Xavier's POV
Addison had been gone for almost a whole day now and I was going crazy. I could feel my wolf clawing at the barrier in my mind wanting to get out. Wanting to find his mate and kill whoever took her. And honestly, I was on his side. I was starting to go crazy too. None of the trackers had picked up on Addison's scent since the other day at the school.
I haven't slept yet, I was running on coffee and stress. Addison's mom hasn't heard from her either, but I quickly reassured her that I would do whatever it took to bring her daughter home safe and in one piece.
"Alpha!" Brad's voice came booming through the packhouse. He had just been out with some of the other trackers. As the Gamma of the pack, he was in charge of training wolves in all ways that related to battle, teaching, and hunting. "We just found this out in the woods, right before the boundary of our land ends, and the no man's land beginnings."
Myself, Grayson, Ivy, Audrey, Cecelia, and a few of my best hunters were all sitting around the large dining room table with a map spread out in front of us. "What?" I asked. "What is it?"
Brad set down a torn and dirty piece of folded paper in front of me. I silently grabbed it and unfolded it, only to reveal a note and a slightly blurry picture.
"What does it say?" Ivy asked me scared.
"You took away what I loved most, so I thought that it would only be fair if I took away what you loved most. Come alone to the field where it all happened just before sunset," I read.
I felt like I was going to be sick when I looked at the photo attached. It was of Addison. Bloody, bruised, dirty, but most importantly, she was alive. And that was all I needed right now, to see her alive.
"What do they mean, 'the field where it all happened'?" Audrey spoke up first. "There hasn't been anything happening around here since this."
"Maybe they're referring to the rogues that almost attacked Addison at your house?" Ivy brainstormed.
"No," Grayson said shaking his head. "They said it was a field, and I wouldn't exactly call the black's front yard a field."
"What about the training field?" Cecelia said. "It's the only real field around hat I can think of."
"Hunter," I said directing my question to my number one tracker and Cecelia's mate. "Can you get me all the records of any and all rouge's that we've had to kill n the past year. They said that I killed their loved one, what if it was rouge?"
"How did I not think of that?" Grayson demanded. "I'm meant to be the brain's over here!"
"Then you should have come up with it before me," I teased trying to lighten the mood a little.
Addison wouldn't want us to fight, I know that. She would want us to make jokes and be level-headed.
"Right away, Alpha," Hunter nodded his head at me getting up from the table and going to grab the files.
We kept track of any and all rouges that came onto our land. Rarely did we kill them, I always believed that everyone deserved a second chance. Just because they were a rouge it didn't mean that they were no good, we didn't know about their past. We only killed them if they were threatening our pack and wouldn't stop, or if they had killed any of our members. Also, if another pack put out an alert to be on the lookout for that rouge because they had either killed members of another pack, threatened to kill, or done something absolutely awful.
"Hey," Cecelia whispered scooting her chair closer to mine and squeezing my shoulder n a reassuring way. "All that matter's right now is that Addison's alive. We're going to find her and bring her home."
"Aren't I supposed to be the older sibling?" I smiled softly at her. "When did you grow up?"
"Hey," Cecelia laughed. "I may be the youngest one here, but I'm pretty sure that the most immature is a two-way tie between Brad and Grayson."
"I couldn't agree more," Ivy giggled shooting my sister a quick wink.
"You have my vote!" Audrey chimed in.
"Hey!" Both Grayson and Brad shouted.
"I could only find one from the past year, Alpha," Hunter announced holding up a single brown folder and setting it down in front of me.
I wasted no time in opening the file right away and scanning through the file. "This makes no sense," I said out loud.
"Why not?" Grayson asked grabbing the file from me to look at it himself.
"It was a single female rouge in her earlier thirties, she had no family, no mate, no anything," I said running my hands through my hair in distress. "We had to kill her because she wounded a few of our trackers, and then tried to kill me and Brad."
"I remember that!" Brad said standing up from his seat. "She told us that she was going to kill us before we could kill her. She had a knife, I think. And she had already stabbed Owen, Daniel, and Simon. They had to go through months of hospital stay because she laced the knife with wolves bane."
"I clawed her throat out," I said nodding my head finally putting all the pieces together. "But she never said anything about having a mate or a family. I mean, she came on to us. She made the first move and refused to back down."
"She's the only rouge that we killed in the past year," Hunter said. "It has to be someone that knew her."
"How long ago was that again?" Audrey asked Brad curiously.
"Maybe a few months before Addison came into town," Brad shrugged. "I think in the summer. It's been less than a year, I know that for sure. Doctor Manning is the one that treated everyone and he hasn't been in the pack for that long."
"It has to be here," I stated firmly. "And that means it has to be that, big open area just outside the pack lines in no man's land. The one by that rundown shack we used to sneak out to play in as kids."
"What time is it?" I asked worriedly pushing my chair back and standing up.
"Just after five," Audrey replied. "And the sun sets at six."
"Brad, Grayson, round up all the worries and anyone else who is willing to fight for their luna's safety. We don't have a lot of time, and we still need to prepare."
"But the note said to come alone," Cecelia said.
"Do you really think I'm going to listen to the person that took my mate? Everyone will be in the first waiting for my command to come out and attack."
"Yes Alpha," Brad and Grayson replied in sync before excusing themselves from the table to go round everyone up and prepare in the little time we had left.
"We have 30 minutes before we leave."