Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 31

~Rose

Dead leaves crunched underneath my sneakers as I walked, keeping a sharp eye on my surroundings. This was our rendezvous, the woods. We've been hanging around this dark place a lot lately. It always seemed to be the meeting place of everyone. Maybe it was because it was isolated, quiet. Where people could discuss things in secret. Unless there's a particular hawk hanging out there...

I halted as soon as I spotted a pair of golden eyes glowing in the fog. It was colder, despite the still lack of snow. Thank God I brought a jacket.

I stood there, stone-faced, as a grey wolf with streaks of white and black on it's hackles, hind legs and flanks came pawing it's way out of the fog. It stopped just in front of the sheet of white and stood up on it's hind legs as it started shifting into man.

The fur shrunk back into bronze skin and the golden wolf eyes glowed before turning back to brown. They were the last to change. As soon as they dimmed to normal, he blinked and stared.

"You said it was important," he said simply. The fog covered his lower body, censoring things a bit for me. I appreciated the gesture.

I nodded. "You remember Fallon?" His eyes flashed. "He's missing. A friend had a premonition that something bad's going to happen to him. We need to find him before that happens."

"And if we're too late?" He spoke to me dryly, as if all his means of happiness have vanished in one day.

"Then you get to help me kill the one responsible for Diana." He blinked again, slowly this time, and his Adam's Apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. His eyes held a vengeful glint in them as he relived the memory.

"I assure you, Rosie. I will kill her either way."

*****

"Gather around!" Damien announced. He was holding one of Fallon's shirts, strolling down a line of his best trackers. "Everyone of you will memorize this scent and find that hybrid. If something stands in your way, take it down. Meet us back here in three hours if you find nothing. Otherwise..." His brown gaze burned into each of their eyes. "You know what to do."

They nodded and scattered in different directions after sniffing the fabric. I too left the post, paired up with Damien. He was wearing pants now, so he refused to turn back into wolf form. His sense of smell was flawless even in human form.

We spent long minutes sniffing the air, following trails, losing them, sniffing the air again. He seemed to have gone a long way from home.

"Something mixed with his scent..." he started. My ears pricked up as we heard a distinguishing sound echo in the night air, bouncing off the trees.

A howl.

Someone found him.

At once, we bolted towards the direction it was coming from. Another long howl rose in the air like a siren. Twigs of overhanging trees snapped in my face as I ran past them. Low vines of willow trees tangled us in the process, earning slight displeased reactions which also led to the destruction of vegetation and highly severe curses.

Damien got there before me, mostly because he didn't have long hair getting caught in all the random branches. I gaped at the sight in front of me.

A group of wolves were at one side of the forest, lips peeled back to reveal big sharp teeth, trained for killing their victims with one bite. Vicious growls emitted from each of them, all directed towards two people.

A tall dark-haired boy stood there. It was Fallon. I almost pounced on him in joy, but the other two people standing there made me second-think that.