8. Chapter 8
eight
“Why wouldn’t Liam tell you any of this?” Lily asked as Cyrus stood between her, Gabe, and Tatiana in his bedroom.
He growled softly. “Because he was an ass who wanted to take care of things himself.”
Tatiana opened her mouth slightly, but Cyrus glared at her. She closed her mouth and smirked for a second, but then her face returned to its former concerned state.
“What are we going to tell the others?” Tatiana asked, and her gaze shifted to Gabe.
Gabe looked as confused.
“I…” He opened his mouth but shook his head. “I guess we have to tell them about it, make sure no one goes into the woods alone and tries not to…split up?” he sounded uncertain.
Cyrus nodded. “That’s about all we can do right now, but…this feels familiar, doesn’t it?” he asked Tatiana and Lily.
Lily’s brow furrowed. “Should it?” she asked.
Cyrus sighed. “You might’ve been too young but something similar happened when we were kids.”
“A hunter targeting Weres?” Gabe asked.
“No, not just Weres but our pack specifically,” Cyrus said and looked around for a moment. “I don’t want to get anyone panicking but, Gabe, you need to tell those here, we need to send messages out to others until we can figure out more information.”
He started toward his bedroom door and turned the handle.
“What about what you were saying about what happened when you were a kid?” Gabe asked.
“I don’t want to go too far with that until I know more about it. What I remember is…mostly the attacks,” Cyrus explained.
“He doesn’t want to jump to conclusions…strange,” Lily teased, but her eyes were full of anxiety.
Cyrus rolled his eyes and headed out of the room.
When he got downstairs, the pizza and pasta had arrived, and everyone was already digging it.
Cyrus wasted no time doing the same; he needed to get some food in his stomach to think with a clear head, especially if he would try and do some research into what had happened when he was a kid.
Several days had passed. The news of the attacks and missing persons happening for several weeks gave Cyrus a good bit of distraction from what was going on with Gabe. If he was sincere, he avoided him a bit; but at least he was looking into the past.
Several stacks of files were needed to look through, journal entries from the Alpha at the time.
He was all but trapped in the library for the last few days, he knew it would be a matter of time before Gabe came to bother him, but he was glued to his laptop, the files, and whatever food Lily managed to convince him to eat.
However, as he sat in the library at half after midnight all alone, and footsteps came from his left side, he was hoping to God it wasn’t Gabe.
“How’s it going?” Gabe asked.
Cyrus sighed.
“A lot of words written to describe a straightforward situation,” he replied. “But I don’t want to miss anything skimming.”
Gabe sat down in the seat across from him and looked at the papers. There was a long pause of silence.
“So, are you going to tell me any of it?” he asked.
Cyrus narrowed his eyes. “You could read it yourself, Alpha,” he told him.
Gabe’s expression hardened. “Let me reword that. Tell me what you’ve read.” His voice lowered.
Cyrus felt goosebumps rise along his neck and shoulders. Despite a stubborn voice in his head telling him to do what he wanted, he spoke.
“About twenty-five years ago, another pack began attacking ours. It wasn’t sneaky like what’s happening now. It was a lot more in the open, very obvious clues left, and they made it clear what they wanted. Us,” Cyrus told him.
Gabe blinked. “…like the pack?”
Cyrus nodded. “Their Alpha wanted to show us what they could do, hoping we would submit, and they could take over our then two districts that our pack spanned.”
Gabe leaned back in his chair.
“What happened?”
“It took several months of back and forth argument between the Alpha’s, but eventually from what I read, their Alpha was overthrown during a blood moon in the middle of all this, and the new Alpha didn’t have the same desires as him.
Made it clear anyone who wanted to continue the violence would be severely punished, and…
A peace treaty was made,” Cyrus explained.
Gabe nodded. “I see. Do all packs have treaties with each other?” he asked.
“…not, all, like we don’t have a treaty with a pack in California, because they’re so far from us nothing either of us does is likely to affect the other, but, districts surrounding each other have treaties of peace and decide how each pack acts and their safety in that district.
Sometimes you’re safe no matter what in a district, whether you’re in the pack or not, and sometimes your privilege in a district is limited,” Cyrus said.
“Our districts are known safe zones. The complex I work at houses Weres, not only werewolves, while they visit our district, whether for work or otherwise; but, you can’t live for longer than a year in our districts without becoming part of the pack. ”
Gabe nodded and leaned forward, placing his forearms on his knees.
“If you—we, had two districts back then, how many districts make up the pack now?” he asked.
“Four,” Cyrus told him.
Gabe blinked. “That seems like a lot,” he exhaled. “How many wolves is that?”
Cyrus chuckled tiredly. “It’s not as many as you think, it spans four districts which hold…
six cities, it’s a lot for a pack in general, but two of the areas are even more rural than this, and there are only a dozen wolves in each, our district with its two connecting towns, holds the most wolves, thirty.
In total, there are—last I heard—ninety-six wolves in our district. ”
“That’s considered not a lot?” he asked.
“Some districts have upward of several hundred,” Cyrus told him.
“…and one Alpha handles all of them?” Gabe asked, looking a bit pale.
“Technically, yeah…and their second command, inner circle. Those they trust to maintain things when they can’t be in every place at once,” Cyrus said as he leaned back in his chair and raked his fingers through his hair.
Gabe nodded.
“How…exactly did we get two more districts when we only had two twenty-five years ago?” he asked.
“They two districts we have now belonged to another pack, their Alpha died, not in a blood moon ritual. He had an agreement with the Alpha of this pack at the time that the districts would go to us; he knew he was dying, no one else did but his second to avoid uproar before it happened.” Cyrus sighed.
Gabe nodded and exhaled a heavy breath.
“Wow, this is… a lot,” he mumbled.
Cyrus scoffed. “You didn’t think about what before you challenge Liam?” he asked. “You’re the head of eight-six lives, well…less if Liam didn’t tell me about the damn missing persons. We’re down about seven.” He cursed under his breath.
Silence in the room lasted far longer than Cyrus was comfortable with, especially with Gabe sitting there.
As Cyrus was about to get back to reading over the treaty made, Gabe spoke.
“Why did you leave?” he asked suddenly.
Cyrus blinked.
“What?” he asked, his throat tight.
Gabe said slowly, “…you don’t remember?” he asked, looking desperate.
Cyrus swallowed hard. He knew he couldn’t avoid it anymore.
“I worked as a hired guard for the Sinclair’s, twelve years ago,” he said slowly. “For two years, until ten years ago. You were….”
He looked at the ceiling for a moment, finding himself struggling to place him in that setting from so many years ago.
“Thirteen when I started, and fifteen when I left,” he said slowly, looking back down at Gabe.
“So you do remember,” Gabe huffed. “You let me think you didn’t this whole time?”
Cyrus’s jaw tightened. “And you didn’t say anything to me either. You waltzed into the ritual and became Alpha. Didn’t tell me or anyone else who you were, that you’d been part of the pack before,” he said.
Gabe exhaled slowly. “…My parents moved me to Michigan a couple of months after you left,” he said.
Cyrus started to open his mouth, but Gabe stood up from his chair and started talking again.
“You took care of my family, of me. You were the only person who didn’t make me feel like I was doing something wrong. You taught me how to hunt.” Gabe looked shaky.
Cyrus stood up from his chair. Feeling dizzy himself, he was tired after all.
“I was hired to be there, Gabe,” he told him. “I did—”
“You were my only friend, and you left!” Gabe huffed at him.
Cyrus’s hands balled into fists. “I didn’t have a choice but to leave.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gabe asked. “I was fifteen. You were like my family. You didn’t even say goodbye.”
Cyrus swallowed hard. “…I didn’t have a choice.
” He took a slow breath. “And we were so much like family, why did you kiss me?” he asked, and his face contorted for a moment.
“What, did you have a crush on me as a kid and think you could come back here, and get some revenge on me?” His chest and stomach were tight.
Gabe’s face turned pink.
“Maybe I just wanted to see what happened to you!” Gabe told him. “Did you like me? Was that why you left? My parents found you were a—”
Cyrus rounded the table and had his hands on Gabe’s shoulders quickly.
“How fucking dare you accuse me of being a pedophile,” he growled. “I cared about you, as someone I was meant to protect, as part of this pack. I would never….” Cyrus felt his eyes start burning, and he pulled away from Gabe, nearly stumbling over the table.
Gabe’s face suddenly fell.
“No, I.” His breath hitched. “I didn’t mean….”
“Oh, you meant it.” Cyrus’s throat tightened. “Don’t ever say that shit to me again. I’m bisexual, not evil, I would never…” His hands were shaky.“Don’t you dare. Compare me to someone who…”
Gabe blinked. “What happened?” he asked and moved quickly. “Did something to y—”
Cyrus stepped back even further, moving behind the chair. “Leave me alone,” he said and started to head out of the room.
“Cyrus, wait!” Gabe begged him.
Cyrus turned around, feeling like his whole body was one big knot of tension.