by Lou Grimes
“I’ll ask first, but what if they say no?” Louvette wondered.
“Then you might find out a good reason as to why they haven’t told her,” Arsen answered. At that time, Garrett walked up to them on cue, like he knew that they were talking about his girl.
“Doesn’t it bother you that Cara doesn’t know, Garratt?” Louvette asked freely. There was no need to hide her feelings toward the subject since Garrett had seen her shift.
“Honestly, yes. But you don’t want to step on the Rivers’ toes. They can be a bit difficult and I’d like to keep dating her,” Garrett said in kind. The rest of Arsen’s boy band showed up after that. They didn’t give her a second look. They must have just assumed she was here because Arsen had invited her.
***
Music started playing, psyching everyone up for the night and the hunt. The music was joyous mountain fiddle music which was appropriate for the current location and dancing.
“Will you dance with me?” Arsen asked like an eighth grader at his first school dance. He extended his hand to her.
“Always,” Louvette promised as she placed her hand into his.
Twirling around the dance floor, they laughed so hard their ribs ached. As they completed another turn, Louvette caught sight of Emily Bonesteel glaring from the crowd. Louvette chose to concentrate on what was in front of her instead of giving Bonesteel’s pettiness a second thought.
Arsen tempted Louvette into dancing more than a few more times.
While they were dancing, people set up a buffet style dinner. All kinds of cooked meats in warmers, fruit, bread, and cheeses lined the tables. The dinner was the perfect choice for a pack of Lupine, so that they kept going back for more.
Later on, after several rounds of eating, the vast majority of them gathered around the rustic podium that the band had been playing on previously.
Louvette watched Mr. Whitecreek begin walking to the stage, stopping to talk to a handful of people as he progressed. One he reached the steps, Louvette prepared herself, squaring her body up to stand taller. This is it, she thought. Arsen noticed what her attention was on and gave her hand an almost bone crushing squeeze.
“Everyone listen up. The hunt’s about to start. Ladies and kids are inside for some games after Kenneth’s speech,” called a muscled man Louvette had never seen, rallying everyone up. More and more people filtered in around them.
Louvette didn’t move, earning a couple of odd looks from the surrounding pack members nearby. There were no Blackwoods here to indicate her reason for coming. Her hands in her pockets, she looked them in the eye, daring them to speak. None did. Probably none would, especially since Arsen was constantly at her side, inadvertently standing guard.
“Good evening, family,” Mr. Whitecreek greeted when he finally spoke. Everyone turned their attention to Arsen’s father.
“Yesterday, a hired private investigator wrongfully shot one of our own,” Mr. Whitecreek revealed. There were murmurs of outrage, growls, and snarls through the crowd.
“That isn’t the reason I called you here. That man was handled appropriately for his crimes. The remaining members of their party have been called home,” he said.
Cheers erupted through the crowd of people. The vast majority of the ones that cheered were men, but the rest for the most part clapped at Mr. Whitecreek’s words.
Mr. Whitecreek waved his hand in a “come here” motion to Arsen and Louvette. They followed his instruction, leisurely slipping through the crowd, and waited at the steps for him to finish.
“No, the reason that you’ve been called here today is that soon some people will start asking some confusing questions from members of this pack and I want you to be able to keep the secret that we must all bear,” Mr. Whitecreek warned solemnly. Guilt filled Louvette for putting them and their families at risk because of what she was, but she really didn’t have a choice. People would find out sooner or later. It was better to be able to choose the time. That way she wasn’t caught unawares.
“The member that was shot is Louvette Blackwood. Those of you who were at the treaty meeting with the Southwest Pack already know this and what else I’m about tell you guys. They have kept it a secret until now, but I have decided to openly tell the rest of you,” he informed them, casting a glace around the pack. He was inspecting each and every one for their reactions.
“She’s a girl, though. How is she a Lupine?” a man in the crowd asked.
“We don’t really have a clue, but we intend to find out,” Mr. Whitecreek said to the crowd. His words of finding out why she was a Lupine went straight to her heart. Louvette sent him a look of thanks.
“Why was she shot? She’s just a kid,” a voice questioned, getting Arsen’s father off topic.
“She killed a rogue and hid the body, not following the proper protocol of reporting a rogue’s death to take care of this matter. The investigators came after her to find out why she did it, then tried to lock her up in a cage and use her for their own personal gain,” Mr. Whitecreek revealed to them.
“How was she strong enough to kill a rogue?” another voiced called out. Everyone was demanding to know the details of what happened, and they weren’t going to give Arsen’s father enough time to say what he had to say.
He turned to face her, sizing her up as she looked back at him. Whitecreek was going to settle this right on the spot. She just didn’t have an inkling on how he planned to do it.
“Louvette, I think a demonstration is best in this situation,” Mr. Whitecreek said to her. The rest of the pack members watched out of confusion.
Louvette blinked, not expecting that, but rationally it was the easiest and most believable method to do this. She had demanded the exact same thing from Arsen when he had first told her of Lupine. Arsen bumped her shoulder, breaking the spell.
She nodded and moved away from the people. She hated shifting in front of an audience like a circus act. However, if she was going to do it, she was going to do it right.
Louvette took a couple steps at a run and then changed on the fly like she had seen Arsen do. Thankfully, she managed to land gracefully.
The white wolf turned back to the people, hackles slightly raised. Louvette’s eyes trailed to Emily Bonesteel again. She looked even more livid than ever before. She knew she’d have to watch her back with Emily because of the insanely deep jealousy evident in her eyes. Not only had Arsen picked Louvette, but Louvette was just like Arsen.
“You didn’t warn me that she was so white,” Arsen’s dad said to his son, watching her wolf’s feet dance around in anticipation. They were all asking Mr. Whitecreek questions about how she was here. There was plenty of time for questions later, but right after all the bed rest, the only thing she desire was to run. Her small ears twitched at the sudden conversation. Louvette took this prime opportunity to slip for the door that led to the forest.
“She’s an Artic wolf,” Arsen pointed out. He shifted, chasing after her.
***
Louvette was worn out that Sunday night when she was unpacking from the hunting trip. She paused for a break. Her eyes lingered on the floor compartment containing Arsen’s papers. From the lack of sounds downstairs, her mother had long been asleep.
She decided that this was a best time as any to check and see if she had missed anything about her father or grandfather in those papers about packs.
While she was grabbing out all the papers, one kindergarten cut out fell out of the bundle and slipped through the wide floorboards in the compartment. Louvette’s eyes rolled out of exasperation, remembering Arsen’s words about his mother saving everything. She didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot, especially since she had never met the woman. From Arsen dropping hints about Thanksgiving dinner, she was going to get that handmade wolf cutout back.
She grasped each wooden board lining the cubby hole to check for a loose one. If there wasn’t one, she’d go find a pry bar if she had to. Most were tight, but one came out like nothing was nai
ling it down. She placed the board beside her, noticing that there was something else in the new hiding spot besides Arsen’s artwork. The next one was just as easy as the one before. She laid it beside the other floor piece.
Louvette had discovered another compartment deeper than the first one. Arsen’s cut out laid on a wooden box. She grabbed that first, disturbing the dust around it.
She pulled a dusty old wooden box out of the secret spot. The box had a series of intricate carvings on it. Her hands went to open it but stilled as if to figure out if this was a good idea or not, like opening Pandora’s box. She didn’t know what she was going to get. There could be nothing. There could be proof that her father was kicking back on a beach. There could be proof that he was dead.
She opened it. The contents of the box contained tons of more dust to be sure, but also an old journal, a couple of pictures, and a necklace that had a silver moon pendant attached. It was too girly to be a man’s.
Tears came to her eyes when she realized who was in those pictures. It was her pregnant mother and Declan, smiling happily back at the camera. The deep love between them was evident from the body language alone.
Next, Louvette grabbed the silver moon pendant. It was beautifully simple. The rope holding it was braided in a thick style that she had never seen before. Maybe it was supposed to be a present for her mother that Declan was never able to give her. It made her heart hurt thinking that it had just laid in the box forgotten all this time. She sighed the negative thoughts away and placed it back in the box.
Lastly, she leafed through a journal. She could kind of decipher the chaotic handwriting that was sprawled across the unlined pages, picking up enough words to figure out that a guy had written this. More specially, Declan had written this. Louvette landed on the last entry with the date of almost 17 years ago.
Dear Journal,
We keep getting reports of violent wolf attacks along the Eastland Pack Territory, but Whitecreek won’t listen to me. I can’t help but feel like someone has to check it out. Me and Thomas are going to the quadrant later today to make sure everything is okay. I hope I’m back in time for Sarah’s doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. We are finding out the gender. I can’t wait. She swears it’s a boy. A Blackwood male to pass along the name and the wolf would be great. However, there’s plenty of time for boys later. For some reason, I have this nagging feeling that it will be a girl. I had this moon necklace custom made for her. I’m going to give her it after the gender reveal.
-DB
Her dream came flooding back to her. The one where the brown wolf left his friend to die. Everything in her heart was telling her that the one left to die was her father. She wondered what kind of coat Thomas’s wolf had. As crazy as it was, her dreams seemed to be turning out to be more real than not. There were some discrepancies between them, so she wasn’t about to run down the streets of Whitefish crying murder.
Louvette was overcome from horror when she realized that she might have potentially pushed her mother toward the man who might have killed he first man she loved. They were going on dates constantly. Louvette wondered what might have been Thomas’s motive. They even had a family game night planned next weekend that Arsen and Cara had been invited to.
Arsen’s word about not trusting Thomas Hollows came back to her again. In the moment, she had thought it was more of a “don’t trust anyone” kind of rule. However, now she wasn’t so sure that was true. She needed to talk to Arsen first, she thought shakily as she stuffed the evidence back into the box and re-hid it where it had been for the last seventeen years her life. A continuous collection of dirt and dust bunnies.
She grabbed the phone and sent out her S.O.S in the hopes that he could calm her racing mind.
Louvette turned up her volume and waited for his answer. Her hand tenderly picked up the necklace that lay forgotten near the box, hesitating. Declan had wanted her in his life. He was excited for her to be a girl. She adjusted it to fit and slipped it around her neck where it should have been all her life.
THE END