APEX - Season 2

Ch. 3: The Lucky Seven

Rhys

Caution doesn't always yield results. I wasn't a reckless man, but I did have a side of me that wouldn't back down even when cooler heads were telling me to. What could I say? I was a werewolf. Werewolves acted on instinct. It took us a great deal of self-discipline to reign in our primal natures.

Sometimes, instinct felt like the better path, even if that path was a treacherous one. This is how I found myself on a rainy fall night, sitting outside of a pub on the northern border of Apex listening to raindrops beat against my rental car's roof, waiting for Henry Fowling, city councilman, to exit.

The path that had led me to Councilman Fowling began one day earlier during a conversation with one of those cooler heads, Detective Devereux Kim, who was—not so surprisingly—urging caution.

"I'm sensing a desire for you to go atomic, Rhys," He told me over Facetime. "Do not go atomic."

This advice came after I'd asked him for any information he could give to me on Humankind First, the organization that was trying to use Calla's former best friend to pin her disappearance on Aamon or me. They hated werewolves and had spread their sentiment to Vicki, who, if her story could be believed, was vulnerable after being traumatized by a deranged member of my pack. How much of her story was genuine, and how much of it was cooked up by Humankind First members I'd yet to determine. One thing was for sure, however: Vicki's speech wasn't doing Apex's already precarious reputation any favors.

My father had doubled our security, a fact known to Dev, which meant that when he followed up his atomic statement with "I'm just trying to look out for you, Rhys," he had genuine reason to fear for my safety. And Aamon's. And Calla's.

Calla. I couldn't imagine the betrayal she must feel. To have someone who had once been your closest confidant turn on you so fully must be a terrible blow. I wanted more than anything to comfort her, but that wasn't an option. She'd made it clear at our meeting that she wasn't in the mood for any of my bullshit, and then she'd left with the four bodyguards her mother had assigned to her and hadn't come back.

Not that I'd done anything wrong, but I still understood why she was pulling away. Vicki's words cut deep, and some of those deep cuts were made to accuse Aamon and me of a crime. If I was to ever be in her good graces, I had to bring something to her. A clue, a ray of hope, the leader of Humankind First's head on a pike.

She'd probably disapprove of that last one, but I wanted to think if I said it to her as a joke, I'd get her to laugh.

"I get it, Dev. I'm in danger. Every werewolf in Sury is. I'm not planning on waging battle. I just need something, anything. Something to bring back to Calla to prove that the Rawlings aren't just sitting on this. That I'm not trying to cover for someone in my pack who might have set her friend on this anti-werewolf course."

Dev threw his hands up, giving me a view of the ceiling of his office.

"Do you mind keeping your phone steady? Or turn your video off. You're going to make me nauseous."

"And you're going to make me stop for a couple of stiff drinks on my way home." He let out a long sigh. "What do you want from me, Rhys? It's an ongoing investigation. There's only so much I can reveal."

"When did you decide you should be on your high horse?" I asked him. "You've shared information with me before."

"This is different."

"How so?"

"It involves your family, for starters."

"No, it doesn't. Aamon and I couldn't have done this."