Phoenix Maplewood California One/The Youth and Beauty Brigade

A lot was happening, and all of it was bad. Phoenix Maplewood was preparing to remove the threat from the Emberwood, and their Beta was missing. While Saena had made it very clear she would not heed Ukko's advice until he proved he was not a threat to her and her mate, she had sincerely hoped he would rise to the challenge, prove her wrong. Prove both of them wrong, for Reek's intention was to drive the guy to his very brink. Foolish or not, Ukko was still a likable wolf and an asset to the pack.

But it had been nearly a week since the pack had met to discuss the growing threat in the Emberwood, and there had been no sign of Ukko since. Even his scent was fading. The Alpha female spared a little time each day to track his scent around the maplewood, but she had only found evidence that he had left the territory somewhat recently. She had yet to find evidence that he had returned. There were really two possibilities. One—Ukko had run out on them, unable to handle the pressure of his position. Two—he had gone out and gotten injured, like her, and was detained. She had no clues as to which it was. She hoped it was the latter and that her suspicions were unfounded, but didn't doubt the former if only because he had been withdrawn for a while now and because her opinion of him was already soured.

As she ambled through the woods, returning from another search, she was drawn to the scent of meat dug up, and there she found her mate. She approached him with a sigh, but made no move toward his lunch; one look at the shredded carcass quelled her appetite as a swell of nausea, no doubt a result of all the recent stress, roiled through her gut. She watched him momentarily, red ears flickering, before asking, "seen Ukko recently?"

We already have a billion threads I'm not caught up on but what's one more. :P I'm gonna go ahead and pretend this happens ~1 week after the meeting so that it lines up with Ukko lingering on the coast. I think it would probably take about a week for them to fully plan the party going to Emberwood to get rid of them, so this timeline will work best I think!