break off into a sprint into the woods and head straight for the gate two miles out of my pack land.

Time to make the first move.