A/N: Thank you so much for bearing with my haphazard updates and continuing to stick with this story. I love reading everyone's comments! You all make my day. :)
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The night of November 8th:
Avi watched Alex negotiate with Kirstie, a knot of anticipation building in his stomach.
The pack leader, understandably, was not happy with him. Technically, the werewolf on daywatch was supposed to report anything suspicious immediately. Instead of reporting to Chief Alex, Avi had instead woken up Scott, and of course they'd done something even worse than fail to report the humans: they'd gone and had a conversation with them.
At nightfall, when Avi and Scott were approaching the werewolf camp, they'd heard screams. Scott tore off while Avi remained in place, conflicted. The werewolf camp quickly came to life, and many of the pack got up and ran towards the border, eager to figure out what was going on. Still Avi had hesitated, until Chief Alex approached him, a snarl on his face and his guards at his sides. "I don't know what's happening, but you better have a pretty good explanation in about fifteen minutes," the pack leader had snapped. Avi had walked dejectedly with him towards the border.
Now, Avi watched as the chief turned around and stalked towards the woods, his face morphing from pleasant to furious. Avi gulped, then cried out in surprise as Alex grabbed his arm and started to drag him deeper into the woods. He was surprised at the chief's attitude - Alex could be strict, sure, but he was generally a fair person.
Avi's back hit a tree hard as Alex shoved him forward. The chief thrust a finger in the bass's face, then moved it back to point in the direction of the road. "I want the full story, now," he hissed.
Avi was tempted to run, but he spotted a couple of Chief Alex's guards over his shoulder. Even if Avi did somehow escape, where would he go? Becoming a rogue werewolf was almost worse than staying in the pack, even if the leader hated him. And given the inherent rivalry between werewolves and vampires, staying with Kirstie and Mitch wasn't an option either.
The only option: the truth.
Avi quickly searched his memory for the information Alex wanted to hear. The chief, of course, didn't know about how he and Scott had been meeting the vampires, and Avi intended to keep it that way. There was no need to make the man even more angry. He decided to confine his story to the events of the day.
Keeping his eyes lowered, Avi described how he had spotted the humans, how they'd spotted him, and their brief conversation. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, he left Scott out of his account. There was no need to get him in trouble, too.
Avi could practically feel Alex seething across from him, but the chief didn't directly let out his anger. When he spoke, he spoke softly, his words intense.
"Do you realize what we've lost tonight, Kaplan?" Alex asked.
Avi risked a glance up at the chief's eyes and found that they were furious. He quickly looked back down. Thankfully, Alex didn't wait for an answer.
"We've lost possible recruits. We've lost face. We've lost the high ground. Now those - vampires - " - he spat the word in disgust - " - think they have the edge on us. They think they're more powerful. All because you shirked your duty so you could chat with humans."
Avi waited, knowing more was coming. He kept his cool on the outside, even though his insides were filled with panic.
Alex took a step forward, so that he loomed over Avi. "Tell me," he commanded. "Did you think your job so unimportant? Do you realize what you've done?"
"No, sir," Avi murmured, head bowed.
Alex spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. "The humans would have been ours," he said. "We would have converted them to the pack. The vampires would never have had their blood. The bloodsuckers would still be weak. We would be stronger."
For some reason, the thought of converting the humans churned Avi's stomach. Sure, the pack had done it many times, usually whenever there was a death in the pack or when they ran across someone willing. They usually bit children - kids who wouldn't remember their past lives or be able to miss them. Sometimes they converted adults with open minds and lost souls who were finding new paths in life.
It would be wrong to convert those two humans - Esther and Kevin. They had a purpose, goals. Avi recognized almost for the first time how becoming a werewolf could alter all that, change the entire course of someone's life. It sounded...horrible.
But there was another reason the thought of converting those particular humans bugged Avi. It was that nagging feeling that had plagued him since he'd met Esther; he was almost positive he knew her, knew her more than he would a stranger he'd happened to spot twice. Avi felt as if he'd seen her more than twice - and yet not at all.
A hand smacked across Avi's face, shocking him back to reality. He had never - never - seen Alex anywhere near this furious.
"Are you paying attention, Kaplan?" the chief growled.
Avi blinked, determined to keep his cool. Alex backed off a bit and composed himself. "You will be confined to the camp for the next week as punishment. One of the women will hunt for you. If you move from the camp, you will be expelled from the pack immediately."
Before Avi could react, protest, the chief morphed into a wolf and trotted away, half of the guards coming with him. Half remained with Avi. One grabbed his arm and started to pull him towards the werewolf camp.
Avi shot a dejected glance towards the border. Even if he did know Esther, somehow, he wouldn't be able to find out now.