The Skin Walker

27 | In The Rain

"When you know, you know."

Margaret (feat. Bleachers) Lana Del Ray & Bleachers

R U T H

The office door shut behind me and Ander made sure to lock it before escorting me down to the kitchen. It was well past midnight, and he'd gotten worried that I was overworking myself. Reese had called the office numerous of times, and I recognised his number. I only answered one call and it consisted of him telling me to have something to eat and me saying 'later'.

But now Ander wasn't giving me a choice. He threatened to unplug the computer from the powerpoint. The document I'd written up wouldn't have saved if he did that, so, naturally, I complied.

"Tell me you found something." Reese met us in the hallway and attacked me with his questions. "How much did you get done? You've been up there all day and night. What did you find? There must've been something, right? Anything you know?"

Ander waved him off. "We can discuss this after she's eaten."

Minutes later, while I waited beside the kitchen island, Ander cooked up a meal for three. The mellow lights above the counter were the only sources of light, but I guessed werewolf vision included night vision, so Ander couldn't have burned himself if he tried.

"How long will he be gone?" I asked into the stillness.

Reese emerged from the pantry with a bunch of snacks and sprawled them out before me. Ander turned at the sound of plastic rustling and glared at Reese.

"I'm making a meal. Pack those away."

"No."

Ander shook his head and returned to the pasta boiling in the pot on the stove.

"Ander told you, then?"

"He slipped up. He didn't tell me," I said, picking out a small snack to occupy myself with before the meal.

Reese sighed, then walked over to the two wide doors separating us from anyone else who might've been awake. He shut them before taking a spot beside me. He raked a hand through his messy hair and dispelled a short breath.

"Zephaniah and Angelo have been trying to cooperate with Rueben to fight the bigger of evils. Again, it all links back to the Galilean War. Our Alpha has asked for their help with this evil, too, but they've got their own problems to worry about. They refuse to help on matters other than the one linking them all together."

"What bigger evil?"

"I'll tell you about it after we've killed the lesser evil."

"Jerome?" I shuddered just thinking of him as the lesser evil.

"Yes," Reese answered truthfully.

"There's a bigger evil than him," I stated in a daze, losing a breath trying to think of what greater evils there were in the werewolf world.

"We'll deal with them one at a time, Ruth," Reese assured me. "And you don't have to fight them on your own. Our pack is a pack for a reason. We fight together."