Phoenix Maplewood California One/The Youth and Beauty Brigade

It was as Saena suspected. Ukko disappeared sometime after the pack meeting and hadn't been seen since, not by her and not by Reek. "Maybe he went out and was waylaid," suggested the alpha female, but they both knew she wasn't completely convinced of it. It was too easy to believe that Ukko was a coward and a traitor who would turn his back on his pack. There was less emotional investment with that assumption, and anyway, the man hadn't earned himself a great reputation by challenging the lead male only to fall short as a leader himself. Nevertheless, she made the suggestion out of courtesy and because she was in the position herself, once, not so long ago. She would feel terribly if that was the case and she doubted him, but for now, she had nothing but intuition to go on.

"We can't really waste time looking for him," she sighed, plopping her rear down on the snowy ground and shifting her shoulders, which ached with slight tension. "We've got bigger things to deal with." Like Aaron and his Emberwood aspirations. Like the possibility of a pregnancy. Like running their pack with an absent beta male, whom they couldn't spare the resources to go find. Especially when it was a mere possibility, and the other possibility—that he had indeed run out on them—was still plausible. No, the lead bitch could find no sense in sending out a search party when she couldn't even be sure it wasn't intentional.

"We should have at least a beta before spring," Saena suggested, raising her eyes to meet Reek's. It was too early to tell for sure whether the pregnancy had taken or not, but she was sure Reek had the same mindset she did. Both of them would go forward assuming it had. "A proper one, not one doomed to fail under his own ego and not one put there to learn a lesson. Someone trustworthy." Arion was the obvious choice but both alphas knew he was much too volatile to give the opportunity to. The warrior kept to himself too often, too, and was more of a recluse these days than a pack mate. With a limited number of other males in the pack as far as she knew, the beta Saena had in mind would almost certainly be one of the females.