The Wild Hunt

Part 22 The Call

We stood in the clearing, Mitchel, the Pack, the trees and the night sky. Mitchel was pacing, trying to get his head around what he had seen, and the choice he had been given. In fairness to him, it wasn't much of a choice. Except that the world as you know it is a lot more complicated than you thought, or the alternative. It seemed obvious to myself and the others that watched him pace, yet he kept passing the hole and looking down like he my choose to climb in and just wait for it to be filled. It was almost seven feet deep, it had taken three of us even with our enhanced strength, almost three hours to dig.

Laynie approached the frantically pacing Sheriff and placed her hand on his shoulder. He almost jumped out of his skin when she made contact. He looked her in the eyes, and from where I stood, I could see that he was at his breaking point. It made me appreciate how well Laynie had taken it when she found out.

"You too Laynie?" he said, with a slight hitch in is voice.

Laynie smiled at her former boss.

"I'm not a wolf Dean, I found out just after you fired me. the bar was attacked one night while I was here, and these guys did all they could to protect me, Marcus was taken while trying to help, and I was the one who found him." she said softly.

"Why couldn't you have told me?" he said sounding a little annoyed that she had kept it from him.

"What was I supposed to say? They saved me, I just returned the favour. They're not monsters, or killers Dean, they just want to live their lives, in peace."

He looked down at the floor then turned to face Michael.

"Say I believe everything you've told me, why are these 'others' doing all of this?" he said sounding a little more confident.

"Firstly Lucian is a psychopath, who gets off on the trouble, but there's history there too, with my son, Marcus's father, and I wasn't Lying when I told you that Dolton had left on bad terms, he's joined with Lucian to act on his grudge against me." Michael said plainly, not holding anything back.

"And I assume the only way to stop them, is to kill them all?" Mitchel replied a little more aggressively.

Michael sighed.

"I don't want to Kill anybody, but it does seem that's going to be the only way this ends. At first I thought Lucian wanted the same thing as Dolton, to take the Pack by force, but now it seems like it's going to be us, or them."

Mitchel was quiet for a moment, he looked like a chess player planning his next move.

"OK, when this is over, what comes next?" he asked.

"If you're thinking that were gonna pack up and leave, your shit out of luck, this is our home, we will fight and die for it if need be. But we don't want that, when its all over, things will go back to normal, the Den will reopen, and the locals will return, none the wiser, just as they always have."

Mitchel didn't speak, he just nodded in agreement.

"And Laynie?" I said stepping into the conversation. She looked in my direction curiously at the mention of her name.

"What about Laynie?" Mitchel asked.

"She gets her job back!" I said insistently.

He thought for a moment, then nodded again.

Laynie turned to me and winked in thanks. She hadn't done anything wrong, it wasn't fair she was being punished for protecting us, plus with Mitchel knowing our secret, it could be handy having someone around just encase he got any funny ideas.

Next to me Bonnie's Cell phone buzzed, she looked at the screen, then cancelled the call.

"Everything alright?" I asked quietly.

She smiled then squeezed my hand reassuringly. While we spoke Mike and Mitchel came to an agreement, after that, we slowly dispersed, I asked Michael if he needed me for anything else, he said no, then took Mitchel into the Den for a drink. Given the events of the evening it seemed like a sound idea.

We returned to the trailer with Scout on our heels, we drank a few beers, we talked about what had happened and whether or not we thought we could Trust Mitchel. In the end it came down to whether we trusted Michaels judgement, he was the Alpha, though he included us in the decision it was ultimately his. Bonnie's phone buzzed a few more times before she eventually turned it off. I wanted to ask about it but decided to wait until she wanted to. Scout left around 2am, a little more sober than usual, and Bonnie and I went to bed, she got undressed, and threw her clothes in to her bag that she still hadn't unpacked, then kicked it aside and climbed in.

"You seemed quiet tonight, you alright?" I asked hoping to find out what she was dodging or whoever was calling. She pulled me in closer, pushing her bare, warm chest against me, and kissed me on the cheek.

"I'm fine sugar, just tired." she said closing her eyes.

Seeing she didn't want to talk about it, I resigned myself to waiting until she was ready. Then I looked up at the ceiling until sleep eventually found me.

I snapped awake the next morning, chased out of a dream by my nightmares. It had been a while since it had happened last, and I found my self dripping in sweat and reaching out for Bonnie. The side of the bed she normally slept on, was cold and empty, I assumed she had woken up before me, and had gone to make breakfast as she often did. I pulled on my pants, and a shirt then walked into the living area, she wasn't there ether. I figured that Kelly had asked for help with something, and made myself some Coffee and toast. A few minutes later Scout entered my trailer like I had rung the dinner bell, and sat beside me, grabbing a few slices of toast from the stack I had made, and poured him self a coffee.

"Have you seen Bonnie this morning?" I asked through a mouthful of toast.

He took a sip of the fresh coffee and burned his tongue.

"No, I just woke up myself. Was dreaming about toast." he said smiling at me when I cocked my eyebrow.

We finished breakfast then headed to find Kelly, she had been putting us to work most mornings, trying to get the renovations finished in time for the Den to be reopened, as planned. She gave us a list of jobs to get on with, and we turned to leave. When we entered the bar Michael was already hard at work with Mutt, Putting in a new front window. I looked around but Bonnie was nowhere to be found. Concerned I decided to ask Michael.

"Have you seen Bonnie this morning?" I said, still looking around expecting her to walk through one of the doors.

Michael shook his head.

"Why what's up?" he asked.

I didn't answer, instead I walked through the front door to the parking lot, Bonnie's Dyna was missing. Michael and scout followed me through the door.

"What's going on?" Michael asked.

My mind was racing, Mary's was closed so she hadn't gone out for breakfast, the phone calls the previous night, her dodging my questions. I looked down the road and saw Laynie's truck. She climbed out with a piece of paper in her hand. I walked towards her seeing something in her eyes, when I reached her she handed me the paper. It was an envelope, with 'Marcus' written on the front.

"She asked me to give you this."

I opened the envelope, and read the letter,

Marcus,

I'm sorry, but I've been lying to you. I need to end this before you get killed.

I love you.

Bonnie.

Michael walked up beside me.

"Where is she?"

My gut twisted as I tried to figure out what this meant, what she meant. What ever lies she had been telling us, one thing was true.

"She's gone."