Chapter 3:
Trepidation, a feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen and the most recent word Scott added to his slowly expanding vocabulary. He was doing push-ups in his room, one, two, three, and thinking back on his conversation with his boss last night. He learned on rough average that wolf packs consisted of about seven or eight members, some go up into the twenties if there is an exceptionally powerful and respected leader. Although Deaton wasn't one hundred percent certain, he claimed Vere's pack numbered at least in the fifties, a testament to his "greatness". It took him a while but Scott realised this statistic wasn't as impressive as it should sound, seeing as this Vere bloke had over a millennia to assemble members. Deaton had shaken his head and reminded him Vere only collected the "best", those he himself deemed worthy of the gift of lycanthropy. Scott couldn't help but wonder if he would pass this test of judgement, sure the odds were against him but he was a true alpha and that had to count for something he figured, bitterly. Ten, eleven, twelve… Scott huffed in anger, this was so unfair. Why him? Why now? He cursed Peter in his head angrily. Twenty-one, twenty-two… the front door opened and slammed shut before rapid footsteps came up the stairs. Isaac had returned from his morning run, glistening in sweat, and looking forward to a hot shower.
"Ninety-nineeee….. Hundred!" Scott panted and feigned a dramatic flop to the floor, grateful Isaac wasn't good enough with his ears yet to determine when someone was fibbing. He looked up as the taller boy passed his room without so much a glance in his direction and huffed in annoyance.
"Isaac!" The curly haired teen took two steps backwards and popped his head into Scott's room.
"Scott, you're finally up!"
"Yeah, I got back late last night from work."
"Hah, it's those cats right? Hair everywhere, I've always hated them."
"They hate you right back!" Scott teased, chuckling. Isaac rolled his eyes at him.
"So Isaac, listen. Last night, some pretty weird stuff happened…"
"What… with the cats?"
"What? Dude, no! It was Deaton's sister. She was talking about a load of stuff."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"To be honest, I don't know. It's all pretty confusing."
"Well… what did she say?"
"Well… I don't have all the details yet but it's bad, like real bad..."
"Like Kanima bad or alpha pack bad?"
"Huh? Erm… alpha pack bad I guess. No wait, both. Put together and then some…"
"Oh… that's bad."
"Yeah, it's real bad." The two boys stared at each other uncomfortably.
"Soooo…"
"Yeah, listen. On Monday I think I'll go chat to Ms. Morell and see what else she can tell me… I'll take Stiles' turn. I'll get to skip History."
"Stiles goes to see the guidance counsellor?"
"That's not important. In the meantime, I need your help." Scott paused, looking into the taller boy's eyes. Isaac beamed happily knowing Scott needed his assistance.
"I need to talk to Ethan and Aiden." Isaac's face fell.
"Scott, come on…"
"They might know something and I don't want to have to wait till Monday to see them."
"Call them then, you don't necessarily have to be near them to talk to them..."
"Can't hear lies over the phone Isaac…" Scott tried, shrugging his shoulders. Isaac hummed in frustration. After much nagging Isaac agreed and after he showered the two boys got onto Scott's bike and rode towards the Penthouse, Scott filling Isaac in on the little he knows along the way.
Elsewhere:
Cody was restless, twisting and turning among the sheets. Killing an alpha and absorbing his power was phenomenal. Every part of his body felt so incredibly alive, he couldn't lay still. He kicked his feet about, pulled at the covers and punched his fist into his pillow. Nothing helped. He lay there panting, body dripped in sweat, and whimpered as the first rays of sunlight filled the dingy hotel room indicating he had been awake all night. Groaning he extended his right leg and sighed in relief, his ankle had mostly healed but the skin was still bruised. He had the most splitting headache when trying to remember exactly what happened the previous night. They succeeded, that was good. He vividly recalled pulling his target's head off, watching his eyes change colour and falling to the floor. He reasoned he must have passed out; after all he did lose a lot of blood when Deucalion wounded him. He got out of bed slowly and realised he was still in the blood soaked shorts Zaid threw at him.
Said man was asleep in the bed opposite, quietly snoring away. He was a giant, well over six foot, and his feet dangled off the edge. Cody envied Zaid's position in the pack, he was old and well-respected. The giant had been one of the first few that Vere invited to join him, centuries ago when Vere began his campaign in southern Africa. Cody remembered last night being frozen in a mixture of fear and awe as he watched the man transform from a hairy giant with claws into a monstrous werewolf, more beast than man. A hulking behemoth the size of a small van, looking like werewolves one would see in movies like Van Helsing or Underworld. Cody himself was the latest recruit, a dark haired, average sized, eighteen year old boy from Oregon. New, naïve and still had to prove himself to the pack, to show them that Vere was right about him, that he had potential. He shamefully admitted to himself his ability to transform into an actual wolf, apparently incredibly rare, was probably why he was spared from the purge. However when he looked over to his sleeping pack mate he couldn't help but feel very grateful, he was damn proud to be where he was now. Going from a lowly beta stealing scraps to belonging to the most feared pack in existence! These people, his pack, had let him make the kill. They had let him transcend into alpha-dom and in all honesty it felt fantastic. He felt he belonged, he was one of them. Sure the immense surge of power may have deprived him of a night's sleep but that wouldn't last forever, Cody couldn't wait till he had the chance to test his limits now.
Click. The front door opened and in walked a well-built British boy with short blond army hair. He was sporting a smile, probably due to the success they had last night, and carrying a few plastic bags.
"Jesus you stink. So, how are you feeling buddy? How does all that pure POWAAR feel? The blonde yelled. Cody held his ears tight and glared at him.
"Shut up! I've haven't slept a wink. My ears are ringing. Please tell me that's breakfast."
"This? Yeah. But you aren't getting anything till you've showered and changed."
Cody looked at his hands and extended his claws. He noticed they looked sharper, he could feel they were tougher too. "You know Lucas… this feeling… it's pretty great."
"Yeah, I remember when I became an alpha. Wait till the next full moon bud, it gets better."
Cody grinned at him. "What now? Are we going back to the others?"
"Not right away no. Go shower. I'll wake up this huge lug and we'll talk over breakfast."
Meanwhile:
Scott pulled up outside the Penthouse and tucked his helmet under his arm. Isaac jumped off after and brushed his fleece before readjusting his scarf. They strolled up to the main door side by side.
"You know their house number?" Isaac asked.
"Don't need to, Allison lives a floor beneath them remember?" Scott pushed the buzzer and they waited. However instead of Allison came a hoarse, gruff voice that was clearly annoyed at being awoken so early in the morning.
"What? Who is this?"
Both boys looked at each other wide eyed and mouths open. Isaac tried to nudge Scott forward but Scott dug his heels into the ground.
"Say something!" Isaac whispered.
"Like what?" Scott replied in a hushed tone.
"Ask for Allison!"
"No! You ask for her!"
"She's your ex-girlfriend!"
"BOYS! I can hear you. She's still asleep. Begone!" The buzzer went silent. Scott winced and looked at his friend sheepishly. They were going to have to find some other way in.
"Hmm, Danny has Ethan's number. I'll ask Stiles to ask him for it." Scott grimaced before flipping open his phone to dial his best friend.
At a motel elsewhere:
"There's a true alpha? Here?" Cody questioned in disbelief, talking halfway through a sausage roll. Zaid Obiajulu nodded solemnly. He finished his last spoonful of left-over biryani, a lovely South African dish he made the previous night and continued talking.
"Old Charles seems to think so and he's been right every time. Few miles south from here, some place called Beacon Hills. Heard of it?"
"Nope, should I have?"
"The Hales, they were a well-known pack a while ago. Apparently one of their dead alphas could turn into a wolf like you can." Zaid smiled. This sparked Cody's interest.
"So this true alpha is one of these Hales?"
"Doubt it, some hunter wiped out the majority of them. If they had a true alpha we would have sent a party to check him or her out ages ago. Lucas, Xiao Hua and myself are heading back to the others but you're gonna scout ahead and find out who this person is."
"Sounds simple enough."
"Nah, there's more to it than that newbie. We're not hunting this person down; we just want to know who he or she is and then take him or her to Vere himself to be judged. Charles might be able to feel where there are werewolves across great distances but he can't pinpoint them. That's where you come in, your first solo mission."
"Heh, any leads?"
"Deucalion was trying to build a strong enough pack to stop ours. We nipped that in the bud early ahaha but here's the thing, there are still remnants of said pack lingering around in Beacon Hills. I bet that's a good a start as any."
"Who are these people then?"
"That's what you're going to find out. Feel free to kill them if they threaten you. Vere's only interested in this true alpha."
"You guys leaving me the car?"
"HA! You ain't getting two feet near my ride! Go doggy mode or take a bus."
"Christ you suck. Gimme a break, I haven't slept all night…"
"Malcolm will be joining you in a day or two. Till then you're alone. You've only just become an alpha so get a feel for what you can do anything stupid."
"Don't need to tell me that, how long do I have?"
"We'll all be there once we've cleaned up the north. No rush. They aren't going anywhere. You'll be there three or four weeks tops."
"Where am I gonna be staying?" Cody asked. Zaid put his hand into his jacket and slide something across the table to him.
"Here's a credit card, now go do us proud kiddo."
Inside the Penthouse:
A weary-eyed, shirtless Ethan opened the door to his apartment. It wasn't so bad now that five occupants had been reduced to two. Despite Deucalion leaving him and his brother financially dry he was glad he finally had his own room for the first time. The twins had dumped a lot of stuff that belonged to their deceased pack members. It made the apartment look rather barren. Ethan looked from Scott to Isaac. "What's daddy issues doing here? What's so important?" Isaac looked like he was going to pounce on the smaller boy so Scott strategically stepped in front of him.
"May we come in? I need to talk to you two."
"Aiden's asleep so keep it down. This couldn't have waited till Monday?" Ethan led them to the couch. Scott noticed they didn't have a television.
"It's about Deucalion."
"I don't know where he is Scott, I've told you a hundred times."
"It's about his plans against Charles de Vere."
"Who?"
"Err… Charles de Vere? The alpha you guys planned on stopping?"
"Never heard of him." Scott listened, not a lie. Had Deucalion told any of his pack anything? Makes sense though Scott reasoned, if he did then his pack may not have stayed loyal.
"Deucalion never told you why he was building an alpha pack?"
"I thought that was the reason… to have a pack full of alphas."
"Scott, he doesn't know crap. Can I go?" Isaac said bluntly. Ethan growled.
"What about your brother? Does he know anything?"
"I highly doubt it, anything he knows I know. Look… just start from the beginning."
Isaac moaned and made himself comfortable on the couch. Ethan went to wake his brother and before long Scott, for the second time that day, was regurgitating all he found out from Deaton and his sister about the first true alpha.
Beacon Hills Care Home:
"But he's finally come here, to us!" wheezed an old man, trapped in a wheelchair. Filthy black ooze was running down his jumper. Wads of stained tissues littered the floor. Gerard Argent was in well-deserved pain. At that moment though, he had to put on a façade because right before him stood an old colleague. An old colleague he wanted on his side.
"I'm retired."
"Can you imagine it? Try! Imagine the glory, the fame! Our family names will go down in history. They would be eternal!"
"You're a foolish old man. We're not talking about an ordinary alpha here. This man has survived and won over centuries of war against people like us. You fled town once on a rumour he might be paying a visit."
The old man mumbled something inaudible angrily before turning back to his visitor.
"But did his adversaries have what we do now? The technology? The numbers? We are far better equipped to deal with this than our ancestors."
"There is no "we". You're a feeble ape trapped in a chair. There is nothing you can do."
"Is that so? You'll find over a course of a life time one makes many friends. I have contacts… I know people. People that are willing, able and resilient! Think about it, the ultimate hunt. We will eliminate the strongest beast there ever was or will be!"
"We're done talking. I'm leaving. Vere isn't interested in hunters, only werewolves. He will leave us alone if we leave him alone. He's cleaning the state. He's doing our job for us. Be grateful." The man turned to leave. Gerard spat at him.
"You're a fool Williams! A fool! When we succeed you'll be BEGGING FOR… " Slam! The door had shut. Gerard clenched his fists in anger and tried to calm himself down. He had been trying to restore the Argent name to its rightful glory all his life. The clan's shameful exile from France had been his great grandfather's fault a long time ago but the community of hunters don't forget history so easily. The moment one of his contacts upstate informed him of Vere's arrival in California, Gerard had been making calls from dawn till dusk. This was his chance, his chance to restore the family name. He'd been trying desperately to gather every hunter, experienced or not, he could. Overall thought, it had gone better than he had expected. Eight out of twenty four visitors had agreed to help.
From the corner of his dirty patient bedroom on the third floor of the Beacon Hills care home, Gerard Argent was slowly amassing an army. An army of hunters!