96 | PUZZLE PIECES

The odd feeling in my head eventually fades, but by the end of the week, something in me still feels…off. After Nikki had left, I had slowly started making my way through my first to-do list and frozen in place when I saw myself in the mirror of my bathroom.

My hair used to be fully, blood-red, but I’ve slowly gotten used to the odd streak of white that’s appeared after each use of my power… Last time, there had been three notably-thicker strands of the silvery-white. But after this most recent use of the vamp power, there’re four new strands scattered through the usual red. Something about the sudden change freaked me out, enough to consider yanking the tufts out or cutting them out. But they all traced into my scalp without a trace of turning back to the fiery shade they’d been before.

Deep in my chest, something had ached at the sight. The color isn’t right, but it’s more than just the color that feels off when I looked at the strands. It almost feels like something’s been taken from me. I tried to play it off after my shower, telling Blue I felt better, but he knew that wasn’t entirely true. It hung between us in the sudden silence of the small house, and has remained a no-go topic for the entirety of the week.

It took me the first three days of that week to get through my first to-do list, and the remaining four days to work through the secondary portion of the list. The first half was harder to navigate through because of the odd hours some of my allies keep. And by some, I mean the vampires. Every time I tried getting ahold of Ryker or Mina, it ended up being a weird hour of the day/night or they were engrossed in meetings and trainings for new Guardians.

By the third night, however, we got to have a nice long video-chat.

Paris and I had tea - because my cousin apparently doesn’t need any caffeine with the stuff she’s dealing with. Civil disputes have broken out in the Reinier ranks after Paris abruptly ended the patrols, telling them the issue had been solved. And she assured me it was, but didn’t offer much more beyond the reassurance that the Hunter was alive last she saw him. Every time I attempted to broach the subject of the Hunter, she shut me down. So I eventually stopped and just discussed non-Pack business with her before returning to my house.

Mom and I began out morning chats, me visiting her in Azure land. She’s been put up in one of the smaller cabins in the territory, though the house is larger than my current home. She’s settled into it nicely and has kept up with the schedule at Lia’s, even having multiple days off at a time. I make sure to encourage her to call me whenever she has free time so we can hang out more. I don’t tell her it’s because I’m terrified our time’s becoming shorter and shorter, despite how wonderful she’s looking.

Getting ahold of Dr. Chambers is next to impossible, but Shola answers when I give her a call. Things in Darklight are tense, considering how close they are to Colton and the Revenant situation, but she reassures me things are fine regarding the control Chambers has over the others. I tell her I’ll be dropping by myself in two weeks to try to talk to Chambers more, and she lets me know that she will do her best to not be around, for her own self-preservation. I still make sure she passes the message along to Chambers and Akira.

Since it’s clear the Revenant has gone skulking back to Colton, or somewhere near there, I go to Berner territory to find out how things are going. Berner ‘territory’ includes a lot of city-space, and most of the state. Though it’s technically ‘my’ territory, I feel weird wandering around it so nonchalantly. Zoe insists on tagging along when I visit my Pack, acting like a bodyguard once more, despite the ass-kicking we both took last time we left Coven lands together.

Luckily, things go rather well. We visit Khadija and Lee first, since they’re my Betas. Not surprisingly, the two older Wolven live together, though there’s nothing sexual between them that I can sense. They stay in a duplex in the center of the territory, with a freshly renovated basement with silver chains and a reinforced steel-and-silver coated door. I knew bitten-Wolven had issues during the full moon when it came to self control, but learning that the Betas are in charge of locking the entire Pack in the basement for their own protection-as well as the protection of every living thing in the territory- shed some new light on my people.

The orphans stay in an apartment complex owned by a few of the Enforcers and some of the parents of the younger, born-Wolven. So that issue is taken care of, but what alarms me when I visit the rest of the Pack, is the relative squalor they live in. The place only had a few mattress for the ten large shifters to share and there wasn’t any heat or water when I visited. By the red notice on the front door, there hadn’t been any for at least a month.

When I ask them about their reason for living in such a way, the explained how they’d all struggled to hold down jobs, and the house had been bought before the Pack had grown. It was meant as a temporary home, but soon became the only alternative to living on the streets for many of them who simply couldn’t be around humans. With the explosive emotions and dual nature of the wolf always fighting with their human sides, I understood…but was still completely surprised by it all.

What had surprised me was that they all mentioned the Alpha - before the Tiger - had held the purse strings, paying for the electricity, heat, and water bill. They had been making do with the meager supplies from the rest of the Pack ever since that Alpha had been over thrown, and were prepared to continue that way.

Why hadn’t their Alpha - the one before the Tiger-shifter - helped them become self-sustaining? Were they really so cruel and controlling that they need to hold even their weakest members in such a way?

Khadija and Lee insisted I go to the local bank to transfer the Pack’s account information to my own name now that I was Alpha. The female Beta passed along a safety deposit box key and Lee gave me the pin number to the account, letting me know the bank would understand when I explained the situation. It had been such a strange experience, that, by the time I left to talk to the local bank, I wasn’t sure what I’d find.

I did not expect to see the bank owned by a witch. The scent of spices and herbs gave them away, more than the slight aura of Magic pulsing around them. The man, somewhere in his early forties, didn’t even bat an eye when I told him I was the new Alpha of the Berner Pack and was there to check on Pack assets. He just asked for the pin number and the safety deposit box key before taking me into a back room. Zoe was made to wait in the lobby since she wasn’t part of the Pack. We didn’t argue.

When the witch left me alone in the back with a large three-by-one box that sure as shit isn’t empty like I had assumed… I knew immediately what kind of Alpha had been in charge of the Berner Pack. Even before I opened the box, and saw the large amount of money, passports, and personal documents of at least fifty shifters, I could barely control the simmering rage that has struck me. The Alpha had practically held their people hostage, withholding social security information and other important documents like birth certificates and even driver’s licences.

I stayed in the back room for what felt like hours, just staring in disbelief at it all. It made more and more sense, the initial reaction of the Pack when we’d all met. Their halting mistrust but immediate loyalty. It was what had been expected from the previous leadership. But I wasn’t into blackmail. So I eventually hauled out the important information and the stacks of money - all of it in bricks of large bills - and began distributing it to all the identities I came across.

The witch came back some time later ana didn’t say anything when I asked for a few boxes to transport everything out of the bank. Smart witch.

I set about redistributing the wealth I’d found back to the members of the Pack, ignoring their shocked expressions. I made a promise to myself to figure out a way to make them all financially independent in the near future. Maybe Hale or Blue would have some sort of idea about that? Hell, I’d even ask Paris if that meant I could find a way to keep the members of my Pack from living in the conditions that made even me cringe.

I was practically vibrating with anger by the time Zoe and I left the territory, and spent the rest of the week working through the possible financial options for the Pack.