Another Half

June 2011

Rex thought that the two wolves that were sparring before him and several elite warriors in the Cerulean River training center were well-matched. The male was almost six feet tall and barely out of his teens, but he had fought well in the Saxe Oaks takeover. Rex was, however, more interested in observing the thin, blonde she-wolf. Julia. She, too, had fought in the Saxe Oaks battle. She was quick and strong, and it was obvious that she had several years of training. It was also obvious that she was of alpha lineage, hence her strength and speed.

But no matter how promising she seemed, Rex had not decided as to whether Julia should be his Chosen Mate or not. He hadn’t even asked her out on a date yet. It was a daunting decision. There would be no deity to blame if she turned out to be an unsuitable partner, which is why he kept studying her and even began to discreetly interact with her. Despite his discretion, he had a feeling Julia knew she was on the Luna Shortlist. Of course, what she didn’t know is that she was the only one on that shortlist.

A few weeks ago, Rex had approached Julia for a special assignment. Predictably, she was ecstatic by the opportunity to please her Alpha. Her slate-grey eyes showed as much. But if Julia was surprised or disappointed by what he had in mind then she hid it well.

Rex instructed her to take one of his credit cards and buy a baby gift for Sergio’s son and deliver it to the Beta’s suite on Rex’s behalf. It was to be her first test.

Although he had told Julia he was too busy to do it himself, the truth was he was not yet ready to meet Azul’s next beta after Sergio stepped down. At least, not when Rex didn’t even have a luna to produce the next alpha. It was embarrassing, and Rex figured that the best strategy to deal with it was to not deal with it at all.

Regardless, Julia did well because, two days later, Crystal called him to thank him profusely for the brand-new baby stroller and the room full of accessories and baby clothes, and Sergio mind linked Rex with his sincere gratitude. Julia had made Rex look very good, and it proved to be the first of several assignments he gave her.

Despite his accelerated alpha strength and healing, it took almost four months for Rex’s arm to completely heal and in that time Rex did not see or hear from Sergio. Of course, Beta Enrique was the official beta anyway, and he never failed to do his duty. Rex often received reports that Sergio had lost his head taking care of his baby son, whom they named Roberto. During that time, Rex chose to stay away from Azul Pack altogether, afraid that he was too bitter and emotionally stunted to feel truly happy for his friend. Instead, he divided his time between Saxe, Cerulean, and the distillery. He focused on getting the new packs in order and in line with his way of administrating while also retaking the reins of Azul Springs Distillery from Uncle Dylan. He missed the distillery very much, but now Uncle Dylan needed something to do.

“You want me to be your beta at Cerulean River?” Uncle Dylan was dumbfounded.

Rex was concerned he had offended his uncle of alpha blood by offering him the relatively lowly position of beta, but he kept a straight face anyway, never showing any doubt that this was the right course of action. There could only be one Alpha, after all.

“Yes, Uncle Dylan,” Rex said from behind the bar in his Cerulean River office. He slid a bourbon Old Fashioned across the bar where his uncle sat on a barstool. “Cerulean was not in as bad shape as Saxe Oaks when I took over, and your expertise and executive skills would make it thrive even more.”

“But I’m retired,” Dylan whined. “And what about Magda? She’s Azul’s Luna.”

Rex grinned while he poured himself a bourbon neat. “What are you going to do during your retirement? Learn to knit? Babysit grandpups? C’mon, Uncle. That’s a waste of your talents. Your life is not over, and I’ll talk to Aunt Magda. I guess she’ll be Cerulean’s Luna for now.”

Dylan thought about it for about three seconds before he grinned widely. His eyes sparkled with what Rex read as anticipation. “I’d get to boss everyone around? Even you?”

Rex laughed as he walked around the bar and sat on a stool next to him. His uncle’s humor was a good sign.

“You wish. Nobody gets to boss me around, but yeah, you’d be everyone’s boss in the Cerulean River pack.”

“Do I get to keep my suite and all of my privileges at Azul? I’m not giving up my Essa allowance or my retirement fund.”

Rex shrugged. “Of course not. You will always be an Essa.”

“Any current problems I should know about?” Uncle Dylan loosened and took off his blue tie. He had come straight to Cerulean after a full day’s work at the distillery and his suit coat was already on the back of a chair in front of Rex’s desk. “Might as well bring me up to speed now.”

“So is that a yes, you do accept?” Rex frowned while he poured Rojo into his tumbler.

Dylan snorted. “Hell, yes. I never minded your dad as our alpha because it was his luck or misfortune—depending on who you ask—to be the firstborn. Magda thinks it’s helped that I was our company’s CEO, and that’s been more my world anyway.” Dylan looked down at the glass in his hand. He swirled his Old Fashioned and took a drink. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve never wondered what it would be like to hold real power and responsibility over people’s lives like you and your dad. I suppose this is my chance to find out if it equates to what I’ve always imagined it to be.”

“You will be entirely in charge while I am not in Cerulean,” Rex said, clearing his throat. He had always appreciated his uncle’s candor and loyalty, but he had no idea how to express his affection without embarrassing them both. “Thank you, Uncle. For accepting—.”

Dylan interrupted. “You got all this figured out, don’t you? You’re taking back the entire valley. Don’t deny it. First Saxe, then Cerulean. Who’s next? Blue? Are planning to take Azure Falls, too?”

Rex’s uncle sounded excited about the prospect of re-establishing the Azul Valley Pack centuries after splitting it up into several small packs, and it occurred to Rex that was why his uncle had accepted his offer so quickly. Dylan was eager for a change in the valley’s power dynamics; he didn’t share his older brother’s dedication to Azul Valley peace and compromise. Rex knew Dylan had disagreed with them.

“It’s a long-term project, but yes.” Rex poured more Rojo into his uncle’s glass. “I have no idea how Dad and Grandad did it, putting up with these alpha assholes, watching as they drowned in their stupid, self-inflicted problems. I’m already tired of these smaller packs forgetting about where they came from and the respect they owe Azul. I’ve found rampant abuse, greed, mismanagement, and lack of preparation all at the expense of pack members and their families. Did you know that Chett killed two young males so he could keep their Fated Mates? Males from his damn pack!”

Dylan stared at him. “Two she-wolves besides his Luna and, and—”

Rex nodded. “He forced them to have his pups. I’ve no idea what the fuck for. He already had an heir with his Luna--fuck." He shut his eyes in realization.

"What is it?"

“That’s why he and Nash met regularly with their armies,” Rex said. “It kept their urges in check, sure. But sex without love is just—sex, isn’t it?”

It was one of the reasons it was relatively easy for Rex to keep she-wolves out of his bed. He didn’t love any of them and, from his tragically brief interaction with Caroline, he knew what to love someone felt like--even if that someone then betrayed him.

“Not to mention that while one’s Fated Mate is alive and well, it’s hard to be with anyone else,” Dylan said. “I don’t think I’d be able to, uh, perform well if I was with someone else besides Magda.” He snorted. “If I even managed to get it up, I’m sure it would be the last time. Magda would chop off my balls as soon as it was over. But that makes me think. It must have been hard for them to sire pups with these she-wolves when what they wanted was to be with their Fated Mates.”

Rex frowned. “But why abuse she-wolves? Why even try if it's so hard?”

Dylan drank from his glass. “That’s what I mean. It’s hard to hide a bad performance. My guess is Chett’s Luna knew about Nash and it showed. She likely taunted Chett. I can only imagine how much she privately humiliated him and his side bitches and pups was his way of publicly humiliating her in return.”

Rex shook his head, disgusted. “I’m done with this stupid topic. Right now, the most pressing thing you need to know is that six males have gone missing from Cerulean. All of them are in their twenties. In the space of a week, all six just disappeared. No one knows where they are, but their families insist that they didn’t take off.”

“Were they mated?”

Rex nodded. “Two of them were. Their mates are mourning the loss of their Mate Bond. They said it’s been severed.” He paused. “They’re obviously dead by now.”

“And you think…” Dylan prompted.

“I think that they’re related to the four disappearances from Saxe Oaks. Also males, but all were mated. They disappeared last month, and four of the she-wolves say their mates are dead.” Rex frowned.

“Any ideas?”

Rex nodded once. “Maverick. He has a nasty habit of taking people that don’t belong to him and killing them, but I don’t have any proof. I’ve tried calling him, but he doesn’t answer my calls, and I’m sure as hell not sending anyone there to ask.”

“Where were they taken from?”

“Public places. The Ceruleans were traveling on the highway at different times of the day it seems. The males from Saxe were on a supplies shopping trip in the city. And before you ask, yes, there’s the scent of Blue Ponderosa in both places, but that doesn’t help. These places are neutral territory, and there’s the scent of every Azul Valley pack all over the highway and city. Someone knew what they were doing.”

“So, have you implemented a no-traveling yet?”

Rex nodded again. “Just at night. No one from any of our three packs travels out of their packs’ town at night.”

“Taking males? That’s a ridiculous tactic. He’s not going to kill off either pack like that. What does he hope to accomplish?”

“Terror. He’s planting fear and doubt about me as their alpha in Saxe Oaks and Cerulean wolves. That’s my guess. I can’t imagine he was very happy when he lost both of his allies. I just wonder if there is anyone else helping him.”

“You think Cobalt Lake is in on it, too? Azure Falls?”

“Maybe. Or someone else. Cobalt has been quiet, and Azure is a bit too far off. They’ve always been too detached.”

Uncle Dylan set his glass on Rex’s desk.

“You can bet Cobalt and Azure are watching you make your way up the highway. If–when–Blue falls, expect Cobalt and Falls to unite against you.”

Ax had to go back to Azul in late June. Rachel had announced she was pregnant and wanted to celebrate that weekend with her mate. Rex had authorized it even though it was on his twenty-first birthday weekend.

Rex chose to spend his birthday alone, sequestered in his plush office at the distillery with a case of Rojo. He invited no one. With both of his parents gone and his little brother Andrew who didn’t even live past the age of five also gone, there was no one else Rex wanted to celebrate his birthday with. He certainly didn’t trust himself around his best friends, their mates, and their loved ones while they enjoyed their happiness. And returning the attention of the many unmated she-wolves that pursued him could result in a colossal mistake he wasn’t willing to make. He didn’t even want Julia’s company, which is why he sent her back to Azul with her friends and family without letting her know it was his birthday. It was a relationship he was still uncertain about and didn’t want to deal with.

To make matters worse, Rex felt as if he was drowning. He hadn’t yet been entirely comfortable ruling over two packs when the opportunity to take over Cerulean River presented itself. As alpha of three packs at twenty-one, Rex was often overwhelmed by so much responsibility and so many problems from each pack that he had no idea how to handle or solve. His people, which now numbered in the thousands, depended on him to provide for and protect them. And it all was crushing him.

But, he dare not say anything to anyone. His choices were to either deal with it all in his loneliness or confide in someone and risk appearing weak, and Rex understood well that to show any kind of weakness could be fatal. So he spoke to the only person that could understand him: his dad.

Rex spent the time in his office so drunk that he swore he had seen and spoken to his dad the entire weekend.

It was me you talked to the entire time, dumbass, Nakon’s gravelly voice said early that Monday morning while Rex nursed an epic hangover. Keep this up and we’ll be raging alcoholics in no time.

It was our birthday, and we hadn’t gotten drunk since Sergio became a dad two months ago.

Get your shit together, Rex. We rule over three packs now. I’m taking over our birthday next year and we’ll spend it hunting in the woods.

Although Cerulean did not have the financial problems Saxe had, it had issues that Cerulean pack members expected him to address and solve. Nash had been a good financial administrator. His robust personal accounts and his pack’s overflowing coffers testified of this, but Nash had done nothing to train his people to defend themselves. Peace had made him and his predecessors complacent. Like Saxe Oaks, they didn’t have training facilities until Rex built them a large Training Center, and neither had a training program nor a Training Master to implement it.

Unfortunately, the kidnapping and assault campaigns on Cerulean and Saxe Oaks pack members became more frequent as they took more people, including females. And they were getting bolder.

In late August, the missing pack members began to reappear, but not in the way Rex and their families had hoped.

High on several stilts lined along the private entrance road into the Cerulean River pack sat the impaled heads of many missing pack members. All twenty of them.

“How the fuck did they come onto our territory without being seen?!” Rex roared.

“They must know our patrol schedules,” Uncle Dylan said. “And we don’t have sentries at the entrances.”

“Not one pack has ever had entrance sentries because no one in Azul Valley has ever needed them!”

“I know, but there’s no need to shout at me, Rex,” Uncle Dylan said firmly. “Let’s think with our heads here. We have to change our guard and patrol policies; clearly, they’re outdated. We need more patrols and around-the-clock sentries at all our entrances.” He looked up at the carnage that vultures were picking at. “Take those heads down,” he ordered the Cerulean men around. “Look for the bodies. Whoever did this shit might have left the bodies around here, fucking assholes.”

Dylan was right. The bodies were close by. They were in large garbage bags, chopped into such small pieces it was difficult to identify which parts belong to which missing wolf. A mass grave to honor them as a group was the only answer.

Thanksgiving Day, 2011

Cerulean River Pack

While Rex and Dylan continued to deal with the issues at Cerulean, the assaults on Saxe Oaks intensified. The number of patrols increased, of course, and they were able to catch four kidnappers in the act.

“They all say that they’re from Blue, but only one of them is. The other three are not local,” reported Rafael, one of Rex’s best trackers.

“What do you mean they’re not local?” Rex asked with a frown. He glanced at Uncle Dylan. “They’re not from any of our three packs? Are they from Azure or Cobalt?”

“Neither, sir,” Rafael said. “I’ve been to Cobalt and Azure. They’re not from anywhere I’ve ever been, sir.”

Rex nodded once, understanding but not liking Rafael’s response.

“Alpha, should I take a field trip up north and sniff around in the next valleys? I mean, they’re from the north, that much I know.”

Rex shook his head. “Not in the current climate, Rafa. You’d only be taken and murdered. Even if I gave you a small army to protect you, it would not go unnoticed and it would come across as a provocation and you’d be killed anyway. We’re going to wait.”

He dismissed Rafael and when the tracker closed the door behind him, Rex turned to his uncle.

“Uncle, let’s continue to grill the prisoners for information. I don’t care what tactic you use. We have to know who’s behind this.” He gave Dylan a sardonic smile. “It seems you were right. Maverick is too stupid and impulsive to be doing this alone.”

Uncle Dylan shrugged. “That could be a very bad thing. We have no idea what we’re dealing with.”

“Or whom,” Rex said.

Soon after Dylan left, Julia came into Rex’s office to invite him to the Cerulean pack’s Thanksgiving Feast, which was waiting for him to begin.

“I’ll be there shortly,” he said. He didn’t even turn to look at her from the window he was staring out of.

It was the anniversary of his father’s disappearance. In all the tumult of events and new circumstances that surrounded Rex and Azul, no one had mentioned his father’s passing, likely out of respect. But there wasn’t a day Rex didn’t think about and miss his father.

Ax was in Azul with Rachel and both of their families, and Rex couldn’t help that twinge of envy that needled his heart and that he desperately wanted to go away. He missed his friends so much. Rex wondered if Ax permitted himself to think about his own father today or if he was simply too busy, too distracted with his pregnant mate to remember.

“Alpha, you can’t do this on your own; you need help dealing with all of these issues,” Julia’s nasally voice said. “You will soon be overwhelmed if you don’t get the help you need.”

A few weeks ago, Julia had discreetly offered to administer him orally, but Rex politely refused knowing well that he would not be able to stop himself and mostly end up sleeping with her and who knows how many other she-wolves. Too much was at stake for him to let his Alpha sex drive take over, especially after he had worked so hard to control it. It was not his plan to take things too far with Julia until he was certain she was the Luna he needed and wanted, And he hated when things did not go as he had planned.

Plus, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to respect a she-wolf after she had sucked his dick for nothing. And he wasn’t stupid to think she would expect nothing in return.

Damn Caroline complicated everything…

As it was, Julia was good at what she did, and Rex respected that she was his top elite female warrior.

Rex turned from the window where he stood and assessed her while he drank from his glass tumbler. He wondered if he had let Julia get too close to him or if she was as perceptive as she seemed. He wasn’t sure if he didn’t trust Julia or if he didn’t trust himself.

Trust neither, Nakon said.

Thanks, buddy. That really helps.

“How are the Saxe Oaks self-defense training lessons going?” Rex infused his question with enough authority to signal that the matter she had brought up was not up for discussion. “Are the omegas progressing at least?”

Julia sighed, clearly frustrated. “They’re doing well, but we need another Training Master if not two.”

Rex had put her in charge of teaching defense at Saxe Oaks, but she certainly had the ability and knowledge to start training elites. But she couldn’t because she was not officially a Training Master, and no wolf would obey or even respect her without her invested with the proper authority. But getting a Training Master would involve organizing a pack-wide tournament, and Rex wasn’t sure he had the mental and emotional bandwidth for that right now.

“Alpha, Training Master Davis is doing the best at Cerulean, and I’m doing what I can with Gamma Ax at Saxe Oaks, but we’ve left Azul without anyone training elites or the omegas. Their program is on hold.”

“How is that possible? How could Ax do that?!”

Julia approached him until she stood in front of him. “Sir, you have been very good about getting new betas to help you in the new packs, but you’ve forgotten to get new gammas, too. Begging your pardon, sir.” Julia lowered her eyes and bowed her head in clear submission.

Rex took her chin and gently raised her face up, still assessing her. He had to admit, he was curious. He drew close enough to her to see the thin red-orange lines against the slate-grey of her irises that irradiated from her pupils. Julia wet her pale pink lips and her irises dilated, giving him the signals he was waiting for to go ahead.

At that moment, the door slammed open, and Uncle Dylan rushed in, his face pale.

“Rex! It’s Enrique! He’s been taken.”