The next morning, I wake up wrapped in Keira's arms, after carefully extracting myself from her hold I realize that Keira is quite the heavy sleeper. Even after showering and getting ready for school, she's barely moved an inch. Only after giving her a small goodbye kiss on the cheek did she finally stir awake, groggily wishing me to stay. But I just give her another peck on the cheek and wish her a good day.

Going outside I see few cars parked out on the driveway and decide to drive myself to school today.

One of Kiera's wolves that was outside spots me and sees me looking at the cars, "Keys are in the ignition of the Altima if you want." He calls out.

"Thanks." I yell back.

Getting to school I find both Alice and Cora waiting for me and both looking exasperated. At first, I thought it was because I didn't stay to talk to them after the attack last night, but then I see the actual reason. Peter was following them and his mouth was moving a hundred miles a minute bombarding them with questions.

Shit, I completely forgot about Peter.

For a moment the thought of just turning around and going back home crossed my mind, but as if reading my thoughts, the girls send me death glares saying, 'don't even think about it'. Resigning myself to my fate I let out a heavy breath and walk over to them.

"Hey, thanks for not killing him." I say with a straight face.

Peter stops and after seeing the dead pan expressions on me and the girls faces, he visibly retracts from the girls and moves over behind me.

Now I know the girls would never do that, but Peter doesn't, and he needs to be a little more aware of his situation.

"He's your problem now." Says Cora.

"We'll see you at lunch." Follows Alice.

As if they'd had a weight lifted off their shoulders the girls walk off with a little more pep in their step.

When their finally out of sight Peter turns to me, "They wouldn't really have killed me, would they?"

Not answering his question, I tell Peter to follow me and lead him down near the music hall, all the noise here will keep any wolves bothering to eavesdrop from listening in on us. Once I felt it was safe enough to talk, I started at the beginning. I explained to him what werewolves are and what a pack is. He seemed a little bummed when I told him you had to be born a werewolf, which had me rolling my eyes. Then I explained who I was and how I was adopted by my werewolf family. Feeling a bit elated at having another human in the know to talk to, I spent the entire morning telling him everything about werewolves and Crestwood. I decided to leave out the stuff about the boundary and vampires, he had enough to worry about as is. By the time I got to Keira, mates, and the current situation with the White Moon pack it was already lunch time.

We are sitting at our lunch table when Peter turns to me and says, "I don't get it."

"I know it's a little weird, but just think of her as my wife." I say in a hushed tone.

"No, not that. I mean the whole White Moon pack thing. I mean don't get me wrong but seriously what are they waiting for?" He whispers back.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you said they basically have an army right, so what's taking them so long to make a move?"

"Well like I said, they're a lot of wolves in Crestwood a lot of packs, they can't attack needlessly."

"Can't they? You said it yourself that the packs here are still splintered and not working together very well after the first attack. If the White Moon pack were to attack again right now, they would see that, so why haven't they?"

"Because they don't know what going on in Crestwood, we've been careful to keep an eye out for any spies."

"Yeah, but why haven't there been more attacks in general, is what I'm getting at. I mean I don't know if wars between werewolves is different, but shouldn't there be more fighting than this? Instead of a war this is more like a siege, but even then, it's still weird because they aren't even attacking."

As rare as it was, Peter was actually making some sense. After that first initial attack there hasn't been any contact or sightings of the White Moon pack, which makes no sense considering their past MO. So why?

"Holy shit Pete, I think you're right." I say, surprised by his insight.

"I have my moments." Pete says looking smug.

I roll my eyes.

"So...um...have you heard anything about Aspen?" Pete asks.

"No, why?"

"No reason, just curious."

I scoff and roll my eyes, "C'mon Pete, you don't ask about someone for no reason, especially a witch. What's going on?"

"Bro, seriously its nothing, she's just been on my mind is all." Pete said in a somber tone.

Oh boy, looks like that witch really got to him, I think he genuinely liked her.

"Pete you need to be careful, if you see her again, you need to tell me."

"Don't worry I will."

"I'm serious Pete." I tell him.

"Caden, I'm not an idiot. I'm not one of those morons you see on tv that say they will and then don't, I promise I'll let you know if I see anything."

I believed him; his tone was the most serious I've ever heard from him. I see Alice and Cora walk into the lunchroom; I wave them over. After grabbing their respective lunches, they come and sit with us.

"Okay, so what have you heard?" I ask them.

They both glance over at Pete.

"It's too late worrying about that now, so go ahead." I tell them.

"Well it looks like Demetri was not the one who hired those mercenaries last night, but apparently they were hired using his money. Turns out Demetri had quite a bit of money stashed away, and someone stole it." Alice explained.

"You're shitting me." I say surprised.

"I haven't even gotten to the juicy part. Figuring it was an inside job Demetri confronted what was left of his pack about the money, but apparently none of them even knew it existed. When they found out that Demetri had money hidden away and hadn't used it to help them, it was the last straw and they left him."

"Wait you can just do that, leave a pack?" Pete asks

"Sort of, it's a bit complicated." Cora answers.

"The point is Demetri is pretty much done for; he only has five wolves left in his pack." Alice states with a smile.

"Unbelievable, I almost feel sorry for Demetri." I say that knowing that one of those pack members has to be my father's spy, so in reality Demetri is down to four.

"Wait, werewolf mercenaries are a thing and they attacked you last night!" Pete exclaims.

"Shhh!" I shush Pete.

Pete looks over to the girls who just nonchalantly nod yes while eating their food.

"I've got so many questions." Pete says in an excited tone.

"Sorry bro, but no more questions for now." I state as I see Mari walking towards us.

Following my gaze Pete sees Mari too, "Damn."

After lunch I force Pete to go to class even though he begs me not to, saying he had more questions, but I needed a break. Plus, I wanted to ask the girls about what happened last night, even though I knew it meant hearing how Barry died. As much as it hurt, I was glad to hear he went down fighting, taking two of the mercenary wolves down with him.

"The funeral is tomorrow, are you going to come?" Cora asked.

"Of course, he was my first patient and a friend." I replied.

As we continue to walk the girls' eyes become unfocused, they were talking to someone through a mental link, the three of us stop when we reach the door to my class. I wait for their eyes to refocus, signaling the end of their mental conversation, before speaking again.

"So how was it, hearing someone else's voice in your head again?" I ask.

"Weird." Replies Alice.

Cora looks over to Alice and answers, "Yeah, after hearing only each other's voices for so long it's a bit jarring."

"The good thing is your dad and the others rarely ever calls us; our duty hasn't really changed." Says Alice.

"Wait really, you guys are still my bodyguards?" I ask, surprised.

"Of course, we swore our lives to you, your dad respects that." Alice stated.

"Still, you guys are part of the pack now and I'm not." I state.

"But your still his son, and our best friend." Replies Cora.

I grab my chest in pretend pain, "Ugh, my chest. The feels are just too much." I say in a strained voice.

"Oh, fuck off."

"Fuck you."

I laugh as they both reply in unison, Alice nudging me in the shoulder while Cora flips me off, smiles on both their faces. But it really did warm me to hear those words.

"Anyway, that was your dad, he wants us to go check on something nearby, we'll be back before class is over." Alice explains.

"No worries." I reply.

Which was true, ever since Cole died and Keira claimed me as her mate no one has tried to mess with me, even wolves I was friendly with have started avoiding me. Stepping into class I was surprised to see Hanna sitting in her seat, it had been a while since we last spoke, and I had been worried about her. As I approached my seat, Hannah turned to me and smiled, but her smile didn't seem to reach her eyes. But it's not surprising given what Alice just told us during lunch.

Seating down I turn to her and ask, "Are you okay?"

She waves it off, 'I'm fine, just dealing with a few setbacks. How are you, I heard about the attack last night?

"I'm fine, but my dad lost a wolf." I told her.

"Sorry to hear that. How about your mate? I heard she was quite the badass, taking out most of the mercenaries by herself."

"Yeah, she's quite the wolf." I say with a strange sense of pride filling my chest.

"So, she wasn't injured at all?" Hannah asks with a speculative tone.

Before I can respond I feel my phone vibrating, pulling it out of my pocket I see it's Keira calling, class was just about to start so I excuse myself to take the call.

I make my way over to one of the more secluded hallways during this period, making sure no teachers or students could hear before swiping to answer, "Hey, is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, but your father called; things with the council have gotten worse; it looks like one of its members have fled taking two other packs with them. Your father is sending someone to check if it's true."

"Ah, geez." I sigh, that must be what the girls went to go check.

Goddess, Crestwood is falling apart, and the White Moon pack have barely done a thing.

"You know, I came here expecting a unified community of werewolves, but this place is just as disjointed as everywhere else if not more so. Honestly what is the point of this council?" Keira asks exasperated.

"At this point I'm not even sure." I say honestly.

"Your father and his pack may be the only wolves here worth a damn, but seriously if not for you, coming here would have been a complete waste of time."

I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach.

"Keira are you thinking of...abandoning Crestwood?"

There was a long pause that seemed to last forever.

Keira suddenly asks, "Caden, do you love me?"

"Yes, of course." I reply confused.

"Do you trust me?" Keira continues.

"You know I do."

"Then come home, we need to talk." Keira stated.

My chest tightened at the thought of Keira asking me to abandon Crestwood, to abandon my family.

"Okay." I replied.

At this point class had already started and the halls were empty, so I was surprised to see Lisa standing at the end of the hall looking at me.

"You didn't have to send someone to come get me I drove myself to school today, also why'd you send Lisa?" I whispered the last part.

"Lisa? What are you talking about? Lisa shouldn't be anywhere near there." Keira stated.

"Well I'm looking right at her." I tell her.

Keira goes silent and at the same time I see Lisa's whole body begin to visibly shake; she furiously begins shaking her head, trying to physically force herself to disobey whatever it was Keira was telling her.

This is not good; I need to get out of here quick.

I turn to leave but bump right into Hannah, "Hannah, sorry but we need to get out of here quick."

"No Caden, I' sorry. I really did consider you a friend." Hannah replies.

Confused, I look at her and that's when I notice her arm was out with a knife in her hand, a knife that was now partially sticking out of my abdomen.

"CADEN!!!" A distorted voice calls out from Lisa's mouth.

Even though it came from Lisa I knew that it was really Keira calling out to me through her. Dropping my phone my instincts seem to take over as I grab the knife making sure it doesn't go in any further and headbutt Hannah right in the nose with my forehead breaking it. Hannah yelps, the sudden pain and blood causing Hannah to stumble back, letting go of the knife.

"Fucker!" She yells out as she covers her nose.

The sudden commotion grabs the attention of a few passerby's, who call out to what's going on. Hannah quickly runs away, and I fall to the ground, blood seeping through the wound the shock about to render me unconscious. Falling next to my phone I hear Keira calling out to me from it.

"Caden just hold on, help is on its way, your going to be fine! Caden! Caden, talk to me!"

I fight to stay conscious, but I know it's a losing battle.

"Keira, I love you," I croak out.

As everything begins to fade to black, I smile, knowing that if those are to be my final words, I'm glad that she was able to hear them.

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