Chapter 15 That Kind of Things

— Kaden —

We arrived on Monaweard’s territory around noon.

David was waiting for us.

“Glad you could make it early,” he said to me as I got out of the car. “There’s been another incursion a couple of hours ago, and two of the packs have missing people.”

“There were no missing people before,” I said.

“Not that we knew of, no.”

“We know for sure this is linked to the incursions?”

“No, but the timing is awfully coincidental.”

“I don’t really believe in coincidences,” I said.

“Me neither,” David agreed. He was a small wiry guy, barely more than five six. I’m pretty sure even Amy is taller than him. He’s a couple of years older than me though, and has an IQ off the charts. He had messy curls that he tried to tame by keeping his hair short, but despite is shorter stature, he was not a man to mess with. Sure I could kick his butt in less than fifteen seconds, but he was not the type to fight anyone one on one. He had never been much of a fighter, but he was shrewd and knew how not to get himself into a fight he couldn’t win. If the two of us would ever slug it out, it’s not fighting him that would worry me, but the thousand sucker-punches he would have prepared to get the upper hand in an otherwise impossible fight to win.

We walked to the pack house. Which was not very big, but nice enough. Ylva and Stellan walked behind us, while Sam went to park the car.

“You’re him,” said a woman coming out from the house, walking towards us, Mariqueen.

“I assume I am,” I said.

She was pretty, with a South-East Asian complexion and beautiful almond eyes. She wore jeans and a white tank top.

We shook hand.

“Kinda tall aren’t ya?”

“Kinda,” I conceded.

“I got them all in, like you asked,” she said.

“Debrief me,” I told her.

“Sixteen incursions on this territory in the last two months. Nine led to altercations. All at strategic positions. They are testing our response time and forces. We’ve augmented the rounds, they’ve adapted. With the houses closest to the borders, 40% have been invaded or robbed. Always at different times. Day, night, doesn’t matter. There was an attempted kidnapping of a pair of children. Got caught in time,” she told me as we walked in.

“I made inquiries,” she continued. “Every pack under 100 members within a 50km radius from here has all had incursions on their territories. Some worse than others. The number of missing members have risen. I assembled the Alphas of the eight closest small packs that has been affected so far. Everyone has had somewhere between 5 and 73 known incursions.”

I frowned at that. That is a lot. Someone is targeting all the small packs, all at once.

We go through a set of French doors to a small conference room. There were more than a dozen people assembled there. Some sitting, or talking to one another, others pacing anxiously.

The Alphas and their entourage, I assumed.

“There’s been a shift with the rogues too,” David told me.

“More active?” I asked.

“Less. Either they’re hiding, running, or disappearing.”

That is a bad sign. Quite a red flag actually.

“Know of any lone wolf around?” I asked no one in particular as I took a seat.

“No,” David said.

“I do,” said one of the Alphas with a massive beard. Most took their seat. A few others stood behind their Alpha, not unlike Ylva and Stellan on either side of me, standing a little back.

“Any issues? Changes? Irregularities?”

“A lot of break-ins in big cities. It’s a little harder to know much with city wolves. Even the packs, most are not really tight, or even organized, and not all territories are properly watched. But there’s been anomalies, higher numbers of break-ins, or attacks, than usual. That kind of thing.”

David sat next to me. Mariqueen next to him.

“Any knowledge of where they come from?”

“Not really,” said a blond man with a lot of tribal tattoos sitting amongst the Alphas.

“Anyone knows which pack is doing this?” I asked.

Silence.

“Any guess how far they’re traveling?”

Silence again.

“Is there an epicentre?”

“There seems to be more activity around the territory of Alpha Hirst of Bluerock,” said Mariqueen.

A black man, bald and a little rotund nodded at me.

“Ylva,” I said. She walked next to me. “Call a few warriors, the best and sneakiest. Coordinate with Hirst and anyone who has information about that region in particular. I want a full report, you go scouting.” Sam entered the room. “Sam,” I told him. “Join Ylva, get her whatever she needs and contact our tech team, I want all the aerial surveillance we can get. Ylva and Hirst will brief you.” He nodded and was joined by Ylva.

Hirst was a little slower at getting what was going on, but got up to join them.

“Also,” I continued to Sam. “Get surveillance on the other territories. Anything you can get. Cast the net as wide as possible.” He nodded again. And the three of them left.

“Mariqueen. I want full details about all your warriors and those of every pack here. Plus any others willing to help.”

She grimaced like I was twisting her arm.

“What?” I asked.

“We’re small packs, and you want information about our defences? What is stopping you from using it against us to take over?” said the oldest Alpha around. His hair was pure white and looked like he styled it in a tornado with every end sticking up in a different direction.

“Nothing,” I said frankly. “I don’t even need that information to take over. All of your packs. All at once. If that was the plan, I wouldn’t waste my time here getting information that won’t change anything, and showing my hand. On the other hand—,” I continued to everyone’s discomfort. “I could help you rearrange your fighting force and get them to coordinate with one another. It will also tell me how many warriors you need me to send you. If you don’t want them, it’s fine by me.”

“They’ll take them,” said David giving Mariqueen an askance glance.

“Sure,” she relinquished. “I’ll get you the information.”

“Give it to Stellan, he’ll work out how many warriors you’ll need and help with the organization of the force.”

Mariqueen twisted her head to look at Stellan, he nodded at her.

“I also want full inventory on your weapon supply.”

A few of them made noises.

“Do you want more of them or not?” I asked.

They shut up.

“That’s what I thought.”

Things continued like that for a little while longer.

Mostly me telling them a list of things to do, and watching most of them squirm, or rush to write everything down before I moved to the next subject. Though, as things went on, I got less and less resistance from the Alphas.

It’s not like I don’t know how to handle those, it’s just that they tend to make things always a little more complicated. And the older they are the more stubborn they get. Some of them probably never had anyone in their life tell them what to do, except maybe their wives.

By the time we’ve reached dinner time, my head hurt.

“Right,” I finally capitulated. “Dinner.”

And that was that.

Everyone grabbed their things and went their ways.

Sam came in and brought me some of the first aerial shots.

“What am I looking at exactly?” I asked him as the room cleared except for David.

And we went on for a while.

Someone brought us plates with food at some point, but I didn’t notice who. Eventually we had to stop before food got cold. But as the new images came in, we added them to the makeshift map we were building.

Meanwhile, Stellan brought the first rough estimates about what resources they needed, and I got him to make the calls to get people and weapons here, at least to hold up the fort until we make a move and turn the situation around.

The biggest issue, more that vanquishing them to begin with, was the fact that we knew so little of the enemy—including who it was. You can’t win a fight without knowing who you have to fight.

My biggest hope was to find visually an anomaly on our map, and then to wait on Ylva’s scouting to learn more.