Hunt

Chapter 60: A Casual Interrogation

"You're back! Everyone alive and well? Did you find them?" Julie asks questions in rapid fire as I creak open the front door. Quickly ambushing me in the entryway like she had been waiting for my return.

Quietly shutting the door I push my way through her. Even though I'm exhausted I try to answer her list of questions,"We're fine. Yes, they're up there." I mutter as I shuffle towards my room. My bed was calling me like a siren singing to a sailor.

Slumping face first into my pillow I let all my stress out into the bed with a long groan. My body was aching after tonight, my feet feeling blistered and my head buzzing from adrenaline and jumbled thoughts. I don't hear Julie enter after me, but I was too tired to really care when she sits down at the foot of my bed.

"So what's next for us? Gather a team and storm the mountain?" Julie asks from behind me.

I let out another long groan, building up the willpower to lift my head from my pillow. Pushing myself into an upright position I turn to face Julie, "Sleep comes first. But no, we aren't storming the mountain... at least not yet." I hesitate, unsure whether I should tell Julie about my 'talk' with Markus. "There's some questions I need answered before we can figure out an attack plan."

"Questions? Like what?" Julie asks, "You found where they're hiding out, it seems to me like an easy decision."

I shake my head, deciding to just tell Julie everything that I know, "I have it on good authority that Reyna's father is in contact with the group that went rogue. Specifically his son Markus. Reyna claims to know nothing about it so I'm gonna go question the alpha directly about it. See what I can stir up."

Julie crosses her arms, "So... what could that mean?"

"I have no idea. A peace deal? A betrayal? Im still not quite sure," I say with a shrug. "It's late, I'm gonna question him tomorrow and see what I can learn. You'll know when I do."

Julie turns to leave, nodding with a smile. "Alright, goodnight. Glad you're all alright."

"Goodnight Julie."

The next morning comes all too quickly. I'm awakened to the sun shining through my window right into my eyes. I find myself rolling over and burying my head deep into my pillow. Doing all that I can to give myself another five minutes of sleep. But when I find no reprieve in my warm blankets I begrudgingly push myself up. Blinking the stubborn remnants of sleep from my eyes as I stretch, my whole body was sore from the last nights mission.

Quickly running my morning routine I find myself out the door before I know it. The drive to Reyna's house was filled with dread and anxiety. The same sinking feeling I had the first time I had that talk with the alpha of the Silverlock pack. Maybe I was just overthinking things, maybe they were trying to come to some kind of peace. Or maybe a compromise.

Knocking on the door I'm quickly greeted by Reyna, who lets me in quickly.

"You talk to him at all?" I ask as I close the front door behind me.

She shakes her head, "No. I wanted to wait until you were here. Safety in numbers and all..."

She looked about as nervous as I felt. I'm not familiar with how the power dynamic works in a lycan pack, but this conversation we had planned was clearly making Reyna uncomfortable. I try harder to keep my composure, it would only make things more complicated if we were both freaking out. This could be our only chance to pull the truth out of any of them.

"Who is it Reyna?" I hear her father call from upstairs. When Reyna doesn't immediately respond he comes downstairs. Stopping at the foot of the staircase. "Oh, Mr. Parker. I wasn't expecting you this early."