Chapter 5

***POV:Trent***

I walk towards our pack house, both nervous and excited at the same time. I am nervous about how my father will react, but I am so ready to be done hiding. I do love her, at least I am pretty sure this is love. I don’t want to be without her, and I certainly don’t want her to be with anyone else, if that’s not love, what is it then? I approach the pack house, taking a few deep breaths, preparing myself for what will inevitably be a long confrontation. I open the door and walk in, and I am immediately overwhelmed by the multitude of people in the main living space, all gathered around the long meeting table. My alpha father is seated at the head of the table naturally, with all the seats around him occupied by his closest advisors. Beyond that, our fiercest and strongest wolves are gathered around, standing room only.

“Trent, nice of you to finally show up, we have been waiting on you all morning.” He says sardonically.

Damnit, of course he is going to make a big show out of me being late to the meeting. He looks at me pointedly and motions for me to take the only empty seat at the table on the opposite end, the heir’s seat.

“As you all know I have called you here today so we can start taking action towards finding human survivors and bringing them in. Ultimately, we know most humans can survive the transformation from human to wolf. Thankfully with our pack being assigned to Refugees and Rescue we will be the first ones out there, rescuing them, and bringing them into the fold. With that said, if said humans decided to turn at some point, we may have the upper hand of having them choose to join our ranks. The last thing we want is for another pack or worse yet, another species to absorb them. Anyone else want more vampires around here because I sure don’t. Trent, where are you with collecting signatures from the other Alphas and their heirs?” He looks over at me expectantly, but almost like he is expecting me to disappoint him.

I straighten up and clear my throat. “Well everyone, I am happy to report that I have concluded speaking with all the leaders and their heirs, collecting more than enough signatures to garner the majority needed. We only had a handful of holdouts, mostly from the more isolated packs and 2 covens.”

“Well then as Alpha of this pack, and as the Collective delegate in charge of refugees, I think there is no time to waste. At first light tomorrow, we head out and start searching in grid patterns for survivors. Of course, we want to screen them for diseases and mental state. This you will find to be most necessary with the living conditions that they have been exposed to. We will also need to be sure that they will be capable of accepting the truth about us, and all of The Hidden.”

Murmurs go around the room as the words that my father has spoken get mulled over. Our people start talking amongst themselves about what this means and about plans for the search.

My father looks over at me. “Trent, you will be leading the search party, I expect you to be ready to go. We already have a small group of our finest trackers and warriors ready to go with you. If you would like to add a body or two to your party, that is your choice.”

I stare at him in shock, this is all going so fast. “Father, you want me to be ready to go in less than 24 hours? I have some things that I need to take care of.”

“Son, I think we all know what things you are referring to, and that is something we can discuss later.” He just completely shut me down.

I can’t believe what I am hearing. He is forcing me to do this on his timeline, and I don’t believe for one second that it’s for the good of anyone or anything other than his agenda. He is not thinking about the pack or the survivors, and definitely not thinking about the colony. He just wants me out of here, and now.

He continues, looking over to his beta, Beta Ignatius. “How are the preparations coming to receive the refugees?”

Beta Ignatius perks up at his chance to be of some importance in front of the pack, he has always been an ambitious man. “My daughter Heather has of course been on top of that. She has been preparing the refugee barracks to receive them. She has all the necessary supplies stocked, especially medical supplies. We have been sending out small parties to gather extra clothes, medicine and whatever other mundane needs the humans have.”

Of course, it had to be Heather in charge of all that, who else could it possibly be I groan inwardly. I have a feeling I know where this going.

“Trent you will stay in touch with Heather via SAT phone since you will be too far for the mind-link to work. As you round up refugees, make sure you let her know so she can properly prepare. You will have enough men with you so that you will be able to send refugees back with a couple of escorts at a time. This will maximize your time out there so that we may search a wider area without having to venture back and forth. We may be able to get a warlock or witch to help us out with a portal or two, but I wouldn’t count on it. They are not exactly our biggest supporters in this venture of gathering humans and bringing them here.”

The meeting drags on for most of the day and well into the afternoon. I still haven’t had the opportunity to pull my father aside and speak to him about Amara.

Cyrus walks over to me, having come in towards the end of the meeting. “Hey man, I’ve been hearing that Alpha John has you leaving tomorrow, that true?”

I look at him dejectedly “Yeah, I am pretty sure this plan of his has more to do with putting me on the path that he thinks is right for me, and not about anything else”

“Yeah dude, that’s pretty obvious to me too. Are you putting together your own team, or did he take care of that for you too?”

“What do you think man? Of course the great Alpha John took care of that already. Got 10 of his ‘best’ guys coming with me. I mean they are good dudes, but if I am going out there with them I would have loved to have had a say in it. I can add a guy or two if I want..” I give him a look knowing well what he will do.

“Man you know of course I will go with you, who else is going to watch your sorry ass out there? You couldn’t keep me away from this vacation.” He laughs.

“We head out first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Have you told Amara yet?” Cyrus says giving me pained look.

“No, I have been stuck here all day. Sucks I can’t even mind-link her until I mark her. Don’t even know how I will face her with this. I haven’t even had a chance to talk to my dad about her yet either. I have to, I promised her I would. She’s not going to believe that I want this to work if I come back to her saying I didn’t speak to him yet.”

Just as I finish my sentence, my father walks over to us.

“Is it safe to assume that your shadow over here will be joining your party?” He nods towards Cyrus.

Cyrus perks up, after all this is the alpha speaking “Yes sir, of course I am going with him, someone has to watch his back and besides I can’t let him have all the fun.”

“Glad to hear it. Well gentlemen, you are needed in the supply depot. The rest of the team are already there waiting for you to go over the equipment and supplies.”

“Father, I really do need to speak with you”

“It can wait. Go make the preparations, they are waiting for you now.”

I look at Cyrus who is giving me a ‘don’t push your luck’ look.

I nod at my father and head out with Cyrus towards the supply depot.

The guys are sitting on supply crates, stuffing supplies into their packs. I look over everything, mostly weapons and tech, not taking much food since we can live off the land by hunting in our wolf form. I double check the satellite phone and extra batteries, tracking devices, tranquilizer guns, everything is in order.

By the time that we are done preparing, it’s almost 10 o’clock at night.

I mind-link my father “Dad, where are you, I would like to come speak with you.”

“I am at home. You are welcome to come now but I warn you, I don’t have a lot of time to waste on this foolishness.”

I hold back my thoughts. “Alright, see you in 5.”

I look at Cyrus. “Wish me luck brother, heading to the mighty Alpha John for the talk. I must get all of this settled before leaving in a few hours. This is all happening so fast.”

Cyrus thinks it over, “Almost as if it were by design.”

I nod and take off heading to my father’s house. I go in and immediately find him in his study, he is always in there working. I sit down across from him and wait.

He looks up at me and starts off in a slow tone. “I know why you are here. In fact, at this point I am sure the whole pack knows.”

“Well then dad, since you know everything, tell me.”

“Son, I don’t mind you playing the field, sowing your wild oats or whatever else you want to call it. When it comes to settling down, that is a different story. I will not have any heir of mine choose to settle down with the enemy as his Luna. I won’t stand for it.”

“Dad, what enemy? We are not enemies anymore; those old ways are gone. This new reality we live in doesn’t have room for all that. Besides, Amara isn’t a Luna dad, you know she is an Alpha too.”

“Son, I know many here would like to believe that we are living in peace and harmony, especially you younger ones, but that is just not the way it is. You should know better. These old grudges will never go away, there is too much history there to anchor them. You MUST settle down with a true ally, but preferably your Luna would come from your own pack. Whatever happened with Heather? She was perfectly suitable”

“I don’t want suitable, I want love, and I love Amara.”

“No son, I don’t even want to hear her name. You know what we have gone through with that pack, or have you forgotten? I will not have you trivialize it.”

“It just doesn’t matter anymore. This is ridiculous. You are talking as if there was going to be some sort of coup.”

His head snaps up at this. He studies my face.

“Wait, dad, is that what’s happening? Is that what you are planning? Why are we going out to make sure to be the first contact with surviving humans?”

“Trent calm down, I am not saying that. It might be a thought. Goddess knows that we have done relatively well and have been able to survive and thrive for the last 5 years. That doesn’t mean that this will last forever. If and when the time comes to fight, I don’t want to be outnumbered.”

Unbelievable, the man always had a hidden agenda. I should have known.

“But if Amara and I were to get married and become Alphas together, that would unite her pack and ours.”

“That would never happen, her father would not allow it. He would know better than to try to assimilate our wolves with theirs, it’s just not possible.”

“Dad, frankly, I am not asking for your permission. I was trying to do the right thing and be up front with you. I have been with Amara for a long time now, and I am done with hiding it.”

“You certainly weren’t hiding it as well as you thought. I have known for some time. I knew this talk was coming after your little display at the club last night. You caused quite a stir throughout the pack.”

He pauses. He gets up from his desk and walks around to the front of it and sits on the edge of his desk right in front of me.

“Son, I need you to hear me loud and clear as both your father and your Alpha. I am telling you here and now, you will not marry that girl.”

“Dad-“

“YOU.WILL.NOT.MARRY.THAT.GIRL.”

“Dad, yes I will if that’s what I choose.”

“You do that and you say goodbye to everything and everyone you have ever known. I will disown you and cast you out, it’s as simple as that”

“You can’t be serious”

“I am more serious than I have ever been. You are forcing my hand. This is the last thing I want to do. We have been training you your entire life so that you can grow into the greatest Alpha we have ever had. I will not let you throw away your life and our pack. There are plenty of suitable choices that you can build a happy enough life with. That is all I have to say on this matter.”

I am stunned. What am I going to do? What do I tell Amara? I must talk to her.

“I don’t know what to say, but I have wasted enough time today dad. I have to go. Maybe when I come back from this mission, we can have a more rational conversation about this.”

“I am done talking about this son, I will not waiver. I wish you the best of luck on the mission, stay in touch and stay safe. I trust that the time away will be good for you and that you will come to see reason.”

I shake my head. “Alright then, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks dad, but I will not be changing my mind.”

I get up and walk out of his study, his house, and possibly his life.

Amara’s house is a few platforms away on the border between our packs. I make my way over there and knock on her door, only to find she isn’t home. Where could she be right now? I don’t have time for this, I don’t have time to go look for her. I have too much to do before I leave in a few hours, and still need to get some sort of sleep.

I head to the docks; towards the two boats we are taking. With the checklists in hand, I make short work of checking everything over, making sure we are ready to go. Once I have that done, I decide to take a quick nap below deck, and will go to Amara at dawn before we leave.