Nick Brody above
Terry POV
I look with a feeling of disappointment at the sentence dashed off the bar's wall as Doggy sits next to me, wagging his tail, totally unfazed by what happened last night on his watch.
"I blame you," I say slowly as he doesn't even bother to make any sound. It's actually all Pearl's fault; before Jewels, Doggy used to spend nights guarding the bar, and now he spends them snuggled into Pearl or Pearl's wolf, and he abandoned his hostile attitude towards werewolves.
"Do you think it is about you or me?" Danny asks, standing at the entrance to the bar.
Of course, they chose the wall seen from the road so that everybody could see it too. I guess the pack's teenagers were bored last night.
"I dare to think that the hunter is a more important topic in the pack than domestic violence," I say a bit bitterly, and Danny smiles but not too brightly.
The big red letters made one word: COWARD. Well, I shouldn't be surprised; something like that should've been expected. But, on the other hand, I ought to be happy the sentence was made with paint, not my blood.
"I don't care who it's about; I want it gone now," Aunty Mae says, coming to us with brushes and buckets of soap." I have taxes to do, so make sure it's gone when I finish with it."
Well, it's better not to argue with her. Danny won't be a big help because he still has problems with moving, so I give a look to Jewels, and we get to work. They actually used perfect paint. It isn't easy to get rid of it.
"Well, it's definitely not a peaceful town."
I hear a voice and turn around to face Nick Brody, looking at my wall. Well, the guy for sure is persistent in being my new buddy; I guess he is lonely.
"I warned you we have family problems," I say " Danny, this is Nick Brody; he's just moved in. Nick, this is Danny Stone, my nephew."
They shake hands, and Nick stays with us; the girls and I are cleaning as Danny talks with Nick about art and working for a big company.
As we finish and the girls go to wash, Nick has already walked to the shop and back with cold beers for us and soda for Ivory and Pearl.
"You don't have a place to go?" I ask him, not because I want to get rid of him but because I find it problematic that he has so much free time.
"My uncle had a bad night; he was walking around looking for his dead father so I couldn't sleep anyway. I was doing my job on a computer and drank so much coffee I can't sleep now," he sounds kind of sad.
"Your uncle is sick?" Danny asks.
"First stage of Alzheimer's, private care is expensive. He can be difficult, but he is the only one I have had for years now; he shaped me into who I am, so I can't leave him in some institution. And you? Have you got more relatives?"
At that moment, I see Trist running towards us from across the street.
"What are you doing here?" asks Danny, totally surprised. "Julius won't be happy that..."
"Dad is not around, he went in some business, and I missed you," Trist doesn't seem bothered either by the fact that he disobeyed his father or skipped school today.
Danny smiles happily, and Trist comes to sit with us. An hour later, Mae is feeding us all with her famous baked potatoes, Trist is playing darts with Pearl and Ivory, and Danny, Nick, and I are talking about stupid things like cars and football matches. It's good, especially for Danny.
He still hasn't told me about everything that happened with Brandon and Julius, but the fact that the guy who refused to leave his side literally stormed out of here yesterday in his wolf form and hasn't shown up until now makes me sure that something serious happened. Especially that Danny cried a lot after that, and both Natasha and Chen had quite serious faces.
It's peaceful, actually. Some rogues passed again by the town, but without incident; stupid pranks like painted walls don't bother me; we must only be careful of Preston. Brandon may be stuck on pack territory, but I'm sure Preston hasn't said his last word yet.
When Nick says goodbye and leaves, Danny talks a bit with Trist about his mother. He clearly cares deeply about this child, and that feeling is mutual. Trist cares about Danny too. I'm not good at reading relationships, and frankly, I don't feel like interfering in Danny's private matter, but I seem finally to understand what was happening between Julius and him.
"I heard dad speaking with Chen, that he was considering letting mother stay close to the pack and even support her so we could see each other. But he also said he couldn't be close to her because he could sense Drake's hate, but he didn't understand why. He said that when he rejected her, he wanted to kill her but couldn't because Drake was against it, and now his wolf wants to kill her. I wonder why?"
"Has your father told you why he had rejected your mother?" Danny asks, and Trist looks at the floor and stays quiet for some time before he nods.
"He told me about uncle Luke's death, but mum was stupid; she didn't kill him on purpose."
"And that's probably the only reason why she isn't dead," I say, and both of them look at me. "I may not know the details, but Trist, it doesn't matter if she did it on purpose. The result is the same, Julius's brother is dead. She may regret it and not do it intentionally, but it will not bring Luke to life."
"But you... you were a hunter, a killer, and yet you got a second chance," the kid says slowly, and Ivory stops drawing with Pearl to listen.
"I didn't get a second chance. The fact that I didn't get punished for my crimes doesn't mean those I hurt should forgive me. Just because they don't want to punish me anymore doesn't mean I could just be a part of their life. They may tolerate that I will walk past them every day, but that doesn't mean they will ever say "good day" to me."
"But do you regret? Do you regret what you did?"
"I do; not all the werewolves I killed were innocent, but none of them ever get the chance to explain themselves. I was their judge and carrier of sentences. At least I carried all sentences quickly. But there are people who scream in my dreams regularly, faces I don't recognize, who have every right to torment me. My parents never wanted me to be a hunter, and I failed them. I promised my sister I would always look after her, but I failed her. I promised my people I would keep them safe, but I failed them. I regret a lot of things, but my regret means nothing. What's done is done, but my point is, Trist, don't try to fix your mother's past; focus on the future with her."
"Do you, daddy, do you regret helping the Jewels?" Pearl suddenly asks, and I must say she took me by surprise. I thought, contrary to her sister, she hadn't listened.
"No, Pearl, that was the only completely right decision in my life, the first I have no regrets."
She smiles and comes to sit on my lap, and that's when someone knocks on our door. Aunty Mae goes to open it, and the tall, well-build young man enters. Danny almost jumps from his seat.
"Jason!" He says, totally surprised, as our guest goes to him to give him a bear hug.
Ivory growls a bit, so I'm sure that this guy has a strong wolf.
"Everybody, this is Jason Blackwood, one of the twin nephews of Alpha of my previous pack and my best friend. We grew up together."
Jason says hey, and next Danny introduces all of us, but without going into any details, just names, and next he asks:
"What are you doing here?"
"I expected you to explain that to me. Instead, Alpha Natasha called my uncle and asked him to send here a warrior for security reasons, and that it concerns your safety and not to tell your parents, so here I am."
"Natasha thought it would be better if we have an additional person at home who can fight and can detect other werewolves," Aunty Mae says. "She wanted someone from your old pack, so that wouldn't be any problem with dual allegiance. We didn't want to inform your parents, Danny, because we still think you should tell them everything yourself."
Danny sighs heavily, he clearly isn't comfortable with that, but he has to face it. Unfortunately, there is no other choice.
"Well, Trist, I will drop you close to the pack territory," Aunty Mae continues. "Terry, you can take girls to the woods so they can have a quick run but be careful, and Danny and Jason can talk in peace. Then, when I return, I figure a place for you to sleep; it's nice to have you here."
Jason nods, and I take the girls into the woods, staying away from the pack's territory, thinking about our new guest. The idea wasn't that stupid, Preston may try to do something, and I can't protect Danny without risking breaking the agreement with Natasha. Jason can serve as additional muscles and as a potential witness of my self-defense.
The Jewels in their wolf form chase each other with Doggy, which makes me smile. They look so cheerful. They roll in the grass and jump, coming from time to time to me so I can pat their heads, and although I'm happy seeing them like that, I also can't stop the sad feeling inside me. Ivory's wolf is big. Thanks to her, I know now that in wolf form, there is no way to distinguish an adult from a child, and that makes me wonder how many kids I actually killed in my life. How many of them were younger than Ivory?
Ivory starts growling slightly, and from the direction where she looks, wolves come from between the woods. But they don't come too close and don't see any signs of hostility, one shift, and I see Chen standing in front of me.
"We are not at your territory," I say quickly as Pearl runs fast to hide behind me, but Chen smirks.
"I know that, Terry. I'm here because the patrol caught your scent and wanted to ask about something."
"Something like?"
"If you don't mind going with us a couple of miles south, that's when we found it."
I think, for the moment, it's not a trap, but truth be told, they don't need to lure me into any place if they want to try to kill me. Here is sufficient enough. Plus, it's Chen who is speaking with me. Like Natasha, he is a good leader and a rather honest guy. So I agree, and we all go together; Pearl keeps close, and Ivory isn't happy, but she walks in front, probably making sure that I won't get attacked; she wants to be sure I'm safe.
The patrol's wolves keep their distance as Chen walks as a human next to me. We don't talk; what's the point? None of us are big fans of casual chit-chat about nothing. Even today, when I was with Danny and Nick, they did most of the talking.
About thirty minutes later, we step into a small clearing. From what I remember, it's close to the east border of the pack. I instantly see what got Chen's attention.
A dead animal is nailed to one of the trees; I think it's a river otter. The animal's throat was broken, and its guts were dug out and then in mas nailed to the tree by its two legs.
I gulp, coming closer because I know what that is, although I haven't seen it in years.
"At first, I would treat it as a cruel play of some teenagers, but it's too far away from main roads and too close to us, but it's also close to the water stream, and I think that whoever did this used it to make sure he won't be detected when was coming and then leaving," says Chen "But I'm also, I remember things like that. That's how you hunters communicated with each other."
I nod; that actually the truth. Because hunters can't use mindlinks during operations in deep mountains or forests, we usually left dead animals as a message. Just like this one, I understand what it means.
"It's not my doing," I say." But I understand its meaning."
"And what it means?"
"That the hunting party will start in exactly 20 days, each nailed leg means ten days, the fact that the guts were cut off means that there will be no survivors, but the fact that one of the nails is pierced through otter's heart means it's personal, it's an attack in revenge."
Chen nods as I pull myself together to tell him the most crucial detail:
"The otter means that the Nightingales will be the hunting party."