Midnight Wolves

Chapter Five: Maps

Will's text came early the next morning. It was simple, as was his style. An address and a pack name: the Nettlecomb pack. After her morning run through the forest with a few of the other Magnum pack members, she had a brief breakfast which she spent chatting to Henderson and Felicity about the old pack and any other memories they had of her parents.

It was strange, hearing the stories of her parent's before her mother's murder. She had never really considered the life they may have led before her. By all accounts, her father was the strongest wolf anyone had ever seen and he'd rescued her mother from being forced to mate with another alpha. Little did he know that her mother had her own plans in play.

"I'll never forget his face," Henderson said around the spoonful of cereal he was eating, his cheeks a bright red from laughter. "You should have seen him, he was spitting feathers!"

Felicity, eyes glistening with tears from happiness, interrupted, "months. Months, he'd been planning how he was going to save her. Always a planner, Marcus was. And just as he's about to go in there, claws blazing..."

"In she walks!" Henderson continued. "I'm your mate – are you going to claim me now or will you make we wait months for that, too?" his voice high pitched, imitating her mother.

The two wolves descended into hysterics, the joke slightly lost on Callie but it warmed her to know that they'd been happy. That her mother had been a force to be reckoned with too.

"I knew then he was in trouble. Told him as such." Henderson said.

Felicity laughed and gave him a warm look. "If I remember correctly, he swiped at you for your trouble."

He chuckled. "Yes, he did. He wouldn't have a bad word said about his mate."

"Quite rightly, too," Felicity interjected.

The she-wolf was so busy laughing that she didn't see the change in Henderson's face. It was only brief, Callie doubted anyone would have noticed it, and had she not been studying his aged features so intently while trying to work out if her father would have looked anything like him now, she'd have missed it too.

As quickly as the change came, it went, lost in the smile and laughter as he shook his head and stood to his feet. "I really do have to go, but Callie, I hope you find what you're looking for with your uncle, really I do. Your father meant a lot to me."

Callie nodded. "Thanks. So do I."

"Before you go, you must come to the shop. I'll give you some food to keep you going on your journey." Felicity said as she tidied the plates from the long dining table that occupied the main space in the community building she'd been led to this morning. A communal kitchen supplied breakfast, lunch and dinner for every member of the pack who wanted it.

"I'll be fine, I'm still stuffed from breakfast, but thank you. Besides, it's not far. Just the other side of the valley. I checked a map and it looks like it won't take more than a couple of hours to run through the valley and back up again.

Felicity's face paled and the aged woman slammed back down into her seat, a desperate hand reaching out to clutch Callie's in a fierce grip. "Whatever you do girl, do not go through the valley. Go around it, North or South is fine, but do not go through."

Callie tried to retract her hand but the woman held tight. "Why? I know I'd have to cut through another pack's territory, but I can just explain-"

"Do not go near that pack. Believe me, what roams that valley is not something you want to encounter. People go in and they don't come out. Whatever is in there is not a wolf, my girl. It's something far, far worse."

Callie shook her head in disbelief as, finally, Felicity let go of her hand. "But I thought the Magnum pack had a treaty with the Shadow Valley pack? Will came across it when he was looking into you the first time we met."

Felicity drew in a shaky breath and slowly eased herself to her feet. "That pack moved on long ago, whatever is left there...If I was you, I'd pray to the Goddess you don't encounter it."

Without another word, Felicity headed into the kitchen, leaving Callie, perplexed, at the table. Blowing out a long breath, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened up the map. "Looks like I will be needing that food."