"Hey! Who's there?" A pack guard started walking towards our direction, about to alert his colleagues. He took out his whistle and was just about to blow to draw the attention of others, when the elder, who was yet to tell me his name, quickly hid me behind him. He then made a familiar identity sound of the pack. A sound that is used to identify with each pack member, to let them know they are from the same pack and not strangers, just in case they meet in an unfamiliar environment and are not able to recognize each other due to any obstacle.
Seeing that it was an elderly man, the pack guard halted in his actions, as the elder was waving at him, to discourage him from blowing the whistle. An enemy would try to run away or panic after getting caught, so the guard felt maybe there was no need to sound the alarm, at least for the meantime as the elder didn't seem to pose any threat.
"What are you doing outside by this time of the night sir? And you are not in your wolf form. As a human, you should be fast asleep by now for your health's sake."
Feigning sickness, the elderly man allowed the guard to see me, though my long hair was just enough to cover some part of my face, making it hard for the guard to recognize me. I had undone my formerly packed up hair and allowed the curls to flow freely, partially covering my face. Although I was scarce in the pack anyway, not many of the pack members knew me after all.
"I suddenly felt a terrible movement in my tummy and felt like vomiting and using the toilet at the same time. The bathroom door was mistakenly locked with it's key removed by my silly daughter here, so she had no other choice but to assist me out of the house so that I don't make a mess right there in my bed. I had a sudden difficulty in walking and she had to guide and assist me outside to a nearby bush to free myself."
The guard studied us for sometime, not giving any impression whether he believed the elderly man's explanation or not.
To our greatest fear, a different guard was seemingly approaching us with his torchlight from a distance, while we were waiting for this particular guard to give his verdict, whether he believed the lie or not.
"Is that so? Very well then. Your daughter is old enough to be that careless, but no one is above mistake I guess. Though I want to believe you because I can't see any other reason why an elderly man like you will be out this late at night, but we still have to follow protocols which as a member of this pack, you should already be aware of. I can't go and check where you allegedly went to dispose your waste products, but as long as you are a pack member, I don't see any threat. But still, forgive me for I have to search you both, to make sure all is clear and good. Hope I have your permissions?"
We nodded and he quickly searched us both, not taking up to two minutes as his colleague kept getting closer.
"Hey! What's going on over there?"
"Nothing much. Just a sick elder and his careless daughter coming out at night to use the bushes, due to their misplaced bathroom key."
The colleague halted his movement towards us after getting more than halfway close to us. I swear, that guy was very familiar with my face and would have easily recognized me if he had gotten any closer. I had my lucky stars to thank. I wanted to remain as discreet as possible in this pack till I've gotten what I came here for and then I can leave again for good.
"Alright, all clear. You may both go back in and please, be careful next time little girl, will you? I don't want word to get to the Alpha because he will definitely investigate deeper into this matter, in case of next time."
The guard said cynically as we hurried towards the elderly man's home.
On reaching his door, it was locked. Thankfully he had a spare key so he opened the door with it. On getting in, his wife and grandchild were sleeping peacefully. I had a question to ask about the mother of the child but it was of little concern at this moment. I didn't want to delay in getting out of this pack for good, once I've gotten what I came back here for. The elderly man had said since I was not interested in joining the pack's warriors selection, I had to remain hidden for the few days we need to investigate the matter concerning the truth about my parents death. I passed the night in a different bedroom, hoping for morning to come as soon as possible.
The next morning, the elder introduced himself as Daniel. His wife was friendly and accomodating. I heard that Alpha Kol's father, the former Alpha of the pack, was guilty of some serious crimes against a rival pack, which had also led to his death and the occasional attack of rogues sent by someone we didn't know. Alpha Kol was currently planning on how to ensure such unexpected attacks doesn't catch the pack unaware in the future. There were even rumours of a planned attack again, hence the reason the elder, Mr. Daniel, wanted me to stay and join the pack's warriors. I couldn't help defend a pack that doesn't welcome me, doesn't want me, sees me as a weakling and lazy useless fellow. Only Renee and some very few persons recognized my innocence, importance and appreciated me here. I guess Alpha Kol will have to pay for the sins of his father eventually.
"Who am I sir?" I asked the elder after we have just finished eating breakfast.
"You are who you are, Katerina."
"No, I mean, my wolf. Are rogues actually scared of it? What's up with it?"
"That's a question no ordinary shifter can answer, Katerina. It's for the wolf gods to answer because me personally, I see your wolf form as normal. As for why rogues are afraid of it, I really can't explain. No one can explain that. But I think it's a blessing you have."
"A blessing from the wolf gods?" I asked in surprise.
"I guess so. You see, rogues are normally afraid of only the Alpha of a pack, because the Alpha is supposed to be the strongest and have an army of pack warriors and guards under his command. The Alpha exudes dominance and untold strength, enough to scare away any rogue or ordinary shifter like myself. The Alpha's strong wolf form can scare rogues or ordinary werewolves, but not to the point of making them run away like cowards, the way yours did. So it's a very strange thing that can't be explained by any shifter. And that is why the Alpha laughed at you and felt the rogues only ran away because of how ugly your wolf form is, which isn't true or reasonable."
'No one can explain to me' I thought to myself. Well, that wasn't the pressing issue right now.
"Let's just get to see the records and proceed with the investigation about my parents' death for now. That's what brought me back here and the most important thing now."
"Very well then. But like I said before, these records can only give you an insight, a clue, to tracing and eventually finding out the truth of how your parents actually died. They were stolen by a traitor from the rival pack that attacked us during that war. Everything was recorded after the war for whatever purpose, and these records were stolen from the rival pack and given to my late friend who was among our pack warriors back then, who then handed them to me and told me never to show it to anyone. He was later killed in battle few years ago."
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that. But why haven't you shown them to the Alpha or to me all these while that everyone thought I actually killed my parents?"
"Like I said earlier, it makes no difference. There's not enough evidence in the records to absolutely certify that you are innocent. There's still a lot of things to find out, a lot of tracing to do, a lot of investigations to carry out on your part. There are no witnesses, no further concrete proofs. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying. Everything in the records still suggests you must have killed your parents by yourself. But it will take only a very smart person to have the slightest doubt and wait for further proofs to confirm anything. Information in these records are but only a starting point for you to begin your investigation, but trust me, as a smart person that I believe you are, it will be more than enough for you to understand that something is fishy and it will make your investigation and tracing easy to be able to know the actual culprit. Although, whoever set you up did a clean job."
"Okay. But you should have tried to show the Alpha, the pack members. You know how badly I've been accused in this pack. Why didn't you show them all these while?"
"Listen, Katerina. Out of millions, there can be only one person that will go through these records and not still have the opinion that you are actually the one that killed your parents. If the pack members can accuse you with the less than sufficient information they have about your parents' death, what makes you think if they go through these records, they won't stone you to death instantly? I didn't want that for you. I knew they are all irrational beings and coupled with their natural hatred for you, you would have been sentenced to a horrible death by the Alpha long ago, so I had to hide these records from everyone, not even my wife has seen them. The information in the records suggests clearly that you actually killed your parents. In fact, it has more details that shows how you intentionally killed your parents, which is not true. I guess you now understand my point? The culprit did a clean job."
I nodded as Mr. Daniel stood up to find the records.