WILLIAM

Used dishes were stacked on the cart waiting on the return of the kitchen attendant when Alpha David strode in with Jack, the other wolf that was coherent when Kara healed them in the cavern.

Eric stood and shook hands with David. "You made it. Thanks for coming on the short notice."

David looked very distinguished in his pressed pants, suit, and tie, quite different from the grunge look Jack was going for with spiked hair, ripped jeans, and a band tee. Like he was still seventeen even though he now had to be late twenties.

David gestured to Jack. "Hope you don't mind if I brought Jack along. He may be able to remember something that could aide our search."

Eric gave a slight head bow. "No problem at all. Have a seat. We're waiting on two more."

David and Jack were sitting down as another knock sounded. John swiveled in his seat and opened the door to the kitchen attendant dressed in white chef's gear, nervously asking for the cart. Walter and Denise were then stepping in behind the attendant who quickly grabbed up the cart and wheeled it out the door.

"Mr. and Mrs. Abbon," Eric greeted with a handshake and gestured to empty seats at the table. Walter had dark hair with thinning strands similar to Alpha David but was wearing classy jeans and a button-up shirt. Denise, still much thinner than she was three months ago, looked around the room skittish and held tight fingers into the seam of her sundress. "Why don't you two sit down and we'll get started." He was standing at the table head and looking over the faces, and then gave quick introductions of the newcomers.

He then sat down and scooted his chair forward against the table and gave an overview of what Jeremy said, and when Jack had nothing to add spoke to the rest of us. "Alright. So you have all been asked to be here because of the werecreatures in the cavern. We need to figure out the next steps of action. How do we get them out and what do we do with Lawrence?"

Jack was confused. "Why do we need to get them out? We just send the girl back down and she heals them."

Eric's hand was on my shoulder the moment I tensed to shout.

Eric spoke calmly. "Kara is a healer, yes. And she can heal them. But even you saw that she can't do very many before she gets herself knocked out. We can't just throw her to the wolves and hope that they won't attack her. There's too many and we can't just keep them down there in the muck. We need to bring them out so she can heal them at her own time."

David leaned forward against the table. "Tell us about your healer. Did she break her token? Why does she keep losing her strength?"

I realized that David probably knew the last healer, must have even been Alpha over her, and sat forward with my own curiosity. "What do you know about tokens? Kara hasn't been able to access hers yet."

He looked at me and smiled a fatherly smile. "She is your mate?"

I nodded.

"She is very special. Not many healers are ever born to one generation around the world. We had a line of healers in Fremont, but the line may have died out as only sons have been born the last three generations." He frowned, probably thinking about Dan's sacrifice for Max.

I wasn't sure how much I should reveal and looked at Eric. He gave the assent and I spoke. "We believe Kara is from the Fremont healing line. Her grandmother Ruth moved here as a mate to one of our former betas."

"Ah, Ruth. I see. That would have been Shelly's," he scratched over his chin in concentration, "cousin. So maybe the line is not dead. Well, in that case I am extremely jealous. It is a powerful line." He gave a smirk my way. "Hopefully you two bear a daughter that will be mated back into my pack."

I scowled but Eric just laughed. "Finders keepers Davey."

David chuckled lighthearted. "Goddess puts the healers when and where they are needed." He looked back to me. "So your mate's name is Kara?" With my nod, he continued. "And you asked about tokens. She has not been able to access hers yet? She will find it. Though to my knowledge most other healers have found their token as children, so she should already have it."

"What is a token?" Eric asked in curiosity.

David looked to Eric. "A token is how the healer can focus their energy. Take energy from the world and not just from themselves. That's why your Kara keeps getting knocked out. She's using her own energy to give to others. She needs to quickly find her token and keep it safe or else she'll burn herself out," he glanced to me gravely, "probably to death."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked a bit too harshly.

He sighed and looked to his hands. "Our Shelly. Her token was a small robin's egg. She picked it up when she was a child and hung onto it. When her healer came out, she knew it was her token as soon as she held it in her hand and the world opened up to her. Or so she said. She kept it in a tiny jar on a string around her neck and when she needed the power she had it there instantly to call upon. Well, fast forward to about fifteen years back, she was enjoying time with a teenage Dan and he accidentally stepped on it and it shattered." He exhaled long and hard. "She wasn't used to having her own energy drained when she healed, and she was elderly by then, so she fell hard and was withered away within a few months. It was a very grave loss for our pack."

Alpha David's eyes came to mine. "Hopefully your healer's token will be more substantial than a bird egg."

I blinked a few times in thought. "She believes hers is a rock."

He smiled appreciatively. "That will be a sturdy one."

"How does she train with it?"

"Train?" His eyes darted around the walls. "No. I don't believe she will need to train. It should just call out to her and she'll know."

I stayed silent.

He eyed me a few quiet moments. "Then I don't believe this stone is her token. Finding it will be your top priority. You need to help her find this token before she can heal all the creatures or else you'll watch her just drain her own lifeforce away."

My fingernails dug into my hands, knowing the armrests of the new chair were off limits.

Eric gave a nod. "We will have them get right on that."

My mind started a running tally of what I saw in her apartment, going through her drawers and over her shelves, everything seemed so practical, no treasures, no knick-knacks, nothing out of the ordinary. What could it be? What could she have that sang to her? And then I followed our movements through the mall and landed on her ring in the window case of the jeweler's shop. The ruby set in her wedding band right now? She did speak marvels about it.

My pulse raced.

Was that her token?

Could her wedding ring be her token?

I smiled at the possibility.

"Next order of business," Eric declared moving the meeting on. "Mr. and Mrs. Abbon, Garett here said that you talked of a cave being the last thing you remembered before you became a creature. Can you tell us the circumstances around that?"

Denise looked to Walter, anxiety still racing around her as she sat small in the chair, and Walter spoke. "We met some friends for dinner in a café out in Loa." He hung his head in shame. "We probably said some things about you Alpha that we shouldn't have. We were angry at something trivial and threatened to leave the pack. It was all just venting words though." He sighed. "Our friends told us to go for a run and clear our heads. We'd realize we were being stupid. So we did. We went for a run around the mountainside there and we were starting to feel better. But before we were going to head back, we ran over a fresh trail where a truck had gone off road. It was merely curiosity, but we followed it."

Denise's sensitive voice took over, an anxiety still coloring her words. "It led to a cave opening covered in dead branches. We cleared some away and walked a few paces in when movement and yowling came at us." She swallowed noisily, looking to Walter. "A black blur was then on Walter, but my eyes hadn't adjusted yet enough to see what was happening and a moment later I felt hurt on my arm and then nothing, and I wake up in the hospital."

There was a quiet pause as the rest of us digested their words.

Jer spoke to the rest of the table. "Could it have been Max getting away?"

Eric answered. "We will probably never know, but that's my guess."

Tarin wondered, "And then the child and the Abbon's started a chain reaction of biting others around the county."

Garrett sat forward on his arms. "Then even if we retrieve all the werecreatures from the cavern, this fight is still unfinished. We still have to worry about loose creatures."

We all nodded in thoughtful agreement.

Eric looked to Walter and Denise. "When you never returned back to the pack, those friends of yours came to me and told of your plan to run. We thought you abandoned your place and have since filled it."

My eyes glanced at Garrett.

Walter's head bowed respectfully. "We understand Alpha. We will not ask for our position to be returned, though we do ask for a place still at this pack if it's not too much."

Eric sat tall, Alpha presence filling him. "Walter and Denise Abbon, you are formally readmitted to the pack and while your home will no longer be on the top floor, you will always have a place here."

Walter's eyes came up and he let a slight smile show. "Thank you Alpha. We apologize for our dishonor of leaving."

"You have no dishonor of getting bitten by a werecreature and not showing up to continue your position, but next time you have grievances please see me before discussing it with friends."

Both answered in bowed submission, "Yes Alpha. Apologies Alpha."

"You're forgiven."

They unbent with lighter hearts, even Denise wasn't shaking quite so badly.

Eric pointed at the whiteboard. "Do you think you could draw us a map to this cave entrance? If we can find it, maybe we can get in and take care of Lawrence before we need to deal with the werecreatures."

"Yes sir," Walter stood and grabbed a black marker, starting to draw the land between here and Fremont with cities labeled. He started making a dotted line from the city Loa and over the mountain. "We were here at the café and then ran West along this river and then up the mountain here. We took a Northeast route here-ish and I think that's where we came upon the scent. We followed it to about here." He circled a wide area, but it was a good enough localization that we could send trackers.

Eric looked to John. "Got that?"

John grinned wide, loving the challenge. "Yes sir!"

"Go get your team and scope it out. Do not go in if you find it, just let us know the location."

"Got it boss," John saluted.

"You're dismissed." He turned to Walter and Denise as John strode from the room. "You two are also dismissed. Thank you for your help here and I will have Mrs. Whyte find the best room she can dig up for gratitude of your prior service."

Both bowed as they stood. "Thank you Alpha." Then left the room.

"Alright, so the rest of us..." Eric started but Alpha David's phone rang in his pocket.

"Oh, excuse me everyone," he went to shut it off in awkwardness, but then looked over the screen. "It's my Gamma."

"Please, answer. You can step into the room across the hall if you need to keep it private." Eric gestured to the door. "We can wait."

David just answered it, knowing full well that we all would be able to hear both sides.

"This is Alpha David."

"Alpha, this is Ronald."

"Go ahead Ronald."

"Hey sir, so we have a situation at site X10."

His breath hitched. "I'm listening."

"So Team X didn't make their check in at thirteen hundred hours, so we sent someone over."

The tension Alpha David had was filtering into all of us. I'm sure none of us knew what site X10 was or who Team X was, but if it was what my guess was, we weren't going to like the sound of what came next.

Ronald continued. "They found all of Team X unconscious, but unharmed. Patrolmen Elijah and Brennan were even found bare in human form. No signs of an altercation otherwise. No signs of any trauma. The rest of the unit were out, right at the door. Seems like it was some sort of wolfsbane pepperspray bomb or something, just dropped them all to the ground where they stood. Nothing like we've ever seen before."

Jack and Jeremy's eyes went wide on each other. Jack spoke in a frightened hushed whisper. "The smoke."

We all had eyes on him.

And with how Jack and Jeremy looked right now I knew exactly where X10 was. The cavern.

David spoke. "Is the wolfsbane cleared out?"

"Seems like it Alpha."

"Are you there now?"

"Yes. We're getting the guards taken back to the pack right now and have a new team on the way."

"Hold on Ronald," he stuck the phone against his chest and eyed Jack. "What is the smoke?"

Jack and Jeremy shared a look, then Jack swallowed heavily. "Once in a while Lawrence would smoke us with some wolfsbane concoction and we'd all drop and go unconscious. Sometimes one of us would go missing."

"How long would you be unconscious?"

"We never knew. Minutes? Weeks? There was no way to tell time down there besides the full moon shifts."

"Should I call the teams back? How dangerous was the smoke?"

A string of colorful curse words then spouted from the receiver.

We all looked at the phone in dread. My heart plummeted with the already worried atmosphere.

"Ronald?" David asked hesitantly.

"Oh my! Deepest apologies Alpha! Excuse the swearing!"

"Ronald? What is happening?!" David's temper flared.

"Nothing! So sorry Alpha. Goodness. I'm so sorry. I just twisted my foot wrong on a rock."

We all took a breath of calm.

Alpha David started an incredulous chuckle and mouthed 'idiot' to himself. "Don't do that to me Ronald. I thought something was going on."

"Yes, yes. I realize that Alpha Sir! I'm so sorry. It was just some stupid pink stone in the grass."

Pink?

I stood up in a flash, suddenly overcome with an immense feeling of foreboding. "What the eff does he mean pink?"

Alpha David sat back in his chair with a jolt of surprise from my action, but then spoke to the phone. "What do you mean pink?"

"Uh... what?"

I seethed, my fingers gripping the table to keep me in human form. "Was it a crystalline stone? Rose quartz."

David's eyes were on mine, a worried sheen across them. "Was it rose quartz? Do you know what that is?"

"Oh, uh... yeah. That was probably it. I kicked it into the trees. Why?"

David already figured it out, fingertips dragging across his forehead. "Do you see a girl's body anywhere? Or can you tell if the trapdoor has been opened recently?"

He stalled a minute, "Uhhh, nope. No girl. But oh. Oh. ... Yes, the door was opened."

F..k.

I was now a wolf.