There was an uncomfortable silence among the men as she walked in. They all stared at her like she was an alien who had fallen from the roof, until one of them men cleared his throat and spoke: "Uh, help us how?" He asked.

"I'm glad you asked, gentleman." She said and spread her hands. "My mother who is the former alpha's sister got mated to a Lycan from a southern pack. Because of this, she had to move over to Southern U.S to live with her mate. That was where I was born and bred too. But despite I've been around the world for a better part of my life, I still hold claim there and I can summon my fellow Lycans from that pack when I need their help. I could call on them to join us in battle against the rogues." She said.

All the make wolves stared at her in shock. Louve could clearly read the expressions on their faces and she knew that they were all surprised that a mere woman could come up with a solution where they had all failed. She smirked in self-appraisal. So much for "women should not take part in battle plans."

She leaned forward and placed both hands on the table, staring at each of the men in turn. "So," She said. "What do you all say to that?"

Logan stared at his cousin with awe. He had never been so proud of her since they had known each other. Right now she simply oozed confidence. She had succeeded where all of them had failed.

"Wow, that's an impressive suggestion Louve." He commended her and she gave a mock bow, smiling from ear to ear. Logan turned to the men who still wore expressions of shock. "Do we all agree to this or does anyone have a better suggestion?"

The man who had insisted that the rogue wolf be killed, stood up and pointed a threatening finger at Louve and Logan. "She's a woman!" He yelled. "She shouldn't be giving any of us here suggestions like she owns the pack. Why should she be the one to profer solutions like we're all halfwits here?"

"And you are truly a halfwit for what you just said, Elias!" Casper said and stood up to face the man. "How does her gender make her less than any of us here? She has a brain too, doesn't she? And from what I can see, her brain certainly has more intelligent cells to spare than yours." 

The man was immediately shut up by that statement from Casper. Logan looked at Louve to see her reaction at all of this and he saw that she was looking at Casper with all the admiration in the whole world. He had stood up for her without any fear of condemnation. The alpha could clearly see the happiness on her face.

He looked back at the seated head wolves. "I repeat, do we all agree with what Louve here suggested, or does any of us have a better suggestion?"

The men all murmured their nos. The man called Elias only folded his arms and looked away as though he had something to say but he would rather not say it. 

Logan hoped for his sake that he did not say anything about Louve not being capable enough to contribute to Council meetings because she was a woman. He was planning on showing a few of the man's teeth the good side of his fist.

The issue of females being represented on the Council of Head Wolves was one that had been dragged back and forth on this council for long. Most of the head wolves were archaic old men who believed that female wolves existed only to bear pups and take care of their households. They could not imagine that a woman would have the intelligence to sit and make decisions on behalf of a pack, let alone lead the pack.

Logan's mind immediately went to Aella and he thought of her in a fond way; her stubborn soul and resilient spirit. If she was in the Council she would easily give all the men including himself a run for their money.

But he quickly pushed all thoughts of Aella from his head. It was no use thinking about her fondly now. He still wasn't sure of what to do about her. She was his mate, but she might also be planning to kill him and the members of his pack. It was like two different animals fighting within him for space.

He quickly snapped himself from his reverie and faced the seated wolves again. "Okay, so I will work with my cousin on how to convince her father to release his wolves to fight with us. Now that that has been settled, I am sure there is no other issue to be discussed. This meeting has hereby been adjourned till further notice." He said and stood up from his chair. The other wolves followed his lead and filed out of the room, murmuring and talking between themselves.

Casper, Louve and Logan waited behind in the room. When the head wolves had all left the room, Louve turned to her cousin.

"So should I call my father and tell him about it, or should I ask him for a physical meeting?" She asked.

"Well, I think a physical meeting would be better. Or what do you think, Casper?" He turned to his beta and saw that the man was staring at his mate with all the attention and awe he could muster.

"Anything you agree on is fine by me, Alpha." Casper said, his eyes still on Louve. Logan turned to his cousin to see if she had noticed the looks that Casper was throwing at her, but she paid no heed to him. Logan guessed that they were still not fully reconciled after their fight.

Louve nodded to Logan and walked out of the room. On her way, she passed Casper who reached out to grab her hand, but she let it slip through his fingers and left him stretching his hand out at her. Even after she had left, Casper kept staring at the door as though he was itching to run after her.

"Casper!" Logan called to get his attention and the man gave a small start, turning back to his alpha.

"I'm sorry, Logan. It's just..." 

"Yeah, I get you. You don't have to explain yourself." Logan cut him off. "Didn't yo try to reconcile with her?" He asked.

"I did. I also explained that I said all those things because I didn't want her joining us in battle and getting herself hurt or killed, but she said that my words had really hurt her and she needed time to think."

"I told you, Casper." Logan replied. "I told you just before you got married that Louve might seem like a happy-go-lucky person but deep down, she is very sensitive. It would take some time for her to come around."

Casper nodded and fell silent for a while, then spoke up again. "So have you found anything new about the tattoos and all that apart from the stuff I already know?"

"Well...no." Logan confessed. He rubbed his eyes tiredly with his fingers.

"Wait." Casper said, sitting up suddenly. "Have you tried checking the archives?"

"No, I haven't." He replied. The two men stared at each other for a few seconds, tension building between them. Then, as though being controlled by a single thought, they stood up together and raced towards the door, throwing it open and dashing towards the library. Once there, they saw a maid who was cleaning the books on the shelves.

Logan grabbed her shoulders and shook her, yelling in her face "Where's the archives? Where's the archives?!"

She squeaked like a scared mouse and pointed to a locked door on the left side. Logan let go of her and ran towards the door, Casper hot on his heels. He threw open the door and was faced with a roomful of cartons upon cartons of papers and files.

"Where do we start from now?" He asked.

"Anywhere, I guess." Casper replied. Then they both pounced on the papers and started tearing through them like hungry lions through the skin of their prey. They continued to search and search until suddenly, Logan's fingers met with a particular sheaf of papers, held together by rusty pins and water stains on its papers. He flipped through its pages and was about to throw it away like the others when his eyes stumbled upon something.

"Casper! Casper, come see this." He yelled. Casper ran to him and peered over his shoulders.

It was a journal of an Alpha Tate from 1959. And on the right page were scrawled the following words:

"On this day, 12th of June 1959. three wolves found dead at border. Beaten and butchered. One with a tattoo. Crescent with a circle around it."