2 Hidden Danger
Ronin had had a bad day, and he could tell it was going to get worse. The closer he got to the village of his pack, the more the copper brown--fluffy--ears on top of his head twitched. There was an agitated discussion in progress, and by the sound of it, an unhappy one.
As he entered the village, a boy spotted him and ran into his outstretched arms, burying into his chest while clutching his black t-shirt tightly. The boy's red-brown--also fluffy--ears and tails were drooping, indicating the young foxkin's sad mood.
"What's up, Nate?" Ronin softly patted the boy between his ears to calm him down. The foxkin only held on tighter and started sobbing. Ronin picked him up--not surprised the barely six-year-old hadn't answered--and moved to the center, where all the others were still arguing.
As he was focusing on them, he figured out what was wrong before he reached them. Someone was missing, considering their current situation, that was a bad sign.
When he reached them, most foxkins made way, so it was easy for him to walk up to his leader. The woman was in the center of the crowd, her fire-red hair a beacon no one could miss. The moment Ronin stepped up to her, she focused him with green slit-pupils.
"The border?" She asked in the typical no-nonsense way she handled work.
"Clear indications of incursions. The wolfs didn't even attempt to hide them." Some high pitched growls answered his words, displaying the anger the group had for their neighbors' actions.
"It's likely they kidnapped Meika, they don't seem to think anything of us." A tank of a man--Greg--standing opposite of Ronin threw out, finally answering the question as to why everyone was so agitated.
"She is missing, since when?" Ronin asked their leader.
"Her father drove her to the university as always. They split up at the entrance. While he went to teach his class, his daughter never reached her lecture, none of her friends even caught a glimpse of her that day." She clarified, and Ronin furrowed his brows, "that's not something the wolves could pull of."
"No, it's not," she agreed.
The mood turned solemn. The village had already had a hard time coping with the newly settled pack of wolflings. Having another hidden danger would bleed the already thinly spread fox pack dry.
The leader looked at a lanky girl who stood as close to her as Ronin and Greg did. "Find a trace of Meika. Even if you have to hack every damn piece of tech on earth!" The woman smiled in return--showing her sharp canines--though her eyes weren't smiling at all. "Sure, I will find her!"
Her determined answer didn't surprise Ronin, Casey had been good friends with Meika. The younger girl had just been as tech-savvy as her, and both had bonded over it.
Their leader looked back at Ronin then and Greg. "I need both of you to pull back the border from the wolves. We're giving them half the territory between us." A chorus of gasps and saddened sniffs sounded from the people around, Greg had an ugly expression on his face but didn't argue. Ronin didn't like it as well, but he knew there was no way to hold on to their land anymore. "However," she continued, and her voice had a savage ring to it, "if they try to take any more than that from us, remind them that we have teeth and claws as well."
~~~
Lyla had brought Kylie back home. The girl was sitting at the kitchen table, while Lyla was making hot chocolate--bought on the way back--for both of them.
She had been trying to figure out where to go from here, although she might have broken her worst death flag, that did not mean she was safe.
She still had to remove the ML's uncle, letting the ML suffer more would only make things worse and hurt Kylie in the process. There was also her organization. She had barely removed the worst cancer there. And then there was all the suffering that only came to light as the story progressed through the books.
She felt a headache coming, but a look at Kylie had her taking a deep breath and focusing. She had to prioritize. She filled two cups with hot chocolate, then placed them on the table, and sat down opposite of Kylie.
The girl took a sip, and Lyla could see the girl relax a fraction. Taking a sip herself, the mildly sweet, slightly bitter, and distinctly chocolatey taste of the hot chocolate hit her, and she relaxed a bit as well.
"So, what's next?" Kylie finally asked, caution still visible in her brown eyes.
So back to business, it was. Lyla set her cup back down. "Well, you will have to eat and rest well. If Shade sees you like this, he will probably kill me." Which might still happen, Shade--the ML that killed the original--was extremely protective of Kylie. And Lyla had tortured her--the original anyway.-- "Aside from that, well, for now, removing Robert Cohen from the equation would be the first real step."
Robert was the uncle of Shade, as well as the very first Villain in the book series. Not only had he handed Kylie over to Lyla as part of their--so-called--partnership. Robert also controlled Shade with his persuasion skills--not quite mind-control, the books described it more like being on a leash.--To make matters worse he was also a sadistic, psychopathic serial killer. And--except for Shade--the strongest telekinetic vampire.
"Do you need my help?" The girl asked forlornly, probably willing to be used to save her boyfriend.
Lyla grasped Kylie's hand and squeezed it gently. "No, I already have a plan in mind for that. I will never use your powers." That promise was one only Shade had ever given her. Though the way her parents--who were still searching for her--had cared for her, it was there.
"Okay, I trust you." Kylie nodded and shook Lyla to the core.
She had not expected any trust from Kylie. But that trust was a bond, the first she made since she came to this world.
The reminder of how isolated she was, reignited the longing for her family. She clamped down on it with every bit of resolve she could muster. "You can count on me."
Lyla would have to start her move as soon as possible, so she stood up and looked at Kylie. "I will have to make a few calls now. Down the hall on the left is a guest room, it's yours now. We will have to do some more shopping tomorrow. For now, take this card the code is 5769, you can use it however you want."
She gave her a black card that had practically no limit. Then she patted her head and walked towards her study.
After closing the study door behind her, she sat down at her desk and considered her options.
Finally, she decided that she would need the help of the predatory beastkin. After all, they had been the ones to remove Robert in the book.
They would, however, not be able to do that without some help. So it was probably time to speed up some of the development in the book.
She finished the mail for the wolfkin alpha and sent it through an anonymized channel, though they would probably find her, that was okay.
Next, she sent an official joint project proposal to her competitor. Then, she sent another anonymized message to another vampire family.
When she was about to send a message to Kylie's family, she paused and considered the implications. After concluding that the risks were too high for now--she didn't want Robert catching on--she shut her computer down and called her secretary.
After she told her about the building she should arrange cleaning for, she ended the call and realized that there had been no secretary in the book. She had not once read even so much as a passing mention about her having one. Lyla, the person who loved to have direct control over everything, would never give any single person so much power.
