We talked for a while more until the sky outside turned black. Then our talk rounded back to Bran…

“No one actually told me what happened yet,” I said as I drank my third beer.

Their smiles faded and the atmosphere suddenly turned very blue. Yuri spoke first. “We… Well, my father found him when he went on a morning hunt. Bran was lying naked, almost covered in snow, blood everywhere. Someone tore him into pieces…” he growled under his breath, his eyes flashing with a predatory hunger and wolf fangs peeking from under his upper lip. Not every human in town knew what we were, so that was a dangerous move but I understood his anger. I myself had to work hard to keep myself calm.

Scott continued when it was obvious Yuri couldn’t, “At first it looked like a wolf attack and we did have some troubles with the Silver Heart pack in the past weeks but there was no scent and no tracks and Elliot insisted that no wolf of his would do something like that.” Elliot was the alpha of the second pack in this city. I met him a few times when I was younger, he seemed like a respectful person. But right now, my wolf was calling for his blood.

“What problems did you have with them?” I asked. Elliot and Alistair didn’t really like each other, but they did their best to keep the peace.

“Well, Elliot has been trying to strike a deal with Alpha about a few miles of our territory,” Yuri said.

“But Alpha doesn’t want to give it up and we have found some Silver Heart’s scent on our part of the border,” Scott finished. The whole city was divided into four parts. Two werewolf parts, one vampire part, and one neutral zone. Of course, in the city, the rules weren’t that strict. You could go where you wanted, but the land was owned by the respective groups, so if Scott really wanted to own a bar he could only do that on the Ghealach part or the Neutral zone of the city. But when it came to the forest around… Every pack had miles and miles of forest to run and hunt in. The vampires had some too, though I couldn’t imagine what they used it for. Probably burying bodies. The Ghealach pack was bigger and thus had bigger territory, but it seemed like the Silver Hearts wanted to change that.

“Was Bran found on the part of the territory that Elliot wants?” I asked quietly, not sure what I would do if it really was the Silver Hearts.

“Yes.” Yuri nodded sadly.

“Fuck,” I let out, running a hand through my hair. That was probably why the pack was hesitating in finding Bran’s killer. A werewolf war would be devastating to both packs and the city.

“Yeah…” Scott agreed, obviously seeing the thoughts in my eyes. My phone buzzed again, for the fifth time tonight. Once again it was Matt. “Come on man, if someone is trying this hard to reach you it must be important.”

With a sigh, I excused myself and went outside. I didn’t even say anything as I picked it up, but Matt was glad still. “Finally! Christ almighty do you know how long I’ve been trying to reach you?” he said, sounding half-mad, half happy. It was nice to hear his voice, though I would never admit it. “Look I’m sorry for what I said yesterday, I was drunk okay? Just… Where the hell are you? You didn’t actually go to Alaska, did you?” he asked confused, worried.

“I did,” I said and looked up at the starry sky. I forgot how beautiful it was here, with almost no light pollution. The crescent moon shone between the few clouds, too bad the ugly yellow lamps prevented it from painting the snow silver.

“You…? What? What’s going on Reid? Talk to me please,” he begged.

I knuckled my eyes, I was suddenly feeling very tired. Damn it was so hard to actually make myself say it. “Someone… someone very close to me died. I came back for the funeral,” I forced out through a clenched jaw in the end.

“Oh… Oh, I’m sorry, Reid, I didn’t know… Damn now I feel like such an asshole for yelling at you,” he whispered, stunned.

“It’s alright, you didn’t know,” I assured him.

“You never talk about your family…” he pointed out quietly.

“I know.” I sighed.

“Do you need something? Maybe… Maybe I could come? To give you support?” Oh Matty, always the good little boy taking care of others.

“No. I’ll be fine. I have to go now. I’ll see you when I come back.” And I hung up. The lie tasted sour on my lips. I already spent three years in Toronto, which was longer than was usual. The alpha there was quite understanding and kind but I doubted he would let me live there much longer. When I left Silver Springs, I would start a new life someplace else, no friends, no family, no past, like I always did.

After that, we went back to the pack house. Scott actually lived just down the road of the pack house in his own little house. Of course, Yuri as the Shield’s son lived in the pack house as well.

There was no one downstairs this late. When we got upstairs, Yuri suddenly stopped me and nuzzled his face into my neck. It made me freeze for a second but when my wolf realized it was just a sign of affection, not an attack I let myself relax. It actually felt pretty good, damn I didn’t even realize how starved I was for the affection of a pack.

“I’m so fucking glad you’re here,” he told me, then turned around and disappeared behind the door of his room. I actually had to stop myself from following after him as my wolf cried out for more. I turned around and forced myself to go to my room. For now, I just settled myself with taking a deep breath of Yuri’s scent from my shirt. Damn how I missed him. We used to spend every waking moment together. Too bad he was too much of a pack person to live as a loner with me…

I went to sleep right away, but the room was weird and brought back way too many memories. I stayed up for hours shifting and turning around, fighting my own mind before I finally fell asleep.