Chapter 11

Mystery Guy's POV

Finding out the latest on the runt's family had only left me with more questions. I had to find out the truth. It's been a couple of days already and I still hadn't heard anything from Ben yet so that only meant one of two things. Either A – it was a lot more complicated than we thought and he's going to hand me a novel worth of paperwork or B – he was having a hard time finding anything on them.

The runt wasn't in class yesterday or today. I didn't take her for type to skip class especially during midterm week. I saw her blonde headed friend that I had told to go with her to the hospital Friday night and Maddox was driving me crazy wanting me to find out where the runt was. After class I waited for her in the hallway and as she came out of the classroom, I stopped her.

"Hey. I know you don't know me but…"

"You're the guy from the football game that helped…"

"Yeah, that's me. I was wondering how she was doing. I just noticed she hasn't been in class this week." Maddox was whining in my head loud enough I swore others would hear him.

"Last I knew she was doing ok. She woke up that night in the hospital and they released her over the weekend. Honestly, I haven't heard from her since she went home. She hasn't answered any of my texts or calls. I guess I just figured she was still recovering and sleeping it off." She looks down at her hands while picking at her nails. "Poor girl doesn't even have her wolf yet so it's going to take longer for her to heal on her own."

'Oh for the love of God please don't start crying!' I thought to myself.

"Ask her where she lives?!" Maddox was beginning to drive me crazy.

"I am not asking her that. Stalker much? What the hell?" I rolled my eyes at him and then blocked him out so I could focus on what the blonde chick was saying.

"I'm sure she will be fine. Seems like a tough girl." I gave the girl a pat on the shoulder and turned around to walk away.

"Why did you ask about her?" Blondie hollered out.

Shit, quick think. "I was just curious." I shrugged my shoulders and continued to walk out. When I got outside, I looked around for someplace quiet. Once I was sure I was a good distance away from everybody, I took my phone out and called Ben.

"Hello?" he picked up right before his voicemail did, and he sounded out of breath.

"What's got you breathing so hard? Chicken chase you down the road?" I laughed.

"Um not exactly."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Look man, I got to go. Meet me by the waterfalls after your done with practice or whatever you're doing."

Before I had a chance to say anything else, he hung up the phone.

"What the hell was that all about?" I thought while Maddox was sitting there with his head titled.

"Something's got to be up. He's never acted like this towards us before." Maddox let out a low growl.

"Calm down. Maybe he found something out about the runt's family and is tracking down a lead."

"Yeah, let's go with that! Because I would really hate to have to hurt your best friend for being a dick."

"Shut it and go lay down or something." I just have to shake my head at him at sometimes.

After practice was over, I headed home to grab a quick bit to eat and change clothes. Just as I was finishing my food, my phone went off notifying me of a new message. I open my texts and there's a new one from Ben.

'Heading to the falls now. See you soon.' Was all it said. I shoved the last bit of food into my mouth and told dad that I was going for a run and meeting up with Ben. He warned me to stay away from the territory lines and to be careful and not be spotted. I headed down the road towards the woods. Once I was inside the tree line good enough, I stripped down and hid my clothes under some brush. I called Maddox forward, told him to go to the waterfalls but to be alert and gave him control. Maddox took off sprinting, flinging up dirt and rotting tree limbs as he ran through the woods. It took him about 15 minutes to get us there; would've taken me longer if I didn't shift.

Walking up to the river slowly, Maddox was looking around for Ben, but we didn't see him or his wolf.

"Maybe he's sniffing the flowers?" Maddox starts joking around. Just then we hear some twigs snap off in the distance. Maddox throughs his ears up and sticks his nose in the air. "It's just him." Maddox says.

As Ben's wolf comes into view and Maddox thinks it's play time and pounces on him.

"Dude get your wolf off us. I don't have time for this shit." I hear Ben through the mindlink.

I force the shift back and head for the smallest waterfall where Ben and I stashed a couple pairs of short just for these occasions. They didn't happen a lot, but enough to keep a spare set of clothes handy.

"What's going on? Why the secret meeting?" I ask him.

"Sorry but I didn't want to take the chance of anybody eavesdropping on us." Ben sits on a fallen tree and takes in a deep breath before continuing. "I was at the library over in the Wolf Claw territory this morning. Before you even ask, they are the oldest library around and the ONLY library around with a "restricted" section. I heard that they keep old records in there before everything went digital. Figured it was worth a shot. Anyways, I was up in the restricted area and found something. According to those records, the runt and her 2 younger siblings and her mom moved to Wolf Claw when she was only 3 years old. So doubtful if she does remember anything."

Maddox and I both growled at the same time wanting him to get to the point already. I didn't have all night.

"That's not even the fun part." Ben says smirking because he knows he's driving me insane with the stalling.

"Boy you better spit it out before I cut your tongue out!"

"You do that, and you won't get the juicy details."

"Ugh whatever! Just get on with it then." I plopped my ass down on the ground because I had feeling this was going to take a while.

"It's the mother. She comes from the Everglades pack!" Maddox and I were both in shock.

Nobody ever left the Everglades pack. There was only one way out and that was death. There's been countless nasty rumors that's been going around for years about that pack. It's been told that all females are their slaves more or less. Beaten and raped on a daily basis. Their alpha is a piece of shit. Males are only allowed to leave to find their mates just to bring them back, so the other males have a new 'play toy'. They have been investigated for decades but nothing could ever be proven. The alpha commanded the females to keep their mouths shut and if word got out about a male who was even thinking of ratting them out, well he just vanished off the face of the earth.

"How the hell did she make it out of there with 3 kids by herself?" I asked still in shock.

"She wasn't by herself. There were a couple other women with her. They all changed their names and their children's names so they couldn't be tracked down. That's why I couldn't find nothing on them at first. OH! Which reminds me, as far as the dad goes, he is a Wolf Claw native. Born and raised. The mother to his oldest 5 kids was his first mate, but records show her passing away shortly after their only son, Tyler, was born." Ben shifted on the tree and was leaning back on one of the limbs that stuck out.

"Ok well then that answers that question then. So the dad and that bloodline is officially off the table. We need to find out who the father is to the runt then? Or do you already have that info Sherlock Holmes?" I teased.

"As much as I appreciate the compliment, don't get too excited. I had just figured out where the mother had come from and the names of the women she fled with when I heard someone outside the door. I hurried up and put everything back and hid behind one of the bookshelves just in time for the runt to walk in." He said it so calmly like it was no big deal. People don't go to a restricted section of the library for just some light reading. Do they?

"What?! What the hell was she doing there? I talked to her best friend today and she said that she hasn't even heard from her since the hospital. She just figured the runt was at home resting and still recovering." I had jumped to my feet and my sudden movement made Ben lose his balance and fall off the side of the tree.

"Idk what she was doing there, but she was. You can't mistake those emeralds in that pretty little head of hers for no one else." He said as he was brushing himself off.

Maddox let out a low warning growl that rumbled in my chest. He didn't like anyone talking about her like that.

"You got to get ahold of yourself. We don't know anything about this chick, and it seems like her mother is full of secrets. With our mission on the rogues, we can't afford to be blindsided or betrayed." I tried to reason with Maddox. Of course, it was not working so I pushed him back to the depths of my mind so I could finish this conversation with Ben.

"You and your pet finished?" Ben asked annoyed.

"Ok so how did you get out of there without her seeing you?" I asked

"She was wondering around each isle and as she was turned with her back to the door, I quickly made my way out, carefully closing the door so she wouldn't hear it close."

"Good work." Thinking this conversation was over, I turned around and started to walk back to the waterfall to ditch my shorts.

"Want to know where she lives?" I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around staring at him.

"You know where she lives?" I asked.

"When you called asking if I was being chased by a chicken, I was actually following her."

"Why the hell would you follow her?!" Ben just held up his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess I just wanted to see her mother to see if she was scared up. You know, because of the rumors and shit about her native pack. But…" He held up his index finger and paused for a brief moment. "I can tell you that I think the runt already has her wolf."

"That's impossible. She's only 17, and me and Maddox would've smelt it."

"I guess she's just crazy then talking to herself about punching someone in the face." Ben shrugged his shoulders again.

"If you followed her home, then where does she live?" I questioned.

"Her parents' house is on the outskirts of town. Huge house, well I guess it would have to be to house 8 kids at one point. It's yellow with white trim and shutters and brown metal roof. If you take the path through the woods on the southwest territory line and follow it straight west, it will bring you out just a few houses down from hers."

I shook Ben's hand and stashed my shorts back behind the waterfall again and shifted, letting Maddox take control, and took off towards the southwest line. The sun was starting to go down behind the trees, so I didn't have a lot of daylight left.

Maddox found the runts house but was staying hidden in the forest. We were not in our own territory, and we didn't know how well they handled trespassers. We watched threw any open window that we could. We saw her mom finishing up in the kitchen before walking out of site. It looked like her 2 younger brothers were in living room watching tv, when we saw a light turn on in one of the bedrooms upstairs. We waited for someone to come into view and after what felt like forever, the runt came into view. She was drying the last bit of her hair and looking out towards the woods. She got this weird look on her face like she was trying to solve a problem in her head.

"What is she looking at?" I asked Maddox while I watched threw his eyes.

"I'm not sure. I don't hear or smell anything out here. We're the only ones."

Just about then we see her snap her blinds closed like she just got caught looking at her Christmas presents early or something. Something must have scared her. The thought of her being scared and not being able to calm her down had Maddox on edge. He was ready to tear threw the back door and run straight to her. That's when I felt Maddox's hackles start to raise.

"What is it?" I ask

"Right there in her back yard. How can you miss it?!" Before I could say another word, Maddox growled so loud I thought we woke the whole neighborhood up for sure. When Maddox takes off bolting through the woods chasing after something. Even with our enhanced night vision, I still didn't see what he was chasing after. He just kept saying it was right in front of us.

After chasing whatever this thing was back through our own territory, Maddox came to a sliding halt throwing up dirty and leaves right at our southeast border. After Maddox was sure that the creature was gone, we headed back to where I hid my clothes under the bush.

Once I shifted back and got dressed, I was trying to get Maddox to tell me what he was chasing. I thought he was losing his shit to be honest. Maddox tried to explain it to me, but I wasn't understanding, because if what he said was true then why didn't I see it. Maddox started forcing images in my head of this huge wolf, larger than any alpha wolf that I've ever seen before, but this one had piercing red eyes. It was completely unnatural. I sprinted the rest of the way home. It was getting late, and dad was more than likely already in bed, so I tried to be as quiet as I could when I went in the house. I went straight to my room and grabbed my phone and called Ben. I had to tell him what Maddox was just chasing tonight.