Alpha Forrest held it together until the three Warriors left the room and closed the door. The three, all members of the Banff Pack, had just informed him their Alpha was recalling them immediately and they were leaving the Pack. It had been a bad day, starting with the loss of all his Omegas.
He hadn't been woken with his coffee as he normally was at 0530, and before six the Pack was in an uproar. The kitchen was dark, nobody was around making breakfast, and the guard at the gate hadn't even checked the vehicles that were leaving to see who was in them. Alpha Forrest and others tried linking them, but by the time they knew they were gone, it was too late to do anything. They were out of range of the Pack.
That was just the tip of the iceberg. The Pack was unsettled after the attack on Coral, and the sudden departure of his top Beta and the visiting guests further destabilized them. The other Council members left early in the morning; Chairman Gruber was flying back to Germany, and Councilman Waterman to Wyoming. He spoke to both of them during the course of the morning, updating them on the disappearance of Beta Carlson and the Omegas.
Something happens around lunchtime, when the first of the loanee Pack members started coming to his office to state they were leaving. Since almost the entire old Pack leadership was eliminated after the trials, and the remainder were Omegas or young males needing rehabilitation, the Council filled the Pack with volunteers provided by North American packs. During the time those people worked at Bitterroot, they would transfer their allegiance to Councilman Forrest, who was the designated Alpha. He was dependent on these people for everything, since he had no Pack of his own.
Now it was nearly dinnertime. As the men left, he opened a list in his desk drawer of the Pack in North America.
Adirondack Pack, New York
Banff, Canada
Bitterroot, Montana
Blue River, Canada
Cascade, Washington
Casper, Wyoming
Denali, Alaska
Donner, California
Katahdin, Maine
Monongahela, West Virginia
Oxbow Lake, Minnesota
He rubbed his temples as he looked at the list; the names that had been crossed off were ones where people had left today. Five packs out of ten had pulled out already, leaving his Pack in shambles. None of the Alphas would say why, just that events had occurred that forced them to withdraw their people now, and they did not know if or when they would be replaced. There was more to it, and he knew what it was. Rori King and her band of misfits were turning the Packs against the Council.
Time was running out on him and the Council. The deal they had made seventeen years ago, to turn a blind eye to one Pack taking out another in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation, was in danger of being revealed. The money was a bonus, a payment for services, but the real kicker was in taking out the former Alpha of the Pack, Lars King. He was only two years from Council eligibility and was determined to oust Chairman Gruber from his post. Well liked and politically astute, the Council members were terrified the Packs would elevate him at the next elections.
If only Alpha Todd had done the job right, they all would have been happy. Todd would have raised the child as an orphan before mating her, the Pack would be a memory, and they would keep their power and inherit the assets of the dissolved Pack. Instead, his men let a young woman slip through the lines with her and leave her where humans could find her.
Given a second chance when she was closer to her age of majority, Todd screwed it up again. This time there was no hiding it; they had to swoop down on his Pack and decimate it before their secret could be revealed. Now Rori King was making a move, threatening them and restarting a dead Pack, and taking the others with her.
Some he understood; both Oxbow and Adirondack Packs had family links, but the others were a surprise. The challenge would keep the Cascade Pack on the sidelines until Sawyer won, which he was sure to do. The problem was that with two or three more defections, they could depose the entire Council. It wouldn't take much investigation for a new Council to figure out what they had been up to, and then they all were dead.
He made the call, bringing in the rest of the Council. Twenty minutes later, they all agreed with his plan. Rori was threatening them with exposure, but probably was bluffing. Even if she wasn't, they could survive being exposed. They could not survive her becoming Alpha of the Arrowhead Pack.
He called in his Theta, the leader of their security forces and his senior wolf with the departure of Beta Carlson. Thomas Manchin was from the Donner Pack, his son's Pack, and was absolutely loyal to him. He stood in front of his desk, hands clasped behind his back as he waited for orders. "The situation with Rori King has become untenable," he said. "She is a grave threat to the future of the Donner Pack and to all our Packs. She is at large, and I can't trust the Packs to apprehend her and turn her over to the Council. Some may even be assisting her," he told him.
"What are my orders, Alpha?"
"Take a dozen men. In order to establish herself, she is going to have to go to Minnesota. Here's the name of the estate lawyer she will have to visit." He handed him the contact information. "It is critical that she not complete the legal paperwork required to inherit the Pack assets. Capture her if possible, kill her if necessary. Anyone else with her or that gets in the way of her capture, take them out."
"And if she is hiding with a Pack? Oxbow is in that area."
"Don't go onto their Pack lands and don't do anything to attract their attention. If they find you, you are seeking a Council fugitive per the existing warrant."