Hunt

Chapter 46: Werewolves and Paintball

"Kyle! That was quick, how did— Jesus!" Julie exclaims as I walk through the front door. "What the hell happened to you?!"

"One of the pack and I had a minor disagreement." I say, making a beeline for the kitchen. "Luckily I only had to fight one of them to get my point across. Bomb defused. Crisis averted."

Julie follows close behind me, slinking to the table. "You expected to fight more?"

I open the freezer. "I did. Honestly I thought they'd be more standoffish. But we seemed to come to some kind of mutual respect. Where's that ice pack..."

Julie chuckles behind me as grab the closest cold thing in the freezer, resting a bag of frozen vegetables on my aching face. "So what? You walk into the wolf's den and punch out the biggest one there? Prison rules?" She asks.

Closing the freezer I turn around, leaning back against the counter as I nurse the bruise on my face. "More or less. But I wasn't the one to initiate the fight. He wasn't too thrilled with a hunter calling the shots, so I gave him the opportunity to make me leave. Gave them all a lesson on the dangers of arrogance."

She nods along to what I'm saying, "Well your 'lesson' gave you a black eye and a busted lip. I doubt Reyna approved of this scuffle."

I shrug. "I doubt it. But fights like this come with the territory. Better a black eye now than teeth in my neck later. Have you heard anything from the others? Any more cleaver excuses about missing the fun today?"

Julie shakes her head. "No. Nothing."

"Cool." I grumble with a sigh, "I'll reach out to them later. Gotta go study for a bit. Probably gonna be out there all weekend..." I begin to walk out of the kitchen, Julie standing up with me.

"Hey wait!" She calls after me, rushing to catch up. "You barely told me anything! What were they like? The rest of the pack. Other than wanting to throw hands with you?"

Stopping in the hallway, I hesitate at my door. "They're... not what I expected." I say, "They're all surprisingly young, and fairly naive. They're untrusting, but I think that's good in their case. They'll have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to get in fighting shape."

"Young? Where are their parents?" Julie asks.

I grip my doorknob, not wanting to think about what they've possibly been through. "They've had a rough couple years from what the reports say. Probably didn't make it. Or they're refugees."

"I... I see." Julie says behind me, mulling over my words. "So what's your goal then? What do you plan for them to achieve with all of this?" She asks.

I open the door to my room, pivoting to face Julie. "I'm still trying to figure that out. First and foremost I need to build some trust between us. But ultimately..." I think about it, still having trouble seeing a definite end goal. "That's still to be seen."

I get affirmation from Julie as I close my door. Quickly sending a text to the hunter text chain before sitting at my desk. I had an idea floating around in my head, maybe this would be a quick way to gauge their potential.

"Hope everyone's safe. Good news, I survived the meeting with the Silverlock wolves solo. But I really need some assistance this weekend with this whole situation, especially tomorrow. Also, does anyone have some paintball gear that I could borrow?"

Pressing send I set my phone down. Cracking open my calculus textbook as I begin to get stuck into schoolwork, spending a couple hours numbing my brain with numbers and formulas before retiring for the night. My face still hurt and I couldn't continue to focus on schoolwork with all my thoughts competing for my attention in my head. I wake up to a couple reassuring texts the next morning. I had the equipment and the bodies. Seems my little plan was going to work out after all...