Greykin Valley

| 91 | The Phantom

⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐

| Jackson |

The pack's initial grief for Tokala's death twisted into a harrowing mix of confusion, despair, and horror. In a cruel turn, they discovered that he had not been their fallen ally but a clandestine adversary all along. Tokala, once a beacon of unity, had concealed a web of lies, orchestrating the demise of their packmates. The mourning that gripped them now echoed not for an external threat but for the treachery within their ranks, an unimaginable betrayal that left them teetering on the edge of a profound despair.

"No..." Damon denied shakily, stepping away from the table. "I trusted him. We...all trusted him."

The pack hung their heads in dismay, and the revelation quickly consumed the entire room.

"You're telling me it's been your Zeta this entire time?!" Raphael exclaimed angrily.

Jackson scowled despondently. It all made sense.

That was why the cadejo always seemed to know where they were.

That was why Tokala had been so nice to him from the very start, and why he'd gotten close.

That was why so many of their packmates died.

That was why...Damon got hurt during Wilson's extraction.

And that was why Tokala screamed for Jackson's help when the cadejo dragged him away.

It was all a part of Tokala trying to get him away from the pack. It was all a part of Tokala trying to pry Jackson's protectors away. It felt a little too coincidental that a knife impaled Damon's back in the exact place that even surgery might not fix; that was Tokala's attempt to get rid of Damon so that Jackson would be easier to take, wasn't it?

This whole time...it was Tokala. Everything was Tokala. That was why he avoided the Great Lake grounds, wasn't it? Because they'd expose him for who and what he really was. And that was why Tokala wasn't with the pack when they'd come and rescued him from the antlered wolf.

"The antlered wolf had orange fur," Jackson said, wide-eyed and stricken with despair. "And every time we were getting somewhere, the cadejo always seemed to know where we were."

"But...he's been with us for years!" Brando exclaimed. "He...I...how can he...I don't—"

"He's been playing us this whole fucking time," Damon growled as he snatched the file from Wilson. "He's orchestrated everything that's happened to us since we found Jackson, all in feeble attempts to take him."

The pack gawped at their Alpha for a moment.

But then Wesley broke the silence. "Dirty...little fucking coward," he growled, clenching his fists.

"He's still out there," Sebastien said hauntedly. "That whole getting dragged away by the cadejo thing was another attempt to lure Jackson away from us. He'll be waiting."

Wilson scoffed and shook his head. "How did none of us see it?"

"He was so nice to Jackson even when we all hated him," Lalo said.

"What the actual fuck, man?" Julian breathed. "What...the fuck?"

The pack exclaimed and muttered their astonished, furious reactions to the revelation, speaking over one another, shaking their heads, and passing the file around to get a closer look at the photo of Tokala.

"Dated 1290," Brando read when he took the file from Leon. "That's fifty fucking years ago—he's not even that old!"

"The phantom doesn't age," Sebastien said, his voice laced with trepidation and dismay. "Kinda just...freezes the body it possesses."