4 – The meeting, pt 1

Nel

“We found him” Josh’s deep voice sounds tired and so do his eyes. Everybody can see with no difficulty that he hasn’t rested properly.

Utter stillness overtakes the otherwise lively living room of his home as his words sink in. All the team was wondering what this sudden gathering was about, since no one but Josh and Greg seemed to know what was going on.

Tim’s body stiffens behind me as we sit lazily cuddled with each other on the couch. Everyone appears to go numb at his words. Even Sarah looks uneasy with the news. Is it possible that not she wasn’t aware of the exact subject of this meeting either? I need some time to register what Josh said because it seems a bit too sudden. Milton… The man who orchestrated my parents’ car accident ambush, the man who, unknown to him, functioned as the link between us, the cause that brought us together.

“As I’ve often told you, I suspected he returned to retire in the Golden Moon Pack. I would picture him taking some post of an advisor, where he would not have to deal with any external affairs and not leave the pack lands at all. We need an immediate and effective plan before he realizes we have traced him and either attacks first or disappears again.”

We have been looking for him everywhere, but it seemed like he had disappeared from earth’s face, so how come we found him now out of the blue? And even worse, so close to us?

“How is this possible?” I jump irritated by the news. I could have accepted many things, but having him hiding right in front of us, but so out of our reach, was not something I imagined even when Josh had often hinted he suspected it.

“He left the pack decades ago. How on earth did the Alpha just accept him back after all this time? Didn’t he wonder at all what has transpired in the meantime?” I add with boiling anger seething inside me.

The fucker had some nerve. He was in a way responsible for ruining more or less all of our lives and now went back to his first home as if nothing ever happened, while we (and many more people for what that matters) were left to collect our pieces and face the consequences of his actions at the same time.

“Milton is exceptionally good with words, Nel. Plus, we can’t possibly evaluate how much the current Alpha knows of his activities during his absence, or about the reasons that led him to leave the pack all these years ago. He used to be very close to his parents, the previous Alpha and Luna. Nicholas was only a child when most of the things that formed the monster out of Milton took place and his father has long now been dead, so my best guess would be that the former Alpha Charles didn’t dare give him the complete picture about Milton.”

“Okay, I could accept that, but even if that’s true, how the hell do we infiltrate a pack like the Golden Moon on such a short notice, without all getting killed?” I retort, focusing my eyes on the stone frozen figure of Tim.

Milton was to blame for his mate’s death before the two of us met. So even the mention of the asshole’s name could send him on a ‘highway to hell’ type of trip down the memory lane that no wolf would ever wish to come across.

One of our fundamental characteristics as a group has always been our efficiency. We are not a pack. None of us would work well under the strict discipline rules of a pack, either. The submission to the reign of an Alpha and the blind adherence to the suffocating traditional rule system of the pack life were major turnoffs for all of us. Except for Josh and Sarah, who are the oldest and the first to have the idea to gather several high potential lone wolves united under a common cause, the rest of us have been born and raised by loners and had never been tied to a pack and restricted by it.

I, for example, grew up exclusively in the human world in a small town in the northeast. Both of my parents were wolves, but from opponent packs, so they had to elope and run away from the madness and the rivalry of their times. They tried to live their lives hidden, but free, far away from their original birthplace for the sake of… yours truly. And they were actually pretty good at it. At least until the afore-mentioned son of a bitch traced them, shortly after I left home for my studies, and got them out of the way for reasons that still aren’t all so clear in my head.

Greg’s mother was a renowned chemistry professor who had distanced herself from her pack to be with her fated mate, his father, who was also a professor, but a human.

Greg is the brains of the team alongside Natasha, who was his university human friend, also a ‘nerd’, a freaking good programmer and hacker. She was lucky enough to be mated to Ron, one of the strongest lone wolves I’ve ever met. He joined the team for her sake and took up the role of our trainer. Despite being a human, Josh believes that her being mated to a wolf as strong as Ron and her natural inclination to befriend Greg from the first day they met may show she has some werewolf heritage, too, that she’s unaware of.

I don’t know how much truth there is in Josh’s theory. What I know is that, because of his undying devotion to Natasha, Ron was automatically appointed responsible for kicking our sorry asses in order to make sure we don’t go down without a fight, especially his mate who is his most sensitive topic and highest worry, since she’s human.

Then we have Jenny, our tracker and fighter. Having spent all her life as a loner, she was tough and independent. They had crossed paths with Ron in the past on over one occasion, joining forces in order to secure their survival. When he introduced her to the group, it gave her exactly what was missing from her life the most; a sense of family without limiting her freedom, so she stuck around.

More or less, the same applied to Tobias and Claire, our fighting couple. The only difference was that their initial attachment was with Josh himself, not through others. I feel close to them. Their story reminds me of my parents. Who knows, if my parents had stuck to such a team instead of isolating themselves completely, they could still be with us now.

I take a moment to examine everyone’s expressions as I’m contemplating my suggestion for our next move. For the past three years, these people have eagerly been the family that I was so suddenly deprived of at a young age and I’m not ready to see them fall. I need them with me. I’ve grown attached to them as much as they are smitten with me, even before actually meeting me, because of the deep friendship my father shared with Josh.

However, the funny thing about families is that they often keep some dirty little secrets of their own from one another. Having grown up among humans, who are unarguably way more deceptive than werewolves, I became particularly good at spotting the minor differences in people’s reactions that reveal they are hiding something. After that, extracting their secrets, letting nothing slip out of my own walls is just a walk in the park. Today, I focus this perceptiveness on two specific people: my best friend and the closest I’ve had to a father figure after my parents’ passing.

“I know we practically all want him dead, yet this is suicide. The Golden Moon is flourishing, wealthy, well organized and… I don’t even believe I’ll say it, kind of modern. It goes against everything we stand for to cause them harm.” I say slowly, not for one moment taking my eyes off Greg, but still keeping a very straight face so as not to let anyone suspect I’m already looking for answers to questions that haven’t even been expressed.

Everyone is too deep in their own thoughts. We’ve made several plans over the years on how to find him and then how to approach him effectively, without him realizing it. They all pay extra attention to my opinions on all these issues, because they don’t call me the ‘stealth queen’ for nothing. I won’t express that I understand there’s more than they let show for now. I’ll let them stir and fry a bit more, pretending not to understand and then make my point known.

“Let alone their Alpha is still unmated…” Claire blurts out, breaking the quietude and earning her a group glare from everyone.

“What?” she scoffs, but doesn’t give up.

“Imagine a strong, thirty something year old Alpha male without a mate or family to keep him down to earth and sated. He’s got all the power, experience and nothing personal to risk. Guys, I’m telling you, he won’t hesitate to crash us like insects flying against the front of his car”...