Feel Like Alpha Again

*NOT EDITED*

Axel spent some time catching everyone up, going through the recent losses that Blood Venom experienced, and telling everyone there that he might be challenged for the Alpha position. However, nobody in the room even looked phased as Axel told them, probably because they knew that since everything is going back to normal Axel will be able to handle it. They gave me intermittent glances, knowing that I was here and there Alpha isn't being negatively impacted by the mate bond anymore.

I tried to contribute to the conversation whenever possible. But, ended up observing and listening for the most part. I'm still new to the Luna job and still have a lot to learn. I have never been included in Alpha meetings before, and even though my dad was a warrior wolf at Mystic, that didn't mean that I had access to these things. I was learning, and Axel didn't seem to mind that I didn't have a lot more to say.

"Well, we can always just kill everyone on the Council," Jace says when everyone else stopped talking. "Problem solved. I wouldn't mind personally going on a killing spree and destroying these old fuckers. But I would need a certain kind of immunity," he continued.

I saw Mason roll his eyes at Jace and lightly shake his head no at Axel, telling him to get the idea out of his head, no matter how tempting it seemed.

"What about what your dad left you for getting rid of the Trials, Axel? Maybe there can be something in that which we can use" I offered with a small voice, not sure if I should even be mentioning this. But, he wants me to be Luna, and my instincts can't all be horrible.

"What do you mean, Calista? " Mason inquires, a little annoyed that as Beta there was something pack related that Axel didn't tell him about.

"Before my dad died, he left me a bunch of clues related to the Council and the Trials. He was trying to find a way to get rid of the Lunar Trials after what happened with my mom. But, everything he left me is coded. A note he left me insinuated that once I find the files, I can have control over the Council somehow. I've been trying for a while, but I can't seem to figure it out," Axel tells everyone in the room.

"Okay, then that's what we will work on. If we all take a crack at it, then we might be able to do this," Tyler suggested, hinting to Axel to share everything he knows.

"Fine, I'll grab the stuff from the safe, but what happens in this room, stays in this room. I don't need the Council even suspecting anything about this. I have kept it a secret for years, and I don't plan to have that change now."

As Axel was grabbing everything form a corner in his office, I heard Mason have a little chat with him, I didn't want to intrude, but as always curiosity got the better of me.

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner, I could have helped you," Mason asks, and as if I could hear a touch of sadness in his voice.

"My family drama just didn't seem like it was part of your Beta duties. It's not a big deal Mase. I'm telling you now, aren't I?" Axel answers, but I knew that's not what Mason wanted to hear.

"Calista told me, not you. I thought you trusted me, that's why we're best friends. That's why I'm your Beta."

"I do trust you. That's why you're my Beta."

"Clearly, you don't trust me with everything. I thought you knew I had your back till death man."

"Listen, can we deal with this later? Let's figure this out, and we will talk later." He said this while grabbing the set of files that I have previously seen and worked on during heat and placed them on the desk.

"Okay listen up people. The information you are about to see is extremely classified information. If any of you even breathes a word about this stuff to anyone not in this room, you will be killed immediately. Is that understood?"

"Yes Alpha," people murmured in the room. I vaguely recall Axel telling me the same thing before explaining about these files, which made me smile a little. That was the first time that Axel and I truly spent time together and had meaningful conversations.

"As you can see, there is this stash of files here. In this large table there are three columns. I don't think the first one means anything, I think it is just a 4-digit ID, but nothing else. I am not 100% sure about this, but I couldn't seem to make it connect to anything. The second column, which is a bunch of letters, is a code for the Blood Venom confidential libraries and locations to where certain files, money, and important items are. Each item or file also has a numerical code. So, if you know which item you want, and you know its numerical code, you can find out its letter code through this chart. Once you have the letter code for something, you can match it to the Blood Venom blueprints and find the item's location. There is a good news bad news situation. Good news is that I have the numerical number. The bad news is that I haven't been able to find the letter code for it. I had Callista even try to find it, but she couldn't either. So, now I am starting to think that the first column might have another meaning. But, I can't be sure, because it is a mixture of both numbers and letters. Every Blood Venom Alpha knows how to crack this, but my father died before he taught me my Alpha duties, and my grandfather never taught me this." Axel informed everyone. I could vaguely remember him explaining everything to me from a couple of months ago, but it was all a blur now.

"Okay, then let's get former Alpha Arthur in here and have him help us figure this out, it shouldn't take any time if he knows the code," Jace exclaimed already heading towards the door. I assumed that Alpha Arthur was Axel's grandfather, a man I was grateful to because he stood up for me during the Trials.

"That would be a good idea if he agreed to help," Axel countered, sounding dejected. "I have literally begged him to help me with this, and he keeps refusing. I think there is something in the files that he doesn't want me to see. He did ask to see the numerical code before, which I gave him because I was hopeful that he would help me. But after I showed him everything, he walked out without saying a word, and never talked to me about this again. Basically, we can't ask him for help."

"What if we ask him again, let's not give up. Maybe he will change his mind after everything that happened with the Trials," I voice my thoughts.

"I asked him to help me a day after you left. He told me to suck it up and get over the fact that there are things about Blood Venom that should stay buried. There is a reason someone buried them, and I shouldn't go around digging up the past."

"So, he is just going to keep vital pack information away from you? You said it yourself that there is a lot of important information and items that are hidden and coded in the charts," I say feeling exasperated with all the annoying old men that are part of this pack.

"Well, he said that he would tell me when he is on his death bed. So, there is that. He's not going to budge. You're dealing with a former Blood Venom Alpha. We kinda suck," he ended with a lighthearted chuckle, but he sounded a little frustrated.

"Okay then, let's each grab a piece of paper and work together to figure it out," I said, passing a few pieces of paper around and grabbing one of the large blueprints of the Blood Venom territory.

We stayed working on this for a while, each person tackling a portion, and I kept moving from one map to the next trying to see if there were any signs on the maps that could lead to any hints, but so far the markings were consistent. I wasn't sure what I was looking for which made it a ton harder. As I was sipping on the lemonade that Emily made for us a little while ago, I noticed that I was done with this map and wanted Axel to hand me another one because the stack was closest to him.

"Axel, can you take this blueprint and hand me the one that has the blue number five on the top right corner? I haven't looked at that one yet?"

"Um, Calista the blueprints don't have numbers on their corners, they just have letter IDs for the items. The only numbers on the blueprints are in the centers of the buildings and landmarks for identification."

"No silly, they all have one number on every corner. See," I said, pointing to the blueprint I was holding, that had four numbers in a faded blue on the all four corners. "This one has the numbers 5-4-9-2. They are just pretty hard to see because the ink color of the numbers camouflages with the color of the blueprint. But, they are there."

"So, you are saying that each map has a four-number code?"

"Oh my God! Axel, the first column in the chart has 4 digits" I jumped up from my chair and reached over to look at the first column, confirming my suspicions.

"Hold on, these are all official papers, but what your dad was working on wasn't official," Mason mutters. "So, what if the numerical number that he created doesn't correspond to anything on the charts."

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked.

"Mason's right. There are at least a thousand entries here, but the numbers are all random. So, there is no way my dad could come up with a number and be a 100% sure that this number has not already been used before. Also, I never thought about this before, but the notation of the 17-digit number my dad sent me was different that the notation in this table."

"What do you mean? When you showed it to me it looked the same as the ones here." I asked

"Well, that's because I removed the dashes. The number he gave me was actually: 8-4387-7603-1856-3229. I just got excited when I saw that the numbers on the table and this number were 17 digits that I didn't entertain any other possibility," Axel explained.

"What if each of the four numbers represents a set of different blueprints? And maybe the 8 represents a common building in each of the blueprints?" I said as everything started making sense.

"God, you're a genius," Tyler exclaimed as he gave everyone a set of blueprints for us to find. "Okay guys, find a combination of these four numbers. We don't know the order that they are in, but if we can find the number combinations, we can narrow it down."

After spending hours with the blueprints, we finally found 4 that had these numbers. It turned out the order didn't matter because these were the only four maps that had these combinations.

"We are looking for four different locations," Axel said as he found number 8 in different locations on the four maps. "Alright let's split up and go to these locations. There should be something there. Everyone here knows the territory pretty well, so each group take a map and spread out. If anyone asks you anything, tell them it is classified Alpha business. But nobody should be questioning you anyway."

As people headed out of the door, I stayed behind with Axel, as he was packing everything up back into the safe. I grabbed the blueprint that we were supposed to use and held it up in the air. "Why did he have to make it so complicated?" I sighed.

"I guess the information he was hiding was crippling. At least based on what my grandpa's reaction it is definitely not something everyone is supposed to know." Axel answered. "I'm glad we figured it out though."

I smiled at him and said, "You have a great team here. You need to stop thinking that you have to do everything on your own."

"This was all you. Thanks Luna," He said as he kissed my forehead, before he rested his forehead against mine. He closes his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "It's good to feel like Alpha again." He swung the door to his office and ushered me out before locking it behind him.