Chapter 14

Mystery Guy's POV

I woke up to my alarm going off. I rolled over, still half asleep, and shut it off. I laid there staring at the ceiling, thinking about all the things I had to do today. I had already talked to my professors and told them about a "family emergency" that had come up and they all agreed to let me turn my mid-terms in online. I already got those done and I was putting school on the back burner for now. I also talked to coach and told him the same story and told him I wasn't sure if I would be back before the end of the season. I didn't want to leave everybody hanging like that, but I never really wanted to go to school in the first place. I only went because that's what dad wanted.

Originally, I was set on hunting down the rogues that killed my mom, but now I needed to focus on the creatures that have started showing up, and what they were doing at the runt's house. From what Ben and I could gather yesterday, they have to be some mix between some ancient wolf type creature and one of the few others with red eyes.

I could smell breakfast coming from the kitchen, so I got up and got ready like I was still going to class. Little did dad know that the schoolbooks in my bag had been replaced with the research books. I went down and made me a plate stacked high with eggs, waffles, and bacon.

"You ready for this training tonight?" Dad asked, giving me a sideways smirk.

"I know Ben and I agreed to it, but if you and alpha want her gone so quick, then why not just train her yourselves?"

"We discussed it, but we both agreed it's time for you boys to step up. The alpha and I won't be around forever and sooner or later, you and Ben are going to have to take our spots. You guys need to know how to run a pack, not the roads."

"I guess I really didn't have a choice in the matter then, did I? Well, time to get the day started. Why do I feel like it's going to be so much fun?" sarcasm just oozing out everywhere.

Dad just chuckled and shrugged his shoulders and told me to be at the training room at 6:00. I grabbed my bag from by the door and said bye as I was walking out. I met up with Ben down the street and we went to the public library in the human town. We figured it was the safest place not to get spotted by either of our dads or other pack members.

About an hour and a half into doing more research, Maddox perks up in my head with his nose straight in the air. "What is it?" I asked him and started looking around to see what might have him alerted.

"Cinnamon and apples." Maddox's tail is now going 100 miles per hour. He's jumping threw invisible hoops in my head.

"Shitballs." I muttered

"What? Find something useful?" Ben asked looking up from the 350-year-old book he was attempting to comprehend.

"We got to get out of here. She's here"

"Who's here?"

"The runt. Let's go!" I say closing books and putting them on a rack for the librarians to put back on the shelf.

Ben is not far behind me as we sneak around the human library trying to stay out of the runt's site. What could she possibly be doing here anyways? First Ben had the close call in the restricted section at her pack's library, and now this? Is she researching the same creatures as us?

"You know we could always go ask her. Maybe she's got more information than you or Skeeter over there." Maddox nodding his head towards Ben.

"NO! I told you, we lay low for now until we know what's going on. Our pack's safety comes first." At that Maddox plops his fluffy butt down in disappointment, I swore I could see a cloud of dust puff up from under it. After we were outside and sure she hadn't seen us, we head towards the car.

"Now what?" Ben asks.

"Let's go back to that restricted section you were telling me about. If you're right, then that's our best bet and with both of us, we can get twice the books covered in less time, and we know that she's here, so she won't be there."

As we near the Wolf Claw pack's borders, I can smell wolves in the woods. They must of up their security. But why though? Did they know about the creatures too? And if so, how were the creatures getting past not only our border patrols but theirs too? So many questions and no answers. I'm going to have start writing all these questions down at the rate we're going.

We get to the library and the elderly lady behind the desk flashes us a big smile and just nods her head at us. I followed Ben up the stairs to a decent sized oak door with a plaque reading "RESTRICTED". Just as Ben went to grab the door handle, there was a buzz and then the sound of the locks unlocking. I walk in behind and make sure that the door is completely shut behind me so if we would know if anybody else tried to come in.

After another hour or two, I really don't know at this point, there was no clock in this room and we both shut our phones off, Ben sits straight up in his chair muttering to himself.

"Putty Tat got your tongue?" I tease him.

"Come look at this and tell me if you see the same thing I do?!" I don't know if he was scared or excited. I get up and walk around the table to look at what he had found. He didn't have to point anything out to me, I saw it immediately and I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the ground. Maddox started growling in my head and I could feel it starting to rumble in my own chest.

"This is exactly what we saw right?" Ben looking for some confirmation that he wasn't going crazy, for once.

"Yeah, that's it! Well shit. What does the book say about it? What is it for starters?" Ben shifted the book back in front of him and is scanning the pages.

"We're fucked. That's what it says."

"What? Not possible." I say taking the book from him and reading for myself. "How the hell is that even possible? I thought they were all killed in the first war?"

"Apparently fuckin not. Someone must have had some in hiding or some shit."

"I think it's time we get our dads involved with this. I'm sure they would know more. Maybe they know about some rumor or legend about some surviving." I pull my phone to take a picture of the book's pages to show the alpha and my dad. There's no way they're going to believe us. This can't be possible. Can it?

We cleaned up and left the library and headed back to our pack house. Both of us in complete silence trying to digest the information we just discovered. If we didn't believe it ourselves then how can we expect our dads to believe us?

When we arrived back at the packhouse, my dad was already there with the alpha going over the pack's financials for the past month. Ben and I were walking in their direction, not really sure how we were going to break the ice on this one.

"You boys ok? Look like you've seen a ghost." Dad hits the alpha on the shoulder and they both start laughing, but when we didn't laugh or come back with some smartass comment they both stopped and stared at us.

"Seriously, you boys ok? Not worried about training tonight, are you?" Alpha was the one to throw jokes around now. Ben and I just looked at each other and I swore I saw him galp down his nervousness.

"Dad, we need to talk to you. Both of you. In private. Please?" Ben mutters but we knew they heard with the enhanced werewolf hearing. By now both our dads had stopped their jokes and knew that something serious was wrong. Alpha nodded and pointed towards his office and we followed behind them.

"What's so important that we have to talk in private and has not just one, but both of you pale white?" Wolves were naturally tan, or 'sun kissed' as the human's called it. Alpha took his usual seat behind his desk, while my dad had turn one of the chairs in front of it to face us. We sat in our usual spots on the couch, and I buried my face in my hands trying to make sense of everything still when I heard Ben take a deep breath.

"Ok I just want to start off by asking that both of you hear us out before ripping our heads off. Please?" Ben was looking between my dad and his. At this request, dad looked back over his shoulder at the alpha, and both raised an eyebrow at us. I swear they could pass for brothers sometimes.

"Well, I will do my best but I'm not speaking for him." My dad says while pointing back towards the alpha.

"Dad, please. Hear us out?" Ben pleaded.

"Fine. But my answer is still no on another stripper club." The alpha said while rolling his eyes.

"Seriously dad? You think we'd be this nervous to talk to both of you about adding another gentleman's club?" His dad just shrugs his shoulders and looks at my dad.

"Oh, just get on with it already!" I cut in. Now everybody's looking at me and they know something is up. I'm never one to act in disrespectful way in front of the alpha.

"Ok! We'll hear you both out before ripping heads off." My dad and alpha both nodding at each other in agreement.

I went on to tell them about my first encounter with the creature. They tried to question me, but I cut them off and told them it wasn't important at the time, and I would accept any punishment they saw fit at a later time. That's when Ben cut in and was telling them about the second encounter with the same species but a different being.

He covered my ass saying he had been going to the libraries and researching while I was at school, well at least till today. We told them what we had found and that we both confirmed that the creature in the book was what we had saw that night. That's when I pulled out my phone and pulled up the pictures I took of the book and showed them to my dad and the alpha.

After seeing the pictures, dad and the alpha both went wide eyed and just stared at each other in silence. I could see their eyes glazing over so they had to be mindlinking each other. We must be on to something for them to be acting like this. After a few minutes of Ben and I looking back and forth and towards our dads, Alpha finally spoke up.

"You boys are 100% sure this is what you chased across the territory both times?"

"Yes sir." I said.

"Ok we need to do some research of our own. Thank you boys for bringing this to us, but you should have brought it up sooner." Alpha said.

"We wanted to make sure it was worth your time sir. If it was something we could've handled, then we were going to come up with a plan and then run it by you. Dad, you did say that we needed to start stepping up." I pointed out to my dad.

"You're correct. I did say that." Dad says still looking at the pictures on my phone. "Send these pictures to me please?"

He handed my phone back to me and I sent the pictures of the book pages to him right then. Alpha dismissed us, telling us to grab some food before we were to start training the Wolf Claw chick.