Chapter 49

KIRA:
“Walk with me,” the hooded man says as he grabs me forcefully by the arm before turning me around to change the direction of where I was headed.
“Alpha Reid?” I find myself gasping in surprise after realizing it is him. Something I figured out already some seconds ago. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Keep it low. Your fellow pack members will hear you,” he states as he starts to walk with me with his hand still on my arm.
“Did you trespass again? Because if you did, I’m not helping you escape this time around,” I waste no time in telling him.
“Trust me, I didn’t.”
“Then how did you get in here?” I ask him. “And could you let me go? You’re hurting me,”
“Sorry,” he apologizes as he takes his hand off my arm. “I came to meet with your alpha just like I told you I would.”
Instantly I am surprised. And I do not fail to show that I am but still I try not to look in his direction because who knows who could be watching us around to try to find out who he is.
Luckily for him, his outfit does not scream too much of his position. But the hood over his head made it obvious that he was trying to hide his identity. Pretty sure he didn’t need to because most of the pack members were unaware of him.
“And did it go as planned? Because I am sure Alpha Simon would not want to listen to you.”
“Well, he didn't,” he admits, “but I’m certain I got a word into him. At least he would have something to think over. But don’t ask me what I discussed with him.”
I nod, mostly because I have no reason in the first place to want to know the discussion he held with Alpha Simon. Being this close to him was not even looking good for me because if anyone gets to recognize him and then sees him with me, they would make assumptions about the situation.
“Why am I with you, though?” I have to ask, already feeling troubled.
“Because I have a few things that I need to ask you.”
“Before you do, you have to tell me how you got in here. Because if you are comfortable walking the streets of our pack, it means you might have gotten in some way without getting stressed,”
“So hiding my identity looks comfortable to you? Well, I did the right thing by coming in through the main gateway.”
“And I am guessing those are your men behind you,” I say, taking a glance at the warriors scattered about but following closely behind him.
“Yes.”
The warriors were in different colors of uniforms from the ones the warriors in this pack used but one would not think too much about it because they were not really extravagant. But it didn’t stop heads from turning in their direction as others wanted to have an idea of who they are.
“Well, what do you want to talk to me about? And you had better make it quick because I do not feel safe walking with you.”
“You think I’m going to harm you in your territory?”
“It’s not about that,” I try to clarify what he has in mind about what I mean. “I do not want to be made a case study about why I am walking with the alpha of a rival pack. Especially knowing that I am in no pole position to be seen with you in the first place. I already got in trouble once because of you. I am not about to go through such again.”
“I get you,” he states. “There are few things that I need to know since Simon wouldn’t render a listening ear as he should,”
“Okay?”
“About the issues with your pack, what do you know about it? What are the things you have personally found out? I know I should not be asking you about this but I think it is you who can give me the answers I need,”
I have the urge to stop so I could confront him but I decide against it. “What makes you think I have answers to give you? I am just a teenager going about her daily life,”
“If you want to know, I have this feeling that you are not just a teenager. You are a special one and if anybody has not seen that yet in you, then I think they are blind.”
It was at this moment that I felt like I should talk to him about my identity. I don’t know why the feeling overwhelmed me but I am quick to shut down the idea. If Alexia has access to me, I am sure she would be screaming her lungs out for me not to make suck a terrible mistake.
“I don’t know what you mean by that but I am nothing special,” I tell him. “And ask what you want to ask in time because I will be cutting through that route ahead to get to my quarters,”
“Personally, have you come across a slimy-looking substance? I know I should not be asking you this but it is the only way I can make sense of what is going on in both of our packs,”
My thoughts deviate to the day Kelvin took me into the school building to show me something that he felt was not right. Is that what Alpha Reid is talking about? The thing that Kelvin showed me? I think it is because it sounds much too identical.
“Slimy?”
“Yes,” Alpha Reid concurs. “We simply call it the substance in my pack.”
“Uhm," I am suddenly skeptical about whether or not I should tell him the truth, “I don’t think I’ve come across anything related to what you mentioned,”
“You don’t have to lie to me, you know. Without listening to your heartbeat, I can tell you are not being honest. So just tell me the truth. Have you or have you not?”
“Okay, I have. Why?”
“Where did you see it?”
“At the pack academy,” I admit. But decide to leave out the fact that it was Kelvin who showed it to me. I don’t think he needs to know that. “I think you are talking about something that looks like a worm, is that it?”
“Yes, that is it,” he states. “And did you think anything of it when you came across it?”
I shrug. “I didn’t,”
“Well, I think you should because seeing whatever that is in your academy means something is about to go wrong. I am telling you this now because it is the same thing we found in a few areas in my pack and I can tell you the results are not favorable.”
“How am I supposed to believe that you are not just making things up?”
He glanced at me briefly. “Tell me the truth and nothing else but the truth. After you came across the substance, did you have a hallucination of some sort where you thought you saw it in a different form? And when you did, it felt so real that you thought something was about to go wrong in your life?”
My whole body goes through an instant change. It was more like I was confused about his accuracy. The description he just gave made it seem like he was there with me that day.
I could not even find the words to say to him because my mind is in disarray at the moment. Should I or should I not give him a response about what he just asked?
“Judging from your silence,” he interrupts my thoughts, “I would say you experienced it already.”
I have to stop so I could look him right in the eye. “How do you know about this?” is what I demand to know.
He stops as well since he has been walking slowly all along. “I’m sure you have been listening to me. I already told you that it is the same thing both of our packs are experiencing. I went through the stage also. Not once. And not twice. Others that came across that also did. Even my beta whom you know.”
“And you just guessed that I would also because I told you I saw it?”
“No, I didn’t guess. I was certain that you would. I am not like your alpha who makes unnecessary assumptions. I speak based on what my intuition tells me,”
I have nothing to say to him at the moment. Mostly because it feels strange that he could just get the answer he needed from me without really trying. And there was no way I could deny it because he obviously could see through me.
“You need to tell me why you think I am the right person to be asked all of this. I am genuinely confused here,”
I watch a smile form on his lips. He touches me by the arm and says, “I already told you, Kira. You are special.”
Then he lets go of me and starts to walk off, his guards passing by me as well, as I stand in the middle of the road with my thoughts in complete disarray.