Escaping Duty

Chapter 9

"What do you mean there was an attack?" Lara said angrily into the phone.

David re-entered the room after talking with Valentina, surprised to find his wife agitated, and Markos a little too engaged in what his wife was saying over the phone. Markos and Lara had previously been discussing some new partnerships with other hunters. Many were in the market for werewolves for their own uses, not that they cared to ask.

"Impossible! They wouldn't dare do that with us around" she said shaking her head. "How many casualties are we looking at," she asked the police chief on the other end of the phone.

"Over 10 with multiple injuries, and a few missing," he said grimly.

Werewolves attacking humans with hunters around! They were animals but surely, they weren't that mindless she thought shaking her head. David and Markos walked over to her, while she put the phone call on speaker for them to hear.

"They attacked a few people in the parks and woods, some were spotted behind the elementary schools, and hospital. Most of the attacks were cntered around the woods from what we're gathering. I have officers stationed to diffuse the panic, but we need something to tell the public" the chief continued.

Lara's heart clenched glad that it was late into the night, and their son wasn't in school. Had he still been there he could've been amongst the missing children. Wide-eyed she turned to David who grimly nodded his head understanding her fear.

"Too many are calming signs of abnormal wolves, and these attacks have only been escalating. I trusted your people to take care of this before the public saw it" the chief said adamantly, stress evident in his tone.

"Clearly. We can't pretend the publics dumb. They don't truly know what it is, but if reporters ask you tell them it was a simple animal attack. That the publics fear distorted the animals to look bigger than they are" she said, and the chief agreed saying he'll call back later with more information.

Lara hung up the phone hand trembling slightly. They were lucky she had connections with the police chief from when she went to school with him as a child. If not for him this situation would've turned out a lot worse than it already is.

A few wolves here and there they took care of, but a whole pack coming into town and attacking brazenly was overkill. This was why they eliminated Alphas.

"They're getting bold and people will ask questions," Markos said behind her.

"I know" she snapped not meaning to direct her anger towards him, but more herself for letting a mistake like this happen. She was supposed to have everything under control.

"We need to handle this as soon as possible. David and I can only take out so many wolves; if they want to bring a pack well need to bring more hunters. This is a sign of war" Markos demanded.

"We need to think about the people who could get involved in this war Markos, your revenge against wolves can wait," David said calmly.

As much as Lara didn't want to agree with him she knew he was right. If they let this incident go, then it'd seem as if the wolves would continue coming to town and attacking unchecked. But certain steps needed to be taken before blindly going after the animals.

"If the mutts are going to initiate something this risky, I'd like to know my daughter isn't completely defenseless out there while she stays at that job late at night," David said looking at his wife who cracked her knuckles anxiously.

Lara knew he had been an advocate for telling Valentina about werewolves and their jobs. He thought she could handle it and better defend against it, but Lara wanted to give her daughter a normal life not looking over her shoulder.

He also had a point that Valentina needed to learn to defend herself, if her parents couldn't be there. Tightlipped she nodded acknowledging he was right.

"While you're telling her, I recommend training her. You could groom her to take over after you both" Markos suggested.

"She's not taking over" David snapped at the same time Lara said, "She won't until she's older".

Lara wanted Valentina living a normal life, but she did think her daughter could take the reins when older and understanding certain threats needed to be handled without emotion. David thought the opposite preferring their daughter understand the threat, and dealing with it but not getting any more involved than necessary.

Markos looked between the both of them not wanting to get involved in familial matters and raised his hands. Their children were none of his business, no matter how close he was to David.

"There are other young hunters that she could relate to, leader or not. She'll need to get the basics at least" he said, and Lara and David took in his words.

"We'll tell her then but Markos, I'm going to need you to contact other hunters. We don't have enough here in Maine to handle a pack. Any help you can get would work. As soon as possible we need to prepare to handle this problem" Lara told him, and he nodded getting his jacket to take off.

When he left David turned to his wife rubbing her shoulders comfortingly.

"She needs to know this, and at least this way we can finally spend more time with her" he offered.

Lara sighed meeting his dark eyes, "The only reason we distanced ourselves from her was to keep her safe. Either way, now she'll be in danger especially after seeing that other wolf" she explained.

"We could give her the choice of knowing then, explain to her the threat then reveal the full truth"

The rest of the evening Lara and David prepared. They placed calls to their connections with other hunters seeing who can help and who couldn't, and they discussed how much exactly they should tell Valentina later.

"We'll tell her tomorrow. It's too late right now for this kind of talk, plus we need to monitor the progress of this cover-up by morning" Lara said confidently.

But despite how her tone sounded she was nervous to tell her daughter, there was still the possibility of the threat becoming all too real if they told Valentina. And more pressing was covering up the mess of packs coming into town. Like Markos said a war would be coming soon and the wolves were the ones who initiated it.

A few minutes later around midnight, they gathered their coats and some supplies before heading out to help the police force in any way they'd need with the wolves. She didn't plan to fight the wolves head on tonight, so she intended to just lend some knowledge to those trusted within the force.

David got behind the wheel hanging up his phone and starting the engine.

"I managed to contact Justin and Sarah Sumners, they're willing to come and lend their research if needed," he said putting a hand over Lara's on the armrest.

"We'll need it since this could end up bloody," she said nodding.

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