A Hard Winter's Night

Chapter Four: Reindeer Games

"You agreed to do what?", Winter asked in a furious tone as he got off his bike. Ripping off his gloves he headed into the warehouse fuming at what he just heard Devin tell him. She had to be insane for agreeing to do such a thing-- he couldn't explain it.

Devin rolled her eyes following behind him "Look, this is not like this is something we haven't done before, Winter. We've done recon and babysat before."

Winter whipped his head around and scowled. "You damn well know that this is different, Devin. Maddie's got some nerve to ask this of us. You've got some nerve to asked this of me."

"Oh, come off it Winter. Look, you're going to be a fucking crybaby about this? This isn't about Maddie or the human she's asking us to lookout for. This is about Thesians who were removed and yet still threaten our territory. If Aidan exiled one whose decided to return, that spells trouble for us. All of us. It's a small job and Maddie did not easily ask for this."

"Oh, what a relief. She actually agonized over asking such a thing from you," said Winter. "She is not my Alpha."

"No, but I am." Devin replied. "And I'm asking you to do this not for Maddie, but for me." She faced him head on, ready for him to challenge. "I've known you for a long time, Winter and you're one of the best trackers I know. I know you aren't a fan of mingling with humans, but you have to be realistic. They are the majority and whether we like it or not they have and always will be in the crossfires of our feuds. And it's not their fault."

Winter folded his large arms and sighed. Nothing about this felt right to him regardless of there being a Thesian sniffing around a human woman to what did that even matter to him or Devin in a couple of weeks they would be leaving from this area into their own territory this was Aidan's beef to deal with not him. As he stared into Devin's dark eyes, he knew that there would be no reasoning with her to think otherwise.  She was totally smitten with Maddie and Aidan and held the highest respect for them. 

The fact that Maddie had the nerve to ask this of Devin seemed extremely selfish and over-reaching, but it seemed that there was nothing that he could really do. Had it been Maddie who asked him directly he would have flat out refused along with maybe some choice words, but Devin was his Alpha.  He's pledged his loyalty to her and considering all that they've been through together she deserved it. All he could really do was hope that this was just a false alarm and any Thesian in their right mind would have been exiled would know to stay away especially after everything that went down in the past month with the attacks. Thesians would know better, but maybe a rabid or crazy one may not, which meant more trouble for him and the human woman he was supposed to protect.

Devon knew exactly what she was asking for of him and she knew that he probably thought it was quite unfair. Hell after all Maddie asked her to do it, not him, but it was time that Winter started to realize that he couldn't live in a bubble. That they were certain duties that were acted upon them and that wasn't always understood at the time but were needed.  A Thesian was a threat to everyone and if it turned out that there was nothing then Winter could get back to his old grouchy ways, but if not, that meant they had to get involved and take care of it before the problem got any bigger. 

 She looked in her Beta's eyes and saw confusion and anger. Those emotions weren't there solely because of what she asked of them they just seemed to linger there all the time. But that was all he could ever feel. Winter's past was filled with blood and loss– it was dark and cold just like the season he was born in and she wished she could take all that away from him but it wasn't meant to be. He held onto it like a badge of courage as if there was the only part of him that wanted to keep that history. Perhaps focusing on something other than his comfort zone such as bikes and people hating would force him to learn a bit about himself. Maybe enough to feel some sort of joy. She wasn't really banking on it, but if there was ever an opportunity it would be now.