"They found him" Alice stood up and whipped her head in the direction of Cole's voice.

Alpha Altera had basically taken control of the pack, at least until Alpha Cadman was found and it became clear what his involvement was in Luna Emery's disappearance, if he had anything to do with it at all. 

Werewolf law wasn't quite like human law where one was presumed innocent until proven guilty, but thankfully they would soon have quite a few Council members strolling around the Pack's territory, so any decisions that needed to be made could be made relatively quickly. Kent had sent Alice to stay with Kate, sparing a single guard to watch over them, since nearly every guard and scout in the area was out scouring the surrounding landscape for any sign of where Emery could be.

But Alice's biggest concern, at the moment, wasn't just Luna Emery. By the time she'd gotten to Kate's, news had spread that Fin was missing. No one had seen him since breakfast that morning.

Normally that wouldn't have been a huge deal, even with the upcoming hearing. He was a guest of the pack. He was free to come and go as he pleased. After all, he wasn't even the one whose future was being decided at the hearing. Not exactly anyways. But with Luna Emery missing it, his absence was seen as extremely suspicious.

So when someone pounded on the door, before throwing it open, adrenaline pumped through Alice's veins for what had to be at least the tenth time since she had woken up that morning.

"Is he okay?" was what she said out loud. In her mind a half dozen thoughts had spiraled off that first question already, and they were mostly half hearted reassurances. He had to be okay. If he wasn't, she would know, wouldn't she? They were mates. And she hadn't felt anything at all. He had to be okay.

"He's alive. I'm not sure I can say that he's okay because he's currently being held in the pack holding cells."

"What in the ever loving actual fu-"

"Alice." Kate came up and wrapped her arms around her best friend, giving her a huge to try to help her calm down. "Let's go see if we can get in to see him right now. "Cole can you walk us over there? I bet having our Beta with us will make them more likely to let us in."

Cole ran a hand roughly through his golden hair, which was still streaked with blood since he most definitely had not had time to go home and wash it, being thrown straight into the search after finding Kade's apartment covered in blood. He hadn't minded though. He didn't want to have time to think and being put to work ensured that he didn't have time for anything at all. At least enough time had passed that most of his bruises had faded more since the morning. 

"I'll do my best." He gazed at Alice for a long moment before quickly looking away. "But it will depend heavily on the orders the guards have already been given by the other Alphas that are here."

"Other Alphas?" Kate spoke up, not missing a beat. "Did they find my father? Is he back?"

Cole shook his head and Kate closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if stealing herself against a reality that appeared to be becoming more and more inevitable by the moment.

"No. But Alpha Vos took a jet to the airstrip and then a helicopter in. I don't know if you heard it landing? And Alpha Parker is supposed to be getting in any minute. There's a rumor that the Wests might even be coming."

"Holy fucking Hell." Both Cole and Alice froze and stared at Kate as if they'd never seen her before in their entire lives. She rarely swore so when she did it was always rather shocking.

"What?" She shrugged after a moment. "You just said that the King and Queen might come here. To Amber Moon. Do you know how insane that is? If it does happen, I'll have to name this baby Andraste if it's a girl and Luca if it's a boy."

"That's ridiculous, Kate. Please tell her that's ridiculous, Cole?"

"I'm not getting in the middle of this. We should probably get down to the cells before anything else happens."

"Besides," now Cole's words came through the mind link just between the two of them. "Look how much happier she is now. She hasn't been this happy in days, and she of all of us should be happy. She's pregnant. It would be nice, at least for her, if they did come here. Even though the reason for it is terrible"

The three of them were walking in silence towards the holding cells. The cells were past the Pack House, and the house that Kate and her husband lived in was not too far from Alpha Cadman's house, where Alice had lived. It was at least a ten minute walk to get where they needed to go.

"Do you think she's still alive?" Alice continued their silent conversation, not daring to say the words out loud.

He shot her a quick look before turning his green eyes forward again, his full lips turned down in a frown. After a long silence she felt the mind link between them open, although he hadn't yet sent back a response. "He has been different for a while, hasn't he? He finally said.

Alice bit her bottom lip.

"I'm not sure. Sometimes I think definitely. But sometimes I think he was always like this. There was always an edge of cruelty beneath his funny, joking demeanor. It was that edge, that dangerousness that was part of what made him so attractive. But now." Alice let out a long breath through her nose. "It feels almost like it's out of control. Shattered. And who knows who it might hurt next."

"But you know him better than me. I was in his bed for a year. You've been his Beta for what? Five years? Since you turned eighteen?"

Cole nodded in answer to her question. "Because-" he let the word hang there, waiting for her to fill in what came next. He knew she would.

"Because what Cole? You became Beta because you were the obvious choice. Hell, if he doesn't have a son soon, you would be the obvious choice as the next Alpha here. You could easily be an Alpha." Cole rolled his eyes at her words and kept walking before finally saying what he was thinking out loud.

"Hey Kate, how did I become your father's Beta?"

"Because Nate died in an accident when he and my dad were out hunting."

"Do you remember what kind of an accident it was?" Cole kept his gaze on Alice as he asked the question, but she had been so wrapped up in her own preteen angst at the time that she had no memory of any of this happening.

"No. Dad didn't tell anyone outside the Pack Council what had happened. He said it was a private matter and Beta Nate was buried in a private funeral with a closed casket."

"Thank you, Kate." He raised his eyebrows at Alice. "And can you jog my memory about what happened to Beta Hebe? He was before Nate, right?"

"No, no." Kate immediately corrected him. "Right before Nate was Beta Blake. But he fell ill after only six months as Beta and passed away suddenly in the middle of the night. Before him was Beta Hebe. He was my father's Beta after Alice's father."

"That's right. Thank you Kate. You have the best memory."

"I wouldn't say that being the Luna here is the most dangerous job, but it might be a close second to Beta." He had switched back over their mind link. "Well it might be if you didn't produce a male heir. Although this time around I have a feeling that he'd be just as happy with a bastard as he would with a mate-born babe." Alice wrinkled her nose at Cole's crude phrasing.

A moment later though, his words began to sink in. If the day had been any less chaotic she was certain she would have caught the implication much, much sooner.

"Wait. Cole. Are you saying that he's killed his Betas, Cole?" They were nearly to the jail and at the realization Alice suddenly felt ice cold.

"I didn't say that. I implied that his Beta's have a tendency to die unexplained deaths. Or deaths that are sketchy as Hell, really."

"Why did you take the job then?" Alice was watching him out of the corner of her eye as they came up to the far wall of the jail. They still had a ways to go to get to the main door, but she had so many questions for Cole and she was afraid if they ended their discussion, even for a moment he might not start answering her questions again later.

"I was young and stupid. At eighteen I thought I was invincible. I hadn't yet seen the walls painted with my best friend's blood, I guess. I also hadn't seen what I saw last night when he was willing to do anything to keep you here."

"And what was that?" She hadn't heard anyone else admit it outloud, but now, Alice thought, she might.

"You know what I'm going to say. You saw it too and so did everyone else who wasn't willfully blind. He half shifted and held himself there. He's playing with fire. Everyone knows the consequences of holding a half shift like he did. He held it for so long I'd guess it isn't the first time he's done it. And that raises questions. So many questions." 

"When has he done it before and why? And the other times he did it, who died? Werewolves don't hold themselves in half shift like that without people dying, usually in droves. It's the stuff of nightmares, legends, and the bad kinds of fairy tales. The kind where entire villages are slaughtered in a single night."

A/N- I hope you are enjoying this story! If you are I'd love it if you'd comment and click that little star button to vote for it.

This is Chapter Twenty and I will continue posting weekly updates here until the entire novel is finished. You can now read the entire novel, all sixty chapters, on Patreon! And for those of you who want more stories, long and short, right this second and who want to read Patreon exclusive short stories, you may also want to check out the link below:

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