9. Chapter 9
nine
Cyrus drank his coffee and continued reading through the paperwork.
He did his best to think about anything other than what was happening with Gabe.
If he could work with him and keep things running smoothly, that was all that mattered.
He could forget about the kiss, about their argument.
It didn’t need to matter if he…didn’t care.
Yes, that was it. All he needed to do was focus on the attacks and missing people.
Unfortunately, it was challenging to do that when Gabe was waltzing into every single room he was in.
“Anything new?” Gabe asked.
Cyrus took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was supposed to be working with Gabe. Gabe was supposed to be working with him. It was more than he could say about Liam, who had hidden this for however many weeks from Cyrus.
As frustrated as Cyrus was, at least Gabe was attempting to communicate with him about things.
“Nothing new, but, essentially, if it is the pack I think it is attacking us, then we have a big problem,” he explained, “Any attack on us breaches our agreement.”
“So, war?” Gabe asked, looking anxious.
“On a much smaller scale, but…nothing to laugh at, yes,” Cyrus said, trying to avoid looking directly into Gabe’s eyes.
Gabe folded his arms. “Where can we find this pack then?” he asked.
“…we don’t find them, I know where they are,” Cyrus told him. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go confront them yet. We don’t know for certain they are the ones that are doing this.”
“How do we find out?” he asked.
“We talk to people who were attacked and hope no one else gets attacked, but if they do, hope that something more concrete was left behind,” Cyrus told him.
Gabe nodded.
“Alright, didn’t Nina and Patrick talk to the people attacked already and said they didn’t notice much?” he asked.
“That’s what they said and what they got. We have colors of the wolves and tracks that disappear.” Cyrus rolled his eyes.
“You don’t trust that’s all?” Gabe asked.
“No, I never trust anyone completely,” Cyrus admitted.
Gabe sighed. “That explains a lot.”
“I think you’ve done plenty to show me I can’t trust you,” Cyrus said. “You came here after ten years, became Alpha, didn’t talk to me or anyone else about who you were.”
Gabe swallowed hard.
“I thought you’d remember me,” he said.
Cyrus felt his chest tighten. “I didn’t, not right away, but—you still could’ve said something, Gabe.”
Gabe stepped closer.
“Would it have made a difference?” he asked, “Would you have trusted me, given me an easier time?”
Cyrus looked down at the stack of papers on the table he had finished putting away as Gabe continued to talk.
“Would you still have kissed me back?” Gabe asked.
Cyrus felt his ears warm.
“No, maybe I wouldn’t have, maybe I would’ve, I don’t know,” Cyrus huffed. “But last night, what you said to me—”
Gabe cut him off.
“I was wrong, okay?” he said. “I was upset. I was angry that you left without saying goodbye for a long time, and…seeing you again brought it all up all over again.”
Cyrus took a slow breath and stood up from his chair, protectively folding his arms.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
Gabe swallowed hard and looked at the floor.
“I didn’t come to…do anything to you. To seek revenge, or even kiss you, that was…
not planned, at all,” Gabe insisted. “I wasn’t lying when I said, if I’m not an Alpha, I don’t know what I am.
I didn’t know what else to do with my life, and I just wanted to see if you were… alive, okay. What you were doing.”
Cyrus swallowed thickly and continued letting Gabe talk.
“I’m not a kid anymore, and…ten years is a long time to think about someone. I didn’t feel attracted to you as a kid. I felt safe; I know that’s all it was. I know you aren’t a pedophile; I should’ve never said that. That’s horrible, I feel…terrible, Cyrus,” Gabe admitted.
Cyrus blinked a few times, his throat feeling tight.
“I just wanted to protect you and your family. I could tell there was something about you that your parents didn’t like.
They didn’t take care of you the same way they took care of your older siblings, and…
I guess I understand that feeling, so we bonded,” Cyrus admitted.
“But that is all it was.” His eyes were burning.
Gabe took a slow breath. “…and me calling you that, accusing you, sullies something innocent, doesn’t it? Fuck.” He swallowed hard. “I never meant for this to happen, I just….”
Cyrus unfolded his arms and put his hands in his pockets.
“What happened?” Cyrus asked. “What led you back here?”
He didn’t believe it was about Gabe wanting to be an Alpha.
Cyrus ignored the stubbornness in him that wanted to tell him not to care, to continue with what they needed to do about their situation, and that was it; but there was a part of him that cared.
He’d cared for Gabe as he would a friend ten years before, and that pull to make sure he was okay was still there.
Even alongside whatever newfound attraction to Gabe as an adult made Cyrus feel guilty.
“My parents…rejected me,” Gabe said slowly, and Cyrus felt the pit of his stomach tighten, “When they found out I was gay three years ago. They stopped paying for college. Whatever room I had there was no longer mine. They didn’t want me anymore.”
Cyrus swallowed hard.
“I…” he faltered. “I’m sorry.”
There was a long pause.
“I only had one more year of college. I managed to get through that with loans, but…being a music major is kind of hard these days,” Gabe told him, and Cyrus blinked.
“…music major?” he asked and fought the smirk pulling at his face.
Gabe sighed, “Yes, music major Cyrus. I play violin and piano.”
“That was what your parents wanted,” Cyrus noted.
“Yeah, surprisingly, I wanted it too,” Gabe admitted. “I love music, but…I just ended up working at bars and restaurants.”
Cyrus furrowed his brow.
“Why do you feel like you’re nothing if you’re not an Alpha then?” he asked.
“You always talked about it,” Gabe admitted. “That you wanted to be…and, I was lost. I didn’t know what else to do. I wanted…want, control, or something, anything.”
Cyrus couldn’t help but laugh once.
“So wait a fucking minute, you knew I wanted to be Alpha and still fought Liam?” he asked. “What the fuck would you have done if I was already Alpha? If I was Alpha, would you have fought me?”
Gabe looked pink in the face.
“I know, I… Don’t know. It wasn’t exactly the most thought-out plan. I was desperate,” Gabe admitted.
Cyrus growled softly. “You’re Alpha right now because you were desperate, after…ten years, of knowing it was what I wanted.” His jaw tightened. “And I thought I was selfish.”
Cyrus took a deep breath and stepped toward the door.
“Wait, Cyrus,” Gabe started. “I’m sorry, but…we need to keep working on what to do about the attacks.”
Cyrus stopped in the doorway.
“I’m going eat lunch, and then we can head out to talk to some of the victims.” Cyrus turned to look at Gabe. “If that’s okay with you, Alpha.” He glared.
Another hour later, Cyrus was leading Gabe to his car to head over to a few of the victims’ houses in the nearby towns.
“That’ll probably take up the whole day,” Cyrus mused as he started the car and then put his seatbelt on. He waited barely for Gabe to get his own before pulling the car back.
He felt like he was leading Gabe again, but he wasn’t sure he minded. Especially not knowing what he knew about him and why he was there. It was difficult to feel bad for not giving him the reins with what he had done to Cyrus, even if there was nothing he could do about him being Alpha now.
“You got the list of names and some questions to ask,” Cyrus told Gabe as he tossed him the little notepad with his messy scrawl on it.
Gabe looked over at him from the passenger side seat as he picked it up from his lap.
“So you’re going to let me lead?” Gabe asked.
“You wanted to be Alpha, you got it,” Cyrus mumbled and turned down the dirt road they’d be traveling on for at least fifteen minutes before there was even another turn.
The drive was long and tedious. It felt even longer than usual, and the silence between the men was deafening. Cyrus finally reached over and turned on the radio, some classic rock coming through the speakers.
It was a good distraction for the first fifteen or twenty minutes, but as Cyrus was starting to get used to it, Gabe opened his mouth again.
“Are you gonna tell me what other pack you’re suspecting?” he asked, “All this conjecture, and you still haven’t told me.”
Cyrus sighed. “The other pack takes up the three districts below us, the Lotuslacker pack.”
“Do they have fewer people than us?” Gabe asked.
“No, a dozen or so more,” Cyrus replied. “I guess that there’s a new Alpha, and they’re looking to take on some new districts.”
“But you’re not certain,” Gabe noted.
“No, and I don’t think we should jump in ready to accuse them of anything without more information,” Cyrus said.
“Huh, I’d picture you for the shoot now. Ask questions later type,” Gabe admitted.
“Yeah, well, let’s say you eventually learn your lesson with that,” Cyrus mumbled as he finally pulled into the town.
The first road into town was lined with a diner, auto repair shop, gas station and quickie mart, and an old motel 6.
The further you got into the city, the more houses, few apartment buildings, parks, schools, and churches you saw.
People were walking about with their dogs and strollers.
It wasn’t a massive town, a population of maybe two thousand altogether, with many people living off in the woods to either side.
The western section of the forest was primarily empty but for the pack house and a couple of other houses owned by Weres or were-allies.
The pack did its best to keep humans from living in too close proximity to where they shifted.
It was much easier in the middle of nowhere than in the city.