The Summer Moon
Chapter 95 -

Tyrese

"Tyrese, what are you doing here?" Alpha Winston grumbled from behind his desk, acting as if there was no reason for me to be here, as if he weren't out to get me and my pack. I could already feel my wolf raging inside, he put my pack in danger, he had put my mate in danger all this time.

"Winston I believe we need to talk," I walked into the room with attitude in each step, Liam in close tow following behind me. Winston's eyes flickered to mine for only a moment until they were back on his computer screen, dismissing me as he always had. But I was tired to being dismissed, I was an alpha now and I demanded attention.

I cleared my throat, knowing I had to make myself more clear if this conversation was going to go anywhere. "I know about the battle plans, about who's really behind these attacks," and with that Winston's eyes shot up once more, a mix of panic and guilt running through them. We were right. Winston and the Dark Moon pack were behind the attacks. There had been a part of me that wished I was wrong. My father and Winston had been friends forever, he would never forgive me for killing him but there was no other reasonable punishment for targeting an alpha.

"Your father told you," Winston stood up slowly from his chair, but his gaze fell back to his desk as he shuffled through some papers. My father? My father knew? My head started to spin, why would my father want to attack his own pack, his own son? I knew I hadn't been running things the way he'd wanted, but I didn't think I was doing too bad. With the attacks after all we were starting to make some headway, he actually approved of how I was managing things most days. "My father knows about this?" I muttered, trying my best to hide the emotion behind it. But that didn't make sense, my father may disagree with how I was running the pack, but that didn't mean he wanted to kill me. Plus, we were under the assumption that these attacks had something to do with the attack that killed Jordan. There was no way my father had anything to do with that. He had been praising Jordan his entire life for how good of an alpha he would be, and he had finally just found Kassandra and decided he was ready to take on the position. My father would never organize an attack against him, and if he had then why would he be wasting all my trackers to search for him at every chance he got? "No that's impossible, my father has been driving trackers crazy looking for Jordan. There's no way he wanted him dead."

Winston turned to me once more, the strangest look on his face as he cautiously looked me over. "Jordan's not dead Tyrese, he's on the run. What exactly did your father tell you?" And with his words it was like the ground beneath me had shifted. Jordan wasn't dead, breaking this fact I had been so certain about for the past few months. And my father knew, that's why he was using my trackers, but what was Jordan running from? Why was my father after him? And what did Winston have to do with this. A thousand questions rushed forwards into my mind and I struggled to weave through them.

Winston took a step closer to me, coming around the desk but I backed away, unwilling to settle for anything closer than the distance that was already between us. Shaking my head I pushed away the thoughts of Jordan, these were things to handle with my parents. Right now my focus was on Winston, on the attacks, on my pack. "My father didn't tell me anything. I am here because I know about your battle plans. I know that your pack has been attacking mine and that you have been trying to kill me in hopes of taking over my pack."

It was Winston's turn to step back this time, as my words rushed over him. His eyes widened, but instead of answering me he moved back to his desk, pulling open the top drawer. I braced myself, ready to run, for I wasn't sure what he could be pulling out, but froze when I watched him pull out a folded out map of battle plans. Only what I could assume were the same ones that Jesse had found.

Winston held the plans out to me and I cautiously took them, unfolding the map and setting it onto the desk. Liam came to my side, but I watched as his eyes stayed glued to alpha Winston who was now backing away from us towards the window. "I mean you no harm Tyrese, nor your pack," he assured me but his voice was never one I could trust.

As I looked down at the plans I knew something was wrong, because memories sparked in my mind. I recognized these plans, I was there when this attack happened, this was the day that Jordan disappeared. I remember this attack like it had just happened yesterday, I had just come back from the city since Jordan's alpha ceremony was supposed to be happening within the following few days. I hardly made it in the front door of the house when the howling began, and I rushed into the woods, but everyone wolf I went after always retreated just past the boundaries every time I went after them. It was like they were playing with us, distracting us.

"This is the only attack I have ever organized against your pack, there were no casualties, no serious injuries," Winston said, leaning back against the window. My hands balled into fists, there was a casualty though, we lost Jordan this day. He stole him from us.

Anger was rushing through me and I could feel my emotions getting the best of me. My wolf was aching for Malia, she always calmed us down. So if only for a moment to settle myself I opened our connection again, preparing myself to feel her rush of love and happiness that I was back, but she was silent. "Malia," I called out to her without reply. That was weird, it was hardly 8pm, there's no way she's sleeping already.

"You killed my brother," I growled, my wolf coming forwards. "And now you are after me, you cannot hide behind my father any longer," I took a threatening step towards him and Winston's back pressed harder against the window. My eyes narrowed in on Winston, setting my target and preparing to lunge at him, but my focus broke as I heard Liam whimper behind me.

“Ty something's wrong," Liam's voice spilled out and I could hear his pain. Turning to him in a flash, I watched as he clutched his chest, his breathing turning heavier. "Alana's hurt,” he whispered the last words I wanted to hear. His eyes wide on mine, the pain vividly showing. In an instant, I opened up the mind link to my pack members feeling the sudden rush forwards of screams and cries for help. No. No. No.

There couldn't be an attack right now. It was impossible. Winston was here, his warriors were here. I had seen them training in the field when we came in. There was no way he had that many warriors that he could spare so many extras to be here. Unless he knew we were coming. My mind flashed to Jesse, could he have set me up?

Snapping back to Winston I snarled. "Tyrese you have to listen to me, I didn't do this, it's Jordan. The things he wanted to do with the pack, the kind of alpha he was going to be. It was horrific, and your father realized it just in time. We had to stop him, but he found out what we were trying to do and he took off. He is the one threatening you, he is threatening your pack," Winston begged of me but I didn't know who to trust anymore. All I knew is that someone was lying to me, maybe a lot of people were. But my mind had drifted to Malia, they were threatening her, and right now she was in danger.

"Stop lying Winston, I don't have time for this," I spat then rushed out of the room and launched myself outside, shifting to my wolf. I had to get home. Malia had to be okay. I dashed through the trees, running faster than I ever had before. I had to get to her, my mind was consumed with only her as I tried to reach out to her over and over, with only her silence in reply.

Then as I crossed through my packs boundary I knew I was too late, the battle was over. Injured pack members were resting against the trees, sitting in the fields with their families, tears streaming down their faces. I did this, I left my pack unprotected. I left my mate unprotected. Sniffing the air, Malia's scent was still lost to me, untraceable. Something was really wrong, I'd always been able to catch her scent no matter how far from me she was.

"John!" I shouted suddenly seeing him leaning against a tree with Savanah hovering over him. A large gash across his shoulder that Savanah was gripping as she tried to stop the bleeding. His skin was turning pale but his eyes brightened as they saw me skid to a stop in front of him. I should ask if he's okay, I should ask what happened, but the only word I could get through my lips, "Malia?" And John shook his head, giving me a sad look that made my heart drop. "I haven't seen her. She was with Alana and Emily," She was with Alana. And Alana is hurt. And I can't feel her. My blood ran cold and my wolf howled profusely in my mind. No. No. No. We couldn't have lost her, she has to be okay. My eyes twitched between John's wound and his eyes, grateful when he turned to me and said, "Go look for her, I'm fine." With his permission I took off across the field, picking up Emily's scent first.

I came to a stop in front of the hospital, Emily must have brought Alana here. I practically ran down the hallways, feeling the guilt in my chest grow as I looked over all the injured townspeople and pack members. But I couldn't deal with that right now. I only had one focus, and that was replaceing Malia. At the end of a hall I found Emily pacing outside a room. I stopped dead in my tracks as she looked over to me with a confused look on her face. She didn't know why I was here, which only meant Malia wasn't.

My eyes fell wide on hers, my heart rate picking up as it slammed harder in my chest. I wanted to scream, to hit my head off the wall. I could hear it's erratic beat in my ears as my blood rushed through my head. This couldn't be happening. The look on Emily's face gave me panic, as if she too was now realizing something was wrong with Malia if I were here looking for her.

"She told me she was going to replace Jared," she mind linked me and I gave her a nod then took off again without another word. There was only one place she would go to replace Jared, a place where she would have thought would be safe. She had to have gone to my parents house.

"Malia, please answer me. Please tell me you're okay," I called out in my mind once more, but only more silence echoed back. I shifted once more outside the hospital and ran at full speed towards my parent's house, not caring who saw me. I skidded to a stop in front of the house, seeing Malia's car in the drive way with no damage. She made it here safely, she was here. Then as I turned towards the front door I caught a glimpse of the front window into the living room, completely shattered as if someone had jumped through it.

And as I walked in the front door I finally caught the scent I had been missing, much stronger here. A scent that had been burned into my mind for my whole life, one that had suddenly disappeared only a few months ago. Jordan. Looking around the dark room, the glass from the front window scattered across the floor and a large claw mark scraped across the wall at the base of the stairs. I ran towards them, taking them two at a time until I reached my room. She would go here, I knew that, but as my hand closed around the door handle, I was scared of what I would replace on the other side.

Pushing the door open anyways, my heart dropped, a sickness filling my stomach as my room remained untouched. No Malia, no Jordan, the room was empty with no sign of any struggle. Hearing some voices downstairs I ran towards them, then out from the kitchen came my teary eyed mother, my father, and finally Jared.

In a flash I lifted Jared by his shirt, pinning him against the wall. His eyes went wide as he squirmed under my touch. "Where is Malia?" I demanded, my wolf coming forwards in full rage now as I lost my will to control him any longer. My canines extending full out as a growl ripped through me.

"I don't know, she told me to meet her here but when I got here the front window was broken and she was gone," Jared scrambled to say, fear coming to his eyes. I released him, feeling my entire body turn to stone, my heart as if it had stopped beating in my chest.

Malia was gone.

No one knew what happened to her.

This couldn't be real.