Chasing Tails (Original)

25. Andy's Thinking Again (short)

Andy paced back and forth in the confinements of his bedroom. He thought about the fight between Dresden and Ollie earlier and wondered what really was going on. He didn't know Dresden too well and admittedly, he didn't know his Alpha that well either - although he was a very good Alpha with a good head on his shoulders. But something about this was different. Something just wasn't adding up.

He knew about the rumors going around. He heard from Paul that a pack was attacking others and it brought back a lot of memories for him - but he wasn't ready to reveal that chapter of his past just yet. Hearing calls from Ollie's far territories explaining the attacks were caused by someone named Dresden seemed to put a lot of evidence of truth behind the rumors. But it didn't make sense. Dresden had been here, in this area, the whole time. Wasn't he?

Andy didn't see much of Dresden but what he did see, he didn't like. Dresden was dark and he was very worried for his sister to be mating with someone like that. Still, he didn't seem so tainted as those he's seen of in the past. To attack other packs during mating season didn't seem like Dresden's character who looked like he would enjoy a fight better than ever. Attacking so underhandely was...half assed for someone like Dresden.

But then he hadn't seen Julie since that Saturday morning when they left James. He knew she was weak - her situation at the time was making it hard for her to be anything but. Plus she had to deal with James's anger and that would take some time to get over - emotionally, mentally and phsyically. Despite all of that, she was still the strongest Were he had ever known, considering what she's done for her family. But was this all enough for Dresden to decide she was too weak for him? If that was the case, he wouldn't have been so possessive over her in the beginning.

She had to be somewhere near Dresden. Andy just couldn't see the two being miles apart without Dresden showing some kind of attitude about it.

Trisha was the one factor he couldn't figure out. Olli and Paul both say she's not the kind of person who would leave for days without telling someone - no matter how free spirited she is. She also wouldn't have left for days without telling Zach, her mate. It could only mean that she was either killed or someone kidnapped her. The weird thing is that her scent is completely gone. It's disappeared, perished. If it weren't for her mate or her brother, one might say she hadn't ever existed. But her entire presence has been erased.

Ian was someone that worried Andy the most. He didn't know much about the distant Alpha but it seemed Ollie knew him well enough. Compared to how Ollie explains him, Ian didn't seem like the kind of person who would scheme and lie so easily. He seemed to be truthfull - however disrespectful. After all, his stories matched the rumors and the facts perfectly. It was just the coincidence that the day he comes to talk to Ollie about the rumors and about Dresden, Trisha goes missing that made Andy suspicious.

He knew there was something lurking in the shadows: some unknown fact or person that hadn't come to light yet. Dresden was, overall, a shadowy wolf with a cloud of mystery around him and according to Ollie, few people knew of his past and one of them died. These past few years, he's been a good Alpha but that was still the taunting question. Was that really who he was or just part of an elaborate plan? Trisha's disappearence was definintely a riddle that needed a hint. Even witches couldn't make a person disappear so swiftly and cleanly like that. And Ian's coincidence was perfect. There had to be something to connect these three somehow.

But what - or who - was pulling the strings?