Chapter 122

**Tommy**

What the hell is happening?

There has been an attack by the Blood Demons, but Eli says they're sick. They smell like death warmed over, is how he described it. He sent one of the bodies to the morgue which is here I the hospital basement. I don't want to leave Maya, but I don't have much choice with everything happening.

"Excuse me, Eli said a body was brought here," I say to the nearest nurse.

"Yes sir, the morgue is on the basement level. Would you like me to show you?" She asks.

"No that's okay I'm sure I can find it. Thank you." I say turning and heading toward the nearest elevator.

I take one last look in the direction of Maya's room and feel a twinge of guilt, but I try my best to push it down for now. We needed to know as much as possible and that meant we all needed to be involved in getting the pack ready. When I step into the elevator my phone starts to ring.

"What's up Noah?" I ask as soon as I answer.

"Hey, I was thinking that sending word for the other packs to join us here would be something we should do. We don't know which packs may be hit next but we have more than enough room to house the other pack in our alliance. Then we can be ready to fight when the time comes, with the least amount of loss. What do you think?" He asks.

"Yes, if one of you can call them and get them here as soon as possible then I think it is a good idea. That way everyone can be trained together," I add.

"Yeah. Oh by the way we have some of our men looking for Freddie now. He hasn't been by has he?" He asks.

My brow furrows at the reminder of Maya's brother. the guy is kind of a ghost, popping in and out of places with no one really knowing where he goes. I have never really worried or scared about it, but right now that isn't good. Sign. He could be hurt or killed if he is caught somewhere outside of our pack lands.

"No, he hasn't been here. Keep me updated, yeah? How's Isaiah?" I ask.

"He's sleeping right now. The kid is braver than a lot of people. When the Blood Demons came he didn't even flinch at the sounds of all the fighting." I smirk at the description of our son.

It isn't right that someone so young has to live through this, but him being brave means maybe he will be okay when all this is over.

"Yeah, he's a special kid. Hey, I have to go I'm almost down to the basement of the hospital, I may lose you."

"Okay, ill call later with any updates." He replies.

I say my goodbyes just before the elevator doors open to the basement level. The place is pretty creepy and reminds me of something out of a horror movie. There are fluorescent lights above me and a blue stripe of paint along the center of each wall. There are also some random carts along the wall with supplies in them. I can only see three doors down the short hallway and I soon spot the sign that says MORGUE.

There is a pair of blue double doors leading to the room that I push through and am hit with a more prominent chill. The hallway was cold but this room is even more so.

"Hello, Alpha." A man says making me turn in search of the voice.

I hadn't noticed anyone in the room when I walked in and scanned half of the room.

"Hi. I came to see if you had a chance to look at the Blood Demon's body yet," I say stepping up to the table where a body was covered with a light blue sheet.

"Yes, I was able to get a good idea of what's going on. Blood Demons are already dead technically and should be impervious to any sort of disease, but it seems there is something even they can get sick from." the man starts to explain.

"Are you saying this Blood Demon has a disease of some kind?" I ask.

"It looks that way, but they didn't catch it. They were poisoned." He says falling into a waiting pause.

"Poisoned how?" I ask.

"That is the mystery. There isn't a human poison that could have this effect on them, so we can rule those out. There is a lot we don't know about their kind so there is a chance whatever they are sick with is unique to their kind. What I can tell you is that they had consumed a good amount of blood before they attacked us and that is likely the source of the poison." He says.

"So they were purposefully poisoned," I say thinking out loud but the man nods.

"There was also something different about the blood. It had residual magical properties, and there are only a few beings that have that kind of signature. Mages being one." He explains and I look at him slightly shocked.

Mages.

Yet another supernatural being that hasn't been seen or heard of for hundreds of years. It used to be that Mages were considered as wise councils that many of the supernatural worlds would seek out for advice. They were considered to be the most magically powerful but they never abused their power. Then one day they vanished. Come to think of it, the Blood Demons and Mages had vanished around the same time.

I try to remember everything I learned about that time, but everything I learned had been from reading the different books stored in the dustiest shelves of my dad's library. I was interested in them because they looked like the oldest and the least used which sparked my interest. One of the books mentioned that there was a time when the worlds were open to all to travel to. Portals were accessible to all beings besides humans, who seemed to be oblivious to it all.

Then one day all the portals were closed and anyone left in our world was locked out. Blood Demons sought refuge in an isolated mountain range, and the Mages completely disappeared. Leaving wolves alone in this realm to live among humans.

From what this guy is saying though it sounds like the vampires were poisoned while drinking Mage blood. The question now is how did they get Mage blood in the first place.

"Another thing I should point out, these Blood Demons were very sick before they even came here. If I had to guess, they wouldn't have survived long if our people hadn't killed them." He says.

"I understand. Thanks." I say ready to get out of here and let the others know about what we've learned.

"No problem." The man says with a nod before turning his back to me and continuing whatever he was owing before I came in.

I walk out the way I came and head back up to Maya's floor. I want to stay with her, but I think a meeting with all my mate brothers is necessary right now. So as soon as I am in signal range again I send a quick text to the guys to meet me back at the house.

We need to come up with a plan to handle things for the next possible attack. I can only hope that the other packs will take us up on our offer, but there is no guarantee. They could end up thinking like my father, that nothing can touch them. Something inside me is screaming that the last time I was home will be the last time I ever see my family or pack again.

I let Maya's doctor know that one of us will be back later, but that there is urgent pack business to deal with. She promises to let us know if anything changes, and with one last goodbye I leave Maya behind.

The walk back to the house is a short one, but I stop halfway when I see one of our patrols running toward me.

He bows his head to me before speaking. "Alpha..." He starts and as much as I hate hearing Maya's pack call me this, I have to accept that for the time being I will need to step into her place. "We have broken into groups in search of Freddie, but have not been able to locate him."

I furrow my brows at this news. Where the hell could he be? And why hadn't we noticed or even cared that he had gone off once again? The guy has always seemed a bit off to me, but I didn't think anything of it since he was Maya's brother. He never seemed to want to hurt her or anything, so I didn't worry, but this is weird. It makes me wonder...

"Have any of you seen him around the pack before he went missing?" I ask our patrolman.

He furrows his brow at me and then his face shifts to one of realization.

"Yes. He often walked along the border, stopping to talk to us and ask questions. Nothing I found odd at the time, just general questions. But it's possible he could have put things together and get a clear enough idea of our security." He admits.

I nod. "I understand. I will contact you soon with new orders. We'll have to implement new strategies. Tell the others to keep at their stations though."

He bows to me once more before taking off. I rub a hand down my face as the realization of our situation becomes more clear. Not only do we have the threat of the blood Demons but we have a security risk in the form of my brother-in-law.

What more could we possibly be hit with?

A stupid man's last words.