Natalia’s P. O. V
“Robert’s text says that they want to meet by the river behind their territory. I’ve been there before, when I was scoping out the area after our initial visit. The river runs around half of one side then to the back of their territory line, some yards away, then it veers off. It takes about an hour to get there if we move at a medium pace and stick close to their border, longer if we don’t.”
We were still in the living room, working on our strategy. Taking the initiative, Kaesha had gone to work on changing her scent while we spoke.
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t we get moving? We only have an hour to get there.” Hailey suggested, her hand in Kaesha’s as she donated her energy.
“The fact that they gave us an only hour, means they expect us to either move close to their territory, or enter it altogether.”
Timothy nodded, “If we do that, we’ll possibly be intercepted by their patrols. They want us to get close. They might be looking to attack us.” He shot me a look.
“That could be the case, but there could be more to it. Their Alpha seems like an intelligent man. He might want to see if we can pull it off.”
He crossed his arms, “Say we pull it off, how am I even gonna know what to say to him?”
Finished with her spell, Kaesha let go of Haley and grabbed both Timothy’s and my hand before either of us could protest. Soon enough, she’d established a telepathic link.
“Guess that answers that.” Timothy quipped once she’d let go.
“You guys have your own link separate from the general one.” She explained, “You’ll just need to focus so that you don’t end up sending your thoughts to the wrong one.”
“Kaesha, you’ve been using too much energy.”
“Don’t worry, Ava. I’ve mostly been channelling you guys, and best believe I’m gonna sleep for two days once we get back to Manhattan. I’ll have a teleportation spell ready if things go sideways.”
I smiled at her. I’d have to find a way to repay her for how convenient she seemed to be intent on making things.
“I hope you all have your necklaces. We’re gonna do the improbable and get there without getting caught. We just have to be quick and light on our feet.”
As I said that, Kaesha gestured for Hailey to take her hand then went to work on another spell, “Can I use one of you to mimic your speed and agility? I’m already channelling Hailey.”
Both Timothy and I moved to offer her our hands, but mine touched hers first, “You’ve all been working so hard. Let me help her with this.”
He shrugged and went back to the topic at hand, “So, we’re going in fast, invisible, and undetected. How will we approach?”
Kaesha’s spell had my skin buzzing, static building up around me and diverting to her, “From the trees. We climb up the trees around them, and take the necklaces off. We can’t show our hand, so we need to avoid just appearing in their field of vision.”
My conversation with Timothy didn’t distract me from the fact that Kaesha was giving me another one of her contemplative looks. Like she had during the encounter with Tyson when she’d bet a page of her Spellbook. Maybe my speed felt weird or something…? I’d need to ask her about it later.
A few seconds later, she was done and we were on our way out.
“I’ll keep my necklace off till we get to the border. From there, we’ll go around their territory till we’re parallel to the first large structure you guys repaired, then we’ll need to get behind it. That’s where they’ll most likely be. Everyone remember the way?”
They nodded.
I led the way and we were moving. Apart from listening for their footsteps, the telepathy helped to make sure they were all accounted for. I barely felt the difference in my movements, but I wondered how much speed Kaesha had mimicked, cause she was keeping up incredibly well.
Soon enough, we were approaching the border. I pointed in the general direction of where we were meant to go and donned my necklace. There were a lot more werewolves around, all on high alert, but we took to the trees and avoiding them as much as possible.
‘Kaesha is fast and agile, but her body may not be used to these kind of movements. Please keep an eye on her so she doesn’t get hurt or fall out of a tree.’ I told Timothy.
He snickered, ‘I’d like to see that.’
He’d said that, but, for the rest of the way, his movements shadowed hers.
Since we weren’t trying to get into their territory, we only needed to move away from the patrols, not get by or through them. This sped the journey up considerably and we arrived at the meeting place just in time.
‘Let’s cross the river so we’re opposite their territory.’ I instructed.
Once we were across and in position, I took note of our company. The Alpha, Julia and Robert were present and with their backs to us, probably expecting us to emerge from around their territory, if at all. I imagined their hot headed Beta didn’t simply agree to stay behind when he could have the possible threat dealt with. My suspicions were confirmed when I picked up traces of his scent quite some yards behind us, along with two other werewolves. Either it was supposed to play out like an ambush, they were taking extra precautions, or the Beta had tagged along without permission.
‘There are other wolves in the surrounding area behind us.’ I informed them, ‘About three, one of them being the Beta. Kaesha, Hailey, you two should stay in the trees. Timothy, let’s go.’
He complied, pocketing his necklace and dropping from his tree. I followed in suit and stayed in his shadow.
Sensing us, The Alpha, Julia and Robert turned to face us. Robert offered a hesitant smile, while Julia’s hand hovered around her back, no doubt where her dagger was stationed.
Their Alpha regarded us evenly. The lengthened silence inched Robert, Julia and Timothy towards agitation but no one spoke.
‘Don’t divert your gaze from him.’ I advised, ‘And don’t let your finger start twitching.’
‘Easier said than done, the guy’s just staring. And my finger does not fucking twitch.’
Eventually, the Alpha spoke, “Where are the others?”
‘Ask him where his are.’
Timothy didn’t miss a beat, “I could ask the same.”
The Alpha cocked his head, “Touche. You noticed. We don’t have the best track record with visitors, so I’d prefer to keep them where they are.”
“As long as we get to keep ours.”
He gave a nod, “My future Beta tells me that you’re here to help, yet you sneak around and onto our territory. Very contradictory behaviour for people who claim to have good intentions.”
‘Like you said, you don’t have the best track record with visitors. How were we to know if you would be hospitable?’
Timothy parroted.
“Approaching us legitimately would have helped your case.”
‘Their Beta was awfully desperate to get rid of us. We needed to take baby steps.’
“Really? Your current Beta couldn’t wait to send us on our merry way two days ago. We needed to take things slow.”
The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, “I would hardly call sneaking onto our territory in the middle of the night ‘taking things slow’”
‘Ask him what he returned to.’
“And what did you return to in the morning?”
He sighed before replying, “Most of our buildings restored.”
‘A show of good faith. We have a common enemy and I want to reverse their carnage on good Packs.’
Timothy recited.
The Alpha nodded, studying Timothy, “But that’s not all.”
Timothy shook his head, “I’m looking to force feed them their own medicine. To do that, I need allies.”
“And if we refuse?”
‘As your future Beta said, we’re willing to finish the repairs if you’ll let us, then we’ll move on. There’s no shortage of Packs they’ve targeted.’
The Alpha remained in contemplative silence for a while after Timothy had spoken.
Then, he asked, “What makes you think you can take them on?”
‘Strategy, the element of surprise, and the sheer number of Werewolves they’ve victimised. They won’t see us coming.’
“You know what they did to us, but how did they hurt you?”
I could feel the anger rolling off Timothy in harsh waves, “They took my pack down from the inside… by the time they were done, we were reduced to infighting and crippling paranoia. Then they tried to have me killed for finding out what they’d done.”
The Alpha didn’t look at him with pity, but with the gaze of a veteran. Maybe one from a different war, but ultimately the same core pain. His look became distant and I knew they were deliberating through their mind link.
Finally, he spoke, “What would you have us do?”
Stolen story; please report.
‘For the next few months, possibly years, nothing. You simply need to rebuild and be ready to officially ally us. This is a long play. When my pack rivals their own, they’ll find it deeply unsettling that all of our allies are comprised of their former victims. Not only that, but that the Werewolves they tore down have suddenly built themselves back up.’
Timothy repeated my words and the Alpha regarded him again. Then his eyes caught me, as if noticing me for the first time, “Do you believe in his vision of revenge?”
I returned his gaze evenly, “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
He returned his attention to Timothy, “They say that, before you embark on a journey of revenge, you must dig two graves. As long as none of my members will be digging or occupying either of those graves, we will support your journey.”
He went silent again. This time, the Beta and two other werewolves made their way to us, emerging from the thicket behind us.
‘Kaesha, Hailey, you can come down now.’
Hailey and Kaesha dropped from the trees, landing beside the Beta and his men. We all crossed the river and Timothy stood before the Alpha, offering him his hand, “With luck, this will be a productive alliance.”
The Alpha took his hand and shook it, “We shall introduce you to the Pack.”
I could see Timothy holding back a grimace at the Alpha’s grip, and his posture and expression were definitely unspoken warnings not to try anything funny despite his words.
Timothy nodded, “And then we’ll work on the repairs.”
In agreement, Timothy and the Alpha led the way, the rest of us falling behind them. The Beta still shot us sceptical looks but, for the most part, Timothy seemed to have succeeded in winning them over. For now.
For the rest of the unsettled walk back to their territory, I ignored Robert’s occasional glances and, instead, watched Julia. Her hand no longer hovered near her weapon, but she definitely wasn’t relaxed. Judging by her looks, she probably wasn’t that much older than Timothy or Kaesha. Maybe twenty or so. And with her proximity to the highest ranking members of her pack, she either already held a high position, or she was in line to.
We were at the territory soon enough and another meeting was called, outside this time.
“As you know, we were worried about the sudden reappearance of our lost structures earlier today.” The Alpha began, “Well, we can lay those worries to rest now. They were a gesture of good faith from our new allies.
He motioned to us to join him in front of the crowd, ”They have seen hardships at the hands of the same fiends and wanted to give us a gift to demonstrate their good intentions. All they ask for in return is our acceptance and allegiance.”
As he went on, I scanned the crowd. They weren’t exactly jumping for joy at the sight of us. Many of the more agitated parents from earlier shifted uncomfortably. And the combative mother who’d butted heads with Karla’s father was openly eyeing us with unabashed distrust.
‘Guys, we may need to spend the rest of the day with them after helping to rebuild. We’re leaving tomorrow evening but we need them to have a better impression of us before we do.’
‘Definitely,’ Hailey piped up, ‘they all look like they’d rather stone us, and one lady seems like she’d be more than willing to throw the first one.’
Timothy scoffed, ‘Easier said than done. You said it yourself, we’re leaving tomorrow. These things take time.’
‘True,’ Kaesha agreed, trying to smile at one of the teenagers but being met with a glare followed by an indignant turn of girl’s head, ‘we can’t just spend a day with them and wipe all their worries away.’
‘We don’t need to get them to absolutely love us before we go. We just need them to begin judging us based on us, not their past. Timothy, you already tackled the hardest part of getting us through the door, and you did great by the way. Now, we need to stay in the room.’
I glanced back at Julia. She looked entirely impassive, save for the slight scowl on her face. She seemed like she’d prefer if we were allies from afar. Very far.
‘I think the brevity of our stay is good. Their last visitors stayed a while before wreaking havoc on them, so they’ll probably have a time limit before they become inconsolably antsy. We don’t need to put on grand airs or do any huge gestures besides finishing up the repairs. We just need to be normal and treat them with decency.’
‘Of course, great one. We can manage that, at least.’
“They will now finish the repairs they started.”
The crowd dispersed and Julia, Robert and the Beta led us to the first undone structure.
“So,” the Beta said finally, “one of you is obviously gifted. This will be interesting to watch.”
‘Kaesha can’t be a witch. Her gift is telekinesis.’
“Actually, my sister and I are.” Timothy clarified.
Kaesha grinned, elbowing him, “But, as usual, I got the good genes. He’s dendrokinetic, I’m telekinetic.”
“Fascinating,” Robert mused, “you’d think twins would manifest the same gift…”
They shrugged, Kaesha grinning at him with playful superiority. Timothy rolled his eyes in response and started on the building.
Abruptly, Hailey captured them in a web of conversation and questions. I took that as a cue to subtly keep a hand on Kaesha for her to channel me. She smiled silently and continued her work.
Since we weren’t in a hurry to avoid getting caught, the repairs took longer than before. Eventually, the Beta left, but left Julia and Robert with us. The look he gave them as he departed was a clear instruction to keep an eye on us.
Most of the members were staying in the main house, where they probably felt safe from the invasive visitors turned questionable allies. But some of the more curious ones were milling about, close enough for them to hear any normal volumed conversation and watch Timothy and Kaesha work, but far enough for them to feign complete disinterest if we looked their way. They were easy to distinguish from the ones meant to monitor us. Those ones dared to get a little closer, and they were keener, not bothering to pretend to be busy with something else, and were obviously carrying one weapon or another barely concealed under their clothing.
‘This is no way to treat allies that are obviously helping.’ Candy huffed.
I said nothing, knowing her well enough not to.
‘But,’ she continued, ‘makes sense for them, given what they’ve been through.’
‘Our job is just to do our best to help them.’ I said eventually.
Hours later, we were done with the two buildings and were escorted back to the main house. Evening would fall in a couple of hours and it would be time to shift again.
‘What should we do about shifting? We can stay and interact with them, then Kaesha will cast the same illusion spell, or we can leave before we have to deal with all that. Kaesha, I know you’re tired from the repairs and keeping this telepathy up and all the spells you’ve cast today, so I think we should leave before the full moon. What do you think? It’s up to you.’
‘Wouldn’t it be rude to leave so soon?’ She asked.
Timothy scoffed, ‘After rebuilding their whole fucking compound? Don’t you dare worry about being courteous right now. If you’re tired, we can tell them that we need to get new clothes before we shift.’
‘They’re right.’ Hailey agreed, ‘We can come see them before we leave tomorrow.’
‘Okay…’ Kaesha finally conceded, ‘if you guys don’t mind, I’m knackered.’
‘They might prepare something as a thanks. We can stay briefly then Timothy will give our excuse. Remember to tell him that we’ll visit tomorrow.’
Sure enough, they had prepared something for us to eat. It was dinner time, so a lot of the other pack members were eating as well. Their dining room wasn’t large enough to take everyone, so they’d knocked down the next wall to expand the room. Some parents were on another table with their children, helping them eat. We were seated close to the Alpha and Beta.
The Alpha tapped his glass and a hush fell.
He stood, raising his glass, “Today, we were given back some of what we lost. Let’s raise a toast in gratitude to our friends who made this possible.”
Glasses clinked and people murmured thanks. I was done, so I took my leave and wandered over to the kitchen.
A lone girl was there, washing dishes and organising leftovers.
“Need help?” I called.
She started, nearly dropping a plate she was holding, “Oh, no, I’m fine. Some others usually come to help when they’re done eating.”
“Well, I’ll lend a hand in the meantime.” I offered and started scrubbing a pot.
She blinked, “Well… thank you.”
“No problem,” I smiled, “What’s you name?”
“Pamela. But call me Pammy, everyone does. What’s yours?”
“Richelle. Have you had dinner?”
She nodded, picking up a stack of plates, “Yeah, I usually eat first before the food is served. You must be one of the four visitors. Why come to our little patch of land?”
“We were just gonna stop by for access to the WolfNet, but we saw the ruins and wanted to help out. Jason insisted and we agreed to do it.” I finished and moved on to the next pot.
“That was nice of you all. I’m sure the families will be so glad to move back into their places.” She was back at the other sink and we were standing next to each other.
“You’re not gonna?”
She shrugged, “A good chunk of teens and kids here are orphans. Not sure if living alone would be the best idea. Some of the kids with no parents might stay here, while adults that just had children move into their old houses. I wouldn’t mind staying here. We won’t have like five people crammed into a room anymore.”
“Makes sense, I guess.”
“It would really help if we got more members, you know? Build more houses, expand.”
I nodded, “Well, some of you look like you’ll be finding your mates in a few years. If they stay, that’ll mean more members.”
She carried some of the clean pots to a cabinet, “Yeah, sucks that we have to go all the way to the palace for a chance to find our mates though. We’re too small a pack to skip it if we want to find our mates.”
She was right. The Lightwoods barely bothered to take that many people to the palace for the biannual mate ball.
Of course, Clark always took his spawn and their closest friends just to show face and schmooze with the royal family, but it wasn’t much of a problem, since the pack was large enough for a lot of wolves’ mates to turn out to be fellow members. Those that didn’t were begrudgingly allowed to attend after two years of not finding theirs, on the condition that they convinced their mate to join the Lightwood Pack.
“I guess I never bothered to think about it. We visit enough places for us to eventually find ours on the way.”
“Lucky you. You’re not stuck with the same people every single day. Sometimes, I want to leave, and Alpha says we’re welcome to if we want, but I’m not old enough yet. Plus, I still love my pack and I have no clue where I would go if I left.”
I handed her a stack of washed plates, “Maybe you should give the pack a few years. I’m sure things will improve. And, if you still feel like leaving, you can always join us, but we live in a city when we aren’t travelling. And you wouldn’t need to revoke your membership.”
“Wow… Are you sure your Alpha won’t mind?”
I smiled, “I’m sure he’d be happy to have you, if you want to, of course.”
I could hear the wistfulness in her voice, even as her back was turned, “I’ve never been to a city before. The closest thing we have is the Village for old people, though there’s a town on the other side of the forest, but that one’s so tiny.”
“Well, you’re always welcome to visit. I’ll take you wherever you want myself.”
“Richelle?” Kaesha called, walking by the kitchen door and spotting me, “There you are. We need to go back to get new clothes before the full moon.
“Okay, coming.” I said, finishing up the plate I was on. Pamela handed me a towel to dry my hands and I thanked her.
Kaesha turned to her and smiled, “Hi! I’m Kenya, what’s your name?”
“I’m Pamela. Call me Pammy.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Kaesha looked back at me, “Look at you, making friends already.”
I grinned, “You know me, I’m just too magnetic.”
I laughed as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, “You and Jason are made of the same stuff.”
“It was lovely spending time with you, Pammy. Maybe we’ll talk again tomorrow.”
She smiled, “I hope so.”
We left as two members walked into the kitchen, probably to help, and met up with Timothy and Hailey outside. They were with the Alpha, Beta and Robert.
We bid them farewell, shaking hands and waving. This time, we weren’t escorted out of the territory and made our way back to the house in relative silence. I felt the telepathy link dissipate and Kaesha’s scent went back to normal.
“Thank you so much, Kaesha. You really did a lot today.”
She shook her head, “It’s been a while since I flexed my magical muscles so much, and I’m glad I got to help build bridges with them.”
“Among other things.” Hailey added, giving her a hug.
Timothy nodded in agreement, “You’d better sleep like a fucking log tonight.”
She laughed, “Definitely, but I need a serious shower first.”
“I’ll run you a bath in the tub.” I offered, then added before she could protest, “The least I can do after all your construction.”
She smiled, “Okay.”