Walking in the house Mina jumps on me immediately. She has me in a hug so tight, I struggle to breathe. Nickolas just walks past me to Osiston sitting at the island looking intently at a computer screen. “I’m going to need you to loosen up there friend.” I gasp and she jumps off of me just as fast.
“I am so sorry!” She grabs my hand and leads me over to the couch and sits me down. “Tell me everything and never make me leave like that again. I couldn’t concentrate all day. It was the worst.” “Seriously?! You and I can’t be attached at the hip all of the time, that would look weird. He wasn’t going to talk with you hovering over our shoulders the whole time.”
“Did he say anything we can use? Anything concrete?”
“Yes, we have information to work with. Nickolas and Osiston have the team working on looking into his claims. So we’ll see I guess. He said Mike, Robbie and he were all from the same pack and it was attacked and no one came to help.” I told her the rest of Tyler’s story trying to see if I could find any holes in it and looking to Osiston and Nickolas for their thoughts on parts of it.
“It all sounds plausible, really.” Osiston says from across the room, not looking up from his computer. “The attack probably did happen and if none of the Elders asked for help and the Alpha didn’t know he could also contact the Alpha King in an emergency the whole attack could have gone down like that without anyone knowing. That’s a lot of ifs though.”
“The big questions now are; Did the Shadow Pack really take over Midnight Sun? That pack isn’t even a part of Alpha King Reggie’s territory but it is a part of the northern border. Did they get training in this army? Did they actually leave of their own free will or are they scouts no different than the two of you, gaining information for whoever this new Alpha is.” Nickolas talks over his shoulder while he makes dinner. “I think that is the first piece of the puzzle we need to solve. Did a pack really get consumed by the Shadow Pack and is Alpha Sharp a part of it or is he unaware that someone is using his pack’s name to attack and claim pack territories?”
Mina and I fell into a routine with Tyler, Mike and, reluctantly, Robbie. We worked out in the mornings before classes and did runs on Thursday nights. Even Janice and her girls stopped being nasty to us. They were not nice and didn’t really talk to us, but they weren’t outright nasty, so I’ll take that as a win.
Tyler didn’t talk to me about his pack after the day in the gym either, but he has made a point to text me every day. Nothing about the past or overly personal is brought up by either of us. We haven’t been alone since that day either and I don’t know if that is on purpose or really just a scheduling thing. But when we are together he does make a point to hold my hand or keep an arm around me and it doesn’t feel forced or fake, he’s clearly marking territory. The dynamic is a little strange, but at least I don’t have to fend off other guys trying to hit on me. Mina says I’m ‘friend zoned’ but he’s trying to not make it obvious. Mina on the other hand is fighting the guys off left and right, but she seems to be enjoying the challenge.
She isn’t getting any more information than I am though. So we are kind of stuck at the moment waiting to see if any warriors find anything with the little we were able to gather.
Mina and I made it out to shop a few times with the crazy double life we were leading and when I saw a kiosk that was similar to the one the guys got my bracelets from, I knew what to get them for their birthdays.
I got them each a thin braided dark brown leather bracelet that has a single, small, black metal bead with the nickname they gave me engraved on it. You have to look close to see the name, the design is less conspicuous than the bracelets that they got me. And it would just look like they all have matching bracelets from someone looking quickly at it. I like the idea of an inside joke kind of thing with them.
