— Kaden —
I was getting out of bed, when my phone rang. I was thinking of going for a run, but when I saw who was calling, I put it on hold in case this takes too long.
"How is it I'm not surprised you're calling me?" I answered.
"Because you can read inside my head?" suggested Eva. I snorted.
"What's going on?"
"I know I'm supposed to tell you in person and all, but I think you must know some stuff upfront."
"Okay. Just give me a sec." I went to my home office. Which to most people would seem redundant as my office is on the same property. But situations like these are not a first. I'm not going to wake up in the middle of the night to get to my office to go back to bed after. My home office is just fine. "Okay," I told her once there.
"Okay, Faeries first," she said. "I'm not gonna give you the details because there is a bunch of names I can't even pronounce in there. I asked for a complete written account, or at least, all the important details that I should get tomorrow."
"Good," I said.
"Here is the dumbed-down version. Some Faerie group pissed a lot of other Faeries for a while and it was touch and go for nearly a decade, but they went against some nice Faeries and it rallied a bunch of them against the Douche-Faeries, there was a battle, or many, actually I don't know, but they lost and are mostly gone, and now there is a power vacuum, or shift or something."
"Fuck!" I interjected.
"I guess you understood this one better than me."
I grunted.
"Anyways, a lot of factions are fighting for their own little bit of glory, and some are getting power-hungry. Some of them are also into power artifacts collecting lately, which is getting those with powerful artifact squeamish, if you get my meaning."
"I do," I said.
"So, they want to take precautions, and solidify alliances," she told me. "They say the effect of the fall of that little empire is affecting the supernatural world as a whole."
"Yeah, probably. But why haven't I heard about this one?"
"I'm not sure. I could ask. But they seem to say these were not a big faction, and everything was mostly kept within Faerieland."
"Right, but sometime little things can have wide-reaching ripples," I said thinking aloud. "It's probably not affecting all of Fairyland."
"I don't think so. They said only some of the Fair Folks got involved."
"Right, and the Fair Folks are just a fraction of all of Faerie."
"Right, he said the artifact snatching is happening mostly in parts of Europe."
"Okay," I noted a few things. "I'm gonna send you an email in a few hours, it will have things in there I want to know. Make sure it's included in this synopsis you're gonna get, or that you have the information at least, okay?"
"Sure."
"You shouldn't go to bed too late."
"I know Dad," she whined. I hung up.
Power grabs, huh? This could complicate things, and not just about Nubinero. Things could escalate in the upcoming months, or just die out. But either way, I need to be more prepared than this. I should have known about this, a long time ago.
I've probably been too werecreatures-centric. Nothing is an island. We're all interconnected.
I've tried not to make the stupid mistake of not to be up to scratch on my knowledge of human society and politics, but I need to up the ante. If the fall of a small faction of Faes can have effects like these … scratch that, everything has an effect, it's just a matter of scale. Our pack is not isolationist, we can't just hide in our own little hole and wait for things to pass, and not bother with anything other than us. Everything is affecting the entire world.
I have to correct this stupid oversight.
— Darren —
"Hey, babe!" I answered.
I was still in bed and my eyes were glued together. I tried to rub off the gunk, and mostly rolled on my side, raised the cover over my head to stifle the gargantuan amount of sunlight that was seeping through this tiny slit in the curtains, and listened to Eva's voice.
"Hey there. Are you lazing in bed?" she asked me.
"Nhgggn!" I mumbled incoherently, and readjusted my cellphone against my ear to stop it from falling. "I never lazy in bed. That's you. You're the one who could spend her whole life on a mattress."
"You sound like you're barely awake, or seriously drunk."
"I've put too much whisky in my coffee this morning," I declared half-unconscious.
"Sure, you'd do that on a work day," she said unconvinced. "Are you okay?" she asked a little more concerned. "Are you sick?"
"My bed is cold and I miss you," I whined.
"Oh, baby. That's the most perfect answer you could have ever given me," she cooed.
"And there's no one to help me with my morning wood," I added.
She laughed. It was beautiful.
"You can take care of that yourself," she said.
"But it��s not the same," I complained.
"Oh, poor baby," she mocked. "What a tragedy."
"If I do that myself, my wrist is gonna get all stiff, and I have to work on the computer and shake hands all day. Whatever shall I do?"
"You never seemed to complain when you use those hands of yours on me," she said her voice a little deeper. Man, I love that voice.
"That is not the same, princess. Your moans are my fuel, I could go on and on, no problem, as long as you're there."
"Mmmmhh," she murmured. I instinctively reached between my legs.
"So," I said finally. "What are you wearing?"
"Mmh." she said, distracted this time. "Give me a sec, I hear something."
The silence stretched, I sat up, got out of the covers.
I looked at the time. I'm going to have to get ready for work soon, so I went to grab some clothes. I put the phone on speaker and put fresh underwear on.
"Is everything okay?" I asked putting my foot through my pants' leg.
"I don���t know," she said softly. "I think something is wrong." I detected some insecurities in her voice. It's only then that the distance between us really struck me. Whatever was happening, I couldn't do anything. Not even look at her surroundings, check on her, nothing.
My shoulders tensed when I heard a crash on her side. I took the speaker off and put the phone to my ear, to hear more clearly.
Eva had let out a startled cry at the source of the sound, and my heartbeat sped up.
"Shh! We're under attack!" said Mads voice to her.
"What?" I said. "Eva, what's going on?"
She just shushed me, and spoke to Mads. I listened intently.
"What's happening?" she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"Come," he just said, and I heard very low shuffling. Then it was mostly silence only for some distant noises. They were moving away from the noises. Probably doing their best not to be detected, so I froze, conscious that any noise from me could get them detected. Especially if whoever was attacking had supernatural hearing.
I heard a few faint murmurs, but the phone mic couldn't get it clear enough for me to hear.
"Darren?" said Mads voice from the other end of the phone. His voice was tense and low.
"Yeah," I muttered.
"Get to the Alpha, now."
"On my way." I pushed the mic off button on the phone, took my clothes off, grabbed a shirt and shoes and stuffed it in a bag. The second I got out of the apartment, I shoved the phone still on, in the bag and shifted.
I rushed out in a blur, hoping that nothing would happen. That there wasn't anything on the phone I should hear while I ran to the office. Kaden should be getting there around now.
I went faster than I've ever remembered going. Around street corners—luckily before morning traffic got underway—and right through the trees at the edge of town.
Of course, well-meaning sentries blocked my way as I came upon Blakemore packhouse land.
I shifted back at the swiftest speed I could.
"Emergency," I said to them. "I need to speak to the Alpha now."
"Now, you don't get to—," began one of them.
I was about to get in his face, when another who was a little further came to us in a rush. I knew him and came across him often when I visited Eva, his name was Steve.
"He's Eva Devon's mate and our now knew Gamma," he said to them. "Let him pass."
I nodded and shifted back as swiftly, grabbing my bag in between my teeth again, and sprinting to the office building. Behind me I heard the man shouting to the others. "Escort him!" And heard a couple of wolves shift behind me, then start running and trying miserably to catch up to me, to no avail.
When the building came into view, I noticed a window on the second floor that was open. So instead of navigating the entryway, I modified my running stance, and aimed my jump.
I crashed through the screen and moved upward to Kaden's office. I knocked a bunch of things on my way, from pot plants to desks, as my wolf was not the lithest.
Stellan was at his post on the upper floor, his eyes widened as he saw me coming and before he decided to attack me, I stopped my progression, dropped down and shifted.
Three seconds later I was digging my pants out of my bag, not even bothering with the underwear.
"What the hell man?" he asked after he identified me, rushing to meet me.
"Please tell me the Alpha is in?" I said digging for the phone.
"Sure," he said as I checked my phone screen, the mic was still off, the line still on.
I raised a finger to shut Stellan off before he said anything more. He complied. I believed the gravity of the situation was evident on my face.
I listened in.
It was silent for maybe seven more seconds, then there were crashing sounds, like a fight. I heard multiple shouts. And then I heard gun shots. Not just one or two. The bang, bang, bang, of calculated rapid fire from at least three or four different sources.
I'm pretty sure Stellan heard some of that, as his face paled, and he moved out of my way.
I sprinted to the Alpha's office. I didn't even knock.
For a second I saw Kaden's head get up from his laptop. The insulation from his office was good so no one would hear on his calls, but making him also a little oblivious to the rest of the building.
"Eva, Mads, attack!" is all I said.
I got to his desk, he got up, Stellan was right behind me.
They could hear some of what I was hearing, but I put the phone on the desk and on speaker for good measure.
We could all hear a fight going on. Screams, horrible screams. From the gurgling of one of those, I was pretty sure he was dying. And roars. Probably wolves.
The three of us were silent.
I raised a finger to the men to signal for silence, and pushed the button to reactivate the mic.
"Eva?" I said not too loudly. I wasn't sure if she was hiding still, or if she could even hear us over the ruckus. Maybe the phone had fallen and she didn't have it with her. Or she had shifted.
I waited for maybe four heartbeats before I heard her voice.
"Darren?" she asked softly.
"I'm with your brother and Stellan," I said. "Tell me what's going on."
"The packhouse is under attack," she said rapidly. "Mads' bleeding." Her voice broke on the last syllable. "Give me a sec so I can drag him out of this room."
There was some scraping. The sounds of the fights were softer now. Then we heard some ruffles, a yelp from Eva, and the phone connection broke.
The three of us stood there absolutely immobile, looking at my phone in complete silence.