Hope Springs

“Oh my God,” I breathed, feeling panic grip me.

“Calm down Trinity,” Max tried to reassure me and took a step towards me but I took a step back. “Rhea, shift back, now.” About a second after he had issued the command human Rhea was back, her eyes staring at me in concern.

Earlier, when we had just been talking about it, it hadn’t seemed real. It had seemed unreal, like a fantasy or a theory or just a story. But now there was proof of it, right in front of me and I was starting to hyperventilate. Holy crap. Werewolves actually existed. I covered my face with my hands, feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed. I was clearly, not taking this well. But who would? If someone told you that they were a werewolf, you shouldn’t act calm about it. Any normal person would freak out, especially if there was proof.

“I can’t do this,” I whispered, whirling around and stalking out of the woods. I had wanted an explanation earlier, but not anymore. Not when they were right there, and it was real. It was suddenly too real.

“Trinity!” Max shouted after me and I heard his footsteps behind me. I had just reached the road when he gripped my arm, sending shocks throughout my body. “Trinity, wait, please,” He pleaded and I yanked my arm away.

“I can’t do this Max,” I confessed, “This is...This is insane! I need to be separated from this, from all of you for awhile.”

His expression turned sad, “Trinity please....”

“I’m reacting how any normal person would be Max,” I said exasperated, “I can’t just roll with the punches, not with something this huge. I...I need to process and I need you, all of you to stay away from me until I approach you.”

He sighed, looking completely and utterly miserable. But he eventually did agree, with one condition. That I agree to let him drive me home. He didn’t want me walking, especially since there had been a Rogue wandering around the city about a day ago. I had agreed to that, albeit a little reluctantly. I wanted to distance myself from them as soon as possible. Fortunately the drive went quickly and I was in my house, in my room in no time.

Once I was in my room, I realized that Maria, May, Mom and Dad weren’t home which was odd. But it also gave me the perfect opportunity to snoop. I had to know what they were hiding, or if they weren’t hiding what exactly they knew about that pill bottle with the aconite. The first place I would check would be Dad’s office. I doubted that there would be anything, but I still had to check.

I cracked open his office door and slipped in, first looking at the bookshelf and then moving to his laptop, where I surfed through the internet and all of his documents but I couldn’t find anything. When that proved fruitless, I looked in the desk and found a few files labeled as Private. I tucked them away and searched around a little bit more. I somehow found a loose floorboard, removing it and digging through the space. I really hoped that there weren’t any bugs or rodents. My fingers brushed against something and I pulled it out.

A satchel? I shrugged and placed the floorboard back in place, grabbed the satchel and the files and fled back to my room, shutting the door. I sat cross legged on my bed and flipped the first file open. It didn’t really interest me and I dismissed it quickly. It was just information about wolves, migration patterns and the like. Towards the end of the file though it mentioned Hope Springs, Summer Falls, Hope Falls (the city closest to Hope Springs), and Autumn Grove. It named various people and had words beside them like Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta, Omega. I guess it was detailing the people in the pack that belonged to that city and was also giving their names.

Why would he have this?

After that file I looked at the other one and my eyes went wide. Adoption records. I hurriedly flipped through the file, my eyes running over everything that I could.

First name: Trinity

Middle name: Elaine

Last name: de Luna

Her parents died when she was one, and she doesn’t remember them at all. Prospective parents: Jeanine and Josiah Walters; Karen and Richard de Luna; Luke and Farrah Judge.

Judge? Wasn’t that Max’s last name? So possibly his parents. How did Mom and Dad end up with me though, if I had Karen and Richard de Luna? Surely they would want to stick me with someone who shared my last name and was a relative of mine. I abandoned the file, my hands shaking and I took a deep breath. First werewolves, then my Dad seems to know a lot about werewolves, and now I find out that I am adopted.

I was extremely hesitant about looking in the satchel, but I needed to know what else they had been hiding from me. I couldn’t seem to stop shaking or erase the feeling of betrayal, and I hoped that they had a good reason for keeping this all from me. With shaking hands I opened the satchel and withdrew a journal. I flipped to the first page and easily recognized my Dad’s handwriting.

Dear Trinity,

If you are reading this then either I am dead or you have decided to snoop and uncover all of this. Let’s hope that it is the latter. I know you must have questions, especially if you have found your adoption records. If not ask Jeanine(Mom), to give them to you. By now, you should know that we are not your parents. We adopted you when you were really little, after your parents had died. We weren’t told much about their death from Jeanine’s parents and the authorities seemed reluctant to give any details, but we knew that it was bad.

I wish that your parents were alive sometimes Trinity, they would know how to deal with you and they would know exactly what could harm you....But they aren’t alive and I find that I am also glad about it. If they were alive I am sure that you would prefer them, they are your birth parents but it would still sting. I am not sure which question I should answer first, I know you must have many.

Who killed your parents? Jeanine’s parents did, but they weren’t the only ones. There is a group out there called Loup Chasseur. That directly translates to “wolf hunter” and like the name suggests they hunt wolves, but not ordinary wolves. Werewolves. Since Loup Chasseur killed your parents, then you must realize that your parents were werewolves, and by default so are you.

Why did they kill your parents? I don’t know, perhaps it was because they were werewolves. For some of your questions I don’t have answers Trinity, and I am so sorry for that. I know who killed them, when they were killed, I know that you are a “white wolf” and I know that you are allergic to aconite. I’m not quite sure why Jeanine has that in the medicine cabinet, I’m assuming she doesn’t actually know what aconite is or that you are deathly allergic to it, but I am not sure.

If you do want to find out more answers I would recommend going to the Hope Springs pack, they were very closer with your parents who were also “white wolves”.

- Josiah Walters (a.k.a. Dad, if you still wish to think of me as such)

I slowly set the journal down, my head reeling. I was adopted. That I could deal with. Out of all the things that have been flung at me recently, that one was the easiest one to deal with by far. My friends were werewolves, that was a little harder to deal with but eventually maybe I could be okay with that fact. My parents were werewolves, that was a lot harder to deal with. I hadn’t known my parents at all but the fact that they were werewolves and the supposed “white wolves” completely blew my mind. I was a werewolf, that was nearly impossible for me to deal with. I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around that or the fact that I was also supposedly a “white wolf”, whose fur actually wouldn’t be white until they were about three hundred. But still. I am a werewolf. That just doesn’t seem possible and it doesn’t seem real, although my friends are werewolves so other werewolves out there doesn’t seem insane. Unless it’s me. The idea that I am a werewolf is insane, although it does explain my sudden allergy to aconite.

But the idea of there being a society or order out there killing werewolves was also difficult to wrap my head around. Loup Chasseur. I believed that it could be real, and after seeing Rhea turn into a wolf I wasn’t really up for doubting that it was real, but I still did need proof. Maybe Jeani-Mom, would have answers. I hoped that she would have answers about Loup Chasseur, especially if her parents were part of it but from what Dad had said she didn’t really seem to know much about Loup Chasseur. So maybe asking her about it would be pointless.

I sighed. When had my life turned into an episode of Teen Wolf? The sound of the door downstairs startled me and I stuffed the journal back in the satchel, and then decided that there was no point in hiding what I knew. It would only lead to trouble.

So I crept downstairs, prepared to admit to my parents that I had been snooping through their things and had found out a plethora of things. What I was not prepared for was the sight of three men, all equipped with guns making their way into the house. My eyes went wide and I almost screamed before darting back upstairs and grabbing the phone.

I dialled 911, but the line was dead and I closed my eyes in despair. What do I do? Climb out the window? But then where would I go? I didn’t know where any of my friends lived, I didn’t know where my family was, and I didn’t know how to get to Clara’s. Maybe those five years of martial arts classes would help, but they had guns. I had....a lamp.

I had a lamp.