Bound By Betrayal

Ch 8 Growing Wings

It had been a full year now that I had been with the Hidden Shadows pack. My training had revealed several things to me that even I was surprised about learning. I had a great instinct for strategies, I could think outside of the box and see things from a perspective that others couldn't, and I had an eye for patterns. In fact, I had to point out several months ago that it appeared that someone, probably hunters based on the organization needed, was wiping out the leadership of the stronger packs in North America. It had started small, an Alpha dying in a car accident, a Luna killed by rogues and her husband following soon after. When I heard that Alpha Richard and Luna Natalya of my old pack had been killed in a head on collision while returning from vacation my heart had dropped. They represented the only good memories I had of my time with the Blue Moon pack and I mourned their passing.

As news of more deaths reached members via their sponsors, I had put it together. Mistrustful at first, part of my counselor's advice was to reach out and learn something about the new people in my life. I did so and soon found it almost impossible to stop. I had become a bit of a social butterfly and simply loved hearing about lives other than my own. In doing so I came across a surprising number of wolves who had received news that their old Alpha was dead or incapacitated. I considered it for a few days and began a list of weakened packs and their locations. Once I was fairly certain of my findings I brought them to Gavin who brought them and me to the attention of Alpha Thomas. At first, Alpha Thomas had seemed to brush it off as coincidence and said he would keep an eye on the situation, but when all three of my next possible targets were hit within a month of each other he called me back into his office. Since then my physical training had taken a back seat, meaning I saw less and less of Gavin, and I sat in on meetings regarding pack security and planning. It started as an understudy type position and I was just as likely to be asked to fetch something from someone's office as to participate. When I pointed out a few lapses in the security measures, and recommended some changes to make the perimeter runs more efficient I gained some more respect. I recently became the first and only initiate to ever make it to the Alpha's advisory board. We were below the Beta's, due to the size and nature of the pack there were two Beta James and Beta Michael, and above the regular pack members. I was still considered in transition toward becoming a full pack member mostly because I hadn't been here very long and my counseling sessions still had some "areas of concern". I wasn't allowed to know what my issue was, because they felt I was clever enough to fake moving past it so I just had to take it all one day at a time. Trust issues were still there, and I hadn't made it through the night with my lights off yet, but at least Sky had been allowed to join in on full training now.

Right now I was working on homework, I had been denied the right to go to school at the old pack and it had put me behind. Thankfully the work wasn't hard, it was similar to a GED track and I was given ample time to work. English, History, and Science were my favorite subjects. Math...well let's just say I was happy that I could balance a checkbook. My new life was all that I could ask for, more in fact. But, something was missing. Despite being free for the first time, not living in constant fear, and having people I could honestly say were friends I still felt a gaping hole that I couldn't identify. Just as I finished an essay on Napoleon there was a knock on my door. I left my desk and ran to the bathroom as I yelled to come in. I knew who it was and I knew I was running late. Trinity and Dasia had become my best friends over the last few months, and while it was a new friendship it had already experienced so much. Each girl had her own story. Dasia hadn't been able to change when her pack thought she should. She had reached her teens and while every other female her age had made their first change she was still fully human. Her father had taken that as proof that her mother had cheated, which she had, and that Dasia wasn't his, even after the test proved she was. She immediately fell to the bottom of the pack and had been rescued when a couple of pups who were younger, although stronger because of their wolves, had tried to drown her. Trinity had been living on the street for a while when she was found. She had no memory of her pack and had been kept caged, used by anyone who could pay the man who kept her the right price. And from what I heard he wasn't exactly demanding. She had the hardest time sleeping out of all of us, and for the first few nights she woke up screaming loud enough to wake the entire floor. It took some time and a few nights with me or Dasia sleeping in her room with her, but she was doing better now. Her sponsor was a female and most of the people she connected to were, but we were all taking steps to help her understand that male did not always mean pain. Sometimes she would call out names in her sleep and we would write them down, searching for a clue as to where she came from. Right now though, both girls were sitting on my blue and silver bedspread, waiting for me to finish putting up my hair. It had grown and the unruly curls fought me every step of the way. I wish I had had Trinity's wavy red or Dasia's straight blonde locks, but they always said that they were jealous of my curls so, there you go girls were never happy.