Compound 41

Chapter 4

"What is that?" Jackson asked of his Alpha, Dante. "Do you smell that?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, there's a lot to smell" Dante replied with a smirk, as the two made their way across the parking lot outside of a medical clinic on the outskirts of town of Garnet. There was a fast food restaurant on the other side of the parking lot that reeked of grease, a small playground and school in the other direction that had its own cacophony of diverse smells, the woods beyond the parking lot and the clinic itself, smelling of sickness and medicine.

"It's something fresh and clean, like mint but like someone poured bleach all over it. You don't smell that?" Jackson, the Beta of the Black Shadow Pack asked again.

"I definitely smell the bleach and chemicals coming from the clinic" Dante offered, not noticing anything fresh or minty in the mix.

By now, the two were walking along the side of the clinic, heading toward the woods. Jackson paused again, outside one of the windows, the scent of mint now very strong in his nostrils. But there was also the burning scent of something like bleach and other chemicals that confused his senses. He wanted to stay and search for the mint smell, but it was soon overwhelmed by the overpowering medical scents emanating from the building.

"We need to get back, it will be sunrise before we get back to the pack house" Dante urged his Beta along.

"Yeah, we didn't learn much though" Jackson responded distractedly. "That Alpha Mark is definitely up to something here, and I'm sure we'll find out that the doctor here at the clinic is on his payroll."

"Agreed" Alpha Dante replied as his thoughts wandered through everything they had discovered on this recon mission to the small town, far outside of their own pack lands. "I'm going to send Peter to set up shop. He can get a job and stay locally for a bit and see what there is to learn."

Peter was young, but showed a lot of promise within the ranks of Dante's pack. It was expected that he would become Dante's Gamma, the third in command. Dante felt like this would be a great opportunity for Peter to grow in his responsibility to hopefully take on that role. The current Gamma, Jerry, was one of the last of the 'old guard' as they used to be called. Dante was a relatively new Alpha for their pack, and Jackson was an immediate choice for Beta, having been groomed alongside Dante to lead the pack.

Jerry was getting old and ready to step aside, with the expectation that Peter would take his spot. But Peter was still young and hadn't had much opportunity to prove himself in a leadership role, so this was going to be an ideal opportunity for him. Peter would be assigned to the town to watch and report back what he was able to find out about the strange things that had been getting stranger over the last several years.

The Werewolf Council was made up of some of the most powerful werewolves in the country, who took it upon themselves to oversee the various werewolf packs throughout the nation. They made decisions and doled out punishment whenever and however they saw fit. They had tasked Dante and his pack with finding out what was going on in Garnet, as there had been what appeared to be random wolf attacks for several years, with no sign of rogues and on land that wasn't part of a pack region. The town of Garnet had several werewolf families, coming from a few different packs, but there hadn't been any sign of animosity between them. The wolf attacks seemed to indicate that something else was going on. But, they were infrequent enough not to have raised alarms with local authorities, and just chalked up to bears and other wildlife interactions.

Through their investigations, Dante and Jackson had discovered that an Alpha from several counties over had made multiple real estate investments within the neighboring area of the town of Garnet, and was also funding some research at the clinic that they were looking into. It was possible that this Alpha was planning to expand his territory, which wouldn't be outside of the standard scope of pack growth, but for some reason undisclosed by the Council, they wanted eyes on any developments and to know if there was anything going on that they weren't aware of.

Dante and Jackson trekked through the woods to where they had parked, and headed back to their own pack territory, where Dante informed Peter of his assignment. He would need to mix in with the locals, but not let anyone know the real purpose of his time in town. Even the other werewolves who lived there weren't above suspicion, and it would be Peter's job to find out as much as he could about Alpha Mark's plans for the town and what his intentions with the local clinic were.

Peter was elated at the opportunity and made plans immediately to move to Garnet to find out everything he could about Alpha Mark, the clinic and if there was anything nefarious going on that would need to be reported back to the Werewolf Council. He knew it might be a long term situation to remain in town, but he was ready and willing to take on the task. He hadn't yet found his mate, and relished the idea of taking on this assignment. He was young, ambitious and wanted to prove himself useful to his pack and his Alpha.