Children of the Moon

Six

Chapter six

London

We arrived at the LA at 6:45 and were greeted by David Nickels and one of his daughters Mia. His other daughter was busy preparing the basement.

Julian held out his hand to shake David's hand "Nice to meet you again" he smiled a kind of hypnotic smile that made people immediately trust him which he made sure to use to his advantage. It worked on just about everyone but me.

He turned his attention to Mia who was standing slightly behind her father as if to use him as a shield "Mia! You're looking well" his statement was polite but his tone and the gaze he held her with implied his thoughts were anything but.

Mia's cheeks flushed with colour and she looked to her shoes. Her hands were tangled in her dark brown hair, something that I noticed she did when Julian was around. I felt a pang of pity for her. Julian would flirt with a donkey if it looked at him twice. Mia had a pretty enough face: heart-shaped and slim nose but she was often over shadowed by her older sister, Raven.

As if on cue, Raven walked up the stairs and Julian's attention turned to her instead. I could see Mia's face fall slightly. She was disappointed but not surprised: clearly used to it.

"Raven-"Julian started but Raven had already walked past, her bronze eyes uninterested. "Damn that girl could freeze hell over." He laughed it off but I could tell he was just trying to save his ego.

Till now I was still stunned by the shocking resemblance that the Nickels bore: same bronze eyes, same brown hair. Raven had inherited her mother's black hair hence her name.

A familiar voice echoed through the foyer "Come on, you two. Let's sign in" the voice belonged to Damien who had just arrived. He clapped Julian on the back and lead him to the basement. I followed avoiding eye contact with everyone on my way.

The basement was huge and has several individual rooms. There were already 10 packs signed in. I was not surprised to see that the Gorudos were not yet signed in. They were a big pack of 8. If possible they would even be late to their own funeral.

We entered the assembly room where all wolves over 18 would go when they were needed for meetings. However, today the room was filled with all wolves in the area. David stood in front of a podium at the front of the room. He cleared his throat and that was all it took to silence the entire room. Everyone took their respective seats. I sat between Julian and Damien.

David Nickel had a booming and authoritative voice that bounced off every wall in the room and his echo answered him back "Welcome back. I trust you have all been keeping safe and well. I'm glad you could all make it. Well most of you." He was undoubtedly referring to the Gorundos who were still yet to make an appearance. It was unlikely that they were late due to matters out of their control. They disagreed with the sheer majority of the laws that the LA put in place. Every month they used this to showing their disapproval although we all knew they would show up regardless.

David carried on with his speech and everyone listened intently. He wasn't the type of person that would tolerate being talked over, not that anyone would anyway.

He was interrupted by a loud bang from the back of the room. The Gurondos had arrived. They were from Japan and they all wore the same black jeans and white t-shirt. If the Nickels looked similar then the Gurondos were practically identical. Their ring-leader, Grant, stood tall and proud in his lateness. The Gurondo twins, Gideon and Charlotte, stood either side of him staring daggers into anyone who looked twice. Their protective demeanour made them look like guard dogs, despite them only being 17. Even Adam and Peter, who were only 9 and 12 years old, were fierce enough to unnerve the average. Luna was only 14 and was sometimes referred to as the 'half-baked one' even by her own family. She held her 5 year old sister Fran in her arms. Tyler was the only one to stand slightly away from his family.