Ava was pretty sure she had killed her baby.
She had been so close to cancelling her plans to go to Cynthia’s baby shower. She was in the darkest of moods.
Adrian had been a balm to her soul checking in on her whenever he wasn’t in meetings, training or checking the security of the pack. Calvin was due back any day now so they could do something… Adrian had told her about it but she had forgotten all about it as he was talking.
She tried to stay tuned but thoughts of her mother kept intruding. She decided to come out for Cynthia’s baby shower because she just had to get out of her head for a bit.
That was how she found herself along with half a dozen other female wolves trying to wear a diaper on a plastic baby doll. Blindfolded. She had zero idea what she was doing because she was sure diapers were supposed to go like that.
She was thankful, first for the fact that it was just a doll or she might have killed it. Secondly, that Adrian wasn’t here to laugh at her and lastly, she was more than thankful that she and Adrian would not be becoming parents anytime soon. So much for her mother telling her she would be a great mom. Ha. Very funny.
“Hannah wins!” Cynthia announced.
Ava removed her blindfold to see that she had wrapped the diaper around the head of the doll. How on earth had she managed that?
Hannah squealed, taking the sash offered to her by Cynthia. One would not know that they hadn’t known each other before today.
The society had come through to make Cynthia’s baby shower one to remember.
It was held at Cynthia’s home and there was an abundance of gifts, games and cheer.
“It’s time for the gift opening.”
Thank the goddess. Ava had never been so exceptionally bad at so many games in a row.
Cynthia passed by Ava catching her hand and shooting her a grateful glance for being there. Ava smiled at her, shaking her head silently telling her it was nothing.
Cynthia squeezed her hand tightly, a broad smile on her face before drifting like a cloud in her mesh gown, to her seat in front of all the piled-up gifts. Ava had gotten her a set of unisex onesies, some chocolate and a towel. She didn’t have any idea about what to buy so she had gone with that.
She was hopeless and she knew it. Cynthia began to open the gifts, oohing and awwping as she went through them. Someone had even gifted her a cradle.
Ava felt like running away with her gift but she shrugged away the feeling of inadequacy.
Cynthia opened one gift. It was small and in a box, it was a beautiful necklace and the most inappropriate baby shower present. Cynthia looked up as though searching for the person who had gifted it to her then she paused. Ava followed her gaze to the door, her eyes widening in surprise. She didn’t know he had returned already.
At the house’s doorway stood Calvin with a smile just for Cynthia.
*****”
“The Silverwolf pack is behind the rogue attacks?”
Adrian could never have seen this coming. While Rita had always been outspoken and more than a little bit rude, he would never have thought she and Gilbert would orchestrate something like this.
“I am afraid so, Alpha.” Calvin bowed.
He was being so formal because he was before the council. He would need to talk to him alone. And find out how his mission had treated him. But this questioning was a priority that could not be overlooked.
“We must take swift action, Alpha.” Elder Elvis, ever the advocate of violence and extreme action, spoke.
Adrian was seriously tired of hearing that man’s voice at this point.
“Which we will do after ascertaining all the details. Not a moment before. We can not just run off and make war with a reputable werewolf pack, who has bad blood with rogues.”
“Quite right, Alpha. Gamma Calvin, surely you did not just come with words to sway us. You brought evidence to back up these claims, right?” Elder Asher said, looking over at Calvin.
Calvin produced some papers, a cell phone, some pictures and cloth in a zip-loc bag.
“I started my investigation by tracing the scents left by the rogues and found their base of operations before they attacked our pack. Then I went to the Primo pack and did some research there as well; checking the locations occupied by the rogues, and the phone records during the time of occupancy, then I also spoke to the survivors from the Midnight pack residing in the Primo pack lands.”
Adrian hadn’t realized how much work he had placed on Calvin’s shoulders until he began to speak.
“During both attacks, there was a wolf leading the others, who had two scars beneath his eyes. The survivors confirmed it and the surveillance footage at the borders of the midnight pack caught it and I was able to acquire it from their servers.”
Adrian picked up the pictures to see this wolf he spoke about. His suspicions were correct. He had battled this wolf albeit briefly at the borders before waves of battle separated them.
“This wolf is none other than Luna Rita’s brother who resides with her in the Silverwolf pack.”
The next picture Adrian saw was one of a mean-looking man with the very same scar on his face.
“Just because he was there doesn’t mean Alpha Gilbert and Luna Rita had anything to do with the attack.” Elder Cayenne commented dryly. “It could have been an independent action.”
“That was what I thought initially until I discovered that over 30% of the pack lands claimed by rogues are now secretly being used by the Silverwolf pack to run genetic laboratories whose purposes I have still been unable to decipher.”
There was no way the Silverwolf pack was unaware of the origin of the lands they took which meant they were complicit in the act in some way. How could they slaughter the members of other packs just for land? Their borders had shrunk during the rogue attack two years ago but was that a good enough reason?
Adrian was disturbed. The papers were property documents of the lands now legally owned by the Silverwolf pack and the phone held a recording of Rita speaking to one of the lab’s geneticists.
There was only one thing to do now. It was time to call the attention of the wolf council to this matter.