Becoming the Luna

"I told you so." Mae shakes her head, settling in beside Shana.

Shana looks lost. "B-But… I thought you liked milk?"

"Yeah but not with sandwiches and soup." I reply.

Luke looks like he's choking on his food, cheeks extended in laughter.

"Hi, Dale, Virgil! I wasn't expecting you guys." I greet them, putting my phone in a pocket.

"It was a last minute decision." Virgil says, sitting at an angle that puts him in my line of sight even though this distances him from the rest a bit.

Dale places his tray at the spot beside Luke and walks back in my direction. "You walked right out of a fucking important meeting." Dale accuses him.

"Says the one that followed me." He mumbles, getting started on his salad.

Dale just walks behind my chair and leans over me to place a quick upside down kiss on my lips, going back to his seat with a really casual air that's at odds with his recent action.

I slap my hands over my ears, looking up to see Virgil staring right at me with an unreadable expression.

"I came along to bring you back." Dale shrugs, sliding gracefully into his seat.

"No kidding, how did that work out for you?" Virgil asks with heavy doses of sarcasm.

Dale just keeps his gaze down, refusing to be goaded.

"What was the important meeting about?" Shana asks impatiently, obviously done with their spat.

"The base of the person making the virus was found but he had info and fled before the forces could get there, they're calling him Alexis." Dale starts to say without preamble.

"Is that his name?" Mae asks curiously.

"They're not sure, they tried matching his name with a profile but came up blank so that's most likely not his real name."

"Or we're looking in the wrong place." Virgil cuts in, dragging everyone's back to him.

"What?" 

Virgil just shrugs. "I mean, from the facts we have down, he has a deep seated hatred of Werewolves because of something that happened in his past, his abandoned notes told us that much so maybe the reason we couldn't find a match is because he's registered dead."

The entire group goes quiet watching Virgil incredulously, Dale has his mouth hanging slightly, shocked awe on his face. "Well, why didn't you say anything at the meeting."

"Didn't care to." Virgil shrugs.

Dale's bright eyes dim slightly before he jumps right back into his narrative. "I'll call my dad later, they also found Werewolves kept captive at his base, an abandoned log house located on the fringes of the city. They had been used as test subjects and we're traced to a small Pack in Cone…"

"Should I be here?" Luke interrupts worriedly.

"I don't see any reason why not." Shana tells him. "Cone is practically on the other side of town, could that have been his next location?"

"I doubt, that would be too obvious." I mumble, already over my initial mortification.

"But to think that he knew so much about Werewolves…" Mae shakes her head. "Cone is really far away, why would he go all the way there to get Werewolves?"

"Pine Creek is hidden." Virgil says. "He probably found out about Werewolves from the city, my guess is that a rogue Werewolf probably attacked his home, they live far away from civilization for that to be a possibility." He pushes a hand through his hair like he's just thinking it up as he's saying the words. "Finding a Werewolf in the city is like searching for a needle in a haystack, they keep their secrets well and if he didn't know that Pine Creek basically had one of the largest population of Werewolves where would be his next option?"

"Cone." Mae says in a half whisper.

"I see why they really wanted you back at the meeting." Dale says darkly.

"But instead you tagged along with me."

"Convincing you is hopeless, have you met yourself?"

"Please let's get back to the discussion." Shana cuts in, again.

I just quietly process everything, I knew that Virgil's relationship with the rest of his family was very shaky but the realization that it extended to the rest of the Pack is a bit upsetting.

"That means, Alexis could be anywhere." Mae says in a trembling voice.

"But at least his lab was confiscated so it'll take a long while for him to make another batch of the virus, we would hopefully have found him by then." Dale surmises.

"That's good news, I can't believe that one person could manage to cause so much chaos and deaths." Shana shakes her head.

"Revenge is a really efficient partner." Virgil mumbles.

The air gets tense a bit and I get a whiff of a story I don't know and I frown briefly, wondering what it could be.

The doors on the other end swings open and three people stride in, the entire hall goes quiet and I don't miss Luke tensing up beside me.

Leon comes up in the middle in a fitted short sleeved shirt that shows off the tattoos wrapped around his arm, a leather jacket slung over one shoulder, Ian walks by his left side with a pad in his hand, attention on the flat device and then there's Jaxon…

They beeline straight to us and Shana has a done look on her face.

Jaxon looks very different, he had grown way taller, almost at Leon's height, filled out and his bright red hair had darkened with age making him fit right in with the flashy twins that were too good-looking for their own good.

Even though he looks very different physically, his familiar kind smile is in place and my face mellows into a matching expression.

"Oh look it's my favorite person!" He exclaims, coming around to grab me in a bear hug that pulls me right of out my chair and leaves my legs dangling in the air.

I chuckle happily. "Nice to see you, Jaxie!" I hug him in return, remembering when he would piggyback me and run around yelling that he was a rocket.

"Back at you, Hay." He grins, putting me down carefully. His eyes darken when he notes the mark on my neck and I'm starting to wish I had decided to throw a scarf around my neck.