“Are these all the pack warriors that had been exchanged?” Freya asked, as she took her hands away from Curtis’ chest.
For a while, she had been checking out the warriors that had all stepped out when Derek had commanded them too. She had found nothing so far.
She had a feeling that the people that might have been the spies would likely be the warriors from the other pack. Their aim would probably include gathering snippets of what have been taking place in this pack, and how the pack trained. Yeah, that must be it; to steal their battle schemes, and to know of the boundaries that had not been there in the first place.
“Yes.” Derek answered. He had been the one after all that had sent the warriors off. “Well, except one.”
Freya furrowed her eyebrows, an action that was replicated in the faces of the other people in the hall.
She noticed that Maya was nervous now-the awkward fidgeting had given her friend away. What could be the problem? Who was the last warrior that was missing?
“Who is that?” Sheila asked, deciding that the tension was too much, and she couldn’t take it anymore.
“That would be Leo.” Melvina stated. “Maya’s mate.”
Murmurs broke out in the hall again.
“Seriously? Leo is Maya’s mate?”
“OMG. Isn’t he the chief of the pack warriors; the head of them all? How could he be missing?”
“Is he dead? Did the fight at the party take his life?”
“No, that’s not true. I saw him when the whole thing was over. He had been taking with Derek.”
“Does it mean that he is another spy?”
“Well, how can that be?”
“You never can tell. After all he isn’t truly from this pack. He was kind of adopted into the pack, after he had saved little Derek in the forest. He could be in coalition with Arnold. Is Maya really his mate, or was that a ploy to fool us?”
“Leo is Maya’s mate? Couldn’t the goddess have done better? That witch didn’t deserve our handsome hunk.”
Sheila sighed, hearing these conversations.
So, Leo was Maya’s mate. Where was he then? According to them, he was the head of the pack warriors, he had sat in her previous position. She was interested in knowing who he was now.
“So where is he? Where is the Leo?” She asked, noting the pain in Maya’s eyes, and the uncomfortability the stance of Derek, his parents and his friends. They knew what was happening.
She looked at Freya, but the latter shook her head. Hee daughter didn’t know of this happening. She looked at Curtis, and noticed that the latter was biting his lips. She was almost sure that he also knew what had happened to his sister’s mate.
“Curtis, where is Leo?” She asked him, after waiting in vain for Derek or Maya to give her an answer.
“Well, he had gone missing with one of our prisoners. We hadn’t seen him since then.” Curtis answered, a bit happy that she had decided to ask him the question.
“Our?” Sheila inquired, not understanding the position of the pronoun. Was the prisoner of his own pack, or of this pack? Wasn’t the boy getting ahead of himself? Was he oblivious to the tension between the two packs?
Curtis noticing the distrust in his aunt’s eyes, gritted his teeth, not liking it one bit. His anger began to simmer, not against Sheila though, but against his father, for corrupting his reputation with his evil acts.
But then he felt a comforting presence in his heart which he knew wasn’t his. Someone was trying to comfort him, and of course it could only be his mate.
He stared at Claire then in anger. Who does she think she was invading his privacy with that fake warmth?
He huffed and blocked his pathways, restricting the communication, yet missing it. He saw the sadness cloak her face, but disregarded it.
She must be dumb thinking that he would accept her after she had rejected him. Did she want him now because she knew he was next in line for his father’s throne?
“During my birthday party, we had been attacked by Legardo’s men. We had captured the one whom we thought was the head of the army. Leo had suggested that he be the one to be put in charge of the prisoner. Some hours later, we didn’t find either him or the prisoner. Leo had escaped with him, without letting us know. As of now, we don’t know anything about his whereabouts, or why he is working with them.” Derek supplied, saving his cousin from Sheila’s savage question.
Even though he liked his cousin, and they were on good terms now, he understood his aunt’s misgivings about the family; they had caused enough problems to the pack. Worse was that she had never met Curtis. Well at least the real Sheila. He still wondered who the fake Sheila was. Another spy?
“I see. So, Maya’s mate betrayed us. Wow. Not from this pack is he? Where exactly is he from?”‘ Sheila asked Derek, sighing deeply in disappointment when silence greeted her question.
“You didn’t care to ask where he was from? Are you daft or something?” She spoke out in anger, cooling when she saw Melvina flinch.
“I’m sorry.” She apologized, knowing that she had gone a bit overboard. “I just don’t understand how y’all could be so careless about letting rogues stay in the pack, a rogue without an identity.” She returned to her seat and sat down. She was tired.
“He had saved my life. I owed him one.” Derek said, justifying his actions.
“Well, he has paid you back in full.” Sheila answered, throwing her head back and breathing in deeply.
Sequence of events. She thought, rubbing her stomach. She was hungry.
Freya said nothing to the banter, not sure who she should support. She had met Leo during the party. Maya had introduced the both to each other, and the only thing she could say about the dude was that he was a good guy, who was head over heels in love with her friend, so much so that he didn’t have eyes for any other girl. He wasn’t someone to be disloyal, or abscond from his mate.
They all think that he had escaped with the prisoner. What if it was the other way around? Or wasn’t that possibility possible?