14

"Hiya boss." Devion chimed. Mika and Ari untangled their selves quickly. "Devion why aren't you at the settlement?" Mika pulled Ari to the shallow end and began getting out of the water. " I was Mika, I found two of our missing pack and learned where the third is." Mika wiped the water from his face, “And?”
Devion glanced at Ari,” they had been attacked when they all were separated. The three had been driven into the deadlands. The missing is the other female, Camie. I have brought back the two males- Niko and Bradley. They are a bit shaken up. But they can direct us where she was taken to.” Mika nodded, “Are they at the cabin now?”. “Yes, I dropped them with Theo so he could check them out. He told me ya’ll were out here, um…patrolling.” He said with a grin. Mika gave Devion a look that said *don’t push your luck, zip it!*
Once back at the cabin there were two new men. A man of light brown colored skin, bright hazel eyes with gold flecks in them. He was just as tall as Devion. But looked very dischuffed. His clothing was torn, and there was evidence of wounds at one time. “Prince Mika, this is Niko.” Devion turned to the man sitting with Theo looking him over. His had one eye was swollen shut but the other a hunter green color, and he had a busted lip that looked like it was mending fine. His hair was cut very short almost like a military cut. “And this is Bradley.”
Bradly spoke first his voice raspy and deep.,” I see you found Talia, where is Matt?” It was Niko that answered reading the room and the eyes of his fellow wolves, “He didn’t make it. Tell us.”
“No, I am sorry he did not. “ Ari reported, ”And who is this **human**?” he said the word as if it was dirty. Ari heard a deep feral growl coming from Mika, ”She is *mine* so watch yourself wolf!” Mika snapped. Niko flinched as if Mika had physically hit him. “My apologies.” He bowed his head to Ari. “Please continue.” Bradly prompted. “I found Talia and matt in their wolf form. She was in a trap with what we now know was coated in mountain ash oil. Matt was already gone when I stumbled upon her. I got her out of the trap, and she ran. I thought she was just a wolf. Later that night she must’ve tracked me down and joined me as a human by my fire. It was then I saw she was pregnant. We tried to make it to the Silver Mines settlement where she said she was meeting up with her group. But we couldn’t make it there as her condition worsened. So, we set up camp here.” Niko and Bradly nodded in unison. “That lines up with ours. We were ambushed by some trappers. They were shooting arrows at us. It wasn’t till one had hit close to us that we examined it and smelt the mountain ash on their tips. Matt insisted we split up less chance of being caught then. But i guess they had planned for that with the trap in all.”
“Explain what happened with your group.” Mika said cooly. “ When we split off the three of us ran not wanting to tangle with the arrows. We let them keep firing expecting them to run out eventually. We started grabbing the arrows that missed targets and breaking them as we ran. Bradly and I then circled back when they stopped firing and attacked. It weas a group of four men.”
“God they smelt like piss and cheap whiskey. Ugly bastards.” Bradley interjected.
“Yeah they were. I think they were in transition maybe?” Niko added.
“What do you mean?” Devion asked.
“Well let me finish and maybe it’ll help put it to together. See I killed mine by taking his head off pretty easy like. Bradley took several hits before he finally took his target’s head off.” Niko continued.
“I hit that bastard so many times, took his arm off. Slashed his guts he just stood there like I was tickling him with a feather! Some fucked up shit right there.” Bradly stared shaking his head seeing the ugly man’s grin in his mind’s eye.
“The other two got to Camie though. She fought hard. But the big ugliest one had something in a jar. I haven’t ever seen anything like that before. He put some on her and she just..got up and went with them with out a fight. Like she had known them all her life. We chased after her, even confronted her.” Niko stopped and looked at Bradley.
“These are from *her*” he confessed showing more slashes to his stomach, his eye, and his back. They had already begun to heal as his wolf’s abilities kicked in but it still left a sheen till the flesh was fully replaced.
Ari felt the temperature in the room drop. Her insides were freezing, she knew what they had come across. Mika picked up on her withdrawal. In the background she could hear the men asking “who is this? What did this?” and so on but they sounded like they were in the bottom of a well and she was far away. Two large hands squeezed her arms gently, ”Ari?” she looked up to see Mika standing over her. Concern etched in his face. ”Do you know?”
She shook her head ever so faintly, “Yes, it’s the same thing that took my family. It’s back.” Ari’s heart was beating wildly. She thought she’d out run it. She wasn’t ready, there was till so much she needed to know, so far over the last 10 years she had only gotten pieces from this traveler and that, but never concrete evidence.
“ I think you and I need to have a conversation. Would you feel more at ease if we stepped outside?” Mika motioned to the door. Mika knew the others would be able to hear them just fine with their wolf senses, but even if it made her feel at ease, he’d give her the curtesy.
“No. I will tell you.” She breathed deep. She knew one day she’d have to face this thing, and now was time for her to get her big girl panties on and do it. She gave the group a run down of what happened with her family. Giving as much details of the black thing she could recall. The way her mother acted afterward.
The second hand accounts she had heard. So far, she had found reports from the Old Oklahoma region that what was two different vampire masters has now fallen under control of one. Many travelers claimed that if they go any where near the Great Colorado Mountain River that they’ve had missing companions. Most of the ones seen doing the capturing seemed to be minors, minions doing their master’s biding. Only vampires, low ranking hit at night. A higher up will stay closer to the nest to avoid detection.
The men listened and thought of ways they could recapture their missing person. “Have you heard of any?” Ari shook her head, ”No I haven’t heard of any success stories.”
Niko and Bradly looked at each other before Bradley spoke, ”Our borders had heard of some things happening. That was years ago. We were leaving our pack because of changes.” Niko glared at Bradley as he continued.
“Go on.” Mika watched Niko. He knew why he didn’t want Bradley to keep going. They had not transferred over to his alpha yet, and in a way it is like betraying, he didn’t fault the man for this. “ I ask this of you not to disgrace your alpha or pack. We need all the information we can gather.”
Bradley nodded,” The mated males began acting strange. At first it was a secret society that was only for the mated males lead by the elders. I don’t know what took place as neither Niko nor myself are mated. But it was like after they joined their personalities changed. They were overly submissive to the elders, not just our alpha. When Alpha Henry took his throne males began no longer producing children. For several years they all blamed the women. Any man or woman who spoke out publicly was punished. That was 5 years ago. Then the alpha and elders came up with the idea of a mating right. Where they mated the female and made their blood lines continue. Some sick bastard began including the mates in the ceremony. We didn’t want that. We love our pack but something is not right. The five of us sent word to our allies in hopes of refuge. We were going to warn the alpha incase this poisonous thought came to your pack.” Bradley stopped talking breathing in for the first time after his confession had pretty much fallen out of him.
“I think the people changing and our how pack has change are related.” Niko added.
“But a wolf? Camie is a wolf yes?” the men nodded yes. “A vampire doesn’t normally take a wolf. I mean its not completely out of the realm of possibility but why?” Devion asked.
“They are breeding us out.” Mika said. The room went cold. Every eye was on him now. “Think about it. We are the only creature that can take them out in a fight. If they can manipulate us, they can literally breed us to extinction. Or cause us to go into civil war among the packs.”