Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 47

The boys are already loaded in the car with the bags as Leilani and Connor emerge from the treeline. Leilani turns to Connor, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking at his handsome face, running her hand through his luscious thick hair once more. She loves his hair, she loves that no matter what she does to it, it nearly ends up in the same position. Lani tightens her arms, bringing his face closer to hers and gives Connor one last large kiss on lips.

"I will be back real soon, I promise"

Connor watches from the same spot that she left, breathing in that lingering residual scent, staring at the rear end of the car until it is barely a spot on the horizon. He stares until the speck has disappeared from view for the longest time.

He groans in frustration at himself, running his hands up through his hair and slightly tugging the ends. He is not fine, even though with his promise to let her leave, having a luna that is off site numerous times might not be detrimental for the pack, but it's definitely going to be a struggle for him personally.

But he has already told himself to do whatever it takes to keep her, so he has to train himself to accept it to be happy for her and support her.

The best thing he can do now is to get stuck into his work, so as soon as she's back he can make the most of his time with her. There is no point wallowing. He has to take it as a work break. She works, he works and then when they're together, they are together, just them, nothing else to get in their way, no pesky distractions.

He walks to his study and sits in his office chair pulling out his phone as he flicks a quick message.

Connor: 'Would you believe me if I said I missed you already?'

In the car, Leilani looks at her phone and smiles. She has already punched in the destination to the navigation system to lead them in the right direction, but hasn't given many details to the boys yet, as she's still trying to wrap her head around the whole thing. It is a task that is out of the ordinary for them, but if the elders deem it worthy, then they have to get involved. There is nothing that they can do except for change their job description and add the service to it. "We have a missing person's case"

Leilani pauses for dramatic effect, but none of the boys buy into it. She would think they're uninterested apart from five quirked eyebrows and their head slightly angled to her listening in.

"It is the alpha's daughter of the Somerset pack"

"Why are they getting us involved?"

"Somehow, the alpha of the Somerset pack is owed a favour from one of the elders. So somehow he has managed to wrangle it, so we are involved. It's been four weeks and the trail was cold almost instantly"

"I mean we have never worked on a missing person's case before, but after four weeks there's going to be nothing for us to replace if their own investigation hasn't come up with anything in the early stages. This is going to be a near impossible task for us. Isn't there a better crew than us for the task, a team of trackers"

"They have tried all sorts before us, all the best teams, we are the final hope"

"That is a lot of responsibility"

"I know the challenges, but it is not like we have not gone into a task before that is full of challenges. All we can do is try our best. I mean they can't expect us to work miracles. If it was easy they would have found her already, so it is not like we are going to be killed if we cannot replace her, but since we are the girls last hope we have to give everything we have"

The six arrive at a hotel near the somerset pack, making good time. They have to have a place to work out of and, unless necessary, they try not to live within the packs that they are working for. The obvious exception was the stormy pack, but the job description changed for that one..

Generally, it is unnecessarily uncomfortable to stay in another pack. Their pack members are intimidated and scurry off like little mice wherever the group walk or the five handsome men and one beautiful woman are a magnet for the often s*x crazed species. Odd things happen when they live on pack lands, so they prefer to skip the drama and keep their own privacy.

They dress up slightly but nothing too extreme as they need to do investigation work, which may include shifting, taking off and putting back on a suit is impractical and time-consuming.

Casual pants with elastic waists and loose tops made of durable material. All of them wear a mixture of black, white and gray. Leilani looks at her brothers, who look like they are about to play golf or something similar.

"One day we should get a uniform with our team crest"

Madden pats Leilani on the head as they walk toward the door of their presidential suite, which has three bedrooms and two spacious couches and is more than enough for the group.

"Okay, you design the crest and then do all the work involved and then we will happily laugh at them and stick them in our bags never to see the light of day"

Leilani laughs as she bumps the other boys out of the way to jump on Madden's back, mussing up his sandy blonde hair. Madden just hooks his arms around her legs as they walk toward the elevator, Leilani catching a free ride on Madden's back.

It is just past midday when they arrive in the Somerset pack. They are guided straight through to the alpha house by the border patrol before the warriors take back off as they pull up the car. Rarely does a pack guard against the elite group. Firstly, they are the ones that ask for help. Secondly, there are very few packs that the group couldn't take down if they wanted to. Others just can't compete with the strength of the group, so the packs trust that as long as they don't antagonize, then they will be fine.

The alpha stands out the front along with his beta, looking anxiously at the big car with blacked out windows in front of him. Slowly, the doors open and five young, well-built handsome men step out and form a line in front of the car. The alpha looks at the car as a small fair foot steps onto the ground. An elastic cuff at the ankle leads up to gray canvas pants as she steps around the door. He is beyond surprised.

He has heard many things about L. He has heard of her brilliant analytical mind, her problem-solving ability, her sharp tongue, her explosive fighting force. He has even heard of her beauty but he assumed that part was exaggerated. More of a 'she isn't too bad looking considering how good she is' scenario.

That is not the case at all. She is beyond beautiful, even though she is young enough to be his daughter he can still appreciate her ethereal beauty. L steps in front of her brothers and stands in front of the alpha, extending her hand, her shoulders are square, her back is straight and her stormy blue eyes look directly up into his eyes. She exudes all the confidence of a leader. Leilani grips his hand tightly, giving him a firm handshake, but before he has a chance to withdraw, she places her second small hand over his in a comforting gesture, looking directly at him as she says.

"We are going to try our very best to replace her"

The Alpha looks at the young girl's eyes that are brimming with determination and intelligence and, for some reason, he believes her. He hasn't had the same belief in any other that has tried and failed miserably, but for some reason, he believes her. Leilani can't help but feel sad for the man who has lost his daughter and is obviously torn up about it. She can see the pain in the depths of his eyes. She was always going to try her best, but looking in the sad alphas eyes she vows to do even better, to not stop pushing until they have some sort of result.

Even though she didn't get to grow up with a loving father or even a father at all, she would never begrudge anyone else a loving family and actually likes seeing such things. It makes her imagine what it would be like for her if things didn't go the way they did. Alpha Baxter leads the group into the alpha house. The entire main area, which can be seen that it was quite elaborate at one stage, is a mess of papers. There are folders stacked all over the table, the chairs and nowhere in sight. The couch is pushed haphazardly against the walls to clear space maps and marked on the ground. It is hard to see the flooring at all, an obvious path through the information is even covered with paper. Artwork is stacked in one corner and the walls lined with information in its place. "This is everything we've collected"

The group can only nod and each start at a section, moving around slowly, each taking in every single bit on the ground. Six sets of eyes over the same set of information in the hope that they'll replace something. Finlay links the group. 'There is nothing actually here'

Leilani can only nod to agree. She has scoured countless hours of work that the others have done and it all equates to nothing. There is nothing valuable.

'I agree this is the biggest pile of paper that gives absolutely no information that I've ever seen. He would be better to have a bon-fire and burn it all than keep it'

Alpha Baxter just stands in the corner watching the group. He is well aware that there is nothing to go on, because otherwise this group wouldn't be here, but he cannot give up hope. It is still his precious daughter's life that is unknown. It has been a whole month since he has seen her and he is beside himself. His mate has not even ventured out of the room very much. She hardly eats, he has to coax her to even get in one meal a day. Anything more than a basic survival amount she refuses, like they don't deserve to eat until their daughter is home safe. She eats enough so that her body doesn't shut down, but it doesn't leave her in a healthy state, her curvy figure resembling a skeleton more than anything else.

The future alpha, his son, has been out searching night and day. He hardly sleeps and feels like it's his own personal failure, even though he is only seventeen and doesn't even have his wolf yet. The whole family has taken it in incredibly badly and all he can do is put his trust in this group of young kids that don't even specialize in the task.

But he cannot fault them at all. It looks like they're taking the task seriously. There are lots of pack members that are their age, also his daughter is their age and he has never seen any of the other kids he knows look so serious.

He can only assume that the elite squad is everything that they are talked up to be.

All he can do now is put all his hopes in them that they can return Rosalie to him. Once Rosalie returns, the broken family can heal.