West Virginia

Present day

Ezra POV

The chilling breeze blows through my hair, sending various amber strands against my line of vision. The whistles of wind are a good indicator of the approaching winter season.

Snow will be falling soon, and I welcome it with open arms.

This is all that's on my distractible mind as I lean on my heels, crouched low to the ground in the foliage. My gaze is glued on a pair of men while they sit around aimlessly at the fireside, laughing and howling, completely oblivious to the predators lurking in the shadows.

Another exited one of the nearby cottages, rushing to join his friends.

My job here is to observe their movements, of course, but the action becomes monotonous.

Instead, the thought of piles of shell colored flurries fills me with a feeling at peace.

"Rogues for sure. They're all werewolves though." Reid whispers to me and I nod my head in agreement. In all honestly, I only half hear what he said. I'm distracted.

I nearly forgot he was there. He, like me, has been sitting here in the cold for well over an hour. It's not the most fun job in the world. At least we are helping people.

We're investigating a wide spread rumor that's been scampering across the county like a disease. Everyone's been talking about a group of large wolves terrorizing the local human population.

Not only that, but a few sightings of a lycan. That was something that would not be tolerated.

There's a werewolf pack near this area. The Guard, the government we work for, sent us here with clear directions; observe with absolutely no confrontation.

So, that's exactly what I'm doing.

We continue the duty of watching the rogue men as more joined them. There are easily fifteen of them. They sit relaxed on tree stumps, exchanging stories and chugging a ridiculous number of beers as the time passes by them quickly.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Reid whisper yells while Hyrum sneaks up behind us, he's been scouting the camp from a different angle.

The bear sized guy slides onto the dirt next to Reid, looking to me for instructions. His nostrils flare to take in the scent of the werewolves in the valley below us.

I shake my head once. "Not yet. We don't know if they're a threat. Plus they're not who we're looking for, remember?"

Reid groans at that. He feeds on the thrill of the fight, much like all of us, but he tends to be more impatient about it.

As in kill first, ask questions later.

"They're rogues. It's most likely that they'll be nasty." Reid mumbles, folding his arms over his chest as he continues to complain. "Let's just go attack, the sooner the better."

"Innocent until proven guilty." Hyrum points out.

There are a lot of rogue werewolves, many of which just prefer the solitude of being alone and keeping to themselves. Much like most lycans that stayed away from large groups of people.

It was the evil, merciless ones that need detaining.

One glance at my teammates and I'm reminded of just how different they really are. Reid and Hyrum are opposites in both looks and disposition.

While Hyrum is observant and quiet, Reid was irrational and made rash decisions based on his emotions.

Over 7ft tall, Hyrum's a massive Jamaican with long dreadlocks, and enormous shoulders and arms. On the other end of the scale, Reid is dirty blonde and his skin is paler than an eggshell.

"Uh, guys." Reid says abruptly, eyeing the campground nervously.

That's when I smell it, the white hot scent of spice. My head snaps around, scouring the grounds for the source. I know that scent anywhere, seeing as how I carry it with me everywhere I go.

The door to the largest cabin is opened abruptly, accommodating the telltale humongous shoulders and tall frame.

Lycan.

Not just any lycan. It was Ryk. That, of course, means his boss can't be far.

Deathly cold, blue eye turn dark as they narrow, and his nostrils flare. His pearly blonde hair is a halo around his face. Those hard features shift in our direction, peering into the woods like a beast on the prowl for dinner.

"I have a distinct feeling that we're not as well hidden as we think we are." Comments Hyrum.

That's when a cruel smile appeared on Ryk's twisted face.

He can most definitely see us.

"Go. Now." I order, but my comrades are continuing to stare at the man like they're in some kind of trance. Reid's mouth is hanging wide open like he's trying to catch flies.

"Go!" They snap to attention, and we're off in seconds. Running like bats out of hell as Reid curses and mumbles angrily at not facing the challenge head on.

"Scaredy cats." He says and I chuckle humorlessly under my breath, my long legs pumping as I push myself faster, weaving between trees.

That's when our final team member decides to join in, flying out of the wood as he falls into place next to us.

Ace is the weakest of us by far, though you could never be able to tell by his enormous ego. He's ridiculously cocky, a wicked smirk is always bound to be plastered to his face.

"Did you see that guy! Holy crap, someone musta shoved a stick far up his..."

"Acey, shut your pie hole before I shut it for you." Reid says, cutting off his little brother, then shoving the younger lycan.

We still consider him a boy because Ace just shifted for the first time a few weeks ago. Ace doesn't resemble a boy, in fact he's several inches taller than Reid, and built bigger too.

I shake my head and shoot them a look, warning them to knock it off. This is serious. This is why we're here, to get intel on the Red Alpha, the most notorious villain plaguing the shifter community.

We need to concentrate, which is kind of ironic considering I was thinking about snow when I could have been sniffing out Ryk. Even picturing the albino makes my stomach clench in anger. I'm such an idiot.

We have a good head start to him and his pack of rogues, especially since they'll be gathering their troops and coming up with a game plan.

Not to mention werewolves were much slower than us lycans, and Ryk wouldn't attack us by himself with the numbers we had on our side.

We can run faster in our shifted forms, but there was no way we're drawing any more local attention from the humans. That would not be good.

The moon shines down on us as the sun finally sets behind the trees, the warriors beside me are bathed in the light of the night sky. Soon we'll be in town with lots of witnesses to keep the rogues away.

Hopefully we lose them by then.

"That was Ryker, yes?" I hear next to me, I peer over at Hyrum's grave face.

"What other evil albino lycan rogues do you know?" I ask him.

"You know what that means." Reid says, his body visibly shuddering, "The Red Alpha is behind this." His mumbles, his little brother Ace gasps audibly as he trips over a tree root.

"Red Alpha!? That little.."

"Language, Acey!" Reid shouts, earning a cheshire sized smile from Ace as he wipes his golden blonde curls out of his eyes, smearing mud against the tan skin of his forehead.

"Wowee. We sure are in for it now, boys." Ace pants as he continues to try to catch up with us after his many, clumsy missteps. "R.A. is gonna come after us after this." He adds, not even trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.

"No. The Guard will deal with this. They dish out only the strongest of us to handle stuff as big as this." Reid snaps, shaking his head. He's clearly annoyed at the idea.

The Guard is a powerful government that is owned and run by mythical creatures to protect all mythical creatures, without them there were no laws and no consequences.

The supernatural live by different rules than the human population.

Each of us work for the Guard, all on the same team that's led by me. Lots of teams consist of different species, but lycans work best with other lycans. Though lycan teams are typically on the smaller side, after all there are very few of us to go around.

We're the only lycan team in all of North America that works for The Guard.

We are still low on the scale as far as status goes in the ranks of warriors, but we work our way up slowly. I'm already guessing that our commanding officer won't allow us to go further into this mission because we're not "experienced" enough.

They've been scouting out the Red Alpha for as long as I can remember, definitely before I joined the Guard.

"That's no fair! I want to kick some albino ass."

"Acey!" Reid practically screeches.

If we weren't running for our lives right now, I would have at least let out a laugh. Instead I lock my jaw as we make our way back to headquarters.

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