Once Upon A Rejection

Talen Bancroft’s POV

Molly’s legs were bouncing faster as her anxiety levels rose. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were getting closer to the first pack that Leyton had told us about or because we were getting further away from Grayson.

We have already been driving for hours, we had to make sure that we were out of the pack before anyone was around to try stopping us. Unfortunately that meant neither of us got much sleep last night. The mixture of tiredness and anxiety over Grayson’s situation was weighing heavily on both of us.

“Maybe this pack will give us enough information we can use against the council.” Molly suggested, as though she was somehow reading my concerns.

“Perhaps.”

She was already anxious enough and I didn’t want to make her worry more by telling her what I really thought.

The truth was that I didn’t see anything coming from this trip. The only thing I needed was to get my mate away from the council members before Grayson and I did something we would regret.

I had a feeling that finding something we could use against the council was going to be difficult. They had been getting away with abusing their authority for a long time, you didn’t achieve that by being sloppy. I had a feeling that anyone who had anything which could have been used against them would have been dealt with in a manner that prevented them from ever using it.

As far as I was concerned this trip was primarily to keep Molly safe and myself sane. Not that I would tell her that. She wanted to help take down the council. If I told her that this trip was probably a waste of time then she would insist on going back so she could be more useful.

That wasn’t an option. Besides, I could be taking an overly critical approach, I had been known to do that on occasion.

“What pack are we going to see first?” She asked, her voice shaking a little.

“The Fawn pack.”

Molly nodded her head as though that meant something to her, that made one of us. I may not have been very active in werewolf politics but I would have thought I would have heard of a pack who lived this close to my father’s land. I could only imagine that they were a small pack, one that my father would consider too small to be of any consequence. Even so, I would have thought I would have at least heard of them.

We were rapidly approaching the location that Leyton had given me for their pack but as yet I hadn’t seen any signs of civilisation yet. I was about to start worrying that we had taken the details down incorrectly when I noticed two people standing in the middle of the road ahead of us.

I brought the car to a halt in front of them and wound down my windows.

“What are you doing here?” One of them practically shouted at us before my window was even half way down.

“We are looking for the Fawn pack.” I replied.

“State your business.” He said, keeping his voice stern and authoritarian. It might have been enough to concern an unranked werewolf but to me it was slightly amusing.

“This is luna Ward, she would like to speak to your alpha.” They would probably be able to tell I was a lycan just from my scent but it wasn’t relevant.

The two people in front of us fell silent as they spoke to their pack over mindlink. The apprehension of what they were going to say made the few moments that they remained in silence stretch on for what felt like an eternity.

“Follow us.” One of them instructed us but he made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t happy about our presence here. I ignored his tone and followed them. They got into a car which was on the side of the road a few metres away and started driving down the road.

We followed their car for a few minutes longer before the forest started fading into the background, revealing a village. It was much smaller than Molly’s pack and most of it looked as though it had been empty for years. There were only a few buildings that were in the centre of the town that looked as though they were still being used on a “regular basis.

It was outside one of those buildings where their car came to an abrupt stop. They got out of the car and motioned for Molly and I to follow them. Molly seemed more nervous after seeing the state of their town but she didn’t mention it. She walked beside me in silence as we followed the two men into the building.

There were a few people walking down the corridors and each of them stared at us as we went past them. It seemed as though they weren’t used to having visitors. I suppose that was a side effect of living in a town that looked to be abandoned. The men who brought us here escorted us into the alpha’s office before leaving us and closing the door.

“How can I help you, luna Ward?” Alpha Fawn asked.

He was younger than I had expected, he didn’t look to be much older than Molly. Much younger than most alphas. I could tell from his tone that he wasn’t the type of alpha who liked to talk around a subject so there was no point putting this off with small talk.

“The council showed up at our pack a couple of days ago. They have made up some charges and are auditing our pack.”

A dark look came over the young alpha’s face.

“I’m sorry about your situation but what do you expect us to do about it? You must have seen the state of our pack on the way through our town. We have no resources or power with which to help you.” He told Us.

“We don’t need that kind of help, we need to know what happened to your pack.” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that their current position was down to the council. The only question that remained was how it had come about.

“I’m not sure how it will help you but fine, I will tell you what happened.”

He went to explain exactly what happened to his pack.

It started when their previous alpha visited another pack to attend their alpha ceremony. Nobody knew what happened at the ceremony because the alpha never came back from the pack. Instead a couple of the council members appeared at the pack a few davs later and told them that their alpha had been arrested for treason.

According to the new alpha, his father was tried and executed in secret a few days later. That was when things really fell apart. They started accusing different members of the pack of crimes and taking them away from the pack, none of them were ever seen again.

After that they started dismantling the pack’s businesses and alliances. Making sure that if the pack did survive, then they wouldn’t have enough power or influence to make any moves against the council. Looking at the state of their pack now, I would say that they had succeeded in their mission. There was hardly anyone left in the pack and from what I could tell those who were left were struggling just to survive.

“I am not sure if any of that will help you.” When alpha Fawn finished speaking he slumped forward in his chair, as though telling his father’s story had drained him physically.

I wasn’t sure if he had told us anything that we could use against the council. They had been very careful not to leave any physical evidence of what they were doing to this pack. To anyone on the outside it would look as though this pack had financial difficulties which caused some of their members to leave. It did however give me an idea of what they were planning in our pack and that might help us to stop them.

“I am sure that our pack isn’t anywhere near as luxurious as yours but it would be rude of me not to offer you accommodation for the night.” Alpha Fawn continued.

“That will be ok, we have a lot of packs we need to see and I am not sure how long we have before they start getting suspicious of our absence.

“That’s the last thing you need.” Alpha Fawn agreed.

“Can you tell me, which pack did your father visit for the alpha ceremony?” I asked.

“The Davies pack.”

Of course it fricking was. Nothing was ever easy, was it? We may as well get this over with, hopefully I wouldn’t have to fight my way out of their pack this time.