Chapter 10 - Whiney Alphas Aren't Fun

"If you get hungry - oh, well, Aubrey at least - there's food downstairs. I'll be downstairs in the meeting room. Don't be afraid to get me if something is wrong," I rambled as I went around our small room grabbing my shoes to put them on again.

Oh my Goddess, Aaron, shut up. You sound so stupid. But, my brain and mouth were not in agreement. "I'll be back in a few hours, hopefully. These kinds of meetings can take a while. I'll try to be quiet if you're sleeping or something."

I stood up to face my two mates on the bed. Aubrey had a hand over his mouth to cover his smile, while Evander's lips quirked up into a small, amused smile. My ears reddened when I realized how stupid I sounded. "I'll go now. Uh, have fun, I guess," I mumbled awkwardly, turning to open the door.

Arms wrapped around my waist and the smell of flowers and sugary sweetness enveloped me. "Good luck in your meeting," Aubrey mumbled against my back.

"Thank you," I said, too flustered to turn around and face him.

He let go as I opened the door, but I ended up closing it a bit too loudly. With a muttered curse, I quickly made my way to the stairs. A door opening and closing made me turn my head to watch as Wren walked over from his room down the hall. He smiled at me, offering a wave. "Hey. Ready for this meeting?"

"Not really," I admitted with a slight grumble. "Is Joshua coming?"

"He's already there," Wren said. "I was just grabbing some notes I had."

We walked down in comfortable silence, taking a turn once we were on the first floor. It took us down a very short hall with a set of double doors. They were both open and allowed me to see that a lot of people were starting to sit down for the meeting. I sighed, dreading the next few hours.

.

.

.

"For the last time, I cannot confirm any of what I've said about what's going on in Europe. This is just what my Evander's sire said they talked about at an elders' meeting," I said, my voice tight.

As soon as the meeting started, I reported on what Evander had told me his sire told him. And as I expected, everyone was confused and alarmed, but they kept trying to grill me as if I knew anything else. I kept trying to tell them this was just what Evander told me Elvira said.

"We should tell our elders. Or contact packs in Europe," Alpha James suggested.

"But what if this is just hearsay? How are we supposed to know any of this is true?" A beta from one of the packs piped up.

"That doesn't matter. It's best to take these rumors as fact and act accordingly before we are caught off-guard," Alpha Kristen, the alpha from Wren and Joshua's pack, said with a shake of her head.

"I doubt any of this is true," an alpha, Alpha Lorence, suddenly huffed.

I couldn't help but shoot a glare in his direction. He was always the one to question and whine about anything and everything. He was almost always the cause of a fight or a pointless argument, too. "Alpha Lorence, what exactly seems so impossible? Are we not dealing with similar situations from our European counterparts?" I challenged.

He looked at me with a barely-concealed sneer. "Little beta, I know that you are young, so you are not experienced in this kind of stuff. Rumors like these happen all the time. Hell, last week, we received a rumor that a mer kingdom was burned to the ground! It's in the middle of the ocean, how could that be possible? These rumors of dragons leaving their realm are as crazy as a kingdom at the bottom of a sea burning," he scoffed.

"Why is that so crazy? Dragons still visit our realm from time to time. The fact that they're doing it so frequently is a cause for suspicion," Erin pointed out in my defense.

"You're all fools wanting to chase after every rumor that comes by. And the fact that we haven't destroyed these psychos yet is proof of that," he added, crossing his arms as if he won something.

"We can't attack," Alpha Kristen pointed out. "Need I remind you, Lorence, that we don't know where their main base of operations is, we don't know their numbers, we don't even know what kinds of beings we're dealing with! Do you want us to go to war with powerful demigods or an entire race of creatures? We don't know what or who we are dealing with aside from the fact that they are perceived as a cult at the moment. For all we know, that is a coverup for something far more sinister."

I could tell by the clipping of her voice that she was frustrated with the other alpha. Who wouldn't be after meeting upon meeting of him challenging everything said? He got on all of our nerves.

I zoned out a bit when the two adults started to argue about what we did and didn't know. It was an extremely ridiculous argument seeing as we had notes on all of that stuff.

"Lorence, how many times do we have to say this?! The kitsune has already told us everything he knows," I heard Alpha Kristen snap, so I zoned back in.

"How do you know that? He's obviously hiding something! He's extremely silent and refuses to speak to any of us," Alpha Lorence countered, his face red from anger.

"He only talks to a few people because he's shy. He doesn't want to get yelled at," Wren piped up, his voice hard.

"He wouldn't need to get yelled at if he told us everything he knows," the man growled.

With a roll of my eyes, I tilted my head back, trying to keep my composure. "Look, Kit was able to lead us to a location where we were led to even more information. Don't blame one guy for being shy. He's given plenty of information and even if he was hiding something, it wouldn't matter. He has a right to keep things to himself if they're personal," I spoke up.

"You're all just defending him because-"

"Because of what, Alpha Lorence?" Alpha James commented, raising an eyebrow.

The other man went silent. Of course, he wouldn't finish his harsh words; they were empty.

"Now, if we could get back on track, please," Alpha James added.

"Right. Well, as I was saying before, my mate received the information about Europe from his sire. Maybe, before we involve the elders or other packs, we talk to the city coven? Their elders just had a meeting, so they might be able to give us more immediate information," I suggested.

"That sounds doable. We'll contact them tomorrow," Alpha James agreed. "Can we have any pack-related reports now?"

"We spotted rogues on our border. We drove them off, but they've been spotted a few more times in the past. Possibly the Eye, but we're not sure," a gamma announced.

Aside from that, no one else had anything to say about pack-related issues. That was good. For now, it seemed that the Eye wasn't going to attack just yet. But, that meant they could be planning for something bigger. We did crash one of their auctions, after all.

"Well, if that's all we have, then we can close this meeting out," Alpha James said, glancing around to make sure no one objected.

"Wait," Wren said, drawing the attention of everyone else. "Uh, Kit had another dream."

I internally deflated. It wasn't Kit having dreams, it was Wren. Alpha James told Wren and me that we should keep our abilities under wraps for now. Most of the wolves in here were aware of the existence of abilities, but not everyone. Besides, information like that could be...exploited. So, we played off any visions Wren had as dreams Kit had. Since he was immortal and many kitsunes possessed magical abilities, it was an easy enough coverup.

"Another dream. Probably all made up to distract us," Alpha Lorence grumbled.

Ugh. We all heard his comment - he didn't exactly make it quiet - but chose to ignore it, instead focusing on Wren. "What was it about?" Alpha Kristen asked him.

"He said he was in this weird place. It was rocky, the sky was red like in his other dreams, but it didn't feel so...bad. The sky almost glowed, like it was alive. Then, he saw a figure. They were chained to a large rock, but Kit couldn't see their face. They were dressed in red and gold robes, but there were bloodstains on it. Then, they told Kit to help them."

Just like I said in our accidental meeting in the dreamscape when Joshua's sister pulled us in. I still don't understand why I was pulled in, though. I don't even know her. When Wren asked me about it, I assumed the dreamscape was powerful enough to draw me and any others with abilities in, but then why weren't there more people? We were rare, but not that rare, right? I was still confused about it, but it wasn't like I could get any answers.

"Was that all, or was there more?" Erin asked.

"Their hair was long and black. That's really all he could tell me," Wren said.

"Well, this is still something. We'll write it down somewhere and if it happens to be a lead, good. If not, then that's alright," Alpha James said. "Now, I think that about concludes our meeting for now. We'll set up a time for the next one later; it's really late."

A glance at a nearby clock told me that a few hours had passed. The exhaustion from the meeting caught up to me within a moment, dragging my shoulder down. The others around me began standing up and talking amongst themselves when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned to Wren to see that he had a worried look on his face. "You know that dream I had?" He whispered right by my ear, making sure no one else could hear.

"Yeah... did you not say something important?" I asked just as quietly.

"No, yes- I don't know. The person... they called me by my name. They asked for help from me, Wren, then...they mumbled your mate's name."

What?

I voiced this thought quickly, wondering who this person was and how they knew one of my mates. And which one?

"Yeah, they mumbled for Evander. At first, when I had this dream, I couldn't fully make out the name, but when you mentioned your mate by name, it suddenly clicked. They mumbled 'Evander' then the dream faded away."

Wren slowly pulled away. "I'm going to tell Alpha James. He'll know how to handle this," he said, before offering a small smile. "I'll make sure to tell you anything else if it concerns your mates, but I knew you had to know the full story."

"Right, thank you. I think I should go now."

Wren nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. Have a good night."

"Night."

I let him give me a short hug before I left. Instead of feeling relief that the meeting was finally over, now all I felt was anxiety. Who was this person, and how did they know Evander? How did they know Wren? How were the three connected? It confused me so much that my brain began to hurt from trying to understand. I needed sleep, and lots of it.

But first, Evander needed to hear this. Because if he could help us identify this person, then we might have another connection to the Eye, or at least a better understanding of how Wren's powers work.

Goddess, why can't these meetings ever end on a positive note?

~~~

So, what's with this person chained to a rock? Any theories as to how they know Evander's name? And Wren's? I'm so excited because the real plot is finally coming to play!

Sorry that it's a tad short. I rushed to write this yesterday so I could go over it today XD

This school year has been KILLING me and it's only been two weeks. I'm worried I'll be less consistent with updates, so just bear with me :)

The next chapter will - finally - be from Aubrey's point of view! I'm so excited to flesh out Aubrey and Evander's dynamic. We've already seen Aubrey and Aaron, then Evander and Aaron, so it's time for Aubrey and Evander. Slowly, it'll become less divided as they all bond, but it all in due time!

Stay tuned for more insanity and thank you so much for reading!

Please vote, share, and comment if you like it :)