ALPHA MARCELLUS STORM

This is so lame.

How is this lame? Marcellus asked his wolf as he opened up his email, looking for the calendar invite he had been sent not even an hour ago. Just before his mate came marching into his office with a tray of food and demanding an answer to the question that he didn't quite know himself.

Why do you guys even have a group chat?

Because it's the twenty-first century and makes keeping in touch much easier than having to call up everyone separately.

His wolf snorted at that but it appeared that this time, he didn't have anything to say.

Cat got your tongue?

More like our mate had our tongue in her mouth, though she has claws as sharp as a cat.

Marcellus couldn't help but chuckle at the thought as he leaned back in his seat, his lips curling devilishly up at the reminder. His wolf couldn't be more right about their mate.

Well, you're not wrong about that. We're going to have to be careful around her otherwise she's going to do a lot more than just scratch us. He hummed quietly with a dazed look in his eyes, his lipping tipping higher the longer he thought about or more specifically, the look on her face the moment after they had separated from the kiss, her lips still pouting and her head angled up, almost as if needing a few moments to recover from making out with him.

Remind me why we're not still kissing her right now. His wolf murmured quietly, equally as dazed as his human counterpart with the memory of her juicy, plump lips against his own, moving and rubbing against his with just as much desperation and desire.

We have a zoom call with the other Alpha's in a bit. Plus, she was the one that walked away from me. Not the other way around.

You could have gone after her. His wolf suggested with a light growl, still thinking of the feeling of his mate between his arms. Or even better, you could have not let her go.

Marcellus snorted at that before quickly following the sound up with a light laugh.

It's funny you think that, that woman would listen to a word I say, let alone take heed to it.

You've got a point there. His wolf chuckled wolfishly. We're going to have our hands full with that one.

I hope so, but only if we're able to get her to stay after spilling the truth.

Right.That one's on you. His wolf informed him as he loved to remind him. I'm still waiting for you to spill the beans to her on that one. So, any day now. And yes, I intend for you to feel the pressure.

We've been through this already. Marcellus sighed as he reached up to brush a hand through his air, tugging gently on the ends in frustration. I'm just waiting for the right moment.

Thankfully, his wolf didn't get a moment to respond as they had finally run out of time.

When the notification on his laptop sounded, indicating that it was now time for the meeting, Marcellus sat up straighter in his chair and clicked on it, joining the meeting with the rest of the other Alpha's from the neighbouring packs.

"Alpha Marcellus, it's nice of you to join us." Alpha Ryan of the Silver Claw pack – one which directly neighboured his and they shared the North high school with – snorted the moment he got the audio connected through his ear pods.

Before Marcellus could hump to his own defence Alpha Ryan's Beta made sure to add in his two scents.

Marcellus wasn't quite sure why the Beta of the Silver Claw pack was part of the call as no one else had extended the invitation to their Beta however, he knew that he would aggravate the situation more by pointing out that fact. Not that Marcellus cared about keeping the peace, but he desired to be finished with this conversation as soon as possible.

The sooner he was done with the meeting, the sooner he could get away from all these grouchy Alphas who thought they were better than him simply because they had started to sprout grey hair.

"Let's cut him some slack, gentlemen." Alpha Romano didn't even bother trying to hide the roll of his eyes as he leaned back in his chair and sipped leisurely from a beer bottle. "Just because he didn't join the meeting ten minutes early like the rest of you, doesn't make him any less of an Alpha than the rest of us."

A few growls sounded from the Alpha and Beta duo, yet Alpha Romano simply winked, and Marcellus chuckled as he knew it was intended for him, as well as to further spite the others.

He chuckled openly, glad to have someone on his side for a change.

"How about we get started on the agenda for today's meeting?" Marcellus asked, making a point to tap on his wrist even though he wasn't wearing a watch. "I'm sure all of you are very busy, so I suggest we get started now."

"Thank you, Alpha Marcellus." Romano nodded at him in thanks before introducing the catalyst for this meeting, one that had been organised only late last night. "I wanted to make everyone aware of the kidnapping situation that has been going on lately. Alpha Marcellus is already aware of the first incident when one of the she-wolves in the pack had disappeared for a few hours and then was found outside the border of the pack, unconscious and without anything seemingly wrong with her."

Marcellus nodded and hummed. "Were you able to learn anything after Melissa woke up?" He asked, remembering the she-wolves name as he had thought it to be a very peculiar situation, one which didn't make any sense to him despite how hard and how much thought he put into it.

Alpha Romano shook her head. "She doesn't remember a thing. Has absolutely no idea of even waking up that morning."

"That doesn't sound right." One of the Alpha's chimed up while the others hummed in agreeance.

"How do you know she isn't lying?"

"That's the thing. We can't prove it exactly that she isn't lying, but this is completely out of her character." Romano pursed his lips, a thoughtful expression on her face as he stared into the monitor and the six Alpha wolves that were present there. With him, that made seven however, there were supposed to be eight but it appeared that Alpha Orpheus had better things to do, as usual. "If you knew Melissa, you would be able to tell that she's not someone that goes around lying or doing these sorts of things. She's a simple girl who works as a nurse at the pack hospital."

"It's always the quiet ones that we should look out for."

"Well, if that's the case then none of this really adds up."

A few of the Alpha piped up with their opinions, all of them confused and their minds a little bit complexed as they struggled to make sense of the strange situation that they had been presented with.

"I'm very thankful for the fact that Alpha Marcellus and two of his warriors were visiting in my pack at the time," Alpha Romano started, purposely leaving out the reason as to why Marcellus had even been in his pack in the first place; to see if he found either one of Alpha's Romano's daughter to be his choice mate – both of them having agreed beforehand that they would like to be considered. "He was very helpful in leading the search and with keeping the pack calm and in control during these very peculiar times."

While a few of the Alpha's murmured in agreeance, some even praising Marcellus for a job well done, the sour Alpha and Beta duo remained as they pretended as if they hadn't heard what Romano had just said.

"Anyway, that's not the reason that I requested this meeting today. Melissa had gone missing and returned last month but just yesterday morning, another two wolves had gone missing." When he paused, he was met with complete and utter silence as all the Alpha's waited for him to continue.

While one missing wolf was bad enough, it definitely counted for something that she had been later discovered and completely fine, but two missing wolves after that was far from good and with now three in total, it was highly suspicious and definitely raised some eyebrows on the zoom call.

"Tell us more about these wolves." Alpha Ryan asked, a seemingly stupefied expression on his face, almost as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Was one of them Melissa?"

"No." Alpha Romano shook his head. "But they were sisters and like Melissa, their father is a wolf but their mother is a human. And just like Melissa, they were found just outside the boundary line of the pack a few hours later, unconscious and seemingly without anything wrong with them. Once they awoke, they had no recollection of that day and both of them said that the last thing they remembered was going to bed the previous night."

An eery silence filled the zoom call as they all blinked back at Alpha Romano, his words having given them a lot to think about.

"What are you suggesting?" Alpha Gabriel of the Red Howler pack asked on behalf of everyone else.

"I'm not sure but this has to be more than just a coincidence." Romano pursed his lips and the others murmured in consensus.

"That's three she-wolves taken and then returned a couple of hours later without so much as a hair out of place. All of them unconscious and then without any memory of what had happened." Marcellus growled quietly, his wolf standing on guard at the threat. "This definitely is more than just a bloody coincidence. It appears as if your pack is specifically being targeted, Alpha Romano. Tell us, have you made any enemies lately?"

A few chuckles sounded on the meeting despite the severity of the situation, but it appeared that Romano was too concerned with the imminent threat to his pack and his wolves to notice the playful joke that had been made at the end in hopes of lightening up the mood.

"Do you think they're being kidnapped out of their bedrooms?" Romano asked, a puzzled look on his face, rubbing a tired hand down the side of his face as he struggled to wrap his mind around the absurdity of the situation that they had somehow managed to stumble upon.

"You think they're being taken in the middle of the night?"

"It's possible, but Melissa disappeared some point during her night shift at the pack hospital."

"What motive can they have with taking these she-wolves and then returning them only a couple of hours later?"

"No. There has to be more to it. I find it hard to believe that there's nothing being done to these females?"

"What do you mean?"

As the incessant questioning continued, Marcellus subtly pulled out of his ear pods and put himself on mute, more than happy to sit back and allow them all to battle it out for themselves, opting to do some thinking for himself.

More questions sounded on the call for the remainder of the meeting and it was only when the Alpha's found themselves at a standstill and with absolutely no hope of an immediate solution in sight that they decided to call it a day.

However, they had all come to the general consensus to increase border patrol both during the day and night, and if another kidnapping were to happen – in The Moon Shadow pack or any other – then a strict curfew would be put in place to keep them all safe.

However, something still didn't feel quite right to Marcellus.

As soon as the meeting ended, Marcellus mind linked Dalton who replied and joined him in his office in under a minute.

"Did you just get off the zoom call with all the other Alpha's?" Dalton asked as he slipped into the chair across the desk, stretching out his legs in front of him.

"Yes." Marcellus groaned as he raised his arm to brush his fingers through his hair, tugging gently on the ends as he groaned again.

"Doesn't sound like you enjoyed yourself."

"That's putting it lightly." He snorted and leaned back in his chair. "But there's been two more kidnappings."

Dalton's body stilled as the initial shock wore off, staring back at his Alpha and friend as Marcellus' words settled in.

"Which pack?" Was all he was able to ask.

"The Moon Shadow pack again."

"So, that's three kidnappings in the past month now." Dalton hummed aloud as he leaned forward and braced his elbows on the desk. "Surely this has to be more than just a coincidence."

"Exactly what we were discussing."

"Well, how are we moving forward from this?" Dalton asked the only question running through everybody's mind right now.

"I'm not sure." Marcellus shook his head, a frustrated sigh escaping him as he stared back at his Beta. "Nothing is really adding up."

"Why do you have that look on your face?" Dalton asked abruptly, narrowing his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"You have that constipated look on your face that you usually have when you're thinking really hard."

"I don't have a constipated look on my face." Marcellus denied, though he couldn't hold back the chuckle that escaped him, grateful that his Beta was attempting to keep things light. "But you're right about me doing some thinking about all of this."

"And what have you come up with?"

"That not everything is what it seems."

"What are you saying?" Dalton chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully. "Why do you always have to speak in riddles when things are already as confusing as they are?"

"What I'm saying is," Marcellus sighed, pursing his lips. "Maybe Alpha Romano isn't as innocent in all of this as he would like us to think he is."

-

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Layla Knight

27.10.2020