At the End of the Trail//A Glaze AU

11

"Blaze, if you want to, you can leave," Aaron assured me after I told him of the conversation I had with Eugene the night before. I rolled my eyes and said; "Of course I'm not going to leave you and the others here by yourselves. It's my job to stay by your side." 

"But this is serious Blaze. That man downstairs is your father and that's something you didn't think was possible. I would completely understand if you'd chose to go home to be with your family." 

"And I hope you can understand my choice by staying here," I insisted, shrugging my shoulders. "Yes, he's my father and yes, I...I need to process that but, I made a commitment. And we both know what would be said if I returned home." 

He smirked and chuckled; "Yeah...he would tell you march right back here." 

I smiled as well, softly but, redirected the conversation back to the point. "I'm staying. Period." 

"Well, I hope you know that I'm here for you. No matter what." 

"I do. I just hope you know that you're welcome to leave at anytime," I say, half-joking. 

We took that moment to head downstairs where the others were waiting for us. We needed to get started on this investigation if we wanted to get home soon. "How's everyone feeling today?", Aaron asked our group, rubbing his hands together. 

"I slept like rock so I couldn't be better," Laurance sighed, brushing his hair back. 

"Great...where's Travis and Katelyn?" 

"They will be joining us soon. They have to gather mail from the pick-up zone they said. They just came in with a large sack but, they said we are welcome to start without them," Dottie stated. "Are you two okay though? It took a while for you guys to come down." 

Aaron glanced at me but knew I wasn't comfortable venting my problems to everyone so, he just said; "We accidentally slept in. Sorry about that." 

"No problem! Now let's go!", Dottie exclaimed, now excited to get started. 

...

Laurance and I were creating a timeline as the rest of the group were finding new details. "Hmmm...well, from this so far, it seems that the group wait about three to five months to pounce on a new victim. Then, they are discovered by humans," Laurance overviewed and then I went in by saying; "The bodies are also placed in highly populated areas. Granted, we don't know where in this city is less populated but, they don't seem to be hiding these bodies." 

Aaron crossed his arms, looking over the board. "They want people to see them..." 

"But why though? Do they want to expose werewolves to the rest of the world?", Daniel pondered. "Isn't that dangerous?" 

"Extremely. Especially if our first exposure to humans across the country is murder," Aaron answered, picking up a news article of the first victim. 

"Maybe...maybe they want to make sure werewolves stay in hiding-" 

"Or they want them to be feared," Aaron added to what Dottie began to say. "We should ask Eugene how his old partners thought about werewolf culture." 

We all agreed that was the next move and if on cue, in came Travis and Katelyn. The blue-haired woman smiled at us, handing Aaron an envelope. "This is for you. It's from Phoenix Drop." 

"Thank you," Aaron smiled, ripping open the envelope. "Anything else?" 

"No. Just that...oh! Also, Eugene will be joining us shortly. He just had a few more letters to go over," Travis replied. He glanced at the board and looked impressed. "This looks great! Any findings of where they could be?"