Chapter 51

KIRA:
“But I don’t want to.” I counter in no time as I push myself up from the bed.
‘Why not?’
“I don’t want to have anything to do with Alpha Reid. I don’t want to see him. Don’t want to even have any discussion with him. He spells trouble for me and you know that!”
‘Well...’ Alexia starts to say but sort of fades off before she could even do so. But she comes on with something else, ‘He actually helped with you an insight about the possible danger lurking in your territory and his. That observation could be helpful.’
“Which I find absurd!” I snap. “And don’t you think it’s strange that you are trying to pitch me with him. If I was dumber than this, I probably would not think too much about it but I guess that is what you are trying to do. And for what?”
‘I am not pitching you with anyone, Kira. You’re overreacting.’
“Oh, I’m overreacting? I’m overreacting? Why won’t I when my wolf is trying to guide my steps for me like I’m sort of crybaby that has no clue where her life is headed?” I pause for a second when I hear a loud this come from outside. I ignore it though and continue with my rant, “For goodness sake, you keep putting ideas into my head that I don’t want and you expect me not to overreact? So ridiculous of you to say.”
“Kira?”
As soon as I hear my name called, I look in the direction of the entrance into the room to see Adam standing there while looking at me like I am a sort of maniac.
“What?” I snap him back to his senses.
“Uhm,” he tries to say but even after more than ten seconds he still hasn’t told me what he is here for.
In annoyance, I start to approach him. And when I get to him, I shove him away from the road with an arm while saying, “Get the hell out of my way.”
I have not taken enough steps away from there when he supposedly gets back to his senses and announces, “Bradley is here to see you!”
Like a switch, I find myself stopping in my tracks. And slowly, with the frustration coupled with anger still etched on my face, I turn around to face him. “The hell what?” are the words that leave my lips.
*****
REID:
I walk into the building with the littlest of steps. Steps that are enough to evade others if I were on an escape routine. Except that I was not on such at this point. It was just me entering into my quarters after a long arrival back from my little trip.
“So how did it go?” that was the first thing I hear when I get to the living area which has someone seated there. Turns out it is my sister.
“It went as expected,” I tell her as I approach a seat to make myself comfortable. Still need to get this stress off my shoulders. “I was just telling Ryu about it while coming in,” I say, gesturing toward the one who escorted me into the room.
“I see,” Venice says. “So what happened?”
First I take off my coat. I feel a bit overwhelmed with it because it was a piece I had to use all day. Mostly as a means to cover my identity while heading back here.
“As said before, it was expected. I didn’t get too much from it but at least I was able to let Simon in what he needed to know. Would take a while but I am certain he will figure out what to do with the information,” then I look in the direction of my head warrior who is still standing behind me. “Come have a seat, Ryu. I don’t need to tell you, you know.”
He adheres to my call and comes to join Venice and me to sit. It was the only way I could get him to feel comfortable around here because what I am going to be discussing is something that would involve him as well.
“It was a good thing that I went alone. At least without Hunter and Ryu. Because it would have felt like I was there for something more than a discussion if that had been the case.”
“Why did you say so?” Venice demands to know.
“Upon my arrival there with the warriors, the Green Dales defenses instantly put up a means to attack us. I had to quickly inform them that I only wanted to meet with their alpha before they let me into their territory.”
“Woah,” she says.
“Yeah,” I utter. “I know what I went through in getting Simon to listen to me, though. But even at the end of it all, it was futile because he didn’t want to share any information with me about what is going on. I had to leave it like that because I realized it was going nowhere.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
The instant she asks that question, I look at Ryu and ask, “What are we going to do?”
Ryu looks genuinely confused after I asked him that. I can tell that he has no clue what to say because I just put him in the spotlight unexpectedly. But as I said before, he is supposed to have a say in this conversation which is why I had him sit.
“I have no idea... at least for now.” is what he eventually tells me which I sure expected him to say. Would have been genius if he just came up with something on the spot.
“Look, everyone needs to come up with something because this is not going to work with me figuring things out alone. There is a lot we need to look into. Most especially with hoping that Hunter does not go through the same berserk state that he went through days ago. Who knows, others might experience it as well. Which is why we need to figure something out fast.”
I look at both Ryu and my sister after my announcement. I hope my words would key into them so they could approach this with enough clarity. Venice has nothing to do with this but since she is here for the time being, I figured I could use her help. She is still family and she will always be.
“By the way, before we go into all of that, there is something you two need to know,” I tell them, interrupting their thought process which was obvious due to the looks on their faces.
“What is it?” Venice chooses to ask for both of them.
“You both have to listen. And listen well because I will not be going through it twice,” then I prepare my mind for a brief second to give the best opening to what I am about to let them in on. “So I told you both that I could not get any information from Simon, right? But that doesn’t mean I came back without information. My going there was not in vain.”
“How so? With what you just said, it seems to me that you met someone that ushered to give you a few things on what is going on there.”
“I did,” I admit. “And she helped me a great deal.”
“She?”
“Yes, she. It’s a girl.”
“And what information did this girl provide you with?”
“To start with, this girl was the key to finding out that both packs are going through the same ordeal. And coincidentally, I met her again today. Don’t bother asking how I met her the first time because I won’t tell,” I pause for some seconds to observe if they would question me on that but they don’t. So I continue, “When I met her today, I wanted to know a few things. Especially about the substance we found in three of the households that went through the crisis. You know what I am talking about, Ryu, don’t you?”
Ryu nods affirmatively. I look at Venice and the expected confusion is mounted on her face.
“Don’t worry, Venice,” I say. “There is still a lot that you need to catch up on. This is part of it,” she obviously gets the memo because her expression switches after that. “So about what I was saying, she gave me an idea. And like what we have been experiencing — I am talking about the hallucinations that came with seeing the substance — she has also experienced it. And you know why, Ryu? Because she has seen it too.”
Ryu’s face twitches at my announcement. It made it seem like he was not expecting to hear what I just said but I am certain he would be more than surprised to hear the full gist about the girl in particular.
“If you don’t mind me asking, Alpha Reid, who is this girl you are talking about? And how can you confirm that she is telling the truth?” Ryu asks later.
“Easy,” I state. “She is my mate.”