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“Hmmm…. Seems he doesn’t care all too much about protecting the way in. This wolfbane is nothing more than a deterrent.” Leyanne shoves the heavy door open after a few taps on the lock and a spark of light, which I assume is some magical unlocking ability and swings the heavy wooden slab back into the once familiar hallway.

Inside it looks the same as when we left, only dark, dusty and unused as though it’s sat dormant and empty for months. The air is stale, and the lights are all out, leaving an eeriness in as Leyanne lights the way with the glow from her hand to cast some illumination. It’s too still, too empty. We know Juan and his minions are inside this manor, but it seems they care little about protecting the main door or leaving life down here.

“Where are they?” Sierra also turns human and moves in beside me, taking my hand in hers as we creep in quietly. My guards let go of the prisoners and flank around us in a semi-circle immediately. Realizing they pose no threat when we are literally walking into the lion’s den. Aiden moves to the nearest couch and sinks down exhaling heavily and seems to instantly pass out. Taemin and the last wolf edge back to the door and stay there seemingly afraid to come in. They’re spent and they have no fight in them anymore. They won’t help nor hinder and my guards leave them be.

The hair on my neck stands up and my skin goosebumps all over as we move further in, tiptoeing, and yet we all sense something and stop abruptly.

“I don’t like this” I point out with a nervous waiver in my low tone.

“Me either” Carmen whispers almost into my ear as she moves in against my other side and takes my free hand. Squeezing it tight as though needing assurance or giving it.

“Let’s find the control room and quickly.” Radar also turns human, moving past us fast and heads down the dark passage to what once was our daily route, keeping eyes on our surroundings and using his ability to sense for others. To our once loved common room and place as a sub pack we liked to be together. For a second I long for Meadow and Colton beside me to go through with this and cross my fingers that both and the rest of our pack are safe. They’re warriors and some of the fiercest fighters of the Santo pack, but I’m still scared to death about what they are enduring right now, out there. I need Meadows presence here to fire up my own courage and regret not asking Colton to send her by my side too.

We move as one fluid unit in rapid speed, alert to our surroundings even though it truly seems deserted. We get to a small door just past our old corridor and Radar kicks it in with ease, breaking it from its hinges and the heavy door falls backwards into the pitch-black space with a grind and thud before finding a resting place against shelving. Leyanne moves in behind him and lights it up with both her palms glowing bright white. That room of monitors and keyboards and endless wires and tech. This used to be manned around the clock and now it sits here ticking on its own, like some lonely forgotten entity. A dark empty and airless space with only small red lights blinking quietly to themselves to indicate some things are running.

“Where is the one who was controlling the camera out there.” I ask quietly remembering one of them was operational and trailed our movements. Someone was definitely watching out there.

Radar moves inside and flicks at the wall bringing illumination to the room and scans the space to be sure we’re alone.

“Either its movement sensitive and automatic, or else they are using security from somewhere else too.” He moves across the desks with his fingers, clicking buttons here and there and trying to locate the audio control for the speakers outside.

“They left this running by itself because he’s short on manpower.” Carmen butts in and moves Radar out of the way while she too starts pressing buttons and brings a seemingly dark monitor to life. “This is the main system to access the audio feed to the perimeter speakers. It’s on a loop and comes from a frequency recording they made at the lab. I can access the main files here. We need to separate it out from the new tone that’s weakening the wolves.”

I gawp at Carmen and this new sudden ability with computers I never knew she had. I know Radar was familiar with the security and the feed as he was a sub pack captain and often came in here, but Carmen seemed oblivious to this side of things.

“She was often on Rota for control room duties” Radar reads my mind and nods at Carmen, making me blush at my stupidity for a moment. I forgot that all wolves at some point got switched around to cover almost every chore we ever had in this manor. I just never lasted long enough to get these kinds of duties.

“Why aren’t they protecting this?” One of the Luna’s guard wolves pipes up behind me and Radar shrugs.

“Who knows. Like the main door being vacant, and the grounds outside. Maybe Juan has really lost his mind and up there hiding in the shadows like some kind of feral beast.” He snorts in disdain.

“Move, let me work. I can do this if you give me some space.” Carmen enters bossy mode and yanks a seat out so she can slide in at the desk and proceeds to pull up different screens on the monitor. Instantly immersed and looking competent with a keyboard as she starts pounding it noisily.

“This seems too easy. This doesn’t feel right.” I point out and Sierra squeezes the hand that’s still enveloped in hers. She has been silently looking around and summing things up yet doesn’t seem phased at all by the progression of things. There’s a weird calm to her and a hint of fire that was always lacking. I wonder if this is how Luna Sierra of the past was and how she managed to run to save a child when she was on the verge of being ended. Seeing her this way, a silent strength and ease, I suddenly feel confident with her presence.

“We should look around. Try to make sense of what’s going on here. Alora’s right. Something’s off and knowing him like we do, he would never just leave this so open and accessible.”