Apologies for the long wait, here...you...go...

Chapter 31

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Serena saw the activity in the pack grim faced for the last two days truck after truck came in dropping off equipment, most of it she did not know what it was but some could not be more obvious, guns. Nothing like she had ever seen though, they looked heavy duty and she had no doubt the impact they would have on firing, one word came to her mind. Lethal.

Alex had been so busy for the last two days. They had made some progress, a truce of a kind between them but the mate bond did not bother with such silly things, it sang when he was near and twisted and pulled when he was away. She was learning to live with this new feeling in her, something she still had to get used to.

So, she stood there out of the way, like a mouse silently observing, trying to catch a glimpse of him in all the chaos out there, her eyes searching. All she saw was machines of war that made her stomach feel some sort of way. She felt ominous clouds hanging over her head like something bad was about to happen, she sighed softly and her eyes swept the surrounding's again. No Alex, disappointed she returned back to her room, she would try to distract herself with some mindless television.

***

"Are you crazy?!" The alpha thundered.

More alphas were brought in to the plan and their soldiers demanded by the American alphas, they already had close to two thousand men at Colorado border.

"Alpha can't you see the threat Roma poses, it needs to be neutralized" one of the council alphas reasoned.

"Can't you see the threat Roma is?" The alpha asked "You think killing Sebastian would stop Roma, if anything it would piss her off."

"She is but a girl, she is only effective because of Sebastian. Take him out and watch her empire fall like a stack of cards." Another alpha chipped in.

Alpha Collins watched the council wolves incredulously, were they for real?

"That's what Lockbourne thought and what did that get him? They are still scrubbing his brains off the damn council floor! You are underestimating Roma, it is not just one person or two, it's an empire, a well-oiled war machine...you....you were not there and I was there in Patrick Lockbourne's lands, you did not witness the destruction I witnessed, entire pack obliterated overnight, you think Patrick saw this coming. You cannot seriously think we could take it down by simply killing one person?" He said, hoping to reason with these mad men.

"What do you think we should do then?" one of the alphas asked tersely "She killed our council head in cold blood, she comes in to our country and wipes out an entire pack! She has humiliated us in front of the entire world, if we do nothing we will be perceived as weak all our leverage gone...our own alpha's will question this councils leadership, we need to take decisive action!"

"Yes take action but don't commit suicide...listen to me, launching an attack on her is a bad idea and you seem to be forgetting something, she is now the chair of the world council, she will isolate us and then obliterate us. We will lose everything." He said and looked at the other alphas in the room who had come to this meeting called by the council alphas.

Some of them shifted nervously and a slow murmur began.

The new head alpha got up "Gentlemen" he said killing all the conversation "let's look at the facts" he calmly added "While I appreciate and admire the courage of alpha Collins I believe he is wrong and let me tell you why with facts."

His gaze swept the packed room "Fact 1, Just a year ago the so called Roma was just an average female wolf in an obscure little pack in Colorado, she would never have been known if fate did not make her mate to Maxwell Roma."

He looked around at his audience who were paying him complete attention "So, she is no seasoned alpha who can run a pack let alone an empire. But she has people who are extremely smart surrounding her who push her to make all the right decisions so if we need to take her out, we begin with them. So Sebastian has to go." He stated.

"Fact 2, Roma wolves including Nicks are estimated not more than five hundred we already have two thousand that is more than one is to four odds and remember not all of them are seasoned warriors. With your support we expect to double your numbers." What he did not mention that they were still waiting for eight hundred wolves from Lockbourne pack who would show up anytime soon.

"Fact 3, Roma is in America, in Colorado with numbers clearly not on her side. This provides us an immense opportunity, to take her out and why should we you ask? You know why, we didn't go in to Europe to look for trouble, no..sir, Roma wolves came to America, they occupied our lands, killed our packs mercilessly...woman, children, no one was spared entire pack wiped out and why because we wanted to take our land's back? And when our head of council goes to the world council to present his case, he is assassinated in cold blood! Do we sit in the sidelines and watch this? What guarantee do we have that what happened with Lockbourne's pack will not happen to mine or yours? Are you willing to put the lives of your mates and children at stake? Can you go back and look in their eye and tell that you are doing everything for their safety?"

He paused looking around the room, now seeing angry faces of the alphas, he had successfully managed to rill they up.

"To War!" He hollered pumping his fist in air.

"To War!" the alphas roared after him.

It was sealed after that, each alpha already were calling their packs to send men. Alpha Collins stood in the sidelines and then slowly walked out of the meeting, he would not be sending his men to certain death. So if they called him a coward or a traitor so be it. He would go back to his pack to await his fate.

***

Beta Ted got the dreaded phone call he had been expecting, the alpha had demanded where his men were and why they had not shown up yet at the Colorado border, he had told them they were on the way. He had lied to an alpha something that had him extremely uncomfortable. He had asked all his warriors to be packed and ready to move out in short notice but he had not asked them to leave yet. His sources had not revealed anything major except all packs had been asked to send out their warriors to predetermined locations. It did not take a genius to figure out what was being planned, Colorado would be under attack soon and now he was being forced to pick sides again.

He sat at the alpha desk, a desk that did not belong to him in the first place and he never had any ambitions for it as well. He did not want Serena to be hurt and the American wolves would not go out of their way to help her and in fact would kill her if they knew who her mate was.

What should he do? He sat contemplating and then decided on the course of action, he would warn Serena and let her decide if she wanted to inform Roma about this or not and as for the American council he would later tell them that Roma was holding Serena hostage and his pack was unwilling to act at a cost to her life. He was unintentionally hedging his bets on Roma knowing that if Roma fell, they were all screwed.

He picked up the phone and dialed alpha Nick of Colorado.

***

They were an hour away from the agreed meeting point, away from prying eyes it was scheduled in Wyoming and that too close to Colorado border, they had crossed in to Wyoming thirty minutes ago. The meeting location was away from prying eyes in remote Wyoming and they had to use county roads to access it, this also caused them to travel relatively slow. The convoy of three cars stopped for a loo break and men relieved themselves in the vast expanses of nothing surrounding them.

Sebastian sat in the car contemplating how the meeting would go, he came up with possible scenarios and he as agreed with Roma before leaving would not commit to anything but just listen with and open mind and then would tell them that he would discuss with Roma.

"Let's go people!" he said tapping on the car impatiently and moments later they were on the way.

***

"Collins left" One alpha said, the council alphas were gathered around preparing for war.

"Inconsequential" Another alpha dismissed "He would have provided how many two hundred or three hundred men? We can manage and take care of Collins once the war is over" According to them Collins was a dead alpha walking.

"I am worried about Lockbourne's men, have they showed up yet?" One more alpha asked.

"Not yet, spoke to the beta, his men are running a little late, they should be there when the action starts" another alpha reassured. Lockbourne's pack had considerable amount of warriors around eight hundred of them and highly trained that too but they were not overtly concerned. Lockbourne's pack had every reason to hate Roma than they did.

"So looks like everything in place?" The alpha asked and everyone nodded and just then a phone rang, one of the alphas picked it up and listened to the other side and ended the call "Good. Keep me posted"

He then looked around the room and said "The convoy is in Wyoming"

"Excellent" Another alpha said, rubbing his hands excitedly.

***

Serena was flipping channels mindlessly when she head the door to the house open she got up and rushed to the door hoping t was Alex and met with an stranger instead.

"Hello" she said awkwardly.

"The alpha wishes to speak to you ma'am" The wolf politely informed her.

"Um..sure...now?" She asked. Unsure of what the alpha wanted from her.

"Yes ma'am, he insisted I escort you to his office immediately." He told her.

"Ok, sure let's go" She told him and followed him out. Did Ted call she wondered.

In about five minutes she reached the alpha's office where Nick was sitting in deep contemplation.

"Alpha Nick?" Serena called him out seeing him distracted, lost in his own thoughts.

"Serena" he acknowledged her "Please sit down"

She sat at the edge of the chair across the desk nervously.

"Beta Ted called" He informed her.

Butterflies flew wildly in her stomach.

"I see" she said, hoping her voice did not betray the nervousness she was feeling.

"What did he ask?" she prodded.

"He wants to speak to you" Nick said clearly unhappy "alone"

"Only then he will communicate his decision" He added.

"Oh!" Serena said clearly not expecting this.

"Any idea what this is about?" he asked.

"No." She said shaking her head, she clearly had no clue.

Nick sat there contemplating for a moment.

"All right, let's get this over with, you can call him from my office and talk to him, I will step outside, that is all the privacy I can give you. You know the number he asked?"

"yes" her voice now betrayed her nervousness.

"Ok, let me step out and you can call" and with that Nick got up and waked out of the room and closed the door. Most alpha offices were sound proof to ensure privacy. So she knew there would be less prying ears.

She stared at the phone for a few minutes before gathering the courage to pick it up and dial then number she had memorized since childhood.

A moment later she heard the ringing and she waited with baited breath.

The phone was picked up "Hello?" a voice answered, it was Ted.

"Ted?" Serena said.

"Serena!" he gasped in to the phone.

***

Nick was loitering around in front of his office when the door opened, his eyes widened as he looked at the state of the girl. She was white as a sheet and was visibly shaking.

"Serena are you ok?" he stepped closer, concern in his voice.

Her wide eyes turned to him, fear laced in them.

"Th-e alphas...the American council...they are going to attack Co-co-lorado. Ted think mee-ting is a tr-ap" she stuttered badly, shaking.

Nick took a sharp breath and turned and ran at maximum speed out of the house like the hounds of hell were after them. Pack members and Roma wolves gave him a wide berth and he barreled towards Roma's house.

He slammed the door open and yelled "Roma" on top of his voice.

Roma rushed out from inside the house to meet a visibly enraged Nick in the hallway.

"Nick! What is wrong?" she asked alarmed at the state he was in.

"Sebastian!" Nick barked "Call him back it's a trap."

She froze for a second her eyes roaming over his face and whatever she saw on his face she hurried back and pulled out her phone and dialed Sebastian.

She chewed on her lips nervously as she heard the phone ring.

"Roma?" Sebastian answered, not expecting her call.

"Turn back right now, it's a trap" her voice left no room for argument.

"Yes Roma" He acknowledged and promptly hung up.

After disconnecting the phone she looked at Nick "Explain" she demanded.

And just then Serena appeared behind Nick, she had followed him here.

Nick took a deep breath and turned to Serena as he too did not know the whole story.

Serena's mouth opened and closed finding herself unexpectedly in the center of attention

And just then Alex strolled in to the house casually and looked at the three of them.

"Is there a meeting I was not aware of?" he asked innocently.

XOXOXO

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