Falling In Love With The Trio

6. The Meeting

Ethan’s POV:

It wasn’t surprising to find Ian quiet through out the entire drive. The mood in the car was dreary and I took a moment to thank the goddess that we had chosen to leave Zayn at home because I could just imagine his restlessness if he had been forced to stay in the gloomy car for the three hour drive.

“Do you think we’re going to make it in time?” Ian asked and I took my attention away from the road for a second to look at him.

“We should and even if we don’t you have nothing to worry about, the meeting will not start until you’re there.” I teased, making sure to keep my tone light. He didn’t laugh but I caught the twitch at the corner of his lips and it deeply satisfied me.

The last two weeks had been one of the hardest for all three of us even when it was only Ian’s mate that had died. We’ve been used to feeling each other’s pain and just been there for each other and watching the strongest of us be this broken has been enough to crush us too.

The hardest part of it all for me has been watching Ian fall apart piece by piece every single day and not being able to do a thing about it. He was the ruler of the Seven Packs and every single person depended on him regardless of their status. Alphas, Betas, Omegas, pups, name it. And so he had to be strong, regardless of how upside down his life might be.

I couldn’t imagine having to face my responsibilities instead of being left alone to mourn or rest for however long I wanted, especially after something as tragic as this one. It was hard to keep going especially at times like this but this was one of the reason I admired Ian.

He always kept it moving.

Having taken on the title as ruler of all Seven Packs so early in life, after our father’s unfortunate and early demise, Ian had been forced to take on the responsibility and over the years, watching his growth had honestly been like watching a movie. It was incredible.

But I also got to see behind the scenes, as his second in command, I got to work closely alongside him and see the things that so many other people couldn’t see. I had watch him breakdown, lose it, give up but he had always picked himself up, over and over again.

But after Aurora’s death, it seemed like a part of him was lost for good. I could see it when I looked in his eyes and found nothing but a blank stare many a times. I could just tell from the way he talked, the way he moved, something within him had changed and I was really hoping that he got over all of this before it was too late.

“Ian, we’re here.” I said quietly, not wanting to spook the sleeping man.

“Did you drive at a hundred and fifty? I could have sworn I just closed my eyes.” He asked, voice hoarse.

“I swear I didn’t, and you’ve been sleeping longer than you know.” I responded, raising a brow when he sighed.

“f*****g Harley and his extravagance. No wonder he never has the money to host anything. Why does he need all this shiny and luxurious things? Look at the damn gate, isn’t that f*****g gold?” Ian muttered and I chuckled.

He was right, Harley’s pack was one of the most beautiful in all the seven packs, which was weird because it was the smallest and definitely didn’t need all the luxurious structures that the Alpha invested in but it had them all. Name it, water fountains, gold gates, extravagant designs and buildings.

I pulled up into the parking lot of the town’s hall where the meeting was supposed to take place and put the car in park while Ian stepped out and stretched. Harley was already there to welcome us and it was impressive to see the pompous man go out of his way to greet us himself.

“Welcome Alpha Ian! It’s a pleasure to have you at our pack after so long. I’m very sorry about what has happened to you, I heard the news about your mate and I was so devastated to hear it. She was such a sweet per-“

“Uhh Harley, are all the Alpha’s present now? The meeting should be starting in about ten minutes, right? I think we should head in.” I quickly interrupted, not missing the look of relief of Ian’s face at my interruption.

Firstly, Harley had never met Aurora and then next, I was pretty sure he wasn’t devastated in the least like he just claimed. The man could care less about everyone in the world dying. As long as he and his family and his priceless little pack was alive and his to rule then he was okay. I didn’t need him distressing my brother with all the fake empathy.

“Of course. This way please.”

The man led us through a series of hallways until we finally arrived at a door marked ‘Conference Room.’ He pushed the door open to reveal the other Alphas, their Betas, a couple of Gammas and other important officials. After a round of greeting and condolences to Ian we finally settled in, with Ian at the very head of the table and myself to his right.

“Thank you so much for leaving everything and honoring the call for this meeting. I’m very sorry about the last minute change with location and plans and a big thanks to Harley for taking it upon himself and his pack at the very last minute. I’m impressed with the preparations and also grateful.” Ian began, bringing the space to silence and attention.

“I called for this meeting over a month ago to address the insistent attack of rogues on some of our packs and just our security in general. There have been complaints of rogue attack and compromising security situations from about three packs. Gabriel, Simon and Alex can you confirm that for me please?” Ian continued.

But my attention was taken away from the discussion when my phone began vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out, squinting when I saw Zayn’s name flash across the screen. A frown painted my face, he knew the time this meeting was slated to take place so why would he be calling? I pushed the button to end the call, sliding the phone back into my pocket and returning my attention back to the meeting.

Almost immediately, the phone began ringing again and my frown deepened, something had to be wrong or crazy urgent for him to be insistently calling and not just dropping a text.

“I’ll be right back. Zayn keeps calling and I think it might be important.” I whispered to Ian and he nodded his head, turning his attention back to one of the Alpha’s giving a report.

I walked hurriedly out of the office, picking up the call while making my way out to the back of the town hall.

“Zayn? This better be important. You know I’m in a meeting and how important the meeting in question is.”

“Of course it’s important. Listen, I was taking my rounds around the pack’s border and for some reason or maybe for lack of anything better to do, I decided to take a run through the woods beyond the border. Now this is not the first time I’m doing this but Giovanni was feeling extra restless today and we took it a bit too far into the woods and stumbled across this really small almost decapitated place.” Zayn explained.

“What? Who would be living so far into the woods? Was it deserted?” I asked.

“I had thought it was, especially since it was very hidden from view and if you didn’t know what you were looking for it’d be easy to miss, but then I decide to just check it out since Giovanni refused to just leave the scene. Ethan when I enter this place, I swear to the goddess it’s like someone’s home. It’s nothing like the outside, it’s well kept, it’s neat, it’s, dare I say, beautiful! It’s hard to imagine why anyone would keep the outside looking so disgusting and then make the inside a home, it’s almost like it’s the plan. You know what I mean?”

“Yes, did you find it’s owner? Or something to identify them with? You know, a picture?” I asked, already subconsciously walking down the road before me anxiously.

“No, I didn’t. Not a single thing to identify them, not even a scent. I can’t tell who it belongs to, but I did find something though, something even creepier. I found pictures. Hundreds of pictures of Aurora, some of the shots had Ian in them, but most of them had only Aurora. It was almost like a shrine of pictures. And they date to a while back too. Most of the pictures were not recently taken.”

“What? Who would have gotten them? Someone’s been stalking them? For this long?”

“My exact thought. I’ve been trying to figure it out myself and that’s why I called you, I’m still standing here right now, in what looks like a bedroom or is supposed to be a room but it’s just filled with pictures of Aurora and I don’t even know what it’s supposed to mean.” Zayn said and I could hear the distress in his voice from thinking too hard about the entire situation.

“Get out of there Zayn. Get some guards posted around the house but make sure they keep a low profile, if whoever it is finds out that they are being watched then we know it’s goodbye. We also have to be careful. If there’s no profile or scent then it’s even more dangerous cause we can’t even tell who or what they are. I’m not going to tell Ian about this right now cause he’ll just freak out and start heading home and we have to stay back for the feast tonight and also the last meeting tomorrow, but as soon as we’re back, we’ll try to figure everything out, okay?” I said reassuringly.

“Yeah, of course. Take care.” Zayn said, cutting off the call before I could even respond, causing me to roll my eyes.

Typical.

I couldn’t believe I had wandered away from the hall during the conversation, I had been on edge and that explained it and with a sigh I turned around to start heading back when I bumped into someone.

“Oh s**t. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I asked.

It was a girl, a really small girl and I couldn’t tell if she was just shy or upset but she kept her face bowed down and mostly bent to pick up her food items that had rolled out of her basket. I hurriedly joined her, chasing after the onions that had rolled out of the basket.

Once it was all complete, I offered the last of it back to her along with a smile, and a small part of me hoped she would at least raise her head to acknowledge it but she didn’t. Instead she muttered a thanks and hurried quickly away.

I stood for a couple of seconds more, just watching her go and I was about to turn around and be on my way when she turned around, probably thinking I had walked away already.

And when I caught sight of her face, all the air in me seemed to escape my lungs.

Aurora?