The Luna's Betrayal

Chapter 11

Aaron's POV

After parting ways with Sierra, I went to my office to see what had piled up while I was gone. Since Caleb had been so preoccupied with Danny and now that she was actively in labor, I was having my Gamma Ernest fill in for him for a couple of months.

"Ernest, anything important I need to know now that I'm back?"

"A couple things, Alpha, I'll come to your office to fill you in."

"Thank you." I entered my office, seeing a large stack of paperwork that needed my attention. Sitting down at my desk, I pulled the first file towards me and began reading through it, signing where I needed to. A few minutes later, Ernest knocked on the door of my office.

"Come in," I called, continuing to go through my large stack of paperwork.

"Alpha," he said, closing the door behind him. "How was your trip?"

"It was good, exhausting, but I think over all it went well."

"That’s good," he commented, taking a seat across from me. "We've missed you around here."

"What did you have to tell me?"

"Well, first, there wasn’t a crazy amount that happened while you were gone, as I’m sure Luna Sierra told you. Construction has been going well on all our new buildings and it looks like Nathan has them ahead of schedule."

"That’s great news."

"We had a small fire in the north, but it looks like it was just some young pups playing with things they shouldn't. There was no sign that it was rogues or anything like that."

"Okay, Sierra didn't mention that to me."

"Probably because it turned out to be nothing. I'm sure she would have told you if it was bigger. There is something else." He hesitated for a moment, which was strange. Glancing up from my papers, I looked to see his green eyes looking from me to his hands, like he didn't want to say what he had to. One reason Ernest didn't have more to do as the Gamma was because he lacked the ability to have difficult conversations. I kept him as my Gamma because he did a good job, and Caleb and I were more than capable of taking on the authority.

"What is it?" I asked, setting my pen down to give him my full attention.

"We just received word that we’re to host the Alpha Summit next month."

"What the he**!" Cole blurted out.

"What?! I don't understand, everything was ready to go at Midnight River. Why would they change the location at the last minute? Hasn’t everything already been arranged?"

"Apparently, there was a flood that came through the pack after some heavy rainfall. A lot of their pack house was flooded. No one was injured though. We just received a call from Alpha Connor informing us of the change today. He seemed to think our pack was the next best choice." He ran his hands through his dark brown hair, which he kept cut short.

"And there’s no changing it?" I asked.

"It doesn’t seem that way. Apparently, all the other Alpha's have agreed to the change, they said it was our turn to host after Midnight Run. Alpha Connor said he’d send over all the necessary information."

"It would have been nice to be included in that conversation. We’ve never held an event like this before."

"I know, but I have faith that you and Luna Sierra will be able to pull it off."

"He’s got a lot of confidence in us," Cole remarked.

"It doesn’t matter, we don’t really have a choice except to try and make this work. Not having Caleb is going to be difficult."

"Is there anything you need me to start on?" Ernest asked.

"Let’s start with getting all the information from Alpha Connor. Make sure he gives us a timeline of the events, guest lists, menu if one has been set, accommodation preferences, that sort of thing," I told him. "I want everything they have."

"Yes, Alpha. I’ll go call him and have him email everything over." He got up to leave.

"Thank you, Ernest. And thank you for stepping into the Beta roll while Caleb is with Danny. You've been doing a great job so far."

"It’s my pleasure, Alpha. How is she doing?"

"Good, we still have a few hours left, but we should have a new member for the pack in a matter of hours."

"Very exciting for both of them. I know how long they’ve tried for this. I’ll go make those phone calls." He exited my office, and I sat back in my chair, turning to look out the French doors behind me. If I was going to pull this off so quickly, I was going to need all the help I could get.

"Sierra, are you busy?"

"Just busy kicking Austin's a**," she laughed.

"Good job! Are you guys almost finished?"

"Probably," she grunted.

"Can you come to my office when you are? I need to talk to you."

"Sure, anything I should be worried about?"

"No, I don't think so. Just some surprising news."

"Got it, be there soon!" I laughed to myself as I could hear the moves she was using just by the strain of her voice. Once I was over halfway through my stack of papers, I opened my computer to see if the emails I wanted had been sent over yet.

"We should call Alpha Connor ourselves and ask him if they can select another pack," Cole suggested.

"I thought about it, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. We have to deal with what's been done." Some emails were beginning to come through. One was the guest list; opening it I saw over 300 people who were to be invited. We had never had that many outside people in our pack before.

The invitations needed to be sent out immediately, and the only way I saw to do it so quickly was through email, which wasn't the most formal, but it was what we had to do. Luckily, the guest list had an email for every Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and family to be invited. I spent the next several minutes designing an invitation and getting it ready to be sent out. The door to my office opened, and Sierra walked in looking very sweaty and flushed, but also beaming. Austin wasn’t far behind her, looking deflated but also amused. They were laughing about something as they walked through the door.

"I really thought I had you for a second there," he told her.

"Oh please, I only let you think that." They both took seats across from me, looking very pleased.

"Training go well?" I asked.

"I think so, I kicked this guy's butt," she said with a laugh.

"Of course, I had to let you win, all the young warriors were watching!" He joked. "They couldn't see their Luna losing to someone younger than her!"

"Yeah, keep thinking that!"

"Well, Austin, I wasn’t expecting you here but that’s actually a good thing, seeing as Danny and Caleb are not available."

"Why, what’s going on?" Sierra asked.

"So, Ernest just told me that Midnight River has had a recent flood and they’re not able to host this year's summit anymore. We’ve been selected as the new hosts."

"Wait, really? Why did they pick us?" Sierra asked in surprise.

"I’m not sure why they picked us as the alternative, but here we are. Alpha Connor called, and I’ve just received the guest list, with over 300 people on it, and the itinerary of events," I said, looking at the new email that just popped into my inbox.

"Holy sh*t," Austin said, surprised. "Was anyone hurt?'

"No, but now we only have a short window to get everything sorted. The change of location needs to be sent out immediately, so that’s what I’ve been working on. But we need to look over the timeline of events and there’s usually seminars at this type of thing, so we’re going to need rooms for those. I don’t know if we have any place large enough for this."

"Is everyone going to be spending the night here? I mean, this place is big but it can’t accommodate 300 people."

"I’ll block out some rooms at nearby hotels and arrange cars to drive everyone back and forth, because you’re right about that. Some of them will be bringing their mates and families, so those people will be in rooms together."

"Are we gonna be able to pull this off?" Sierra asked, sounding worried.

"We have to. I don’t want this to be something people complain about. We’ve never hosted anything like this, but that’s not gonna stop us."

"Do you have a menu or is that something we need to do?"

"It looks like one has already been made, we’ll just have to relay it to the kitchen along with the times of all the meals."

"Okay, print that out for me and I’ll go down to the kitchen now and take care of that," Sierra said.

"What normally happens at these types of things?" Austin asked.

"Usually, the first day is everyone arriving and getting settled. The second one is all about hearing any complaints from Alpha's or if they need help financially. There are seminars about how we can all become better leaders, that type of thing. And then, on the last day, there's a large ball-type dinner where everyone comes together to socialize and network. It's also a great way for unmated ranked members to meet their mates. Alpha's and Beta's will often bring their unmated children."

"It sounds like a big event," Austin commented as I handed the menu to Sierra that I had just printed.

"It is, but it’s a good thing to have every year so all the packs can stay in touch. It’s also a good time to exchange ideas. That is, the Alphas that are open to other people’s opinions exchange ideas. Some of these Alpha’s have very traditional ways of doing things,” I told him.

"This menu looks pretty good," Sierra added as she read. "I’ll go talk to the kitchen staff and let them know what’s going on." She stood up, walked around my desk to give me a kiss before going to leave the room. She stopped at the door and turned around.

"Austin, you coming?"

"Actually, I’ll stay here."

"Yeah, I need to talk to him about a few things anyway," I told her.

"Okay," she said with a smile as she left, closing the door softly behind her.