Roane
The past few days have been some of the busiest days I've had in quite a long time. It seems like I haven't had more than a few hours alone and that is only when I sleep at night.
From the moment that we left Micah's floor, Tristan and I had spoken a few times, but I could feel the tension between us like a palpable force. Micah and I weren't on much better terms either.
Once I had gotten over the initial shock of what Tristan was telling me, I immediately jumped in on how Micah could have done something so reckless. Neither of them saw things from my perspective and I was not sure how to make them.
Tristan was angry, but I was surprised by Micah's anger. "I do not understand why you are so angry. We knew that the magic worked since we have already used it before. There was no harm in letting him go to her."
No harm, I had to close my eyes and count for a moment before I spoke to either of them. "Yes, your magic worked the first time, but how could you be sure that he would have been able to leave there without her," I spoke quietly.
Each of them stared at me with different emotions written across their faces. Micah looked appalled, maybe because I was questioning his magic or tech. That look I was used to, but the look on Tristan's face was new and unwanted.
Tristan was one of the most confident, strong willed, and charismatic people I have ever met. Sarcasm and clothes were armor as much as weapons. People always either loved or hated him and there was never anything in between.
He had no shields up and there was no pretense about him. I watched as all the feelings that he would have usually kept well hidden played across his face. Anger, betrayal, sorrow, despair, and grief were just a few of them.
When he looked at me, I saw them all and each expression was like a slash across my heart. I knew that I deserved it and so much more for not talking to him the second I found out who she was.
I was an absolute bastard and I deserved much worse, and the sad truth is that they both knew it just as much as I did.
"You honestly think that I would have stayed away from there even without Micah's magic? After all these years you find out that she's alive and you don't even have the decency to tell me? How could you have done that to me," he asked softly.
The pressure on my chest was immense and I knew at that moment that I had never deserved their friendship. Putting myself and my plans above something so important was unthinkable.
"I'm sorry," I said quickly even though I knew that those two words would never be enough to repair what I had broken between us. "I'm so sorry, I was going to tell you the entire story the moment the meeting was over, but I know that I was wrong."
When the tear fell from his eye, it was like the dagger that had slashing at my heart plunged right into it's center. Micah was the one who spoke then and I wasn't sure if it was for my sake or for Tristan's.
"The moment the meeting was over, I found Tristan waiting for me outside my door and he ever so sweetly asked me to explain everything to him. I did so, and when he asked me to conceal him so that he could go see her, I did that as well."
Micah's explanation was short, sweet, and pretty much directly to the point. I loved and hated that about him especially right now since he was the only one of us who seemed able to speak.
Tristan wiped his face with the back of his hand and finished tearing into his food with what seemed like forced enthusiasm.
Gods, I wish that there was something that I could do to change the way things had happened, but if I had that ability, I would have changed so much more than just that.
We all sat in silence for a moment and I had absolutely no urge to consume the food that Micah had put in front of me no matter how amazing the steak smelled.
As soon as he finished the last bite of his steak, Tristan instructed Micah to grab some paper and a pen so that we could plan out our next moves.
Unsure if I was even able to ask him, I sat there waiting for him to tell me what he wanted to do. I had already resolved myself to the fact that I was not going to do anything except help him get her back for now.
Micah, who was usually prepared for everything, seemed a bit put off by the fact that he had to go and search for the things Tristan wanted. When he had to go from one of the rooms to another, I saw the anger almost seeping out of his ears.
Sitting alone at the bar with Tristan was the perfect opportunity for me to apologize again and try to smooth things over, but when his phone rang he quickly answered it.
The conversation that he had was about the security detail at Aspen and the plans for the upcoming conference that I was going to have with one of the other communications companies in the next city.
I had missed my chance to talk to him, and since then I have had no time alone. That night we ended up writing out all of the things that we knew about Blood Mist, Rogan, Dylan, and his family.
My mind was blown by all of the information that Tristan had already obtained about Rogan and Blood Mist and I had a feeling that he was probably extremely busy since the moment he walked out of that board room.
One of the most important things that I noticed, was how much Tristan seemed to both like and hate Dylan's name being said. I wasn't sure if it was because it wasn't what her name should have been or because who had given it to her.
Micah had wanted to also go over everything that Tristan remembered from the day that his pack and family had been destroyed. While Tristan had taken a moment to answer another call, Micah had also made a call to my uncle.
Requesting records from our pack was easy for him since he was well known amongst everyone there and he has done so much work for us. There was probably nothing he couldn't ask for.
By the time I made it back to my room that night we had ended up setting up an entire wall in Micah's dining room designated to everything that we had gone over, including the files my uncles had a courier drop off.
It was almost five in the morning and I had time to work out, shower, and get back to the office, but by the time I had shown up there was already news of something happening at Blood Mist.
Somehow Vincent had contacted Tristan and informed him that not long after he had left Blood mist, Dylan had to be rushed to the pack hospital and not even the doctor's knew what was wrong with her.
This information had completely changed the plans that we had made that night and put Tristan into an almost constant state of panic.
At first he was completely convinced that Rogan or one of his lackeys had done something to Dylan. Then he thought that maybe he had caused her some kind of shock and it was his fault.
Watching him so utterly torn and broken was difficult for all of us at Aspen, but even harder for Micah and myself. The three of us had always been together, a team, and right now we were not.
Besides the fact that he was still angry at me, Micah and him often excluded me from some of their meetings due to my schedule at work. I hated knowing that there was so much that needed to be done and I couldn't help.
Xavier had taken on some of the tasks with the new departments and attended some of the meetings in my stead, but even that wasn't enough for me to be present at every meeting.
Still unsure how Vincent and Tristan were communicating with one another, I was always in shock to show up at Micah's and see all of the new information.
I knew that it was stupid of me to think like that, but I couldn't help it. Every time I went to sleep she ran though my dreams. If I had known just a little sooner, I would have done everything I could to keep her there.
The what ifs and could haves were like little flies that swarmed around inside of my head both day and night.
What if Tristan had been here that day?
If Micah was here could he have figured out who she was?
Could we have figured out who she was before that meeting?
If I had told Tristan sooner, could he have taken her before this happened?
No matter how many times I wished that things had gone differently, there was nothing I could do right now except be here and support my friends.
There had to be a reason why Rogan had Dylan and I knew that this was probably going to be the hardest piece of information for us to find. No one talked to Vincent except Tristan and apparently even he didn't know that either.
From what we learned from Vincent, Dylan had been the orphaned daughter of two of the wolves who had betrayed their pack in the battle that happened eighteen years ago when Black Sol had been destroyed.
That event had taken place about a year after my parents had been killed and in my gut a part of me knew that all of this had to be related somehow.
Rogan was a devil in wolfs clothing and snake in human skin. Whatever we were planning we had to make sure that once we got Dylan out of his lands that we could keep her safe.
That bastard had resources that even I didn't know about and though Vincent had been able to provide us with tons of information, there was still so much he didn't know.
Each day that Dylan was unconscious in that clinic, it took a little piece of Tristan's spirit. Watching him day in and day out wait for news of her condition was painful. Each day I felt like his hope of getting his sister back was slipping away from him and I was to blame.
No matter how we tried to figure out a way to get her out of the clinic without anyone else knowing, none of us could come up with a plan that didn't involve at least a few of our men or theirs being killed.
There were even a few nights Micah and I had to physically hold Tristan back from going straight over there and busting into their gates to try to get to her.
I had thought that I knew what my friends were going through. That we were experiencing the same kinds of pain and loss and sorrows. Now, I knew that I would never be able to understand the pain that Tristan was enduring.
When Xavier and I had our unexpected meeting with Rogan I was both glad and annoyed that Tristan had not been in the building. That night when he and Micah had returned from the business trip I had to send them on, he had been beside himself.
There had been a crazy look in his eyes when I told him of the meeting and all of the things that we had discussed. I hesitated to tell him of the meeting that I would have to eventually set up between him and his team and Rogan because of it.
There were so many times in my life that I regretted not being able to reach my wolf, but none more than I did lately. I felt his agreement and the prickly sensation of regret, but no more than that.
If I were able to access my wolf, I would be the Alpha of Silver Moon. As the Alpha I would have so much more power, and not just physical strength, but the power of my pack.
An Alpha could attend the summits and meetings with the leaders of the other wolf packs and could gain or barter favors. I knew that there were so many packs out there that hated Rogan and wanted to see him fall.
But, I also knew that there were just as many that followed him either out of fear or loyalty because they were just as vile as he was. My grandfather had once looked for a way to help me access my wolf, but nothing ever came from it.
He had looked all over the continent and reached out to not only other wolf packs, but to many different supernatural creatures as well. No matter where we looked, there was nothing that worked.
I thought that after all of this time, I had finally come to terms with it, but apparently I hadn't. Tonight, we were planning on having dinner at Micah's while we went over any new developments we might have gotten today.
As I showered I ran back through the day that she had been at Aspen and each and every interaction I had with her prior. Knowing who she was now, and looking at Tristan I couldn't help but see their similarities.
Standing under the shower, I closed my eyes and let that day play in my head. It came easy since I have gone over it so many times now. I had even recited the entire encounter to Tristan a few times as well.
Playing it through my head fully, I was drawn back to the moment I had offered her the new position within Aspen. At first I thought that my mind was thinking of that because I would need to eventually fill that position.
Then I realized, that this might be a way to get her away from Rogan and Blood Mist. I had played that day over so many times, why hadn't I thought of that before.
I practically jumped out of the shower without washing all the soap out of my hair and scrubbed much harder than necessary in my haste to go over the idea with my friends.
By the time I was walking in Micah's door, water was still dripping from the tips of my hair and Micah stood there completely disgusted.
"You couldn't have dried yourself in the elevator on your way down," he said as he walked to the bathroom and then came back and threw the large white towel with unnecessary force.
"I had an idea that I wanted to share with you all," I said looking around the otherwise empty room. "Where is Tristan," I asked hesitantly unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.
Micah's violet eyes flashed just a second before the door swung open behind me. Tristan didn't just walk in, he practically flew in and I had to move out of his way so that he didn't completely knock me to the ground in his hurry.
"She's awake," he screamed the moment he was right before Micah and that hurt that I had been feeling at the divide I caused between the three of us rose up and filled my chest.
Only after Micah had reached out and placed his hand on Tristan's shoulder did he turn to where I stood a few steps away. I smiled at him and walked over to quickly grab his other shoulder.
Unsure if he started to cry first, or if it was just a reaction to my own tears, we all stood there for a few moments letting go of all of the pent of fear and anxieties that these past few weeks have held.
Micah moved first and went over to the fridge to grab a bottle of wine. "This calls for a celebration," he said as he waved his hand around and took the cork out with such ease that it seemed almost impossible.
Once the three of us were seated at the bar and had practically finished the bottle, Tristan reached over and punched my arm gently.
"I'm going to bring her here as soon as I can, are you sure that we can keep her safe here?"
His questions seemed to be more of an offer for redemption than an actual question. Tristan was my securities manager and I knew that no matter where we put Dylan, he would never let anything happen to her.
I nodded at him, glanced, to Micah who was nodding as well, and reached out and put my hand on his shoulder once again.
"We will do everything we can to make sure that she is safe no matter what." I squeezed his shoulder and he was nodding along with both me and Micah now.
He was giving me an inch and a chance to rewrite our story and I would make sure that moving forward I would do everything I could for these two because they were the family I chose and I wouldn't lose them.