Hunt

Chapter 64: Into the Light

"Whoa, whoa slow down here kid. Kyle, you tell me what happened." Paul interrupts Julie, who had been rambling our findings to Paul rather incoherently. He turns his attention to me as I start retelling the story from the beginning.

I quickly begin to recount our findings at the top of the mountain. Starting with my theory that had now been proven to be fact, that the rogues have picked up and moved on to a different location. I reveal the meeting between Markus and his father as well as share our knowledge of the plan that we overheard, I try my best to tell him everything. But I conveniently leave out the findings about me being the replacement. To which Paul grinds his teeth.

"Shit. I knew that something like this would happen... So they're still trying to get someone new in? I remember you saying a while back that there was supposed to be some change of leadership and that's why the split happened in the first place. But you mentioned that they're unsure of the replacements loyalty? That doesn't sound right... So it's likely not someone from within the pack. Do you have any idea who..?" Paul pauses mid string of questions, eyeing me carefully as I begin to open my mouth to answer him. "Kyle? Why do I suddenly get the feeling that I'm really not gonna like what you're about to say."

Catching Julie's worried expression out of the corner of my eye I sigh, hanging my head before answering, no longer holding any information back. I couldn't afford to keep everyone in the dark anymore. "It's because you really aren't going to like it. I do know who they want to take control of the pack: It's me."

The room falls silent. But after a brief moment Paul scoffs. "W-Wait. You can't be serious kid. They want you to lead them? You. You have to know how ridiculous that sounds?"

Julie and I share a look. She knew about the first future echo I had experienced. When she doesn't drop her serious expression I begin to assume that she must've put some of the pieces together already by herself. When neither of us speak Paul begins to grumble, cursing under his breath.

"Shit. You're really not joking..." He mutters, "Dammit Kyle, this is some deep shit you're wading in. What the fuck..."

"You think I don't know that?! Do you think I want to be in my position?" I nearly shout.

As much as I hated to think about it, I had been running through the information we had deduced from the meeting. I was beginning to draw connections between the events since the alliance and figuring out David's plan for me. The whisperings from the wolves during my first introduction, to how easily they seemingly accepted me as a teacher and a leader. I don't know how many of them are in on David's plan, but for now I had to assume they all are. Even Reyna...

"Alright. So we now have an idea of what they really want. We can use that to our advantage. Right?" Julie pipes up, dragging the rest of us away from our nervous contemplations. "They don't know that we know their plan, so we can use that to strike them before they can act!" She glances around to the rest of us, an optimistic glint in her eye.

"Yes. Yes we can." Paul grumbles, beginning to mirror Julie's optimism. "Look, Kyle. I know this alliance was your idea and your little pet project. But I really don't want to see you go down with the ship on this."

"Fuck it." I mutter under my breath, drawing the others back to silence. "We're supposed to hunt monsters like this. Alliance be damned, I won't accept being a pawn in their damn plans."

I had gone from anger to fear and back to anger again in the span of a couple short hours. In this moment I wanted nothing more than to kill them all, but there was a small voice in the back of my head that was telling me that I needed to slow down and take a step back. To get a different perspective on this situation before I rush into it guns blazing. I still needed to show them that they can't fuck with us, that we aren't just going to go along with anything they want. But I still wasn't entirely sure who was in on their plan or not. Was Reyna aware of her fathers plot to turn me into their leader? What about Walker? Or Nyx? Suddenly I wasn't so sure of the allegiances of those I was closest to within the pack. It's dangerous to underestimate your foe and I couldn't afford to make that mistake again now that I know what the consequences are should I mess up here.