Chapter 34

Bane had a mess to clean up. Even though it was their fault, he couldn't quite blame his men. How were they supposed to know the deal was a set up? They couldn't have known if he wasn't aware of it.

He had remind himself to take deep breath as the members of his pack stood nearby by, trying their best quiver out of nervous fear from the deadly aura that their alpha was giving off.

"Explain me to me again clearly. Exactly how bad was the loss?" he ordered, trying to keep his voice level. They probably wouldn't have been so nervous if he had been in his human form rather than his werewolf form, but he needed them to remember how intimidating he could be so that they wouldn't make mistakes like this in the future.

"F-four of our men and they managed to take over the last part of the route we just secured." One of the men explained. He was one of the younger pups. New to his post and still trying to learn everything. He was the only who was brave enough to speak up to the alpha despite the aura he was giving off as he believed it was the better alternative than staying quiet and risking angering the other werewolf further.

Aster would've been the one who was in charge of reporting to him, but he was off trying to catch the trail of those responsible for the mess before it ended up going cold.

He was one of the best trackers they had and the one Bane knew would be able to keep track of a trail even if it became muddled.

"Were you part of this mission?" Bane asked as he tilted his head at the other werewolf.

"N-no Alpha. I was on watch when this occurred, but I was informed of the results." he replied.

"Oh? Then why might I ask are you here?" His tone didn't hold any anger, in fact it was perhaps too calm which only scared the other werewolves even more. If their Alpha was calm in these type of situations, it usually meant that there was a storm brewing underneath that veil of calmness.

"One of the other werewolves told me that it was my job to show up here because of what I had been told even though I wasn't part of the mission." The younger werewolf replied as he bowed his head.

"Lucian was your name right?" Bane asked as he stepped closer to the other werewolf. Everyone else had almost stopped breathing at this point out of fear of what they thought was supposed to happen.

"Yes Alpha." Lucian replied, bowing his head even further. He was trying his best to not shake as the stronger werewolf stood in front of him.

"You haven't done anything wrong for you to fear me. I do need to know though, can you tell me if the werewolf who told you that you should be here is among those that came tonight?" Bane asked, trying to take on a more gentle tone so he didn't scare the other even further than he already had. He had no reason to punish the young pup in front of him. He never punished those who didn't do anything wrong.

Lucian risked lifting his head as he scanned around the room to see if he could spot the werewolf who had told him he needed to come and explained what the situation was with the mission. He bit his bottom lip as he scanned the room from one side to the other a second time before he bowed his head shaking it a no motion.

"I-I don't see him here." He replied, risking a glance up at the Alpha. He regretted it almost instantly when he saw the burning anger that was reflecting in Bane's eyes. It was so bright that it froze him in place and he couldn't have looked away from the other even if he wanted.

"Thank you Lucian." He told the younger werewolf patting him on the head a little heavily with his clawed paw before he turned his attention to everyone else in the room.

"I expect that if the rest of you value your hide that you'll be wise to tell me who's missing from the mission and where they might be found." The Alpha ordered. He already had an idea in the back of his mind of who was missing. He wanted positive confirmation though before he reacted.

"It's Aspen." One of the werewolves who was standing towards further back in the room replied as he stepped forward.

"I know he came back with everyone and was supposed to be coming back here with us to report you. I haven't seen him however since he came back."

"Find out then if anyone else has seen him in the pack. If not, I want you to utilize any resources available to find him." Alpha ordered. He had been keeping his eye on that wolf for a while now. The one who thought he would be the beta since his father had held the role. That was until Aster turned of age and inherited the gene in an odd turn of events. He knew that he resented the other because he didn't end up in the high position he had been hoping to, but it was the Moon Goddess's decision to make things turn out this way.

If that wolf ended up betraying them, Bane wouldn't hold back in punishing him in a way that fit the crimes that he had committed against the rest of the pack.

"Brother~" Crescent's sing-songy tone of voice echoed through the cave as he approached the chamber where he knew the Alpha would be with everyone else.

"I brought you a surprise that I thought you might like." He told the other as his voice got louder as he got closer.

For a second, all the other werewolf's felt the shift in the room after Crescent ha told his brother this. It was almost as if all the menacing and cold energy disappeared as he looked over in the direction that his brother was coming from with something akin to eagerness when he heard the other's words.

No one was quite sure what caused this sudden change in their alpha, but they were thankful in that moment for Crescent because it allowed them to breathe a second as they scurried to get out of the other's presence to what he had asked.

The eagerness had disappeared from the other's aura when he realized that his brother hand only brought him coffee and not what his wolf had thought he was referring to.

"Oh don't look so dejected. I thought you would need some coffee after everything." Crescent told his brother as set down on the drink holder and bag he had with him.

"I did get to see her though. I don't see that you two have been making much progress and time is rather running out." The twin gave the other a look that told him he knew what he needed to do.

"She's not intent on going forward with everything between us." the alpha replied back as took the coffee that his brother held out to him.

"That's probably because you haven't had a proper conversation with her. On the subject of her, there's something that I think we need to talk about. Something important." The mood around Crescent changed when he told Bane this and the change didn't escape the other.