The same chauffeured car that had driven Logan and Casper away brought them back. It was on the same day that the maid had seen the tattoo on Aella's shoulder.

Logan quickly stepped down from the car with his beta Casper. He was in better spirits than when he had left. The mere two days that he had spent away from his pack had left a physical and emotional strain on him. And the strain he had gotten from being physically separated from Aella had been worse. On the journey down south, he had suffered a terrible headache and moodiness. The physical strain had reduced tremendously the moment the chauffeured car had driven past the border of the pack.

Right now, it felt good to be back.

He crossed the pack house lawn from where the car had been packed and walked to the front door, where Jesse his gamma was waiting for him.

"Welcome back, Alpha Logan. And a good afternoon to you." Jesse said, all smiles.

"Good afternoon to you too, Jesse. I trust you're good?" Logan asked.

"Yes, I am, Alpha."

"And I trust the pack has been in order and safe hands since I left. Yeah?" Logan added.

A fleeting look passed across the gamma's face. Almost like a shadow, easily missed, but Logan had caught it. He watched a quarter of the smile fall from the man's face, but Jesse quickly rearranged his expression before Logan could recognize it.

"The pack is safe, Alpha." Jesse said curtly.

The three men turned and walked into the pack house, entering the foyer. The first thing Logan noticed when he entered the foyer was the maids that were hanging around in twos and threes and whispering. A sound echoed in his ears like drums beating and for a second, he felt his hope fall. But then he reminded himself of the three hundred warriors he had been able to gather to his side, and his spirit lifted again.

As he stepped into the foyer, the whispers stopped and he felt several eyes on him. He walked across the foyer with Jesse and Casper at his side. He issued commands to his gamma.

"Arrange for a meeting with the Head Wolves immediately. They need to be updated about the recent improvements." Logan said.

Logan felt rather than saw Jesse's steps falter. Jesse stopped walking and Logan turned to him. "Any problem, Jesse? You have been looking disturbed."

"N-nothing at all, Alpha. It's all good." Jesse stammered. 

Logan narrowed his eyes. He knew that there was more to this than meets the eye. "Jesse, did something happen? Are you hiding things from me?"

Jesse paused for a second, then sighed heavily. "I cannot tell you much, Alpha, but I can tell you this. There have been a few changes in the pack since you left.

"What changes? Jesse!" Logan called but the gamma had hurried off as though the alpha's words were chasing him. Logan turned to his beta who had been silent all through this with a bewildered look.

The alpha immediately knew that something was wrong. He continued walking with Casper, his mind suddenly disturbed. He decided to go and take a shower before the meeting, and after bidding Casper farewell, walked to his own room.

Aella wasn't in the room, but he could smell her sweet scent like temple incense. His affinity and longing for her seemed to have grown since he left, so much so that he could pick up her scent even when she wasn't in the room.

He stood for several seconds, sniffing her cinnamon scent, then smiled to himself. He pulled off his sweaty clothes and loosed his ponytail, then padded naked to the bathroom. He had a very long cold shower, then toweled his body and walked out of the bathroom.

He threw on something comfortable: a black hoodie that smelled so strongly of Aella, and a pair of drawstring pants. He then walked out of the room and towards the strategy room.

On getting to the strategy room, he walked in. "Good morning, Lycans. We–" He started to say, but he was cut short by the sight in front of him. He frowned and looked around the room in confusion. 

Only four men were on seat, out of the twelve head wolves. And out of those four were Casper and Jesse.

"What's going on? Where are the remaining Head Wolves? I thought I asked everyone to be on seat." Logan then turned to Jesse. "Jesse, what was the instruction I gave you?"

Jesse slowly stood up. "To tell all the Head Wolves to converge at the strategy room for a meeting. I did tell them, alpha."

"So why is the room this scanty?" Logan asked. The room was silent and there was tension in the room, as tight as the strings of a guitar.

"Where are the rest of them? Where's Elias, Jacob, Conan and all the others?" Logan asked the room in general, but nobody came forth with an answer. He sighed and tried to diffuse his anger, then walked to the head of the table and sat down.

"I'll deal with them later." He spoke. "For now, we have more pressing issues to deal with. Following the conclusion of our last meeting where Louve my cousin volunteered to help us with her father's warriors, I travelled down south to have a meeting with Alpha Rohan of the South Pack. He agreed to grant us 700 able-bodied men out of his pack warriors, which will arrive at our beck and call, anytime we need them." He paused, then nodded at Casper to continue.

Casper stood up and cleared his throat. "Once the warriors of the South Pack arrive, we'll use them as our backup plan of sorts. Our own warriors will be at the forefront of the battle, when it happens. The rogue pack would think it's just us, then we'll spring up with the South Pack warriors just when they think they're winning. That way, they won't be able to predict our next moves."

There was a short silence, then one of the two Head Wolves coughed and raised his hand. Logan gestured for him to speak up. 

"Don't you think all of this is a waste of time?" The wolf asked.

"What do you mean?" Logan answered with a question of his.

"No matter what we do, the rogue pack still has enough strength to wipe us off the face of this earth. There's nothing we can do about that." The wolf chuckled bitterly and added under his breath. "And it's not like you have any legitimate right to order us around anyway."

Logan breathed heavily with rage and leaned forward on the table till he was eye to eye with the wolf. "Tell that to your wife and kids at home, Isaiah." He growled. "Tell them a rogue pack will come and wipe them off the face of the earth because you're too pessimistic to see any optimism in anything." He stood up from the table and walked away in anger without another word.

How dare Elias and the rest, he thought. What gave them the confidence to skip a council meeting in a time of crisis like this?

Logan did not have to look far before meeting the rest of the Head Wolves. They were seated in the foyer, all enjoying drinks and laughing. Immediately Logan walked in, and they all fell silent. 

"What is this?" Logan asked, his voice quiet but deadly. "What is this audacity?"

"Well, well. If it isn't our dear Alpha. “Elias stood up and came to face Logan. 

"Why were you all absent from the meeting?" Logan asked. "I specifically told everyone to be present, did I not?"

"Yes, you did. But we don't care about your stupid meeting." Elias growled. "We don't care about your useless plans, and neither do we care about you, Alpha Logan."

"As alpha, I command—"

Elias stared into the alpha's eyes without flinching. "We would not be led by an alpha whose mother was part of the rogue wolves that are trying to end our pack."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Logan asked menacingly.

"What it means, is that your days are numbered in this pack, Logan." Elias said, his eyes smoldering. "You won't be alpha again very soon. Mark my words."