Ch. 72: Dead Ends and Dead Meat

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO:
Nick~
Days. And nothing, no trace of the Alpha and Luna. I had been doing my job, my parents’ job really, but they were helping Jake with Alpha/Luna things. So I guess I was more… managing a special task force. I fielded calls and helped keep track of where we were on alternative leads. Weekend nights for regular teens meant parties, weekend nights for us meant research and business, communications with trackers and spy networks.
I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about how the missing Alpha and Luna could be my own parents. And yes, Jake’s parents were always more distant than mine, they were always more into themselves than him, but still. I knew I wasn’t the only one losing sleep around the packhouse. Pretty much everyone was. Even Sophie, trying to hide behind makeup, looked awful. Our whole pack, and surrounding packs really, were still shaken from what had happened.
I looked down at my phone to see more disappointing news. Elise, the tracker from Dark Mountains, texted me. Another dead end.
I walked into the packhouse kitchen to give more bad news. We had skipped practice after school yesterday, and school entirely today. I had felt terrible making him go to school in the first place on Monday, but my parents and Evan’s had insisted we go and he didn’t want to be left alone at home. Ever since the attack, Jake had been just awful. Didn’t help when Rachel had her accident this weekend. He dan-near lost it. Whatever was in him was going strong. He sprouted hair all over, his canines descended - it was like he was shifting months in advance. The only huge difference of course being his eyes. They stayed lit up for hours. He ran and ran and had Evan punch him out just to get him to stop. Which of course took several punches. It had to have been one of the weirdest interactions I had ever witnessed.
He thankfully had woken up after that more calm. I guess the Goddess had visited him for a bit and reassured him everything was still on track. Whatever in her name that meant. It was still hard for him this morning on the bus to see her cast and see her wince in pain when she moved.
“Sorry, Jake. Elise just messaged. Dead end. Any other avenue you want us to ask her to look at? She’s still working on her own angles…” I told him, voice low so the others wouldn’t necessarily overhear.
He looked at me seriously. Eyes glowing again with swirls of light. “Did we hear back from Alpha Logan at Silver Lake?”
“He just had his son looking into something. No real news yet,” I replied.
“Hmm…” Jake paused. “I’ve been thinking about the weeks leading up to the attacks. I’ve gone through my mom’s calendar, my dad’s calendar. And there was something I realized this morning that was a little odd. They both had this appointment a month before the attack, to visit Black Mountain.”
“Okay?” I asked him, not following.
“Well, isn’t that odd? Why Black Mountain? We’ve never had contact with them before. I looked. Plus, when I called their Gamma, you know what he said?” he angled his head to the side, like a predator examining prey. If I were a different wolf I would be shuddering.
I nodded at him to continue.
“He said they didn’t meet. He just messaged me back after he made sure - my parents never had a scheduled meeting. They didn’t just miss it, it was never a thing. So why would they have that in their calendars?” he thought more on it, putting his phone down and looking towards two young pups goofing around at the table over by the windows.
“Have you asked the Betas about it yet? The Gammas?” I went into work mode again.
“Yeah, while waiting for Black Mountain to confirm - they never heard anything about it. No one knows why it was in their calendar. Did they think they were meeting with Black Mountain and they weren’t? Did their Gamma lie to me? And if it’s neither of those - what other reason would they have for writing that? What was the point?” His aura expanded in the room without his noticing.
I didn’t interrupt the thoughts. This could be a lead. But where did we go from here?

Rachel~
Our plan today was, as Marsha put it, to ‘let him hang himself.’ It scared me a little, but objectively I knew she was likely right. They needed to back off a bit and wait for Vance to make a move against me. Then bring a teacher or other person around and - BAM. Well, hopefully BAM.
I made sure to look his way a few times during Science. Marsha insisted I needed to ‘poke the bear’ by getting his attention. So as much as it freaked me out, I forced myself to do it. Class was ending and I wasn’t sure if he had noticed so I decided to really, really push it. I looked at him for a long while, until I was sure he saw me. We maintained intense eye contact for a few seconds and then I looked away. My hand was gripping the lip under the table, trying to keep myself steady. I couldn’t breathe. What had I just done?
I don’t know what changed but suddenly that pressure from weeks prior appeared again. My skin was beading with sweat. My heart slammed in my ribcage. Was I having a heart attack? I continued to hold on as the class was dismissed. I stayed still because I didn’t know what else to do. I suddenly wished for someone to give me strength. I had a glimpse of Sean for a second but that wasn’t it. I looked down into my open backpack and saw my book about wolves in there. Something about focusing on that book helped me breathe out. And so I slowly loosened my grip on the table and dropped my shoulders a tad. I packed my things and noted the classroom was mostly empty. Vance was nowhere to be seen. If the plan had worked? We were about to see. Big breath in, I stepped outside.
He approached me in the shadows in the hallway adjoining the dark hall. I was cold all over and my body was already reacting like he had control over me again. I wanted to run away, and my foot twitched to try to do just so, but I stopped myself. I braced for the worst and looked up. He was already sneering. He walked towards me and lifted a hand toward me.
“You’re supposed to be staying away,” I said in a shaky whisper.
So much for the hate I wanted laced in it. How was I still so afraid of this guy?
“Oh but you wouldn’t want me to,” he replied.
I leaned away and his eyes narrowed at my insult.
“Stay away,” I said, this time with more power in my voice.
I moved to walk around him and his arm shot out and he grasped my wrist. We looked at each other and I tried to yank my hand out. He wouldn’t budge. By now my friends would have someone there, I had to believe it. I stomped as hard as I could on his foot and he hissed in pain. I used the surprise to pull my arm again. It gave. I took off running towards the back and yelled out for him to stop as he charged right at me. He caught up and shoved me roughly against a wall. I winced from the pain and blinked a few times.
“Vance!” Sean yelled from the treeline behind campus. “Get your hands off her!”
He was pure anger. He came running from the trees, and I swear his speed was borderline supernatural. He got up and shoved Vance right as Ms. Del Rios stepped into view beside Ally.
“That’s enough!” Ms. Del Rios yelled.
Sean gripped harder into Vance’s shoulder. Ally rushed over to help me up. I hadn’t even realized I had sunk down to the ground.
“I told you there would be hell to pay, it hasn’t even started. You’re dead meat,” he seethed in Vance’s ear before shoving him. I could swear Sean’s eyes were heated.
When did he talk to Vance?
“Boys! Office. Now,” Ms Del Rios barked again.
They moved to follow her to the front office, Sean glancing back at me with some unexplainable look in his eye as Ally stood with me. Resolute.