The Unwanted Wolf

We approached the building with Mark and Scythe leading the way. Mark reached up to the door to knock, but before his fist hit the door, it opened. A young teenage girl opened the door and looked startled.

“Oh, can I help you?” She kept the door slightly cracked.

“We are from Pack Aphelion. Jori should be expecting us,” Mark answered.

“Uh, okay. I will let someone know you are here.” The girl shut the door, and we waited outside for a response.

The door opened again, and this time a man with dark brown hair opened the door. “You’re early.”

Scythe froze on the spot and I heard his voice hitch. “Percy?”

The man in front of us looked at the ground. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here, Scythe. You look well.”

Scythe didn’t take his eyes off the man in front of him. “Percy, I missed-”

“Alpha Jori has prepared a meeting room for your pack,” Percy said, quickly cutting Scythe off. He was avoiding eye contact with Scythe and looked guilty. “Please follow me.”

Mark glanced over at Scythe, picking up on the same weird energy that I was feeling. Now was not the time to question him about it though.

We all followed Percy through the house. It felt even bigger once we were on the inside. He led us down a long hallway and opened a door near the end of the hallway. Inside there was a long table that could fit sixteen people. Percy gestured for us to sit down.

“Please wait here. I’ll be back.” Percy shut the door behind us, and left us in the room. I could feel the nerves lingering in the room.

“Scythe, are you okay? What was that about?” Mark asked as he sat down at the table.

Rie sat to Mark’s left, and I took the seat on the other side of him. Scythe stayed standing, shifting on his feet.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s of little consequence.” Scythe looked down at the ground, and I hadn’t seen him with so little hype before. He looked completely drained.

“Hey pretty boy, you don’t need to sacrifice your own feelings. You’re important too,” Rie said. “Come sit down.”

Mark added, “She’s right. We are a few minutes, so if there is something bothering you, please tell me.”

Scythe sighed and sat down next to Rie. “Okay, if you insist. Before we separated from the pack, I found my mate.”

Rie’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean? You never mentioned this before.”

“It’s Percy, isn’t it?” I said. The way Scythe had looked at Percy looked like a broken-hearted puppy.

Scythe nodded, but he didn’t look at any of us. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Mark asked.

Scythe shrugged. “We discovered while everything… was happening. I had to go with you, Alpha, and Percy said he couldn’t go. He begged me to stay with him, but I left anyway.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what was happening?” Mark was distraught at the news.

Scythe finally looked up with a frown carving out his face. “You had so much going on, Alpha. You didn’t need anything else to worry about. I was hoping I wouldn’t see him here.”

“Scythe, you don’t have to deal with this on your own. I want you to talk to me, even if it seems like I have a lot going on. My problems are not more important than yours.” Mark was confident in his words, which showed me he truly cared about his other pack members.

Scythe nodded, but he didn’t say anything. He seemed to shut down, not talking like his normal self.

After a few minutes of silence, the door to the meeting room finally opened back up. Percy led the way with another man who was a little shorter and wore glasses. The man had a stack of papers in his hands, and he was wearing a nice white button-up shirt. He did not give me the alpha vibes I was expecting.

The two of them sat across from us, and the blond set down his papers and pushed up his glasses. Percy was the first one to speak. “Alpha Jori is wrapped up in matters at the moment. He will join us once he is done.” Percy took a quick glance in Scythe’s direction and quickly refocused. If I hadn’t been watching him closely, I would have missed the gesture. “Before we begin, do you have it?”

Mark hesitated before answering. He shifted to pull something out of his backpack. “Yes.” He put a black case in front of him, but he didn’t hand it over yet. “Once you give us the information we need, I will hand it over.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” Percy said, his voice not wavering.

“Percy, please don’t make this more difficult,” Scythe said, keeping his eyes glued to the table.

Percy hesitated. “Alpha Jori was clear on my instructions. I’m not going to continue the meeting unless you hand it over.”

“It’s okay,” Mark said. He was treading in water, and he knew he didn’t have much control over the situation and didn’t want to cause any more issues. He pushed the case across the table, and Percy quickly took it. Percy nodded to the other man sitting next to him.

“Hello, my name is Daniel.” The blond was looking directly and held out his hand. “I don’t believe the two of us have met before.”

I grabbed his hand and shook it. “I’m Adira. It’s nice to meet you.”

He nodded. “I understand you have some questions for me.”

“Thanks for meeting with us, Daniel,” Mark said with a familiarity in his voice. “Doctor Zayla sends her regards.”

Daniel smiled at the name of Doctor Zayla. “I hope she is well. So please, fill me in with what’s been going on.”

Mark began telling Daniel and Percy what was going on. He explained that someone had tried to poison me with wolfsbane and how I survived the attack. Then he went over Doctor Zayla’s test results and her theory about my mixed heritage. He made sure to add the part that someone was still trying to kill me, but he conveniently left out the fact that I was his mate or how we met. After Mark was done explaining everything, Daniel was silent for a moment.

“I see. I have a few theories about what might be the case,” Daniel finally said.

“What are they?” I eagerly asked.

“I would like to do a little more research before I confirm my thoughts,” Daniel said. He started flipping through his stack of papers.

“I insist you share your theories now,” Mark said firmly. “The deal was you help us and share what information you might have. Not get back to us later.”

Daniel sighed and adjusted his glasses again. “The thing that sticks out most to me is the fact that Adira was able to disappear and her glowing eyes. Those are features of sorcerers. Some other races have those abilities as well, though, so I’m not confident that’s the case though.”

“Sorcerers?” I had repeated. I hadn’t heard much about other races, other than vampires growing up. I didn’t know what kind of things they were capable of.

Daniel nodded. “That’s the most likely answer. I will have to do more research on them to verify it. I think I might have a source that could get us a sample of b***d from a sorcerer. Doctor Zayla would then be able to compare her test results with that.”

“Do you know what kind of weaknesses sorcerers might have? We want to make sure we are prepared in case Adira’s attacker knows her history.” Mark was tense as he spoke.

Daniel continued looking through his papers for a moment, skimming the information on the pages. “Not off the top of my head. I promise I will get you more information with a little bit of time. Mark, I do not plan to betray our deal. I understand there is some bad b***d between our packs, but I do not have any ill regards towards you. I am asking for some of your trust.”

Mark relaxed a little. “Thanks Daniel. I was just hoping for more concrete information right away, but I understand that is asking for a lot.”

Daniel finally paused and looked Mark in the eyes. “I understand the level of importance of this situation, and I’m happy to help if I can.” He turned to look at me. “What pack did you say you were from again? I don’t remember if you said, and I know you are not a part of Alpha Mark’s pack.”

I looked at Mark, a little hesitant to answer. Mark nodded, so I answered. “I am originally from Pack Lyna, but I have since separated.”

Daniel c****d his head at this information. “You were from Pack Lyna? I am familiar with them.”

I nodded in response. I didn’t feel it was necessary to say that I’m the estranged daughter who they likely pretended didn’t exist. I couldn’t imagine that was important to figure out what I was or who was trying to kill me.

“Thank you for your help, Daniel,” Mark said. “How long will it be until we can expect an answer from you?”

“I should be able to get you some answers tonight, if not by tomorrow morning.”

The door opened, and I instantly smelled an overwhelming scent that made me want to take another deep breath. It smelled of pine needles and dirt. My heart pounded against my chest, and I felt nervous as I looked up. I met the eyes of a tall man with dark hair. His eyes were a dark brown color and they pierced my soul. Tingles ran down my spine, and I couldn’t break eye contact with this new man. He was staring right back at me.

“Alpha Jori, welcome. I’m glad you were able to meet us,” Percy said. “We were just about to wrap up.”

Jori didn’t respond to Percy. He walked right over to me, and placed his hands on the table in front of me. He leaned forward, so his face was only a few inches from me. “Hello beautiful.”

A growl escaped Mark’s lips and he flung up out of his chair. “Stay away from her.”

Jori smirked, not breaking eye contact with me. “Why would I step away from my mate?”