“What do you mean ‘my new friends? We both went and hung out with them and we both got invited to do it again.
Did you not have fun tonight?”
“I had fun, but it was very apparent that they wanted you, but that’s kind of how it always is. You seem to be everyone’s center of gravity.”
“What are you talking about”
“The most crazy thing is you honestly have no idea.” She takes a second at a stop sign to look at me and roll her eyes. “People naturally gravitate towards you. I have seen it at the castle and at the training compound and now here.
You don’t even have to try and it’s not something that you even do or say. You just give off a vibe that pulls people in like magnets. Even Janice, who clearly doesn’t like the extra competition, acknowledged your abilities tonight.
Mind you she did it when no one but me was listening, but she also didn’t give you a hard time after that either.”
“She didn’t do anything but ask about how we shift without tearing through our clothes. I hardly think that counts as acknowledgement.”
“But she did talk to you like you are a normal person, not like a worthless tramp muscling in on her choice of guys after that. That’s the acknowledgement. You were at the very least okay to be there in her eyes and that was all the signal the rest of that group needed to be friendly with you and I.
She’s a ring leader of that group, but I have a feeling Tyler might be up there in those ranks too.”
“This is the stuff I need to work on, you caught so much from people’s mannerisms. It’s the social stuff I still just don’t get. I can smell physical trouble from a mile away, like literally, but you caught a whole social structure from a three sentence conversation.” I am in awe a little bit and I know my voice isn’t hiding it at all. She just huffs a laugh.
“I think the same thing when you can analyze an obstacle, map out how best to navigate it and get a whole team through it strategically all in your head. We all have our own talents, your problem is, people have only just started to realize what kind of asset you are.”
We pull into the driveway, hop out and head inside.
Nickolas, Osiston, William and Alyssa are all sitting around the kitchen table looking over a map.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Your boys kept taking walks, but they never really went anywhere or did anything before walking back.” Alyssa starts.
“We think maybe they were doing their own perimeter check or patrol based on the spoke pattern they were walking.”
William finishes. “I’m going to map this out and see if I can get any satellite imaging of the area now that I have been on the ground and see if I can find anything.”
“Did you come across any weird scents or lack of scent?
That is the one thing that is confusing me since that seems to be the calling card for this rogue group. But all the wolves we have come across have their scent.” I ask the older four warriors.
“We were not close enough to any of them to track a specific scent, but I did notice when they got to whatever invisible barrier they all stopped at the scents did stop. The only thing I could smell was the forest, no other living things, not even small creatures that should be present even with this many wolves around.” Alyssa adds. She seems to bea really good tracker. –
“So we know this group is here, or at least a portion of them and they are in the forest outside campus. We can work with that, we can confirm that they are here.”
Nickolas sums up. “We need to keep tracking that forest, I know we have a team that is following up on Gentry’s route. Her coven is also on the search and they seem to be more willing to help now that one of their own is threatened so I might be able to get more information about what these guys might be using to mask the scent.”
Osiston nods. “Girls, you keep working these college kids, you seem to be building trust with them quickly. We need more information to work with. Where they have been is a good start and if they plan on staying long term or if they are just passing through.”
