Without a Doubt

We said goodbye to Alpha Stephan on a much higher note than we said hello, promising to return every few days whether we have news or not.

The old man seemed especially upset that we were leaving, so I gave him our address and my phone number to get in contact with us whenever he wanted. The wealth of information that that man had at his disposal was better than any library, and I had a feeling that it would be useful in the future.

"So, how was your dumping into the wonderful world of monsters?" asked Mathew as he turned to look at Greyson. He, Levi, and Dem hadn't really said more than two words since we first entered the Alpha's house, and even now, they were pretty quiet.

"I always thought that I was well informed about the world around me," said Greyson slowly as he started to get his thoughts together. "I need to be, given my position in the US Army. However, now that I know that the world around me is so much bigger than I originally thought, it is more than a little upsetting."

"Yeah," I replied, nodding my head. I could understand that feeling of having the rug pulled out from under your feet. It was probably made worse by the fact that his superiors knew what was going on but chose to keep him in the dark. "Any regrets?"

"Hardly," he snorted, turning around to look at me. "It is like walking on a trail in the forest. You think that everything you see around you is all that there is. However, if you take only a few steps to your right or left, you will see that the part you thought was everything was no more than a manicured version of what is really surrounding you. Everything outside is just too polite to pull you off your path."

"What about you?" I asked Levi. He had been the quietest of the group so far, and I didn't know if that was because it was just in his nature to fade into the background or if he was not comfortable with his new reality.

"More upset that I seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick," the man grumbled, causing Mathew, Dem, and I to burst out laughing.

"If you could have been born into any of the Houses, which one would you have wanted?" asked Mathew as he looked at the other man through the rearview mirror.

"It's hard to say," shrugged Levi. "The more I hear, the more I understand that all the Houses have their dark sides." He paused for a moment before continuing. "However, the idea of being a shifter is appealing."

"Not when you live in a big city," chuckled Mathew, forcing a shudder to emphasize his words. "The noise never stops. And, as a wolf, you can hear a cricket miles away, so when it comes to the city that never sleeps? You want to invest in medium-quality earplugs so you can still hear what is close by, but not three blocks down."

"And the smell. If you think that some of the missions that we have been on have left a lasting impression when it comes to smells, that is nothing compared to being back home," added Dem, wrinkling his nose. "But I will agree that dealing with either one of those issues is much better than being a human," he continued with a smile.

"Ha, ha. Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" sneered Levi, rolling his eyes and turning his gaze back to the LA landscape.

"I thought I just did," returned Dem as he raised his eyebrows, a slight smirk on his face. Not bothering to look at his teammate, Levi simply raised a finger and flashed him the bird.

"I might be able to do something about that," said Mathew slowly as he looked at me, gauging my response. "It is somewhat easy to create a new werewolf."

Both Greyson and Levi looked at the man, and Mathew simply shrugged like it was no big deal. "Not all wolves are purebred," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It is just that the first transformation can be a bit hard on a freshly turned person."

"You know that for a fact? Or are you just going on what you have heard," asked Greyson as we turned down a winding path and into the hills. I had no idea where we were going other than by the directions I had given the wolf, but I trusted Mathew and the GPS to get us where we needed to go.

"Fact," growled Mathew before he quickly cleared his throat, forcing his wolf back down. "A few frat boys thought it would be great fun one night when they were drunk to go out and attack a woman on campus," he continued, his voice drifting off as he got lost in his memories. "I put a quick stop to it, but one of them had a dog that bit me on the calf. I didn't think much of it until the next full moon when I turned more than a little hairy." He shrugged his shoulders at his own joke as if it was nothing at all, but we could all hear his voice catching at the end of his sentence.

"What did Lucas do?" I asked. To transform a human like that without permission, let alone attack an innocent, went against so many of the laws that even if Lucas didn't do anything, Viktor would have had to.

"Nothing," replied Mathew with a tight smile. "The Alpha did nothing more than smile and welcome me into the pack. Unfortunately for the both of us, my wolf has been clawing at me to challenge him for Head of House."

"Would you win?" I asked curiously. Most Betas would challenge the Alphas, not because they wanted to become the Alpha, but rather because they were keeping the Alpha's combat skills strong.

"Without a doubt."