((The picture is of Jake's wolf))
((Delvon's POV))
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Reaching over my paper strewn office desk I picked my phone and clicked answer. "Yes?" I barked at whomever was on the line. With a frustrated movement I raked my hand through my already mussed up hair.
"Alpha, we just picked up Marie at the human town." The smooth male voice of my best friend and Beta said. Marie? Oh right, that she-wolf who volunteered to infiltrate the rouges. I sighed, more work.
"Good Jake. Have her report strait to me when you arrive back in the pack house. I want to know if those rumors where true." I said briskly.
"Will do Alpha, we'll be home 'bout five."
I put the phone back on its base and glanced at the clock on the wall. Just after two. With a groan I leaned back in my chair with my hands on my face. My inner wolf was pacing around in my head agitated; he had been like this for a week now. The need to run and do something had been driving me up a wall and he wouldn't tell me why. A knock on the door cut off my thoughts.
"Enter." I said as I sat up and ran a hand through my hair again. The door opened and my father walked in, he was the former Alpha and had handed over the reins to me a few years ago so he and my mother could retire. At fifty-four he was still fit and moved with our wolf's lean grace. His once light brown hair was going gray and he had some crow's feet about his green eyes.
He looks me over and cracks a grin. "Sporting a new style eh?"
I thump my head down on my desk and groan. This week has been stressful. My inner wolf is in a right state, there have been more rouge attacks, several of my packmates have been killed or injured in one of the rouge raids, a fire had claimed one of the small family homes near the western edge of the pack village injuring several people, and Lacey had been bothering me again.
"That bad huh? Is there anything I can help with?" My dad asks.
"I need someone to oversee the rebuilding of that home." I said then I thought about it and added in an angry growl, "And I need someone to keep Lacey off my back. I'm going to lose it if I go into my room and find her in nothing but a ribbon again." A hoarse bark of laughter has my head snapping off the desk. I level a death glare at my father. "It's NOT FUNNY!" I snarl. "That slut has slept with half the male population of both the pack and the human town! Who knows what else she has screwed or what sort of STD's she has! And she looks like a cranbox threw up on her face!"
At this point in my rant my father is full out laughing with his head thrown back and his large hands clutching at his heaving sides in a feeble attempt to stop. His laughter in infectious and soon I'm fighting a losing battle not to grin. Wiping tears from his eyes my father plops down in one of the chairs before the desk. I slumped back and let out a long breath.
My father started to rub the back of his neck and spoke in a gentle voice, "Your mother wants you to try to come have dinner with us if you can." His eyes sweep the papers strewn across the desk with a look that says he knows that I probably wouldn't be able to get away. In all likelihood I would be spending another late night sleeping on the old couch that was shoved into a corner near the door.
"When was the last time you had a proper rest son?"
I shrug thinking, "About a week ago?"
"You need to sleep, the pack need it's Alpha to be at his strongest at all times."
"What I need is my mate... I need my Luna, dad."
My father looked at me with an unreadable expression in his eyes. He knew as well as I that my twenty-fifth birthday was steadily coming closer. All male Werewolves started going insane if they hadn't found their mate before their twenty-fifth birthday. Rouges where usually wolves who had gone insane from ether not finding their mate or losing them.
"It's still a month away..." He started to say but I cut him off.
"I can feel it starting dad."
He froze in his chair and looked at me with a white face. I ran my hand through my hair again and sighed.
"My wolf has already stopped talking to me. All he does is snarl and howl..."
My father's hands shook as he placed them on his lap. With a shaky breath he spoke in a would-be-calm voice. "How long has he been like that?"
"A week." The silence that stretched this time was so thick that it would be hard to cut it with a butter knife. I started on some papers, signing off on things and writing letters to fellow Alpha's. My father just stared at his hands lost in thought, probably talking to someone via the pack link. A knock on the door broke the spell.
"Enter!" I called. The door opened and a woman walked in. Marie was here, with a startled look I glanced at the clock. Five after five. My father stood and gave me a nod before pulling out the chair for Marie before he left. I turned my attention to Marie. She was quiet this time, the last time I saw her she was bouncing up and down eager to help. Her mousy brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her face was strained.
I leaned forward to lean on the desk and gestured for her to start her report. She pulled a file from her side bag and laid it on the desk between us. With a deep breath she began telling me about how the rouges had been talking about a man referred to as 'The Collector'. He was a man who was rumored to have kidnapped and bought rare and exotic Wolves off the black market for his own amusement. I knew of this already, it was why she was sent out in the first place, but I patiently let her continue.
She had successfully infiltrated a group of rouges who had some sliver of humanity left and it hadn't been long before they had gotten an invitation to come see The Collector's collection. I shuddered at that word, those where fellow Wolves! Marie continued on about how one of The Collector's men had come to pick them up at a human town. How they had searched them but she had hidden her phone in a secret liner of her bag. How they were blindfolded and loaded onto a van. I stopped her there.
"Did you have any way of knowing where the van went?"
"Yes Alpha. I had my phone on GPS Tracker, they backtracked several times and took back roads but I know where The Collector is."
"Continue then."
She spoke of how they had taken them into this grand manor deep in a forest, and how they had been offered delicacies before a man had shown them down to a basement door. Here Marie faltered.
"A-alpha, it was horrible. There must have been twenty or so of t-them, all in s-s-silver cages. Their eyes! Oh Moon Goddess! Their eyes! It was like they were d-dead! And then, Alpha..." Her voice dropped to near a whisper, "He had a White Wolf."
My chair clattered backwards as I jumped to my feet. "WHAT?!?!" I yelled. Marie nodded mutely and reached forward to flip open the file. It was full of photos of rare wolves in cages, and on the top she had placed a picture of a pure white she-wolf with ice blue eyes. My inner wolf stopped pacing but I was too enraged to notice. "Are you sure?" I asked in a deathly calm voice.
"Y-yes Alpha. I asked- he m-made her change...."
I cursed and grabbed the phone. The Elders had to be informed. As the phone rang I looked at Marie and told her to go to Jake and have him gather all our warriors. She jumped up and ran out of the room to obey. The phone clicked in my ear as someone answered. I quickly filled the Elder in on the situation and I was granted permission to raid the manor.
Slamming the phone down I was about to bolt out the door when a picture underneath the White Wolf caught my eye: a woman, shapely with long silver hair and ice blue eyes looking right at the camera. My breath caught and my wolf whined. The girl in the photo couldn't have been more than eighteen and she was beautiful... I snapped out of my thoughts and ran out and down the stairs I found my warriors and Beta waiting for me in full battle gear.
Jake mutely handed me my armor and I quickly pulled it on as I shortly barked out what was going on. Angry growls and snarls ripped through the room at the news and within a minute we were out the door and in the pack cars heading out. Marie was sandwiched in the backseat of my car between two warriors giving directions while Jake gripped the dashboard of the passenger side as I drove like a bat out of hell.
Two hours later we were pulling up a long drive through a thick forest. I barked at Marie to stay in the car as the manor came into view. Rouge wolves poured out of the front door charging at my pack's cars. With a snarl Jake jumped out of the car along with the warriors crammed in the back. As I ran over a group of rouges I saw most of my pack shift and tear into the ranks of enemies. I sprang from my car and quickly shifted, yelling orders via the pack link and killing rouges left and right.
A mousy brown she-wolf bounded next to me and I followed Marie through the halls and down to the door of the basement. An intoxicating smell was creeping under the door and my inner wolf whined something but I was too distracted by a couple of hulking guards. I called for Jake and began circling them, snarling and snapping.
A large grey wolf soared over my head and landed on one of the hulks, tearing into its neck with long fangs. I lunged and quickly latched onto the other hulk's throat while it was looking at its fellow. Warm blood gushed over my jaws in a coppery wave, I had severed his jugular. With a violent twist of my head I broke its neck. Dropping the body at my paws I looked to see Jake finish his off. Turning to the door I pushed it open with my paw.