As he busted through the fifth packet of paper, he mentally cried to himself. All of it was documentation, reports, and every now and then, a government file which he wasn’t exactly allowed to read.
It was already two in the afternoon and he was going stir-crazy. To think that his dad had dealt with this for six days a week from nine to five?
Gross.
A knock on the door and a curious voice came through.
“Alpha?”
“Come in.”
It was Ben, the beta of the pack. Poor guy was only twenty-four and already deep into the administration.
“We have some news.” Ben closed the office doors, and handed his dad a waterlogged envelope. “I’ve been informed of the large number of attacks recently within the last forty hours.”
“Attacks led by whom?” His dad didn’t hesitate to open the contents of the envelope and start reading.
“We don’t know,” Ben replied as Adrian listened intently. “The claw marks indicated a rogue, but then the bullets led me to believe that it was because of hunters.”
His dad then took out a map from the packet of paper, and Adrian saw red dots that didn’t look like they would correlate with each other. The closest dot was near Lake Tahoe, but the other five were all over.
“Victims are a mix of humans, shifters, and nons,” Ben added.
“Humans and nons?” His dad seemed perplexed. “And does Alpha Joel know?”
Ben nodded.
“You think these are related?” Adrian couldn’t help but ask. “I mean if it were just shifters that are being targeted, then they’re hunters for sure, but what if it’s a weird coincidence that humans are getting involved? Not to mention, nons . . . they don’t really have much to offer.”
“You’re right, but that’s three dead in two days which is the confirmed number for now,” his dad replied.
Adrian kept his silence.
He got that, but why would nons get involved? They were the closest thing to humans even though they technically weren’t. What would they have for them to get targeted too?
“Do you think they’re working together?” Ben looked at Adrian’s dad. “The rogues and hunters?”
“What would be their ulterior motive then? Most hunters are under oath not to kill us,” his dad wondered out loud, referring to the pack that were officially recognized by the human government. “Rogues on the other hand . . .”
Adrian mustered his strength to look at the photos and was thankful he had a light lunch. Otherwise, he was sure that everything he ate would’ve come back out. The entire crime scene was painted red. Parts of the bodies were so mangled up that he couldn’t recognize which chunks were which, and the faces . . .
This was pure murder.
“But these humans were connected to a pack in some way,” Ben said and Adrian’s blood froze.
His dad asked, “What do you mean?”
“Two out of the six were humans that had some sort of relation to a member of the Blue Crescent Pack, the one on the borders of Utah,” Ben informed.
“Like what kind of relations?” Adrian looked at Ben with such intensity that he didn’t even know he possessed.
Ben didn’t answer straight away, but then looked towards Adrian’s dad. The Alpha in turn, handed him the paper from the envelope which contained all the information of the victims including ages, status, and relationships.
Adrian scanned each of the profiles as he tried to make some sort of connection between any of these people. Besides the fact that they were confirmed injured for now, they all had friends within the pack, while one of them had a speculated soul mate connection to one of the members.
Adrian didn’t even realize his hands were shaking until his dad put a hand on his shoulder.
He hadn’t told anyone except his parents, Nick, Leila, and Mira about Aria. He was still waiting to tell Ellie during Thanksgiving.
Aria shouldn’t be in danger. She couldn’t be.
He then looked at the other profiles and realized that the shifters and nons who were injured weren’t just low-ranking members of their respective packs. They trained day in and day out, where even the nons were given contingency training just in case something went wrong, yet they were targeted and victimized.
This wasn’t a simple threat.
For the first time in a long time, he felt a different type of fear.
A fear not for himself, but for the people he cared about. He knew that his pack would be on higher alert, because the Moon Goddess forbade that any one of theirs becomes the next victim. However, they weren’t his only concern.
Aria was among that list of people he needed to protect, but how? Leila might be a non, but it wasn’t like she could impart any of their self-defense contingencies on Aria. He wanted to keep her away from this disaster, but how would he protect her in the process?
God.
Three confirmed dead in forty hours.
More critically injured and hospitalized.
Shifters, nons, and humans were all fair game.
Chapter 12
Aria
It wouldn’t be the first Thanksgiving break she’d spend alone, but she couldn’t get used to it. Her dad had to travel to California for a business trip although he did promise her he’d be back by Sunday, so at the very least, they would have their own mini celebration.
However, it still kind of sucked.
She did her best not to mind too much though, especially considering the fact that her dad was doing his best for them. Besides, Mira already predicted that would happen and invited her over to their usual Thanksgiving celebration.
Although Aria had met Carmen a handful of times and loved the hospitality that waved off of her, she wouldn’t be caught dead showing up empty-handed. Therefore, she channeled Adrian and hoped her apple pie would turn out alright.
As the
