Love Is A Battle Field

Lya

As it turned out, war strategy meetings weren’t that bad. The remainder of it had been filled with just damage control - Trevor couldn’t come back to the pack yet in fear of leading them right to the pack, and a group of warriors were being sent out to join the scouts. It went without saying that Oliver was furious. I personally felt like part of the reason Trevor was not allowed back at the pack yet was to keep Oliver from killing him for his award winning Hunters vs Werewolves: Battle of 2010 reenactment.

I didn’t expect to be in meetings by any means, but it was kind of cool and validating to be listened to and my thoughts respected when I was the new kid on the block. Cody stuck to his word, and I was currently sitting in the Cyber Unit at the training center with the head of the department, Cody, and Rose. After identifying the people whom I knew for certain were connected to Ted in some sort of hunter capacity on my social media friends lists, we went down the rabbit hole of cyberstalking to see if we could add some more people to that list, as well as consistently adding “maybes” to the facial recognition database.

“So I guess the clock is running out,” I mused, just trying to break the monotony of staring at a computer screen in silence.

“Yep,” Cody confirmed, popping the ‘p.’

I sighed. “There’s gotta be a way to buy some time.”

Cody’s hard glare fell on me. “If you come up with something, I’ll be all ears,” he growled. I couldn’t decide if he would actually be willing to listen to ideas from someone with no battle experience. He had never been warm and bubbly in the few previous encounters I’d had with him, but he seemed more crotchety than usual.

I studied Cody for a minute before sharing a knowing look with Rose. And people said girls were the moody ones.

“I mean, it can’t be any harder than leading a guy on,” I said, deciding to ignore Cody’s bad mood for now.

He scoffed. “Starting a war is a lot different than starting a relationship.”

“Is it, though?” Rose piped up. “I mean, you’re still trying to get the opponent’s attention, just for different reasons.”

“You know better than that, Rose,” he snapped. “I trained you myself.”

“Yes, yes,” she agreed. “You taught us that it’s better to be on the offensive so we are calling the shots, And we only go to battle for causes worth dying over. Personally, I like knowing exactly what’s going on in a relationship, and I only waste time with the ones worth dying for.”

“Ooh, okay, so what if we, like, just stood them up?” I suggested. “We know they’re there to figure out what happened to Ted so what if we threw them some sort of bone? Just like you’d do if you’re trying to get someone to stick around but don’t want to commit just yet?”

Cody grunted, but gave no further input.

Rose looked a bit lost in thought. “If we can confirm there are hunters in the area, maybe you could call Trevor or something while they’re in the brewery, Lya?”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “I bet they’d love to get their hands on me after Ted’s disappearance. Of course they’d hang around and wait for me to show back up. Or the warriors there could go on a run in wolf form or something, give them the idea there is a pack presence. I bet they wouldn’t make a move just yet.”

“That’s foolish and dumb.” Cody’s curt reply cut off our scheming.

“It isn’t,” CyberSleuth Seth - as I had named him - piped up and said. He turned the computer monitor towards us, and sure enough, two faces on the “for sure” list and one on the “maybe” list had popped up hanging around the brewery or Trevor’s apartment - Ted’s younger brother, one of his two sisters, and his uncle.

All of the sudden, things seemed to snap into perspective and I realized that this was a reality. Up until now, none of these threats had been tangible enough, just a faint possibility, but there was no denying it now. I had a horrible feeling that I would never be safe until these people were taken off the map. I just wondered if at this point I was their main target, or if the pack was. Would they leave the pack alone if they got me?

I had gotten these people into this mess, and now I felt responsible to get them out.

I bit down on my bottom lip, causing it to bleed. “Is it too late to just pull everyone out and just pretend they’re not there? They still don’t know where the pack is, do they?”

“So what happened to your battle strategy session?” Cody scoffed. “Too real now?”

“A little, yeah,” I mumbled. “Has anyone checked the security cameras at my house?”

“You have security cameras?” Seth asked.

“Yeah.” I paused. “Ted hid them pretty well and didn’t realize I found the login information for it.”

Seth pushed the computer over to me. I quickly found the website and logged in, shoving the laptop back in his direction. There were four security cameras hidden around the property - the front, back, and sides of the house were covered. Luckily, he had never put any inside the house. At least, none that I knew of.

Seth smiled broadly. “Oh, this is good,” he said. “I’ll go over the footage and see if there’s been any activity around the house over the past week.” He turned his attention back to the computer and put his headphones in. We took that as our cue to go.

Just outside of the door, Cody grabbed my arm. Rose stopped and turned to us, but I waved her on, telling her I’d catch up with her at the car.

“You need to start training,” Cody said matter of factly.

I looked up at him. Given his expression, I could tell there was absolutely no room for negotiation. “I know.”

“The Alpha won’t let you.”

I smirked. I was quickly catching on to Oliver’s inner circle’s use of his title when they were unhappy with his decisions. It made sense, it was only used when Oliver pulled rank and made a decision someone else was unhappy with. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Cody nodded once and handed me a piece of paper. “Be at the training grounds at these times. Do not tell anyone or my head is on the line.”

I rushed off to the parking lot, making sure to fold the paper up and stuff it in my pocket before I caught up with Rose.

“What was that about?” she asked when I met her at her car.

“Oh nothing,” I said, waving away her comment.

Rose nodded slowly, giving me a quizzical look. Who was I kidding, this girl was a scout. She could see through a lie. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to give it my best shot.

“What do you think was up with him today?” I continued, trying to change the topic.

Rose shrugged. “I dunno. He’s always kind of callus, but today he was straight up moody.”

I rolled my eyes. “I bet it’s mate problems. Ellie is a bitch.”

Rose whirled around to look at me. “Ellie is his mate?” she shrieked. “I knew they had some weird fuck buddies thing going on, but she’s his mate?”

I looked around, checking to make sure no one was listening. “You didn’t know?”

“No! No one does, apparently!”

The whole Cody and Ellie thing confused me. Hell, I had known my maybe-mate for almost two weeks at this point, and even if the possible mate bond hadn’t kicked in, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to resist him. More power to Ellie for that talent.

“Speaking of mates,” Rose said with a smirk, “what’s it like being mated to the alpha?”

I just shrugged. “Don’t know. I don’t think I’m his mate.”

“Uhm… what?”

“I mean, I know he’s my mate, but I don’t think I’m his,” I sighed. To be honest, as fun as that night was, I was beginning to regret getting physical with Oliver. It was like whatever snapped into place had made it physically painful to just be away from him, and whenever I was around him, the desire to touch him was disgusting. The last time I felt even remotely close to this way was when I lost my virginity to a guy that ghosted me the very next day. In short, this unrequited mate deal was making me feel pretty gross.

Rose blinked a few times, then burst out laughing. “That’s not how it works, Lya!” she finally stuttered out. “Your mate - it’s your soulmate! Two halves of one whole, that the
Moon Goddess carefully selects.”

“Well she must have gotten it wrong this time,” I grumbled. “She must have mixed some up.”

Rose shook her head, still laughing. “Nope, that’d be like taking the pieces out of one puzzle and putting them in another. It just wouldn’t work!”

I glared at her, trying to convey just how unenthusiastic I was about continuing this conversation. “She clearly messes up sometimes. I mean, look at Cody and Ellie.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Just talk to him. Promise me, you’ll talk to him.”

“You know something I don’t know or something?”

Rose just winked and gave me a sly smile. “Come on, let’s go work on tapping into your wolf.”