Protecting Mia

Breaking Point

Cole's POV

I wake up feeling hungover. Not barf-in-the-toilet hungover; more like don't-even-think-about-talking-to-me hungover. I guess that's what you get for spending the night at the bar. My idea of a perfect day consists of staying in bed and not doing anything, but Dad has other plans. He has meetings planned the whole day and since he thinks I have to act as if I am his oh so holy son I need to be by his side at each and every one of those meetings. I know I was supposed to not go drinking yesterday, in fact the last thing I remember my father saying before I walked out of the house was, "Cole, I swear to God, if you think you can't get away with drinking without me knowing you are immensely mistaken. You better be fit for tomorrow or I will send you to your grandparents." I might as well start packing my bags now I guess.

"Cole, please tell me you are ready." My sister Kelley sticks her head into my room. When she sees I am sitting on the edge of my bed she looks at me as if I grew a second head. "Are you crazy? The meeting starts in two minutes; Dad is literally gonna rip your head off. Like seriously, you'll be decapitated and I'll had a headless brother."

"Just calm down will you? I can get ready in two minutes, just bring me a cup of coffee to the conference room and I'll just put on some pants and then meet you there." I say as I stumble across the room to a pair of jeans laying on the floor. I take a whiff of them before pulling them up my legs. I put on some deodorant to mask the horrible smell coming from my body as I have not showered in two days and then I head over to the pack conference room.

I meet Kelley in front of the door and she hands me my cup of coffee.

"Thank you sister dear. I love you."

"Yeah, whatever. I just don't want to see you die." Kelley calls over her shoulder as she walks down the stairs.

I take a deep breath, preparing myself for my father's wrath, and step into the room.

The big room is filled with at least fifteen men all sat around a large table in the middle of the room. On the table is a model of our pack's land. The map pretty much stretches across the whole table with our tiny town in the middle and the forest, which is what is more important to us, encircling it. But the map is not what everyone is looking at; instead all eyes are on me. Great, so much for being inconspicuous.

"How nice of you for joining us son." My dad glares at me. Through our mind-link he adds, "We will talk about this later. Sit down and try to at least act professional."

I look around the room to see I am by far the youngest here. All these men are board committees and most of them are in their sixties. My Dad, the Alpha, is in his early forties and so is his Beta, Beck. Except for the Alpha and Beta the men in this room are only in charge of everything strategical, they do not actually fight whenever there is a conflict with another pact or rogues. You must earn your position at this table, unless of course you have the marvelous luck of being born into the Alpha position like me. Jason is lucky enough of not having to be here until he actually is titled Beta and that is not for many of years so until then I get to endure these meetings by myself. Yay.

"Today I want to discuss mine and Cole's meeting in British Columbia with you all. I regretfully have to say that we have not been able to reason with the Okanagan Pack. They still believe that it was in fact our fault that the rogues attacked while they were here and they want revenge."

"What do they want to do?" Derek, a man two seats away from me asks.

A picture of Mia flashes before my eyes before I push her out of my mind again and concentrate on what is happening around me.