A Little Birdie Told Me

Jamie knew better than to utter a word. Instead, he kicked a rock and turned around to leave. Getting into their cars, the ten boys sped off into the night.

With them out of the way, it was only Raphael, his pack, and the lone human man on the sidewalk outside of the diner.

"Make sure your boys know that they aren't welcome here," said the man slowly.

There was a faint sound of the safety clicking back into place, and Lucien darted around until he saw a 9mm sticking out of the man's waistband. "Sorry. My girl worries," shrugged the human as if it was no big deal.

Raphael nodded his head in understanding, and the man walked past them, whistling a tune as he got into his old, beat-up pickup truck. Without another word, he drove away, leaving the four men staring after him.

"I never scented fear," muttered Damien as he and the others piled back into the black SUV.

"It's more than that," replied Raphael, the reports and pack issues all but forgotten. "He didn't even have a scent at all."

"Impossible," sneered Dominik. "Everyone and everything has a scent."

"And yet, he doesn't."

The four wolves thought about the implications of that idea. If someone had found a way to disguise their scent without just masking it with another, Raphael and his pack would be at an extreme disadvantage.

But it wasn't just them.

Without a scent, all shifters were vulnerable.

"Do you think he knew about us?" asked Lucien, breaking through the silence. Dominik let out a low growl at his question.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"He is a threat," said Damien slowly as he drove everyone toward their mansion. It was located within the heart of Lupin City, a standing monument to the power and might of the Silverblood Pack.

Raphael didn't bother to confirm or deny Damien's statement. They all knew he was a threat, but as to how much of a threat, they had no idea.

"Lunch out tomorrow," said Raphael abruptly.

Dominik nodded his head and started to pull up the schedule for the next day. They already had a meeting booked with the pharmaceutical company that was responsible for heat suppressants at 11 am, but that would have to be pushed back to another time.

This was much more important. 

----

My phone started to ring just as the water had finished boiling.

"Hello?" I said, not bothering to look at who was calling. There was only a handful of people with this number.

"Hey, Boss," came the cheerful reply. I felt my shoulders relax at the sound of her voice.

"What do you want?" I asked, a big smile on my face as I measured out the hot chocolate mix into two different mugs. Bernadette Smyth was a snowy owl shifter who was the face of one of my bigger companies. We had never met in person, but she liked to think that I was the little sister she never wanted.

If only she knew.

"Well, a little birdy told me that you had a new product in the works." I could practically see the smile on her face, even over the phone.

"Was this before or after you ate said bird?" I replied with an eye roll. I had more than one product in the works, but I wasn't going to mention anything until I knew the exact one that she was thinking of.

"After… he was such a yummy little birdy too," she purred. I had to suppress my desire to shudder. She definitely tended to overshare a lot of the time.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," I said… when in doubt, deny, deny, deny.

"Fine," she huffed. "I was calling to let you know that the 11 am meeting with the Silverblood Pack had to be rescheduled. I guess something came up."

I raised an eyebrow at her statement. She knew I didn't go to meetings or anything of that nature. Hell, she didn't even know how old I was or what I looked like. All she knew was that I wrote large cheques to keep her happy. "Wasn't planning on going," I said, pouring the hot water into the mugs on the counter.

Paul was running late, and it was beginning to stress me out.

"You have to show your face sometime. Everyone wants to know the genius scientist behind A.M.K Pharma."

I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring about her opinion. I would do what I wanted, and what I wanted was to hide in the shadows.

"Fine, be that way," she huffed. "But seriously, let me know if you do have something to present to the board. I know they would be happy with something new to offer the public."

"Billions of dollars annually in heat suppressants just isn't doing it for them anymore?" I sneered. We were the only pharmaceutical company that I knew of that catered to both shifters and humans. We developed everything from pain relievers to cough and cold medications, allergy relief, heat suppressants, and birth control for both species. We were not hurting for money.

The scent blockers would not be available to just anyone. In fact, only Paul and I had access to them.

Bernadette was quiet for a while before she opened her mouth. "You know, with great power comes great responsibility," she quoted, and I rolled my eyes.

I might have been six or so when Paul sat me down and put in that movie. He pointed to that line and looked at me. "See, girlie," he said. "You have a lot of responsibility. There is no one that I know who is more powerful than you."

Me, I hated that quote. It was nothing by a weaker person's way of passing the burden onto someone stronger than them. As if it would relieve those without power from having to be responsible as well.

With great power came great power. The responsibility part depended on the person's character, nothing else. Lex Luther had great power… Shredder had great power… Rita had great power… I didn't seem them being all that responsible with it.

"Fuck that shit," I said flatly. My ears perked as I heard the sound of Paul's white Toyota truck pulling into the driveway. Adding the finishing toppings to the hot chocolate, I muttered an excuse and hung up on Bernie.

"You're home!"