Layla

That bitch had ruined everything. I had thought that Peyton was out of our lives years ago. Then, as if reincarnated, that name had come back to haunt me. Luke hadn't been intimate with me ever since she'd joined the pack. He began ducking my calls and when I finally confronted him about it, he simply said that he didn't feel like fucking me and proceeded to shut me down with his aura.

My life was almost perfect before she showed up. I was sure that Luke would've chosen to breed with me by now if it wasn't for her showing up. I was going to put that bitch in her place and show her that she couldn't just steal Luke away from me like that.

I knew that Luke would be away on business today. She'd have to face me today instead of hiding behind his back. I saw her pull up with Jay. Her clothes looked really dirty. I could smell the grime on her even before the car came to a complete stop. Disgusting bitch. I felt my anger really flare up at the thought of being set aside for someone like her. She was gonna get put in her place today.

Sam

Things were not looking good. It was around the usual time that Jay and Peyton would return when Layla showed up. It didn't exactly take a genius to know what she was here for.

I'd gotten word about her drama from Rob before he left. If it were anyone else, I could have summoned up some sympathy. I felt that Layla really had it coming, treating the rest of us like garbage despite being the weakest member in the pack. She did that because she fancied herself as a true mate of the alpha. Now that Luke had finally stopped fucking her, she'd been forced to come to terms with the reality of the situation. And she was putting all the blame on Peyton.

She knew perfectly well that Luke wouldn't be here when she showed up. But, I wasn't all that worried. Even If things got a bit heated, me and Jay were more than enough to restore order. But we'd only intervene if it was absolutely necessary. I think it's pretty healthy to let off some steam every once in a while. I saw Layla haughtily walk up and stand in front of Jay's truck.

' Possible cat fight, fuck yeah.'

Peyton wasn't even fully out of the truck when Layla started.

"We need to talk bitch" she said with barely contained rage.

Peyton's face was neutral and indifferent when she replied

"About what?".

"About you being a little homewrecking faggot trying to steal my man".

I saw Peyton's eyes narrow and her face twist in anger. I had to hand it to Layla. She really knew how to trigger people. Jay stepped forward and opened his mouth as if to say something angry to Layla, but he was stopped by Peyton who raised her hand in his direction.

Peyton composed herself before answering " I didn't ask for any of this. Whatever happened to me during the night of the transformation and whatever followed, it wasn't my choice. It was done to me. So, if you wanna ask someone for an explanation, go ask Luke."

I saw Layla's jaw clench as she struggled with the truth of Peyton's statement. She only really had Luke to blame, but that was something she couldn't do. Peyton took one more look at Layla before shaking her head and walking away from her. However, it seemed that Layla had no intention of letting her walk away that easily.

I saw Layla grab Peyton’s arm and yank her, probably intending to throw her against the hood of the car. Layla’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw that Peyton wasn’t budging. She took a step back and shoved Peyton again only to end up with the same disappointing result. I had to say I was impressed. It had only been a couple of weeks since Peyton changed and it seemed like her physical state was already better than that of Layla. My conclusion proved right in the next moment as Peyton’s shove sent Layla sprawling to the floor.

“You fucking bitch” I heard Layla shreik from the floor.

I could tell by looking at her, she’d absolutely lost it. Jay and I may have to step in after all. I saw Layla tapping her side as her clothes started getting sucked into her pack mark as she began changing simultaneously. Reddish fur replaced her skin as Layla’s face elongated into that of a 7 foot tall werewolf. She let out a snarl just as she finished her transformation. She had to be completely out of it to transform in the shop in broad daylight. If a customer walked in right now, either they’d end up believing that they were hallucinating or spend the rest of their life branded as a crazy person.

I was about to initiate my transformation to stop her when I felt it. An aura that had my hairs standing up. I immediately recoiled on instinct just as I realised that the aura wasn’t directed against me. No, I was just in it’s zone. I’d barely processed this when I saw Layla’s wolf form drop to the ground writhing on the floor, screaming in pure agony. Layla’s writhing soon turned into a seizure before she passed out completely and reverted back into her human form. I saw Peyton walk past me with a huff before I fully processed what had happened.

Peyton had just taken down Layla using her aura. More amazing still, she had done it while remaining in human form whereas Layla had transformed. Transformation usually doubles your aura. There was no way a wolf who was a couple weeks old could pull off something like that. I turned around to see Jay standing there with a smile on his face looking down on Layla’s unconscious form.

“Jay, Did you help her out?” I asked.

“Did you feel my aura Sam?” Jay asked.

If I trusted my own senses, then the honest answer was no. I knew the feel of Jay’s aura and I was pretty sure I didn’t feel it.

“It was all her?” I asked, still unable to believe what I saw and felt.

Jay nodded before getting back into his truck and backing away. I looked incredulously in the direction of Peyton’s room.

That girl was a true monster. In just a few weeks, she had managed to bring down Layla in her wolf form using her aura alone. And she hadn’t even looked that winded doing it. Granted, Layla was the weakest member of the pack, but she wasn’t completely useless. She should never have been able to beat her so easily. It was altogether plausible that she might have grown stronger than even me at this point. I really needed to push myself more or I was gonna end up at the bottom of the pack hierarchy.

I picked Layla up and carried her to a cot in the office before leaving a message for Luke. The newest member of our pack was getting stronger. Scarily fast at that.

Sheriff John Lawton

I was feeling uncomfortable in his seat as he drove to work. To be fair, I had been feeling this way for the last five months with only brief windows of calm and happiness in my life.

I am a proud member of the town of Bison’s creek. Population 1456. I was born and bred here and had every intention of making this town my final resting place. There were a lot of people who said you never really grew until you travelled around a lot. But for me, I found every other place I’d visited inferior to my hometown. I couldn’t contemplate living in a big city next to neighbours you hardly knew and walking around in a sea of strange faces every day. I had no idea how the city cops got their job done effectively. I knew almost every single person in the town that I was policing. I was living a fairly happy life here, at least until about 5 months ago.

I parked my car in front of the station before I made my way into my office. I was stopped in front of our notice board by the sight that had been haunting me. The missing posters of Sadie Newton and Amy Schweitzer. Both young girls had gone missing in the last five months. I still remembered the panicked phone call I received from Mrs. Newton, telling me that her 19 year old daughter hadn’t made it home from work that night and that she hadn’t been able to reach her on her cell phone.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I had reassured her that night telling her that it was probably nothing to worry about. I informed my deputies Jim and Pam about the case before I personally went to talk to Trey, the owner of the copy place that Sadie Newton worked at. He told me that she left at the regular time and that he had noticed nothing unusual. My deputies and I had cruised the stretch of the road from Sadie’s work to home and found no trace of her car. We spent the rest of the night talking to Sadie’s friends, each of them confirming that they hadn’t been in contact with her for the last few hours.

I think it was at that moment that I finally accepted that maybe something horrible had actually happened in my quiet town. I was still clinging on to the hope that maybe she just ran away from her parents as an act of some teen rebellion when I put out an APB on her car. All my hopes were dashed when I got a call next morning from the sheriff of the adjoining county that they’d found Sadie’s car abandoned in a ditch on the side of the road. There was no sign of her inside. There was no blood, nothing to indicate that the car had been in an accident other than a slight bump in the bumper of the car.

Sadie had just disappeared. We sent out everyone we could gather to help with searching the woods near the place where the car was found. The search turned up nothing. The dogs couldn’t trace Sadie’s scent anywhere. It was as if she just vanished. We continued the search for a few more days before we finally gave up. Sadie’s mom was calling me every so often asking for updates. For the first time in a long time, I felt like a complete failure as I had nothing to give her. I could understand the pain and frustration she must've been feeling. Sadie was only a year older than my own daughter Mary. They went to the same school and had known each other. I couldn’t even imagine what I would do if it had happened to my daughter instead of Sadie.

We had questioned all the usual unsavoury elements in town, but were unable to come up with any meaningful links to Sadie. We’d hit a dead end everywhere we looked. The mayor and I used every bit of influence we had to get the FBI down here to investigate. Their investigation failed to turn up any new leads either and they lost interest much faster than we did. As far as they were concerned, this was just a missing persons case out in the middle of nowhere. They had bigger fish to fry.

The People of Bison’s creek were shaken up, but things were starting to go back to normal for most of the townsfolk two months after Sadie’s disappearance. It seemed like the only people who truly cared were Sadie’s parents and us. It was just as the town was slipping back into a false sense of security that disaster struck again.

This time it was Amy Schweitzer who went missing. Amy was 23 and ran a diner that was a popular stop for locals and truckers passing through the highway. She closed up shop with her co-workers as usual, but never made it home. We found her car abandoned on the side of the road, no blood and no sign of her inside the car. The similarities with Sadie’s case was undeniable. Amy was supposed to be getting married to her fiance in a couple of months. By all accounts she was happy and had absolutely no reason to run away or disappear. We definitely had a predator on our hands that left us no evidence.

While Sadie’s disappearance shook up the town, Amy’s similar fate sent the town into an absolute pandemonium. The complete lack of any usable evidence or progress in the case sent people into a frenzy. There were crazy theories floating around that ranged from alien abductions and government experiments to the curse of the native american tribe that previously inhabited the valley. However, The more practical people seemed to settle on one theory. Amy’s diner was a popular stop for a lot of out of town truckers. That and the fact that both the girl’s cars were found on the side of the road seemed to lead people to the conclusion that both girls were run off the road by truckers and abducted.

Despite there being no real evidence to support this theory, in the absence of any other leads, the townspeople had decided to take the law into their own hands. There were a slew of violent altercations that eventually resulted in one of the truckers ending up in a coma. My popularity in this town had already been low since I couldn’t produce any leads on the case of the missing girls. It hit absolute rock bottom when I had to arrest Daryl Richards for attempted murder regarding the trucker in coma. It didn’t matter to them that the trucker was a father of three with no prior records. I was the one standing in the way of justice. I fully expected to lose the next election. Bison’s creek was feeling less and less like home as each day passed.

I sat down on my chair in the office. I had just started my day and I already felt like I had a headache. Sadie and Amy’s files were on top of my desk as usual. I stared at the board with their case details sprawled out in the corner. I started going through the files once again even though by now, I practically knew them by heart. I knew that I was going through the motions, but it felt like it was the only way to hold on to my sanity. There were only a couple of calls that came in for the day and I dispatched my deputies to take care of them.

It was around 7PM that my phone rang. The caller ID showed that it was my wife Sheila.

“Hey honey, Sorry I’m a bit late. I’ll be home soon.” I said.

“J..John….I “

I sat bolt upright as I realised that my wife was sobbing on the other end. She was not the kind of woman that would cry easily. A feeling of utter dread crept up as I felt my insides twist.

“Honey…Talk to me. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”.

There was more sobbing before my wife summoned up the strength to tell me “John, I can’t get a hold of Mary. John.. our daughter is missing”.

I felt the earth beneath my feet drop out as the phone receiver slipped from my grasp.

********************************************************************************

The last few hours seemed to pass without me being able to make any sense of what was happening. All of our deputies and the deputies of the adjoining counties were out looking for my daughter Mary and her friend Daphne who was with her. The last anyone saw them was when they left the mall together. I was dimly aware of holding on to my wife’s almost lifeless form on the couch beside me. I was sure I didn’t look all that better. I’d called everyone I knew and cashed in every favour I had to get as many people on the ground as possible.

I don’t know how much time had passed when deputy Jim came into our living room. I already knew what he would say even before he opened his mouth. But still, I listened to him as he said that my daughter’s car had been found abandoned on the side of the road. No blood, no witnesses, no evidence. They were still looking and were hopeful that something might turn up. Any other parent might have the luxury of having a sliver of hope left. But, I didn’t have even that. I knew they weren’t gonna find any evidence, just like how we hadn’t found anything in the case of Sadie and Amy.

I heard my wife screaming as if I was underwater. I felt like there was a barrier separating me from the rest of the world. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening. I seemed to be losing time as I found myself sitting alone in the living room in the dark. A bottle of whiskey had apparently found its way into my hands. I wondered what would happen if I downed the entire bottle. This bottle could probably grant me a permanent release from the pain. No, I couldn’t do that to my wife. I placed the bottle on the table and got up, wobbling dangerously as I did so.

I didn’t know if it was the alcohol or my grief, but an old memory suddenly popped up into my head. It was that of my predecessor Sheriff Roland. It was about the day he handed over the responsibility of the safety of this town to me. After everything, he had handed me a plain white card with a phone number.

“What’s this for Sheriff?” I asked him.

“This number John, is for a time when you feel like the town is in peril and there’s nothing you could do to save it”.

“So, I should just call this number whenever I feel like I’m out of my depth?” I asked.

“No, This is for a time when everything stops making sense. When you feel like there’s nothing humanly possible that you can do. I hope you never have to face such a thing as Sheriff, but keep this just in case you do.” He said.

“So, this is for when people see spaceships and little green men walking around the town?” I asked with a chuckle. We used to pull some pranks on rookies joining the department. I guessed that this was Sheriff Roland’s last prank. But he didn’t smile as he faced me.

“I’m not kidding John. Keep this number safe. I pray you don’t need it. But keep it with you”.

I’d kept that card with me for no other reason than for something to remember my mentor by. Right now, I felt like Roland’s words had come true. Nothing made sense to me anymore and the town was in grave peril. I went to my study and found the card in a box where I’d kept some odd things. I felt like a drowning man grasping at straws as I dialled the number on the card. The phone on the other end rang twice before it was picked up.

“Hello Sheriff Lawton,” A female voice answered.

“Hello. Who is this? I.. I was told to call this number by Sheriff Roland in case…. certain things happened.” I replied.

“This is the department of Homeland affairs. How can I help you, Sheriff?”

I had never heard about such a department in the U.S. But, I had guessed that this might not be something conventional. I told her about what was happening in my town. My explanation wasn’t exactly coherent, but I did the best I could to answer all her questions.

“We’ll send our people out to meet you soon” She said before abruptly hanging up. She hadn’t bothered to tell me when, who or how many were coming. I tried calling her again, but it went unanswered. I slumped into the chair in my study, feeling the last bit of hope slipping away from me.

Luke

It was close to midnight when my phone rang. The caller ID didn’t show a name or a number, but I had an idea who was calling.

“Hello.” I answered.

“Hello alpha Luke. This is the department of Homeland affairs. There has been an approved investigation request near your territory. Are you willing to accept?” A familiar female voice asked.

“Give me the details.” I said.

She proceeded to fill me in on the details regarding the request. I took down the important details and accepted the investigation.

I smiled as I looked down at the paper. This had come at a perfect time. It looked like Bison’s creek would be Peyton’s first assignment in the pack.