Chapter 51 The awakened ones;

Chapter 51 The awakened ones;
"Let's go now," said Elly. They headed for the car.
Just then, Elly's phone rang. An unknown number filled the screen.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hello," came a woman's voice on the other end. "I got this number from my, from our mother. May I ask who I'm speaking with?"

Elly's brows knit together. "Our mother? Who is this?"

"I'm Doctor Lily. I'm the town's doctor. I stopped by your mother's house, and she gave me your number."

Elly's voice turned cautious. "I see. I'm Elly. Eleanor, I mean."

"Yes. Lovely to meet you, Eleanor. I need to speak with you about something. It's important."

Thoughts crowded Elly's mind , could something be wrong with Mother's health? "About what?" she asked.

Doctor Lily hesitated for a moment. Then her voice dropped. "I carry wolf blood, Eleanor. Just like many of the young people in this town. But we shouldn't talk about this over the phone. Let's meet in person."

Elly went pale. If word got out that she was now a guardian, she feared becoming a target , for demons and hunters alike. Joe, catching her frightened expression, leaned toward her. "Who is it?"

Elly covered the phone and turned to him. "Doctor Lily. The town's doctor. She says she carries wolf blood. She wants to meet."

Joe's eyes narrowed. He thought for a moment, then gave a slow nod. "Everything needs to fall into order. We have to work through this. Let's meet with her."

Elly nodded quickly and raised the phone back to her ear. "Lily... let's meet at the old Rose house up on the mountain," she said. "We were already on our way there."

On the other end of the line, Lily knew immediately which house she meant. Twenty-five years ago, she had been only twelve years old, yet she still remembered the horror that had unfolded in that house. Dozens of women had been killed. Afterward, the entire estate had been burned to the ground. For that reason, the Rose women were spoken of in this town as both cursed and ill-omened. And yet... when everything had ended, as if protected by some unseen force, only that one house had remained standing.

"Alright. I know where it is. I'll be right there," Lily said, and ended the call.

Half an hour later, they had gathered in the sitting room of Eva's house. Eva and Asia sat on one side; Joe and Elly on the other. Doctor Lily stood in the middle of the room.

Introductions were made. Joe discreetly examined Lily's eye markings and confirmed that she was, indeed, a wolf.

"Have you ever shifted?" he asked.

Lily shook her head, no.

Elly stepped in immediately. "The older wolf-blooded residents of the town seem to have lost the ability to shift. When the curse was lifted, only the wolf blood in the younger generation awakened."

Her gaze rested directly on Lily.

"Yes," Lily murmured. "I wouldn't exactly call myself young anymore. I don't understand any of this , all I know is that my skin feels like it's burning. I can feel something waking inside me. The wolf."

Joe's eyes narrowed. It struck him as strange as well.

Then Elly began to recount what had happened in the town. She laid it out piece by piece , how the young people had been found in the forest, how one of them had recognized Joe as an Alpha, and how none of them could remember anything.

Asia sat with her arms folded across her chest, her brows low. When the telling was done, she drew a measured breath.

"They need a leader," she said, her voice carrying the hard edge of certainty. "A pack cannot run without direction for long. Right now, they are open targets."

Joe's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Asia's eyes flared , burning, crimson , as though asserting a natural authority that simply was. "Hunters will catch their scent. All of them are young wolves. They don't know how to fight. They don't know how to hide. They will be picked off, one by one." She let out a low growl. "And the demon king has awakened. We don't yet know what darkness he has brought with him."

At those words, a cold draft seemed to sweep through the room. Joe's jaw locked with a controlled fury. He looked up and met Elly's anxious gaze.

"We need to reach Kael," he said, his voice resolute. "This situation needs to be addressed immediately."

Eva raised her head. At the sound of Kael's name, a wave of anger moved through her , hot and tight in her chest. She was still furious. She was still wounded. And now she was supposed to face him? "Don't expect anything from me. I'm not talking to him," she said, pressing her lips together.

But Asia was right. The young wolves were in danger. In the old days, a single howl would have been enough , Kael could feel the voices of his pack in the very marrow of his soul, even from the farthest distance. But she didn't want to call him. Not now.

Her mind drifted back , centuries away , to a time when no matter what happened between them, she and Kael could never sleep apart, could never hold a grievance past nightfall. And somewhere deep in the part of her that still remembered everything, she knew he would come. He would show up at this witch's door in the dead of night, looking like a stray pup who had nowhere else to go. She knew it. So until then, she was determined to read the room , to take measure of everyone gathered here.

Elly, a Rose guardian. Joe, a guardian Alpha. Doctor Lily, a wolf-blooded mystery. She turned it over in her mind, and then something struck her , something missing. If all the ancient bloodlines were waking, their counterbalance had to be waking too.

So where, she wondered, was the awakened immortal?