Ch. 65: Missing

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Rachel~
The next day at school was peaceful. I spent my break and lunch with Sean and we worked in the garden a bit. It felt nice to dig my hands into the earth. The chill in the air did not lessen the entire day. Instead it seemed to seep into my bones.
I daydreamed a bit about warmth and comfort. And I felt like there was something I was forgetting, that was just on the tip of my tongue, on the crest of my mind. It felt important. Sean reassured me that I would figure it out when I figured it out, or it just wasn’t as important as I thought. But it still tugged at me.
It was starting to feel safer at school now that Vance was not around. But I knew this wouldn’t last forever. I informed Sean, Maxine, Marsha, Simon and Ally about what I was told in regards to Vance’s return and how I could finally get him gone. They all devised a plan for Monday so that I would never be alone.
I missed Kyle. Ally had almost brushed me off earlier today when I had asked her if anyone had heard from him. I hadn’t seen him in over a month. She looked at me very seriously, and changed the subject. I picked up that there was something that she couldn’t tell me with others around. I would wait until after school.
My classes passed by and when the day was done I rushed out front to find her. She was sitting in the grass, as usual. But rather than smiling in the sunshine, she was hunched over a notebook, writing furiously.
“Hey,” I said in greeting.
She glanced up, “Oh hey, Rach.”
She finished whatever she was scribbling as I sat across from her.
“Can we talk?” I asked in a serious tone.
“Yeah,” she breathed out. “We really should. I- I have some things to talk to you about,” she said carefully and spaced out.
“Okay, good,” I told her.
Then we just sat. I was giving her the space to talk. The silence between us was starting to get uncomfortable.
“Okay, so Kyle,” Ally started, “I’m worried about him. I can’t go into a ton of detail right now, but he’s not on a trip or something fun. We had plans to talk and meet up but he’s sort of disappeared off the face of the earth.”
I nodded while listening to her and got worried, “Do you think he’s in trouble? Should we try to talk to the school to help?”
“I-,” she stopped, “I’m working on it with my mom. We’ve got some plans for tomorrow and I think we’ll be able to help him. But, I’ll let you know if it doesn’t work out and we need to do it differently.”
I gave her one deep look, trying to figure her out. On one hand I wanted to ask her a million questions. But on the other hand, I could see she was carrying something. She was usually open and light-hearted. But this was clearly weighing on her.
“Okay…” I said after a minute. “But, really, if you don’t figure it out I want to help. He’s my friend too. And… I can tell there’s something you’re not telling me, but we’ll dig into that later, right?”
“Right,” she said softly, looking away as we spotted the bus coming up the street.

Jake~
A horrible day followed by an exhausting morning. And my parents were still completely MIA. I woke up on the floor of my room this morning with a big kink in my neck.
“Jake!” Nick shouted from behind the door.
“Come in!” I yelled back trying to sit up.
I rubbed my eyes trying to force everything from last night from my mind.
“You’re needed outside,” was all Nick said before turning back around and closing my door.
I wondered what that could be about. I stood up slowly, still stiff from an exhausting night of battling at the packhouse yesterday. I’m amazed I actually slept. Evan’s dad had thankfully run point last night on our defense of our lands.
I walked out the door and heard people outside, so I continued down and out the front door.
Evan’s dad looked at me with sadness. Something took my breath away. He came rushing at me, and pulled me to the side.
“Can we talk over here Jake?” he asked me.
I pulled my arm back with force.
“What’s going on?” I asked him, searching his eyes for an answer.
I glanced at everyone outside, their heads hung low. I looked back at Evan’s dad.
He put his arm on my shoulder and said gravely, “Jake, I’m so sorry. Your parents - they’re missing.”
I stepped back, “What do you mean missing?”
I looked around frantically for answers.
Sarah, Mitchell’s mom, came rushing over to me and ushered me inside. She hugged me and held on to me as I grasped back with one hand, completely stunned.
“I’m so sorry, Jakey. We don’t know where they are,” she soothed.
I pulled away, “But what does that mean?”
“It’s not good. Their entire entourage, the warriors with them, they’ve been murdered. And there’s no sign of your parents,” she told me.
“All of them?” I asked breathlessly.
She nodded slightly, with pained eyes.
I had grown up with those warriors, my dad’s closest friends. Holy - Robert’s mom, Sophie’s dad, Tom’s dad, several others. They had traveled with ten warriors.
Goddess help us.
While here we had no casualties and were able to chase the rogue intruders away, my parents and their guards had not been so lucky.
“What could do that?” I asked her.
All of our packs in the region had been peaceful for nearly one hundred years. What evil could be strong enough to take on some of our best warriors? To make my parents run - or take them?
“We don’t know Jake. From what Harry said… something deadly. They were-” she paused and looked at me, I nodded for her to go on. Yes I was still a minor, but I was the future Alpha, and I had to be told. “They were ripped apart - just torn to shreds. We’re looking into our histories, but I don’t think we’ve heard anything like it.”
I looked off for a moment and walked to a nearby chair before sitting down. My mind was pulling things apart. My bloodline was pushing me to think clearly and take action.
“Have we reached out to surrounding packs yet? We should find out if they also experienced any attacks. We should warn Alphas to stay closeby,” my mind whirled. “We should ask them about the method of attack, maybe they can check their histories too. And…” I looked up at her, her gaze taking me seriously, “And we should ask what they know about witches in pack history - as well as see if anyone knows how to contact an active coven.”
Sarah’s eyebrows raised but all she did was give a quick nod before heading back out to speak with our remaining leaders.
“Sht, J. We just heard,” Evan said to me.
He and Nick rushed up to me and sat across from me, awaiting my response. I stayed in Alpha mode. I had to push through this. Worry about myself later.
“I asked Mitchell’s mom to look into a few things. I think this all has something to do with what the Goddess was telling me. She wouldn’t have gotten involved, given Rachel to me as my mate, told me about it, asked me to hold off, ignored questions about what I am - what we both might be…” I looked at Nick. “I think this has something to do with your research on demonic wolves, hellhounds. There’s no way this is all a coincidence. The Goddess wants us ready for something big. And tearing a group of wolves to pieces, to shreds, that feels big.”
Evan’s eyes enlarged with the new information I gave them. Nick’s face narrowed in thought.
“Well, sh*t,” Evan remarked.
Well sh*t, indeed.