"Any news about the Staint Claire pack?" Asked Conner, Alpha of the Olden pack.
"No Alpha, nothing to report yet. Their compound is shut tighter than ever before," reported Christian, Connor's Second.
"We need to find a way in. They must have a weakness that we can exploit. This is really starting to piss me off!" Connor's fits of anger made the windows in his cabin reverberate.
"We're trying out best, Alpha. We're sending out our best Scouts but they come back with no news at all." Christian hated giving Connor bad news. He knew that it would make Connor all riled up and riddle him with anger.
"Then I'm going out there myself!" Shouted Connor, as he rose from his chair, pushing it so hard that it slammed into the cabin wall, "if you want something done right then you clearly have to do it yourself!" His face was blood red with anger. He had been waiting for so long for his Scouts to one day come back with good news. But nothing. They always came back empty-handed.
Half of the pack could hear Connor's screams from his cabin and it made them tremble. They hated seeing their Alpha angry, but it seemed to be happening more often than usual lately.
Every time a Scout came back with no news Connor would go off. No one even dare walk past his cabin in case Connor decided to come out and they got in his way. That would surely mean close death for them.
Connor had always been an angry Alpha. Never with a smile on his face. Always in battle mode and always trying to find a way into the Saint Claire pack. No one really knew why he was so hell-bent on breaking that pack up. He just was.
He had no mate which made him even angrier for he was desperately looking for his Luna. Could she possibly be part of the Saint Claire pack? The chances were high as there was no one in his pack that even came close to the Luna that he was looking for.
"I'm coming with you," said Christian as he rose from his chair and followed his Alpha outside. "We'll put a party together and go out there in force. There has to be a way to infiltrate their camp. It can't be impenetrable, that's just ridiculous.
Christian made quick business of getting a search party together. He'd invited some Trackers, some Beta's, and some Scouts. Only the cream of the crop was coming with their Alpha. They had put together their strongest team ever and they would come home with answers come hell or high water.
Connor's pack wasn't a huge one. Not as huge as Blakes. It was about half the size, if that.
Everyone in the Olden pack seemed so unhappy, angry, or sad all of the time. Their Alpha's anger obviously rubbed off on them.
The Saint Clarie pack on the other hand was a happy and secure one. They were a close-knit community and cared deeply for one another.
The Olden pack couldn't care less about their neighbor. Each one out for themselves. How else would they act, having an Alpha like Connor.
Connor and his men readied themselves.
"There are no weak sides to their compound," stated Christian as he bent over the map laid out on Connor's desk. "They only have one entrance and exit, but it's highly guarded with only their best Beta fighters. Those bastards are huge and don't mess around."
That was not the news that Connor was wanting to hear. "There must be another way in. We just need to think strategically about it."
"The only way of getting in would be to turn one of their own on them, which was a slim chance. They are such a close community that they have no weak links at all. I've been trying for months to get one of them to turn and have had no luck." Christian was also getting pissed off that the Olden pack wasn't able to gain entrance to the Saint Claire pack.
Connor had it in his head that his pack was strong enough to take on Blake's. He was thinking like a madman. There was no way that his fighters were any match for Blakes. Blake's men were highly trained machines. Even the weakest one of them was stronger than three of the best of Connor's men.
Frustration was starting to get the better of Connor and he wasn't thinking straight.
"We need to think carefully about our attack, Alpha." Warned Christian but that only upset Connor even more.
"Do you want to be the Alpha and call the shots?" He blasted Christian, but Christian just backed off for he would never go against the will of his Alpha. "You should hate Blake and Jax just as much as I do. Have you forgotten about Jax wanting Melody for his own? You know that he hasn't mated yet. How would you feel if he got his way and mated with Melody before you could?"
This riled Christian up and he was ready for blood. Exactly how Connor wanted him to be. He loved riling his men up before a hunt. He felt that it made them more conniving and brutal. Exactly how a wolf should be.
Pierce, the Second of Connor's just stood and listened. He thought that it was utter madness on Connor's behalf to take his best men into a fight that they would surely lose.
"Are you sure about this, Alpha?" Asked Pierce eventually. If we take our best men with us then our pack is left vulnerable to any attack by neighboring packs, something we don't want.
Connor saw the reasoning in what Pierce had to say but still wanted his best men on the hunt.
"We need to hit them hard, Pierce. We need to hit them where it hurt. We need to beat them in their own camp. How humiliating wouldn't that be!" Excitement oozed from Connor's pours and it only fired the other men up even more. Pierce was however the only one who stayed level-headed. He knew that they were walking into a blood bath but he had no way of talking his Alpha down.
When Connor had an idea he didn't let go. He was like a dog with a bone. Something Pierce saw as a weak spot of him as an Alpha. An Alpha should always keep a level head on himself. He should never let his emotions get in the way of running a successful pack. Something they definitely weren't.
Pierce knew that he could do a much better job at being Alpha than Connor, but he wasn't strong enough to fight Connor for the Alpha spot. There was still much for Pierce to learn and he needed to be as strong as he possibly could.
Pierce trained each day with the goal of taking over as Alpha fueling his every session. He trained day and night. He was a man on a mission and he would see it through even if it killed him.
Pierce was also happy that his Alpha was so lax with his own safety by going out to the Saint Claire pack, looking for a fight. Connor stood a good chance of being killed and that would be Pierce's chance to take over and run things the way he knew they should be. He knew that he would do a much better job than Connor. Connor was running them into ruin. Putting their pack in danger when he should always be keeping their best interests at heart.
Pierce slyly grinned to himself as Connor went on with putting his plan together and rounding up his strongest fighters in the pack. Pierce knew that the expedition wouldn't end up in Connor's favor and to be honest he didn't mind.
An injured Alpha is a weak Alpha, and no pack wants a weak Alpha.
There was nothing that Connor could do if the pack turned against him, listened to Pierce, and chose him as their Alpha instead.