His Unidentified & Untouchable Mate

Sidelined

Jacob POV

I interviewed wolves into the night. The stories might’ve been different, sure, but they all had the same undertone.

No indication that they wanted to leave.

No planned group outings.

No suspicious contact with Alpha Jared.

The number of missing wolves kept rising and rising until the numbers reached 40% of our total pack gone without a trace. After interviewing several family members, I was asked to convene with the other interviewers and compile a report of their findings.

They were, as expected, the same as my own.

At 11pm, we finally called a meeting between the upper cadre of all the packs. I shuffled into a room with the alphas, the betas, and the only two head gammas that remained and took a seat towards the middle – where most of the least important people were.

My father, seated at the head of the table, stood up. He looked disheveled, wearing a simple white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top three buttons undone. His hair looked as though he’d been running his hand through it all day. “Thank you all for the work you’ve put in today. This is a difficult time for our pack; our people are antsy, and they need to see you, our leadership, presenting a strong front. You’ve done a great job at that.

“Unfortunately, presenting a strong front isn’t enough. We need these wolves found, and we need something to tell their friends and families. Jada will fill you in with details from the Western Pack.” Father nodded to my sister, and she shuffled some papers around, then stood.

She didn’t look much better than father.

Her brown hair, usually kept neat, looked every bit as disheveled. She’d been wearing her usual combination of slacks and a blouse, tucked in, but the blouse had come untucked and she’d made no effort to fix it. In front of her, she had a coffee, and the way her hands shook on the paper made me wonder exactly how many she’d had to make her that jittery. “While father provided support and leadership to the West Pack, I investigated my brother. Many people are saying that he’s led almost half of our pack away in some kind of cultish uprising, but we have no evidence saying he’s done such a thing. All of his belongings are in his room, just as orderly as he always keeps them, and his office remains intact, with none of the documentation supporting this theory. He’s made no major purchases lately, he’s done nothing out of the ordinary. At this time, the office of the High Alpha is not considering him as a suspect.”

Father nodded along, expressing his agreement. There was some muttering between the leadership of the eastern pack, until Alpha Archer shot them a silencing glare. “You said ‘almost half.’ Can I take that to mean we have a concrete number of missing wolves?”

“I can’t call it concrete, but we do have a number,” my father said. He took a deep breath before announcing, “7,543 and counting.”

People sucked the air in between their teeth. Some gasped, Alpha Archer’s head gamma jerked out of his chair, hands flat on the counter as he stared in disbelief. “That many?!”

“Sit,” Archer commanded, and his gamma obeyed. “One alpha couldn’t possibly form a pack with that many wolves. That further clears our brother’s name, but we have a bigger problem. What threat could possibly take so many of our people at once? And why didn’t we hear about it sooner?”

“This is unprecedented,” Alpha Samuel of the South Pack had been tapping his pen more and more anxiously as the meeting progressed. “Can we get a breakdown of those numbers?”

“Sure,” father replied. “Jacob?”

I stood, shuffling my papers as I rattled off the numbers. Again, there was shock and disgust – and there was strong reason for it. Over half of the West Pack was missing – most of those missing seemed to be from there. Almost half of the East Pack was gone, and though there were significantly less missing from the North and the South Packs, the numbers were still frightfully large.

When I was finished, a lot of people started talking at once, voices merging in their fear. At the head of the table, dad sat with his eyes closed, trying to hear everything in the chaos of it.

“Stop!” Archer finally yelled. When they’d quieted, he was rubbing his temples. “Listen: people don’t disappear out of nowhere. With your permission, father, I think it would be best if we ask Alpha Samuel to reach out to his connections in the local coven and see if they’ve sensed any disturbances in the area. Jada can cover the West Pack until Jared gets back, and the office of the Head Alpha can gather the remaining gammas we have and ensure that our pack remains secure until this is resolved.”

Alpha Derick offered a proud nod. “A solid plan, son. Good work.” His eyes sharpened, though, as if he’d honed in on something. “And you? What will you be doing?”

“Working closely with my brother Rowan, of course,” Archer smirked. “I’ll be looking into what funds we can allocate to his omegas, making sure that those that can’t fend for themselves are well taken care of. I can also allocate some money into bonuses for the gammas that end up pulling extra shifts.”

Again, father looked pleased – and he would be. He was always looking to see who he’d choose to be the next High Alpha when he passed.

Though our alpha line was endangered. With none of us able to secure mates, the next generation might not even be born at all. I thought of the challenges I had with my own mate and frowned – though I didn’t have time to think of Zahraa now.

“I can help organize the search,” I volunteered. I was usually relegated to boots on the ground anyway. “Since the gammas will be pulling overtime on security, we can ask omegas to-”

“I’ll be doing that,” Alpha Derick looked at me with an expression that read be silent. “You can work with our head deltas to keep organizing the data as it comes.”

I wanted to argue.

I wanted to be furious.

My eyes landed on Rowan’s, and I swear he gave me the slightest shake of his head. We all knew it wasn’t worth arguing with father; he’d get his way in the end anyways.

So, I hung my head in deference, submitting, like I always did.

“Yes, father.”