Kierra

The Red Wolf Alpha beams at the mention of the black wolf.

"I thought I recognized your images of him, but I wasn't sure. He hasn't been seen for many years."

He sounds sad, which makes me sad for Asher, knowing there was someone who missed him.

I hate shaking hands, it's awkward and you never know how much pressure to use, so I more or less just press my hand into hers and let her do the grabbing. Can see the small flare in her eyes of trying something, so I start putting in some pressure with a raised brow. She lets go instantly and looks down as she mutters her greetings.

Her husband, having seen the exchange, just shakes his head with a smile. Man must have the patience of a saint with her, I'd have ditched her by now. The males shake hands, everyone greeting someone else. To break any tensions, I even turn and shake the maned wolf’s hand. He arches an eyebrow as he cocks a grin, his large hand in mine all sorts of awkward. Really hate shaking. Don't think I've ever actually touched his bare hands before.

Long pianist fingers covered in small scars. My lingering on them has me pulling away hurriedly with a low blush. I have a thing for hands, it's weird, I know. The scars on them just make them all the more appealing. Aww shit.

Clearing my throat, I look back to the emerald-eyed Alpha who's smirking at me. Hardy-har.

"Alright, so what did you need to talk to me about?"

I could have read it in his head, but I stayed out. Wouldn't want anyone reading my inner idiosyncrasies, so out of respect, I don't try to read others'. Sometimes they broadcast loudly though, as Lucia is doing right now of her dislike of me and not wanting me in her home.

This chick is just making things all the more weird. Doesn't help when he motions us to come in further where there's a small sitting room that seems to double as an office. I wasn't going to mention anything but the waves coming off her are really annoying.

"Lucia, I get it, you don't like me. That's fine. But you can stop broadcasting it so loudly. You're not helping with my word not to use any magic here."

Her gray eyes are wide as she stares at me, Alarico's are narrowed at me. I sigh.

"It's not something I can help, I'm not actively using anything. I had natural empathy before, becoming a Werewolf just seems to have...enhanced it. Your wife has waves of discontent coming off her as well as her want of me to be gone. That's fine, I'll leave, but I'd like to know what you called me for first."

His eyes are still narrowed. Screw this. I turn and start walking away. He calls out for me to wait, sending his wife off to do whatever in the opposite direction we came from.

"Prove this to me, what am I feeling now?"

I cross my arms and scowl at him. Seriously?

"Disbelief, worry, exasperation, and fear. Not fear of me though, of something else. If you really want to save time I can just slip back into your mind and read it from there."

He raises his hands as he shakes his head, moving over to the wooden desk sat against the far wall and sinking into the chair behind it. Motioning to the chairs around the room, I refuse. My patience at its end with my want to get back home.

Sighing, he reaches into the desk and pulls out a stack of files. Thinnish, so I'd guess only a few papers in each, more in others. He sets them on the surface and slides them to me. Looking at him in confusion, I glance over to Xavier; his face once again in its serious lines. Not very helpful, so I step forward and grab the one on top. Opening it, it's basically a missing persons report.

The next three I pull off are the same, each person different with a couple added details to each one; race and animal.

"Missing animals?"

I look up at him, still a little confused about why he's showing them to me. He nods, looking a bit harried. His fear is laid out in front of me. Flipping through another, I also see ages. I stiffen before looking back over the photographs. The Shifters are a mix of children and adults, all the Weres are adults, but none are over the age of thirty. My head starts pounding, so now I take a chair.

"These are all basically children, aren't they?"

He nods, face grim.

"As a general rule; Vampires, Were-animals, and Shifters don't really have much to do with each other. We mingle, sure, only so much space in a city like this to not brush elbows. These files started gathering before any of us learned of you."

I look up from another opened folder, throat closing as things start coming together. Too much for it not to be a coincidence and 'lucky' timing. Can feel my eyes flaring yellow in the soft light of the room, my voice low.

"How long before me?"

He pulls a pad of paper from a top drawer and hands it to me. One of those college-ruled yellow pads with pages and pages of dates for each missing animal, even a few humans. Years. They go back at least fifteen years.

The most recent ones are only weeks old. Fifteen years ago I was ten to eleven years old, already in the system with my sister. Only a few years difference and she and I would probably have been counted on this list.

"Why show these to me?"

Angry molten yellow eyes get directed at him, his face troubled and even lined in age. Stress will do that to you.

"A man came in a couple of days ago, one who knew of our world. Just as you had come to see if anyone had seen your sister, he came looking for a boy. His nephew who was last seen in the arms of a pale Werewolf seen running from a burning house."

He doesn't even jump when I slam the folders back on the desk with hands splayed with growing black claws. My heart is thundering in my chest in anger.

"When 'pale Werewolf' was mentioned and put together with the timing of recent events, I thought of you. I'd thought you kidnapped the child. Then I saw him in what you showed me, knew it was him from a grainy picture the man had. Tell me, what is your connection to all this?"

A heavy sigh comes from me as I start pacing, unable to keep still. Can feel Xavier's anger coming off of him, he knows a little of what happened. To really be able to explain it, I have to go back into my own past.

And here I was hoping it was finally all behind me.

Arms cross over my larger bust, hands gripping hold of the opposite arm. Standing in front of a pale-colored wall, I try to make it as brief as possible.

"To start simply, it began before your fifteen years. For my sister and I, it was twenty years ago. Our mother got mixed up with a man that had been foul from the beginning. My sister and I ended up in the system and went through years of hell. We made it out and built lives for ourselves, trying to put our pasts behind us. Mostly succeeded but for the nightmares."

My eyes close while I grip my arms harder. I'm dragging this on and I don't mean to. Can hear a couple other hearts who are close to the speed of my own as it thumps into ribs.

"The night I was attacked by the Werewolf, I had made it back home where I collapsed just inside the front door that had been unlocked. I woke three days later from a drug-induced coma. The man from my past once again inserting himself to cause misery. He and another pedophile friend of his, who was Bastion’s stepfather."

I spit out the word, the taste foul. Can feel warm trickles starting to drip, but I ignore it and keep going.

"They had intended to grab both my sister and I, but she had been taken by the Vampire. To this day I wonder if it was better for her to have been in his torturing hands than in the ghost from our past. I'm guessing they didn't know of this world since my shifting in front of them had them both running."

A mocking grin crosses my lips as I recall what I did to them. I even share it with them. My first kills. After their deaths, I skip ahead and show them how I found my Imp. A deep growl comes from Xavier who has also grown quite fond of the boy. Can feel Alarico's churning stomach at the thought of his returning a child to that.

"That man who's looking for him is a pedophile who wanted to buy him, instead of getting 'rented' time."

With eyes still blazing like the sun, I turn and face the Alpha head-on.

"I promised Bastion that I would kill that man for him. My Imp, my son, will be kept from this man even if I have to make a bloodbath through the city to get to him. Just as anyone involved in torturing him will be dead by my hands. If there's one thing that I can be grateful for in becoming what I am, it is giving me the strength I need to kill those who have harmed what is mine."

He stares at me for a minute before he nods slowly, determination on his face.

"That was the house I burned down, I didn't know I was being watched. I have a friend who is also looking into this, going against the rules for me. My sister has also encountered a man involved in this. She gave him to a Shifter lion who's also following up on disappearances. The man she found was a lawyer who was scouting the bordello out in Pecatonica for potentials to which someone else would come in and buy."

I pull my claws from my arms when Xavier taps at my knuckles, not really paying attention as I think on everything. It’s my turn to study the man sitting in front of me, to see if he's worth risking lives for. I go out on a limb and take the plunge.

"Do you know of the prophecy revolved around me? Or that there is a sister one to it from the Vampires?"

"I've been hearing a lot of things being foretold and coming to pass of change. Don't know anything on the Vampire end, haven't had dealings with them for at least thirty years."

I incline my head, then continue to recite each one to him. Doesn't dawn on him at first, so I clue him in.

"I am that wolf. The Vampire child - is my sister."

His eyes almost bug out of his skull as he puts it all together. My head cocks at him as he pieces everything within his mind, then repeats aloud a line of the werewolf side.

"Finding those who are lost or hidden."

Yeah, I caught that too just a few seconds ago, so I share with him my thoughts on it.

"Maybe, but I'm not doing this because some ancient dodos say I'm going to. Can honestly say I'm doing this in wholehearted rage, selfishness, and looking forward to the bloodshed that I will cause. Their deaths will not be quick or merciful. Don't know why the prophecy calls me one of light, because there is nothing light about what I plan on doing."

For the first time, I see the respect in his eyes, the complete glee, and willingness to be right there with me when the flesh starts flying. I can feel Xavier's desire for it as well. What the hell, since I'm supposed to bring change, I'm going to push it that much more.

"All those missing should not have happened. If the races had coordinated early on, many of those missing might still be home. Asher told me of a council of leaders, since they don't seem to want to do anything, I will. Can spread that around as well. I'm done hiding, if someone has an issue, then bring it on. I've been spoiling for a good fight lately."

I can't help the smile on my face, as just the thought has my blood singing.

Sometimes, wonder if I'm becoming a sociopath.

Sometimes, I wonder if I even care.