Ch. 97: Looping in the Alpha

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN:
Ally~
We all had just made it out and were hiding behind a large van across the street and several houses down when Nick heard Maxine up and moving around.
“What happened in there?” Nick asked Kyle once it was safe to speak.
“A lot. Sorry guys, I think I was toeing the line and woke her up earlier with my meddlings,” Kyle said, an indiscernible look on his face.
I reached out and put a hand on Kyle’s shoulder to comfort him, ignoring the look on Nick’s face as I did so.
“What happened?” I asked him quietly. “It feels like something scared you.”
I had been playing with and expanding - albeit slowly - my abilities around empathy and auras. This fear that had been in Kyle while he was coming out of it really was glaringly obvious. Even first-day-of-her-power Ally would have picked up on it.
“Well, to put it in short terms - I found an entrance to her subconscious and was able to find her memories. But in opening and closing doors, I think I should have been a little more covert in my movements… I saw some interesting things and then here I was rushing out and ran into - some sort of defense mechanism in Maxine’s mind. Let's just say I was being chased to death by some sort of version of little girl Maxine who had the looks of a zombie from Zombieland - all spewing black goo and stuff - and the speed of a later generation Terminator,” he shivered like he were back there again.
“Alright, I believe an ‘ew’ is in order?” Evan said from the side of the car up ahead, keeping a lookout.
“And you would be right,” Kyle said, brushing off dirt from his knees.
“We’re clear,” Evan said after a few more moments.
“Let’s get back to the car and debrief a bit more. Make our game plan from there,” Nick said aloud. Authority easily oozing off his words.
We nodded and backtracked to where we had come in, my hand in his.

Nick~
After making it to the car Kyle walked us through what he had seen. Finally he explained the last room he had been in.
“The girl,” I turned to Evan. “It sounds like he is describing Sophie and her dad.”
“That was her name!” Kyle said, a lightbulb going off. “Her dad called her that.”
I pulled out my phone and went through a few photos of pack outings and events, zooming in on one with her in it.
“Was this her?” I asked.
“Yup, definitely,” Kyle said, nodding enthusiastically. “You guys know her?”
Ally, Evan and I all looked at each other.
“Yeah, unfortunately,” Evan said without hesitation. “Although now she’s going to feel unfortunate to know me when I’m done with her.”
“We have to tell Jake. This is now a pack situation. Sophie has been trying to get after Jake forever. Now it turns out she’s basically got a hit out on our future Luna? He might kill me by accident when I tell him,” I said without thinking.
Ally sucked in a breath.
“I’m sorry, love. Evan and I will be smart about how we tell him, I promise. But we need to tell him immediately. All of our moves from here with Maxine and Sophie - they’re up to him now.”
Jake~
I was outside coming back in from a run when I felt like I was being watched. The noise should have been outside the range for any normal person, and maybe even for a normal wolf, but the hairs on the back of my neck were an early warning from Aamon.
I continued on like nothing was wrong to not alert whoever it was thinking they could sneak up on me.
Up ahead, a mile or so on the left, Aamon said in my mind. He sat up, at attention in the forefront of my mind.
The wolf kept trying to convince me of reasons we should shift early. I had to keep reminding him of what the Goddess had explicitly told us. And for a few minutes that would satisfy him until things got quiet. Until the distractions of our routines and our meetings were done and all I had to think about was loss. Loss of my parents. Loss of Rachel.
I could sense it wasn’t moving and decided to meet Aamon halfway.
Alright, let’s try this, I told him.
Now the pup is starting to learn, he grumbled.
But he did what I suggested. He pushed forward, and I pulled him forward, just far enough that any more would start a shift. Instead, we were working as one. My already quiet movements hit a higher level of stealth, and we ran faster without making a sound. We moved in a slightly different trajectory, just different enough that at the last second I could -
We moved, as quick as lightning and I rounded the area, surprising my observer from another direction.
Sophie. I could smell her clearly before I saw her. She was with another minion of hers, Tiffany.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” I roared at them suddenly.
They both flinched. Tiffany yelped in fright.
With bowed heads they rushed out hushed apologies.
“What is the meaning of this?” I growled louder, directing my fury at Sophie.
Tiffany had always been a wonderful Sophie-follower. But that was it, a follower.
“I’m very sorry Alpha,” Sophie began. “If you let us be on our way, we will remove ourselves from the area.”
I waited a few seconds longer, past ‘uncomfortable’ as they waited for me to say something.
“Go,” I said.
I turned before they could reply and started back on my way home. I would leave them be.
That was until I heard Sophie snicker, “When I am Luna he won’t be able to speak to me like that.”
I doubled back and ran straight for her, claws sticking out of the flesh on my hands. The pain however, was nothing compared to the anger I felt at Sophie for saying something like that, so totally out of line. And for wolves, the claim was straight up blasphemy.
I had her pinned against the trunk of a tree, my movements so quick Tiffany had been still laughing before she realized the change in the situation.
“You say another thing like that and you are out of here. Do you understand?” I hissed at her, my claws drawing blood.
She nodded, her face going purple.
“I will be informing your parents of this,” I said, shoving her to the side. “And you-” I said, pointing at Sophie, gasping for air from the forest floor, “your mother was one of our top warriors. You bring shame to her name with your actions and your blasphemous words. It is because of her sacrifice that I show you so much patience. But that was the last of it.”
I left them there and continued back home to notice Evan and Nick coming out of a car. Along with Ally - and the redheaded punk.
As if I weren’t already irritated.
We all got within shouting range when I asked them, “And what is all this about?!”
The grim look on Nick’s face made everything in me stand on edge.
“What is it?” I demanded of him as I ran the rest of the distance.
Nick placed himself distinctly between Ally and I which just pissed me off more. He was clearly about to tell me something I didn’t want to hear.
“We need to talk - let’s go to your office,” Nick tried to suggest calmly.
I just stood my ground and continued to glare at him. I crossed my arms.
“NOW,” Aamon’s voice thundered through me, Nick and Evan instantly cowered their heads at the tone.
“We have some information about certain people that I don’t think you would want just anyone to overhear,” the redheaded Fae said with an attitude.
I growled at his tone and then noticed Ally looking back into the forest where I had just come from.
“Fine,” I conceded.
It took everything in me not to punch someone or something with the fists I had clutched at my sides. We rushed up to the office, earning a few interested looks that I ignored.
Once in the office I slammed the door shut after we were all inside.
“So, we have a problem,” Ally began, pushing Nick to the side as he continued to try to block her from me. “Someone else has been targeting Rachel. Not just the late Vance and the mystery lady. There may be more to this - but we just confirmed -”
“ALLY,” I cut her off, demanding her to focus.
“- Sophie is behind Rachel’s recent ‘accidents’,” Ally said the last word with visual quotation marks.
That’s it! We’re not waiting!, Aamon screamed in my ear. He was pushing forward completely this time, for a full shift.