Chapter 1: The News

:Rhys:

"So you're telling me...I'm your potential mate?"

I knew she was lying the instant the words spilled from her lips.

"Y-yes" she stammered nervously, lowering her eyes to my feet.

"LEAVE!" I roared, my voice ricocheted off the walls, making it echo throughout the room. "Never, and EVER cross my path again. I'll let you live in my pack for now but this is your final warning. Out! Now!"

She whimpered under my command and scrambled out of my office like her tail was on fire. No one can disobey me when my wolf seeped into my voice.

I know I was being rude but being the alpha of the biggest and strongest pack in Asia, I couldn't afford to have any weaknesses. True she was pretty with her honey brown hair and green eyes but she was petite, even for an Asian wolf...or should I say Arabian wolf. She was weak and I mating with her would only weaken my pack. My Luna had to be strong enough to hold my pack together and suppress any rebellion inside or outside the pack, even during my absence. But a person who considers me a potential mate should’ve had the guts to look directly into my eyes before they made such a false assumption.

The wolves in this continent were smaller than normal and being descendents of that ancestry, our wolves were small too, compared to werewolf size. But what we lacked in size, we made up with our fierce strength and speed. I especially make sure every member of my pack is well trained both physically and mentally. Being desert wolves we were naturally ferocious and dominant, but that didn’t give anyone a reason to slack in their training. Anyone who did so would find themselves wondering alone in the endless Wahiba Sands.

Wolves have many potential mates. It is the wolf who decided whether someone was 'capable' of being with us or not. It is very much possible that a female wolf might feel attracted towards a dominant male wolf but the male’s wolf might not even acknowledge her. Both wolf's have to 'approve' of one another to become true mates. But in this case, the girl had been lying completely. Though I’m not sure if this ordeal was to escape bullying or simply to climb up the social ladder by trying to convince me to mate or at least keep her as a mistress.

My pack was located in Saudi Arabia, south of Nizwa, on the brink of the Wahiba Sands. The place is called 'Jever' which in Hindi means jewels. My pack is known as the WildRain.

"What happened this time?" Came the voice of my Second, Zyane Hudson.

I looked up from the papers on my desk as he came inside my office and settled on a chair right in front of me.

Zyane was about 6' 1", comparatively short to my 6' 3", with black hair and dark brown eyes. His hair was longish compared to my military cut and he also had a slight moustache which...frankly he was damn proud of.

"Potential mate shit," I growled low in my throat, the sound more animalistic than human.

"Ah!" he said with a knowing smirk, "Poor boss got another groupie?"

I growled again. Yes, that exactly was my problem. In the past couple years, these groupies had sprung out of nowhere and I had to deal with a new nuisance every day. When would they ever learn that being the most popular groupie in town won’t get them any extra pack benefits? But they were hell-bent on making my life a living hell. I didn't want a submissive mate who would listen and obey to whatever I say with their heads bowed, never fight back, never...challenge. Yes, challenge. That was exactly what I needed. Someone who would make me 'earn' their keep, not give in so willingly. Unfortunately, dominant females are very rare in our hierarchy. And the groupies were like puppets, trying to grab my attention so I could do with them as I please.

"Any news? Where's Jakia? And has Mehul returned yet?" I asked him about the pack mates who were under Zyane's command as soldiers. I needed to get my mind off the drama.

"Jakia's patrolling the outer perimeters during the night so she won't get any unnecessary tan," a snort and then, "Woman’s a pain in the ass but she’s also a damn good soldier. Mehul is out with Eric to finalize the construction deal with the MegaMart CEO about selling the dates in our own stores for once. And yes...there is...some news."

"What's with the long pauses?" I asked Zyane, who also happens to be my best friend. And that's why I knew something was up.

"Alpha Devon Solomon and Alpha Aiden Morgan called. They want to have a video conference with you," he answered simply but his shoulders were tense, because it wasn't often that the two of the most notorious packs wanted a video conference, much less together. Don’t get me wrong, they were thick as thieves but they were also greedy and power hungry, each trying to grab an opportunity before the other could get a whispe of it.

"Connect" I said, shoulders tensing. This couldn’t be good news.

Zyane booted up the laptop that sat on my desk and connected it to the large plasma screen on the opposite wall so that I was facing the screen directly. After adjusting the webcam and sound devices he proceeded to call.

A few short seconds later, the screen divided into two parts and the faces of the two Alphas came into view.

Devon was fare skinned with what we liked to call "pretty boy" looks, completed with blond hair and blue eyes; while Aiden had mocha skin and black hair and dark brown eyes. But both were equally powerful, dominant male wolves.

"You wanted a conference?" I asked, eyebrow raised, waiting to get this over with.

No doubt there was a female involved. Both were also equally big man whores and the competition between them was endless. But they usually complained to me separately; never together like they’re doing now.

"We...well...we have some news to share…" Devon said hesitantly.

I frowned. This was definitely not going to be good. "Go on."

"You know we have our spies on the China border, to make sure there are no rouges hiding in unusual places?" Aiden asked me.

"Yes" I said, "I left that for you to deal with. Don't tell me you’ve failed", my temper rose at the thought. We have enough roughs around already; we don't need more from India to cross over through China.

"No," he hesitated so Devon took over for him, "We had reports of a few female wolves in the Middle Himalayas...so we followed them."

"Wolves in the Middle Himalayas? But wolves are usually found in the southern or Lesser Himalayan ranges, not the Pir Panjal," I said confused.

"That's why we followed them by sending some of our best spies after them. We even kept a mind link so we would know what they found, but…" Aiden said and then, "…but out of the eight wolves that we sent...none returned. We lost total contact with them a few minutes ago." Devon finished.

A sense of dread settled in my stomach. Spies are specially trained to endure any kind of hardship. Typhoons, tornados or avalanches…they were trained to survive them all. The fact that eight of them were missing at the same time without any hint of a natural calamity was no joke.

"But," Devon said, "The last image we got through the mind link…before they…God I don’t even know if they’re dead...the link holds complete silence!” He chocked. I could understand what he was going through; spies were outstanding fighters, but more than that, it was the loss of several packmates that hurt the most. Pack was family. Pack came above everything else.

“What did they see?” I urged; this wasn’t just about curiosity; it was about detecting any new threats.

It was Aiden who finished that sentence. “The last things that our spies saw before the bond was terminated…was a white wolf."