Luna of Conquest

REVISIONS

Kayleigh sat at the side of Kaleb's desk. She was trying to write down everything that she could remember from the moment her pack was ambushed to her meeting with him. It was hard. Once they were taken, they were blindfolded with ties or bags and then something burning would disrupt their sense of smell. When they reached their first destination silver laced objects were placed on everyone so they couldn't over their captors. The smells of wolfsbane made it clear it was also decorated on the silver bands. They were quick to realized if they were to get out alive, they wouldn't live long. The silver burned while the wolfsbane poisoned. The weaker members died within days of arrival. We mourned for them for only seconds before the captors would drag their bodies outside the room. Those days were harsh, watching the ones we grew up with, trained with whittle-away and die. They were thought to be the strongest members of the pack, but they were the first to go.

My hand stopped, my stomach churning as I stared at the few paragraphs that I wrote. I felt nauseous at the thoughts of all the smells that we struggled with for a month. My god, the infections, death, blood, wolfsbane, silver burns, it was all disgusting when put together. The worst part, we were not the only ones being held captive. There were members from other packs, they kept silent, flinching every time we were taught a lesson. They knew the pain we were going through and they couldn't do anything to help us. My head snapped up to Kaleb and Daniel.

"How many packs have been wiped out in the last decade?" I asked.

They both snapped their heads to me. Their eyes swimming with seriousness and a hint of curiosity. Both looked like they wanted to ask but neither did. Finally, one broke the silence.

"Multiple, big and small, I'd say about four or five?" Daniel answered, "Why?"

"Because I know there was at least one if not two other packs being held when they took us."

That information processed in their minds for a good while. I could tell they were bouncing questions back and forth through their mind link. Kaleb was now starting to look furious while Daniel got frustrated. Finally, Daniel stood up and walked over to a map that hung on the wall to the left of the door. He stared at it before turning around to grab a marker and start circling different sections on it. Kaleb just watched on as he made the progress on the map, changing colors multiple times before stopping. There were about five colors total. All scattered about the states. I looked across the different spots and realized they were all packs that were either around forever or just starting off, but they were all wiped out in one night. They also spanned between a century. One was closer to when the immortals were still learning their place in the world while another was the more recent one, my pack.

"We are going to now assume they are all related. That makes dozens of packs in the matter of a few centuries." Kaleb spoke up.

I stood up and walked closer to the map. He named each pack, when it started and when it was wiped out. As I looked at the date, I realized the last few packs were no more than 5 years apart. He was accelerating his work and that had to mean he was going to hit again within the next couple of years. I turned to Daniel shocked and filled with fear. He looked down to me startled and confused.

"What?" Kaleb said standing and hurrying over to me.

"The last few packs, they are only a few years apart, he shortening the time spans between killing packs. If he keeps shortening it, then the next one will be within the next few years." I hastily spoke grabbing around his elbow to try and calm myself.

Their heads snapped to the board as they realized the truth to my words. This man was going to keep going till eventually he would wipe out all of the packs in Northern America.

"Fuck," Daniel spoke putting his hands on his head in shock, "What do you want us to do?"

Kaleb's eyes bounced around the map still while he thought. They finally stopped at my pack's location.

"Call the other two, tell them to stop what they are doing and get back here now." He commanded while snaking an arm behind my back, "We have a bigger problem here to figure out, and now."

Kaleb pulled me with him over to the desk while Daniel left to make calls. He pulled the chair so I sat in next to his then went over to a filing cabinet and began pulling out a few binders. I stared at the three-inch-thick binders as he sat them down in front of me and took a seat beside me.

"You said there were others there before your pack. Can you describe any of them of the top of your head? Like certain traits, hair colors or eye colors that stood out the most?" He asked me before opening up one binder.

I looked down at the pages to see faces of others, some dated some a little more recent. I stared at each one as he flipped through the pages every time, I shook my head. Then her face came up. I shot my hand out to hold the page as I stared at it. The pale red-orange hair. The ice blue eyes, but what really stood out was her skin, her pale skin had millions of freckles scattered about every inch of it. Some were pin sized while others were almost fingernail size. Those eyes alone popped with her look and it was amazing. But the one I remember was a young boy, not a teen but not exactly a child?

"Her?"

I nod. Could the boy be related to her?

"She... looks like a kid I saw there..."

"Ten years..." Kaleb muttered.

"Ten years? Missing?"

He nodded. I looked down to the picture again.

"How old was she?" I asked.

"She was 16 when the pack was lost. There were about 15 who we did not find their bodies," He answered, "She would be twenty-seven now."

"She had a child...." I mumbled.

"What?"

I could feel Kaleb's eyes on my face. I looked up at him filled with sadness, because the reason she had a child couldn't have been a good one. I pulled my hands into my lap and started picking at my nails.

"There was a young boy. His physic must have been more like the father, but he had the same hair, eyes and skin as her." I whispered.

We both got silent. He heard me and knew what it meant too. We sat in silence till Daniel came bursting in the door.

"AJ will be here tomorrow morning; she was heading back anyway and Alex will be here in two days." He stopped in his tracks at the look on our faces. "What?"

"She remembers seeing others there before her pack and was able to identify one individual." He looked down at the paper, "Aurora Ivy Breeston. Age16. No body found at scene of the massacre of the Sky Runners Pack so is presumed missing."

"So, she's alive?"

"Maybe not," He said going back to the book, "Probably has a child though, any more that look familiar or similar?"

We sat there together. Kaleb flipped through the book while I would point out the faces I recognized and Daniel would jot each one down. Some seemed familiar but not the one I saw from either something not being right or the age being wrong. We were going to guess it was because of having a relation to them, and we noted that down too. By the end of looking through all three books we came up with almost half of the missing being alive and held captive, and a smaller chunk being noted as unknown relation to those missing.

"Once the other two arrive we will start with trying to figure out if there is a pattern to who he goes after, then who is next." Kaleb said.

"There still won't be a guarantee that we will figure out in time though." Daniel sighed. "This sucks."

"I'll help too," I spoke up, "I want to help stop this and find everyone."