Autumn was really the best season.
***
“Aria,” Carmen greeted her at the door. “It’s good to see you again. It’s been forever!”
“Nice to see your face too.” Mira looked over at her cousin while she stepped inside.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Aria stepped inside Carmen’s beautiful house.
“What’s that?” Carmen looked at the container in her hands. “You didn’t have to bring anything!”
“Who comes over empty-handed?” Aria joked.
“The people who aren’t getting invited back,” Mira snorted.
“Exactly.”
Carmen added, “Still, you didn’t have to bring anything. You’re practically family at this point.”
“Even more of a reason to contribute to the feast.” Aria slipped her shoes off.
Mira announced their arrival, and after all the formal greetings, Aria took a moment to enjoy the atmosphere. There were a few faces she didn’t recognize, but Mira did mention that she’d have some relatives come visit.
In a lot of ways, the entire atmosphere was that of a big, happy, and slightly chaotic family. Kids were running around while the adults were enjoying the wine, some even cracked open the brandy.
It kind of made her wish she had a big family too. Her dad was the youngest of his family, and the only one in the US, while her mom had an estranged relationship with her own family. As far as she could remember, Aria might’ve met her grandparents once or twice in her entire life, but that was about it.
“Hey,” Mira called out to her. “I think everyone’s here. Let’s get some food before it runs out.”
“Okay.”
“You better hurry though,” Mira grumbled. “Everyone around here eats like its their last meal or something.”
Chapter 13
Adrian
The Thanksgiving feast held a special place in Adrian’s heart. Aside from the endless amounts of food, he was able to spend the day with the people he cared about. Food and family were always a winning combination.
The best part though, had to be when he would go out with Nick and a few of his cousins to the mall around midnight to scout around for Black Friday specials.
This year however, he couldn’t help but worry just a little bit. He heard through the grapevine that Aria would be joining Carmen and Mira’s family for the holiday, and he knew that she would probably be marginally safer there than home alone.
It just put him on the edge. Everyone in the region: every non, every hunter, and every shifter knew what was happening; but no one seemed to have a clue as to why.
“Adrian?” His dad beckoned him to come closer.
“Yeah?”
“I need to talk to you about something,” he replied in his business tone.
He nodded and followed his dad into the office. It was rare for his dad to do anything work-related during a holiday, so for him to call him to the office meant that something wasn’t going well.
Adrian’s anxiety increased.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he closed the office door.
His dad sighed before he held the bridge of his nose.
“That bad?”
Adrian waited for his dad to speak, but instead of speaking, his dad dug into one of his drawers, and pulled out a manila folder. It only added to Adrian’s confusion as his dad handed him the folder in silence.
Inside the folder, he found a picture of a woman who looked older with small streaks of silver found in her hair. Behind the picture were records of the woman’s name, age, and history.
He glanced at his dad who didn’t meet his eyes, and instead kept them glued to the wall. Adrian then took the clip off the papers, and began to read.
Name: Lucia Choi-Kham
Species: Human
Age: Forty-two years
Status: Deceased
Marital Status: Married
Spouse: Ivan Kham
Children: Aria Kham
Adrian stopped reading. Why did his dad have documents on Aria’s mom? What was his point? They were only supposed to have documents that involved werewolves and humans relevant to them, or to their pack.
He looked at his dad. “What is this?”
“Keep reading.”
Adrian scrunched his brows, frustrated.
Why couldn’t he just tell me what the f*ck this all means?
Relationships:
Direct Family:
David Choi [Father]—Strained
Mary Choi [Mother]—Strained
Esther Choi [Sister]—Strained
Lupinus Pack:
Ashlyn Saffron [Friend]
The list kept going and he skimmed down until he saw additional notes at the bottom.
Died because of car crash and medical complications. Highways were not particularly busy, and construction wasn’t in the area. Driver was not intoxicated nor out of rational state of mind. Suspicions of foul play. Lucia Choi-Kham’s car was hit at a perfect ‘T’ angle, and it was impossible for that to occur on a normal traffic day while car brakes were nearly ‘out’. Police have cleared it, but suspicions remain due to the large increase—
Adrian whispered, “What is this?”
Was his dad trying to tell him that the reason Aria’s mom is dead is because of her involvement with someone from the Lupinus Pack? Because it sure felt like he was implying it.
“I think that Lucia Choi-Kham’s death wasn’t an accident.”
A statement if he’s ever heard one.
“How would you know?”
“I shouldn’t say I. I should say we. We think it was intentional,” his dad continued before Adrian could ask another question, “by ‘we’, I mean myself, Joel, and Ashlyn of Lupinus.”
“Why?”
“Ashlyn was a childhood friend of Lucia Choi-Kham. She said that Lucia had her car brakes replaced two weeks prior to the accident at a local shop, and for them to not work? That’s strange.”
Adrian kept quiet as he let his dad continue.
“Joel and Lucia were college friends. According to both, she was the cautious type. She wouldn’t even try doing something risky, we also know that she knew about us.”
“That’s just speculation though. How can you be so sure that it was our
