Chapter 20: CHAPTER TWENTY

As Adam drove home, he wondered what could have been the emergency at the pack for his best friend to call him to return home that quickly. He looked at the wristwatch on his wrist and saw that the time was already a little past six in the evening. He figured out that by the time he would get to Machairas forest to the deep of the Larnaca where his pack had made their home, it would already be past 9 PM and that was if he drove fast enough. Otherwise, he would get home sometime around ten or eleven late in the night.

It was even a good thing that he wasn't already in the city or the club when Ian's call had come in. While he might not have heard his phone ring if he was already inside, the long drive back home was the main reason he would have been worried about it. From the pack house to the city took about six hours long drive and while it wasn't that no one lived close to his pack, they were fewer and manageable compared to the bustling city life.

The town where Adam's father had made the pack nestled their home had only a handful of villagers living in them and these villagers knew about the existence of the werewolves. In exchange for their loyalties, the Colven pack protects the town dweller from any danger they could have encountered. The loyalty between them worked like an unbreakable covenant. Once the town dweller found any suspicious movement that could harm the werewolves, they alerted them instantly. The werewolves in turn took out those threats that could have hurt either of the two parties.

After the death of his father, Adam had made them trust him and relied on his ability to be able to protect them far beyond what they thought was possible as protection. He also saw to the needs of the town when it comes to feeding and schooling. He currently has approximately twenty children he sponsors to school in the city. He also had six widows he took care of along with their other children. To cut the long story short, Adam had done better than he thought even his father could and the town dweller had proved that they knew how to repay a kindness.

If Ian hadn't assured him that everything was well at the pack, Adam's thoughts might still be stuck on the fact that perhaps Lead pack had truly attacked them, but he also knew that matter how disarrayed the town dwellers were, they still would have alerted Adam over any strange occurrence that seemed to occur there. The threat might not even be for the pack but for the town; still, Adam always found a way to stop the threats because he knew that the threat could move from the town to his pack house.

Still, Adam was a little worried about what was going on with the pack. Even more, he was worried about how far away from the pack he was and had no single idea about what could have been the matter. Yes, Ian had assured him that everything was good but Adam knew that his beta would not have called if something beyond his capacity hadn't happened and that was exactly the reason why he was worried. His phone beeped to indicate that he had a message and Adam took it from the stand to check what it was. He opened it the moment he saw that it was from the town leader's assistant.

Alpha Adam, a weird-looking lady just came around the town asking weird questions about the pack. We tried to hold her down but no one knew where she went.

A weird lady had been looking for him? Adam thought. Had she found the pack? Was that why Ian asked him to report back home as soon as he could? Adam thought about any of his lady friends could have gone to his pack house to look for him but no name came to mind. Much as he loved carousing with women, he had never given out his identity to any of them. Heck, he had never even given them his real name nor did he go by an alias that they could easily link him with. The protection of his pack was more important to him than nights of promiscuousness.

He dialed Ian's number to ask the man exactly what had happened but his beta refused to pick it up during the first ring. Adam called back again three more consecutive times but Ian still didn't respond to the call. Adam became very worried about the pack. What if something had happened and Ian had only lied to him so that he would not panic? Adam switched to the number of the town leader's assistant and when the man picked up even before the first ring was over, Adam relaxed a little.

"Alpha," the town leader's assistant said as a greeting.

"Rex, who did you say was looking for me?" Adam asked without even bothering to return the older man's greetings.

"An odd lady, Alpha. She kept saying that she was your mate and it was important she got to your family. I called our leader to report the matter but he didn't pick up and we didn't know where she went," Rex explained.

Dread washed over Adam. An odd woman who claimed to be his mate? What were the chances that it could be the one woman that came to Adam's mind?

"Ian is probably busy. Could you describe the woman?" Adam told the man.

"Yes. Bronze hair, slim body, and some kind of black beady eye colors that made her stand out," Rex told Adam.

"Oh, shit!" Adam screamed into the phone in horror as his thought was confirmed.

"Is there a problem, Alpha?" the assistant asked him.

"Just in case you see her again, let me know immediately," Adam ordered the man and hung up.

Adam dropped the phone and let it fall wherever he could. He increased the speed of the car and heard as the engine of his BMW roared in joy. If Sarah was in his pack house, then he had to hurry over to the place. Knowing Sarah as he did, he was sure that the woman would say something wrong if she had the chance. Also, knowing how his mother was, he knew that Sarah would be having a hard time breaking free from his mother's web if the woman decided to unleash her true self.

Adam broke the record of the three hours’ drive to two hours as he packed in front of the town leader's house. From then on, he embarked on the rest of the journey on foot. As he channeled his inner wolf strength to add to his speed, Adam kept praying in his heart that all would be at peace when he got to the pack house. At some point, his wolf even whispers to him to change so that the wolf can cover more ground than Adam would on foot. Adam guessed that even the wolf was worried about their mate but he couldn't shift. If he did, he would lose all the clothes he had on him. And with how worried he was about Sarah and his pack house, he was sure that he wouldn't bother to wear any other clothes before he demanded to know what was going on.

Instead of shifting as his wolf wanted, Adam resorted to sprinting the rest of the way. When he got home, he stood still for a moment to regain his composure. He also calmed his nerves down so that he wouldn't commit murder when he saw Sarah because as much as he was worried about her, he was also very angry at her. Once his mind was at rest that she was out of danger, she was going to explain to him what gave her the audacity to come to his pack house without his permission. He pushed the door open and the first person he saw was his mother on the phone, telling someone about Sarah being a vampire.

"Mom, where is she?" Adam asked his mother immediately.

Alicia turned around when she heard a voice. When he saw Adam standing there, she got off the phone. "Where is who?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

Adam's anger rose at his mother. If she was acting ignorant about who he was talking about, it meant that his mother had taken a rash move toward Sarah. He saw Ian walk up to the two of them and he spoke.

"Ian, where is Sarah?" Adam asked, even before his beta got to them.

"In the dungeon, Alpha," Ian answered.

Adam saw his mother eyed his beta but the other man shrugged it off. "Call a meeting of the pack's elders. I want all of them at the hall in fifteen minutes flat. Including you, Mom," Adam commanded.

"On it, Alpha," Ian said and went away.

"Son, she's a vampire," his mother told him, as if she thought that he wasn't aware of that little fact himself.

Adam didn't bother to respond and went straight to the hall. When he had cut Sarah off his life about a month ago, this had been what he had been trying to escape. He went to his seat and sat down to await the assembly of his elders. In the fifteen minutes deadline he gave them, everyone was already standing in the hall.

"Which one of you threw that woman into the dungeon despite knowing that she was my mate?" Adam asked them as he let his eyes burrow into them one after the other.

"She's a vampire," his mother repeated to justify their actions.

"Yes, Alpha. How can a vampire be your mate?" one of the elders spoke up to support Alicia.

"Yes, she is a vampire and yes, she is my mate. Don't you all think that I know that?" Adam responded with fury.

"True, that's why I said that your mate was dead," the priest spoke up.

"Well, she's not getting out of prison. Not on my watch," Alicia said.

"Mom, the fact that she is my Luna should have made you respect her," Adam said, nearly screaming at his mother.

"But, she is not yet your Luna. This means that she is still nobody in the pack," his mother retorted.

"Mom!" Adam screamed and slammed his hands on the hand of the golden chair he sat on.

"You are never going to be with her, not while I am still around," Alicia said again.

"But, she's the Alpha's mate," one of the elders spoke up.

"Then, he had better start thinking about getting a new mate because there is no way I'm accepting that dead woman as my daughter-in-law," Alicia spat.

"Mom, I'm warning you," Adam told his mother.

By now, he was far beyond annoyed or even furious that he felt he could murder someone. Even his wolf was screaming into his head to be let out so that he could tear everyone in the hall into pieces. Even his mother who should be supporting him was against him. Heck, she was the instigator of others and that agitated him. How could his mother think that the best way to help him was through putting an innocent soul in the dungeon?

He didn't blame her though, he blames the same who had thought that revealing herself to his pack was the best solution she could come up with. He even blamed her the more for thinking that the best way introduces herself was by telling everyone that she was a vampire without even knowing how those people would react to the news. Adam knew that she was a little gullible but he hadn't thought that her level of gullibility would be that much.

"But, do you want her as your Luna?" his omega asked.

"What I do with my mate is nobody's business," the Alpha said in response.

"It is our business since she could end up being our Luna, so we need to know where our faith lies at such a crucial time like this," his mother said with indignation in her voice that nearly made Adam grunt.

Adam knew that he had to put an end to all that was going on, otherwise, Sarah would never be able to get out of the mess again. Even if she somehow got herself free, her status would always be threatened by the people he called his pack elders. He pointed a finger at everyone in the hall and each person bowed in fear as his finger landed on them. When he was sure that he already had their attention to the fullest, he dropped the finger and spoke to them.

"All I'm going to say is, go and release her now," Adam commanded.

"Yes, Alpha," the elder that had taken her to the dungeon responded and went out immediately.

"And, I don't ever want to see this scenario repeat itself," the Alpha commanded and everyone in the hall bowed their heads in acknowledgment of his command. "Now, dismiss."

After everyone was gone, Alicia went over to Adam. Her eyes promised trouble as she stared at her son's eyeballs to eyeballs. Adam looked at her without blinking and she recoiled in anger at being humiliated in front of the other pack elders.

"Don't think I would ever let her stay in this house. If you've been thinking that I would take the thought of your mind," Alicia told his son. Without waiting for any response from him, she puffed and went out of the hall.

Adam watched as his mother walked out of the hall, every step she took indicated that she was very much angry over how he had used his authority to override hers. He knew that even though his mother was angry now, all he had to do was just to get her a very expensive gift and the anger would disappear out of the door in the instance.

"Is something funny in all that has happened?" Ian asked him.

Adam erased the smile from his face immediately. True, there was nothing funny about what had happened. Beneath the smile he had just exhibited, Adam was very angry at Sarah for making him clash heads with the elders of his clan. He wondered if she had stopped to think about how her actions would have affected every party involved. Given the situation at hand, Adam was sure that she hadn't even laughed to think about it even a second.

"She didn't cause any trouble other than coming here," Ian said in her defense.

"Yeah, and revealing her identity to the entire pack," Adam added with a sarcastic voice.

"Alpha," his beta called as a warning when Adam stood up.

Adam shrugged at his beta. He was angry, alright. He was also going to reprimand her, no lies about that. But one thing he would not be doing was letting her off the book that easily. She had to realize that life is not only about oneself when making decisions.

"Adam," Ian called again in a warning tone.

"Whatever. Let's go, she should be out by now and I need to talk to her," Adam said and went to the door. Ian raised his hands in defeat and followed after the Alpha.