Author's Note: I had to clean the floor today so I did it after I woke up. I slept in the recliner last night because my dogs were barking all night. I guess they wanted someone to sleep in the living room with them. Then again they could be used to me getting up at 5:30 every morning so they think they have to be up. So I got up and went in the living room.
I have no idea what this chapter will entail. To be honest I haven't even thought about what will go on. I know Leo's emotions and I know what Dasha will be like. But as to how I'm going to get there, I have no idea. I hope you like it.
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Leo sat in the living of the suite and flipped through endless channels of pointless reality shows. The best thing about South Korean reality shows was they were hysterical. No one ever really knew what was going to happen even though it was scripted.
He'd had an off night. He hadn't slept even though he was dead tired and had wandered the suite most of the time. He had finally just gone down the street to a coffee shop at five and had sat there until the sun had come up. Hyuk and Yi Jeong had gone to work out just as he was coming back. They hadn't asked as he had passed by them. They were used to this.
He had texted Baye. She was usually the one he turned to when insomnia kicked in. But it had been Jeongmin who had answered. New Zealand was eighteen hours ahead of his current time so it had been evening there. That meant something had been going on for Baye not to be able to answer. She didn't usually leave her phone with Jeongmin, but considering they were actually on business means it was a different story.
So he had called N. One of his best friends who was only a few months older than him, N had helped him through so many things over the years. Leo had always been able to turn to him when he needed some help. He hadn't needed any help but he was unsettled.
N had been as helpful as he could have been fourteen hours away. He had talked things through with him and thought they hadn't come to a reason, it had helped Leo settle down enough to at least get some sleep. N had told him to call if he needed anything else before they had hung up.
Leo hadn't gotten much sleep but he had been so much more aware than he had when he had first landed in New York. He had turned on the television and had tried to lose everything that had been going on in his head.
Why were what were known as Hybrids so powerful? Was it because they had all the aspects of the Wolves and Guardians? The only hybrid he had met was Hyun Joo, Jenissi's two-year-old daughter. She hadn't shown any aspects of being strong but she was a baby.
The door to the suite opened. Leo was ready for whoever decided to breach their private area. But as he thought about it, he realized if someone to kill him, why would they open the door peacefully. It would be much easier to just break it down.
He was surprised to see Dasha and Benji stroll through the entryway. Dressed alike from head to toe, it was hard to tell them apart. The only way to do so was the hair. Dasha was brunette while Benji was blond. They moved in synchrony as they crossed the room, making them even more intimidating before. These two had been together for a long time.
Benji broke off and went into Hyuk's and Yi Jeong's rooms. Dasha checked the windows in the living room, completely ignoring Leo. He watched her, content that he didn't have to ask or answer anything. She didn't seem too concerned with him anyway.
Her partner returned shortly with a pile of clothes. The two women talked briefly before Benji left the suite with her armload.
After a few minutes, Dasha turned to him. Leo looked into her eyes and all at once he could see her heritage. Wolf eyes were prominent but the Guardian eyes were there as well. Blue ringed her retinas and irises, giving her a very creepy yet interesting look. But it all blended well to be unusual.
He wondered if Hyun Joo would be like this. There was no guarantee that Jenissi's daughter would inherit her father's wolf powers. No one would know anything until she hit puberty. She would either shift on the first full moon after her thirteenth birthday or she wouldn't. Until then they could only speculate by the way she acted.
With that thought in mind, he realized the full moon was two days away. Wolves weren't the only ones affected at that time. Guardians and Darklings were as well. The Guardians were weaker than the colored marks of the Darklings. That had been one of the changes that had occurred with the marks being filled in. It's the main reason that the Guardians were still wary of their darkened counterparts. It was something in the blood stream, but they weren't sure what it was.
Dasha heard all of Leo's thoughts even though she was across the room and wasn't necessarily listening in on purpose. She had heard of the division between the Darklings and Guardians had just about ended simply because one woman had nearly gone to war. She had heard that Baye Lee had shaken up the Guardian world by not only challenging the long held laws but also by being a Wild Power. She had met the woman once but hadn't been able to ask why she would risk her life like that.
Leo was the woman's friend. She could in his head how close they were. He actually missed her so deeply she wasn't sure he even realized it. As she delved deeper, she could see how deep his bond went to the woman. If he had been a wolf, it would have been the equivalent of a mate.
Behind her she heard the door open. Her ears twitched as the sound of three people's footsteps. One she recognized immediately.
"It's not nice to listen in on people's thoughts," Yi Jeong said as they came into the living room.
Dasha turned to him. "I can't help it."
"How do you speak Korean so well?" Hyuk asked as he jumped on the couch beside Leo. They were friends and had been for years. Leo looked upon him as a little brother, as shown when he cuffed him upside the head.
"I speak twenty-seven languages. I've traveled for years so I learned," she said. She ruffled Dae Jin's hair as the younger woman stepped beside her. "Is everything all right?" The woman nodded.
"What about your family?" Yi Jeong asked as he watched the familiarity pass between the women.
Dasha crossed her arms. "My mom died when I was born and my dad when I was ten. I grew up in foster care until I was old enough to pass the test to join the hunters."
"How did you land this?"
"Eonni has the highest survival rate among anyone. It's why I was paired with her and Benji," Dae Jin said.
Yi Jeong smiled gently yet knowingly. "Donghyun doesn't know about this does he?" Sheepily she shook her head. "You weren't sent here to become a hunter, Dae Jin. Shinhwa sent you here to get schooling."
"I know but after the bombings I asked if I could join the ranks. I know more than some people do."
She was talking about one of the clinics the Guardians had owned and operated. It had been bombed three years ago, before Baye and any of this had taken place. It had been all over the news as a terrorist bombing but everyone had known what it had actually meant.
"She's never been on a hunt. Benji and I take care of that while Jin does our paperwork. She's the one that gave us your information in the first place," Dasha said. "Besides she can't go on hunts. She's normal."
"Define normal," Hyuk laughed. Leo elbowed him in the ribs.
Dasha glanced at him. There was something about him that said he was starting to panic. She couldn't pinpoint what it was but it was there. It was in his eyes.
Leo felt the woman unraveling him. He looked away from the curious gaze and wondered what it was about her that set his teeth on edge. She clearly wasn't like the rest of them. She was intelligent and very observant. Everyone here trusted her, and she was taking care of one of his friends' sister. She had already showed her knowledge in a few things.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked. His voice shocked Yi Jeong and Hyuk since he hadn't spoken a word since he had arrived.
She offered him a kind smile. "You just did, but you can ask another."
Irritated, he tried to hide it. "How does the full moon affect you? Guardians are weaker during those three days, but wolves can't hide their change. What do you do?"
She smiled as she looked at the floor the pushed her hair back away from her ear. He saw an ear but it was much more pointed than theirs. Even Hyuk rubbed at his ears then checked Leo's. They were perfectly rounded.
"If I don't change fully, I take on slight wolf qualities. My ears start doing this and my nails are a lot sharper than usual. It's nothing like Teen Wolf or anything but you can tell something is different. Also my skin tone deepens. It's much darker than it is now but it's not quite the color of my animal fur."
"Are there more like you?" Hyuk asked.
"Until recently I was the only one. Now I know there is one like me, but she's the daughter of a wolf and a Wild Power." Everyone looked like fish with their mouths open. She tapped her temple to let them know she how she had known. "I'm not going to tell anyone. It would harm everything you have worked for."
Yi Jeong sat in the high back chair and crossed his legs. "Why aren't there many Hybrids like yourself?"
"Because everyone is afraid of wolves almost as much as they were the Darklings. Just because something is different they think it's dangerous. So it was outlawed for a Guardian to fraternize much less marry and have children with a wolf. My dad was shunned from his pack for opting to raise me and was killed for it when I was ten. I'm not bitter about it, but it does fuel my need to see everyone settled. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, Latino, blue or purple. No one should be told they can't do something simply because they're a different race or gender."
Leo felt something stir within him. The last person he had heard talk this passionately had been Baye. They had asked what she was going to do about Hyun Joo, and she had literally put them in their places about that child. She had made a decision and she was going to stick by it. She would be the child's Alpha is she was a wolf and a mother figure if she was a Guardian, but she would not be her mother.
Everyone had looked at Jeongmin, but the man had simply looked away. It hadn't been his idea. Though all the pain had been pushed aside there was still a divide between Jeongmin and the wolves. They had all seen it. He loved his wife and respected her decisions but he still held a grudge against Jenissi's former family even though his brothers had all forgiven them. Unfortunately for Jenissi, he fell in the grudge category because of his actions. No matter how many times he had said that he had forgiven everyone, he hadn't forgotten and he probably never would.
"What brings you do here?" Yi Jeong asked.
"We're required to pack an emergency bag on everyone who attends the meetings. We keep them in the meeting room because anyone is smart would attack you all as one. If we have emergency packs, we can ensure survival on almost all of you. We always pack a four day supply of water and food, two changes of clothes, and medical supplies in case we get separated. It's just protocol," Dasha answered.
"We have more Hunters coming in to help. Sometimes we can't be sure who is friend or foe so we have to be careful," Jin said.
"Your brother's going to be worried," Hyuk said. "He worries about you even though you don't talk to him."
"Oppa had to take care of me for a few years. It's only natural for him to worry."
Dasha touched her friend on the shoulder. "We need to go. I have a few more things I need to take care of before we can head down for this evening's meetings."
They said their goodbyes and the women left the suite. They walked to the elevator and waited after Dasha pushed the button. Once inside the metal box, Jin looked at her friend.
"Why didn't you tell them there had been a message saying that something was going to happen?" she asked.
"Because it would have caused unwanted attention. Everyone would have panicked even more. No one would have wanted to go to the meetings for fear of losing their lives. We can't have that mayhem. If it happens, we will be prepared," Dasha said.
Jin seemed to accept that answer and shrank back into the corner. But it wasn't the question that had Dasha worried. There were three people here who were supremely close to the Wild Power. Baye was well know already, and there were three groups of people who wanted her on their side, wanted her dead or just didn't care.
At the moment, there were more people who wanted her on their side no matter what. They would do whatever it took to get her. Everyone knew who So Yi Jeong, Shin Leo, and Boo Sang Hyuk were. They would not hesitate to go after them in hopes of getting Baye. Dasha was going to make sure they went nowhere.