Chapter 63: No Good Deed

“Beta Kyle, you’ll be training the beginners’ group today,” I said.

“Sure thing.” He replied.

I took the advanced group. We would be working on capoeira (cap-o-wera) today. I had the perfect music to go with training. This was one of my favorite styles because it mixed dance with fighting. I loved to dance and I was really good at fighting.

Gamma Jake had been at Moonrise for a week and had very little to report. They stopped a few kidnappings but that was all that happened in the last week. Then we got a call from Alpha Ida Potts. He said they were infiltrated and five girls had been kidnapped. He said it happened while Jake and the guardians and warriors were fighting a small group on the west side of pack lands.

We had failed. The intervention didn’t go as planned. I would need to discuss this at the council meeting. We need to regroup and figure something out. It would take some time, time we didn’t exactly have. We may need to mount a counter-offensive.

At the council meeting we discussed many things. I suggested a counter-offensive but Savannah suggested we send delegates to Dark Moon first. She suggested that we send the twelve closest Alphas including Alpha Ida Potts. So first we would send delegates to negotiate the release of the kidnapped girls and to let Dark Moon know this kind of thing will not be tolerated. They will also deliver a summons to the Dark Moon alpha. He will need to report to the council for trial.

Savannah and Dad called the Alphas of the other packs until they had twelve willing to go as delegates. We learned from several other packs that they too had girls going missing. So this was an epidemic now. Dark Moon was taking female pups from several packs, not just Moonrise. This was more serious than we thought.

*****Layla’s perspective*****

I loved training, but my grades were starting to slip. EJ wanted us to start joining the advanced group by Christmas. That was his goal. Those of us who hadn’t shifted yet were learning the different martial arts styles. It was pretty fun most of the time. Us girls even got some extra training in how to defend ourselves against predators. But I needed to study. I asked Strix to help me. She was good at pretty much everything school related. Plus she gave us the extra predator training for an hour after school. She thought us girls needed it so we could have a better chance of escaping anyone who caught us off guard and wished us harm in some way. She was great. I knew this had to be hard on her considering what had happened to her last year. And I knew that must be why she insisted we get the special training. I don’t mind though. But I do need to study more.

There were some new guys at school. They claimed they had been rogue for a while but wanted a pack to call home. With everything going on, Shawn and EJ had their suspicions but since they were minors didn’t want to leave them on their own. They let them join the pack on probation. There were four of them. Shawn set them up in one of the open houses. Until Shawn could find out more information about them and the pack they claimed was once theirs, a guardian would escort each of them around the pack with two guardians stationed outside their house at night. Shawn and EJ were not taking any chances.

I was weary of the new guys. I had heard about rogues and how some of them go feral after a while. But these guys hadn’t shifted yet, and I wondered what a feral human would look and sound like. Could these guys be feral? I didn’t know and I didn’t want to know them either. Better safe than sorry.

About a week after the boys showed up, I saw some jocks bullying them. I intervened. I really shouldn’t have, but the boys had not been allowed to train with us yet. I felt obligated to step in. I was after all the Alpha’s sister. The jocks ran when they saw me coming. The boys were grateful for my arrival.

“Thanks. I’m Steve. And these are Jeremy, Ryan, And Patrick.” I didn’t want to know their names.

“I’m Layla.” I said, just to be polite.

“Those guys must be afraid of you,” Ryan said.

“It’s only because I am Alpha Shawn’s sister.”

“Really, that’s cool,” Jeremy said.

“Real cool. Maybe you can talk to him for us.” Patrick chimed in.

“I don’t know. He has some strict rules regarding you guys.”

“That’s okay. He told us. But maybe you can tell him about those other guys bothering us all the time.” Steve pleaded.

“I can do that.” And then we went to our classes.

I spoke to Shawn after my training session with Strix. He wasn’t very happy about me talking to them. He was proud that I wasn’t afraid to stand up to the jocks, though. Shawn said he would speak with Coach York and EJ about letting the new guys join training sessions. He would also ask Coach York to discipline the jocks, maybe suspend them from playing for the rest of the season. So overall, the talk was a win.

The next day at school, I was really mad at myself for helping those guys. Every chance they got, they were bothering me. I get that they thought that by hanging around me, the jocks would leave them alone, but now they were getting on my nerves. My friends didn’t exactly like them either. The boys were kind of obnoxious. I think I know why the jocks were picking on them. But knowing they were rogue, I could see how they might not understand how to interact at a school or in a pack. It’s just been the four of them for a long time; they were only fifteen years old and had no rules or adult supervision for the last five years. They did say that they tried a group home a while back, but it was better being on their own. I felt bad for them and annoyed by them.

I decided to ask my friends to help me teach these boys how to interact in pack and school settings. I couldn’t let them keep being obnoxious. It would land them in a lot of trouble.

I also spoke to my brother about it. He said he was finished running his check on the boys. Their original pack, Flos Lunae, was wiped out a little over five years ago. What little records remain, gathered by their allies, show that there were only a few survivors, mostly children. Only one adult had survived and she said she remembered the boys from her class; she had been a fifth grade teacher at the pack school. So the boys could now officially join the pack or we would help them get to another pack if they wished.

I told Steve, Ryan, Patrick, and Jeremy the good news. They were glad to hear that their teacher was among the survivors. They had thought they were the only ones to survive. I also told them that Jane, Kat, and I would be teaching them etiquette and Trevor agreed to teach them stuff as well. We would begin at dinner.

This would be my good deed for the year, helping four lost boys find their way again. First step, resocializing them. They had been on their own for so long they were practically feral. We started with small things, and it took some time, but by Thanksgiving they were ready.

I invited them to join our family feast. Our pack didn’t used to celebrate Thanksgiving, so this was a first for us. Strix’s family celebrated it and she wanted to continue the tradition. I also invited Kat, Jane, and Trevor to the feast at the pack house. Strix’s family was hosting Thanksgiving at the Barnette Estate, so we would be having a second Thanksgiving there. The boys would be going to that one, too. My friends would not. It was EJ’s idea to have the boys go. He thought it would help with socialization.

The boys did great at both. They were a little skittish around so many vampires, but they did well. They even attempted to play football with the vampires. It was funny to watch. While they played, I noticed Scarlett. She was just hanging around in the background as if she was decoration. I walked over to her and tried talking to her. I have never really heard her talk. She was kind of the silent and deadly type. But she loved music. Sometimes on family game nights, we did karaoke and Scarlett would sing. She had an amazing singing voice, but that was the only time I really heard her voice.

Great, the boys were coming over. Since I had been helping them, they each thought I wanted to go out with them. So they were still annoying me. The weird and awkward flirting was my punishment.