QUEST POV

"I'm not that great of a trainer, if I'm honest. But I do know some people who would be willing to help, if we can all agree."

"The friends that you were talking about, that helped you get all this ready for us?" Evangeline held the joint out to me as she blew out the smoke with her words. I waved it away.

"Yeah. They have many different skill sets that have saved my ass on many occasion, this one included." He said also turning down the joint.

"What kind of skills?" I asked. He sighed a little and a smirk formed at the thought of his friends.

"Well, there's the hacker and they are brilliant at what they do. Most of which is illegal, but you didn't hear that from me. Frank, the one who may be up for training, combat skills? OFF the charts. And I really do mean it, they can switch it up in a split second. Alex, is a bit of a nut when it comes to weapons. I don't even know where all the information comes from. Explosives, tactical, infiltration, the whole nine. Charlie… a bit of a jack of all trades that one.." I watched him gush about his friends and get all wispy about that last one. Charlie?

"And Wes, my right hand, it's like he always knew what I was thinking. If we ever had to do something on the fly, there was no explaining. We just did that shit". He got a little sad remembering his lost friend. "It was actually like that when we met. I was just thrown into a mission with a completely new team. We saw each other in the hallway and never said a word to each other - I didn't know what he would look like - we completed the interrogation having never even introduced ourselves." He ran a hand over his face and motioned for Evangeline to pass him the joint.

"We can try to find out what pack he was from, if he was ever a part of a pack. Maybe then we can find out how to reach him." He looked stressed already, and we haven't even started to do any work. I wanted to take something off his plate.

"How would we do that?" He set his empty plate carefully in the sand and leaned forward.

"The Council I talked about before we left; They do things differently all around the world, but they are all connected. Information on every pack and the members within them. Some even go as far as telling you which have powers or are half-bloods."

"That's a pretty comprehensive list. Do you think they would give us any of that information?"

"We haven't been established and you are an Alpha that they do not know, and have not selected. Yeah, they tend to be dicks like that too. My suggestion for you would be to make a few allies and build your reputation before they would be willing to hear from you." He leaned back again and looked up at the sky.

"And maybe those friends; If he's still serving, and just reassigned like you said, then they would be able to find something out, right?" I stared at him, waiting for him to pick his head back up, but he didn't.

One of the children stood at the top of the hill, crying and clutching his bear, calling for Laurel.

"What's wrong baby?" She asked as she was running to pick him up.

"I want my mommy." He laid his head on her shoulder and began to wail. She shushed him and headed toward the house. Bodie sat watching them leave, when he righted himself, he was shaking his head.

"They'll all be like that in some way or another. We need to bring some normalcy here before we worry about Wes. I just wish I knew if he was okay". I nodded at him and Evangeline patted him on the shoulder.

Agnes walked over tentatively with a few new plates in her arms. "I brought over some dessert. I was going to take some inside to our new friends." She handed Evangeline a piece of chocolate cake, which she dug into immediately.

"Let me help you with the plates." She waved me down when I tried to get up.

"I can handle it."

"And I want to help." I chuckled at her and removed three of the plates from her forearm. She stood staring at me for a second before I motioned for her to walk.

"Captain save a -" she muttered lowly, but I could still hear.

"Excuse me?" I said with a smile.

"Nothing." She said, smiling sweetly back at me. I laughed at her. She always said she hated being treated like an old woman but now with som many people dead, she was one of the oldest we had and we had to protect her.

When we entered the house, I was immediately hit with clove and sage. I stopped in the doorway and my heartbeat did an uptake. Agnes stopped and looked back at me, but I shook my head and kept going. I'd have to ask Bodie what his friend cleaned this house with.

I hurried after Agnes into the den when we heard a gasp and a cough. When we got there the injured girl was attempting to sit up in the lounge and one of the boys tried to cover her naked body with one of the throws.

"Oh honey, you shouldn't have shifted. You've been terribly hurt. How are you feeling?" Agnes rushed to her side and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She whipped her head around and her eyes connected with mine.

"Mate?" I dropped the plates on the ground and lost my breath at her words.