Finding out

Soon, the group was wandering towards the dark mountains. As they moved ahead, Grace could feel a few stares through the windows of the town houses. Her house was near the city, the opposite direction to the mountains, so it saved her the stares from the neighbors. She tried not to let her fear control her mind and put on a brave face for everyone else. Not long after, the long patterns of destroyed houses faded and the seven of them were standing in front of the entrance to the wild woods.

Grace didn't know what to do, as she felt a pull towards the trees. "Do you guys feel that?" She asked confused. She couldn't put a name towards the feeling she was getting through her hairs on her hand.

Some of them looked back at her frowning while Lucas nodded, "Yeah, it's the woods, they're calling us."

Grace didn't want to comment on that. The wood? Calling them? It sounded funny and stupid at the same time. "Are you sure that we'd get back in a week, uncle?" She asked worried that she couldn't see the top or any part of the mountain up close.

"Yes," Malick answered back. "Don't worry."

"All right, let's do this." Mathew said lifting his shirt off to head into the woods.

"Have some decency." Anne mumbled walking off to one of the trees.

"Where are you going?" Jude asked his girlfriend before turning to Mathew. "Stop, we're going by foot."

Grace watched the high schooler scold the older man as she tried her best to not look at Mathew's mouthwatering light skin. Malick pushed her forward, into the trees before turning to Mathew and glaring at him for a few seconds. Grace turned to watch them exchange words through their eyes.

"It's so weird having them do the staring competition all the time, isn't it?" Fred asked Grace, moving her into the forest. Realizing that Grace was with Fred, Mathew broke his mini fight with Malick and rushed behind them. He watched Grace converse with Fred and kept his frown evident enough to let Anne know that something's bothering him, deep inside.

'How was London?' She asked silently, so only he could hear the conversation. Even though they were a few or more yeas apart, she still felt like the 'older sibling'. The team was now slowly, but steadily making their way deep into the forest. Mathew turned to Anne, giving her a glare and sighing inside his head.

'However it's supposed to be. I didn't think that it would take me three years to finish what I started.'

'We didn't either, Malick hasn't been very open about anything per-say.' Jude butted in somehow. 'He only talked with my dad, Lucas and Fred. I was only told a few things.' Mathew sighed again realizing that he wasn't going to able to converse with anyone in private with Jude there.

'You're on first name basis, now?' Mathew looked surprised but he covered it up. He shouldn't be; he waited Anne to nod and chuckle at his question. But, she stayed silent, watching her feet take her up and down the clutter of leaves.

'Did you get what you were looking for?' Anne asked suddenly. Mathew turned to Jude again. Even though the boy is young, he already had lines forming on his forehead.

'You didn't tell her?'

The boy shrugged, 'didn't see the reason to, I don't want her to worry about things that are not making sense right now.'

"Hey Malick, come here and look at this." Lucas called the man over, grabbing everyone's attention. Grace finally slipped away from Fred and Mathew was thankful of Lucas. "It's a paw print, and it looks fresh. You think, you'd recognize this?"

Grace was surprised that Lucas knew about things other than baking; she had only known him as a baker who loves his flour and icing sugar. She was also surprised that he'd called her uncle by the name, she'd never thought about how close the two men were at work. Sure, they've been living in the same town for a long time, but Lucas was more closer to Grace's dad. Which automatically means that Malick tried to avoid the two.

Mathew though, was not surprised and bent over the tree that Lucas pointing and examined the marks. He nodded, giving Malick a worried look.

"Lucas, I'm sure that you know more about this than uncle Malick."

"I just wanted to make sure," Lucas argued back, almost whispering now. "It's been so long, we've been so sure of the safety." Everyone nodded along with them, except for Grace. She didn't understand any of what they were talking about. Before she could ask, Jude pushed her closer to Mathew making her loose balance and land onto him.

"We need to hide, fast." He said grabbing onto his girlfriend's hand.

"You didn't need to push me." Grace pulled a face, dusting herself away from Mathew, as if he had stung her. While she did so, Mathew watched her, annoying at her behavior.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked making Grace frown at him.

Before Grace could question him back, Malick narrowed his eyes at the two. "Shut up. Get yourself up the trees, now."

"I don't see the need for that-"

"Stop cross talking to me and get going Mathew."

No one spoke after that. Everyone knew that Malick never speaks harsh to Mathew, but he just did. Fred walked over to Grace and held her by her shoulders.

"Hurry it up Fred," Malick said watching their surroundings. "Cover her up." Grace frowned and watched as Fred leaned into the hug her. She stood there dumb founded and stayed still. What was going on? She didn't know, but she didn't like the expression Mathew held as Fred pushed her deep into his chest and rubbed his hands all over her back.

"What the hell are you doing?" She whisper yelled pushing herself away, trying to run free; it couldn't get any more uncomfortable. But she couldn't, Fred's hold tightens as he connects his legs with hers. "Fred, what the hell? Let me go." She said firmly, looking over his shoulder at Mathew, trying to get his help. But he just stood there glaring aimlessly at nothing. Grace couldn't help but have blood rush to her cheeks, pure embarrassment evident. There were high school students with them, for god's sake!

And then, as quick as he had pulled her in, Fred let go and went back to his spot. Grace stood there, not knowing what kind of expression she was supposed to give.

"Alright, everyone up." Malick ordered getting himself started with the climbing. She did know why Malick found it normal for Fred to hug her in front of him and Grace grabbed the first branch that was reachable nonetheless. She lifted herself onto the other, climbing easily up the tree and settled in, only to have her uncle give her a disbelief look. She gave him a curious look to which he shrugged off. "Where did you learn to climb like that?"

Grace frowned, looking down to see that she was pretty high up. She frowned again and lifted her head back up to face her uncle, she didn't know how she did that herself. Ignoring Mathew's questioning look, Grace turned her attention to Anne, who sitting on the other side of the same branch.

"Wow," she commented. "You're actually fitter then I thought." She could feel Mathew's eyes on her but ignored it. Anne on the other hand grinned at her and gave a quiet chuckle.

"You'd be surprised of the things I could do."

"I'm sure." Grace whispered back when she found her uncle glaring at the two of them.

They waited. Grace didn't know what they were waiting for or why, but she stayed quiet watching her uncle scan the ground. A few minutes later, she felt the far end of the woods start to move. She turned her head so quickly, making Anne follow her eyes and widen them in surprise.

"Wolves."

No one spoke a word as they watched a wolf walk their way. Grace couldn't believe her eyes, she was living in a town her whole life, without knowing that there were wolves living in the mountain, and closer to the people too. They've never had a complain from anyone about wolves. Sure, sometimes the police office gets crowded for complains on bears and monkeys, but never wolves.

Hey, show me your wolf!

Don't be stupid, even I know that no wolves can survive in the mountains.

Don't go wolfing around alone, Grace, I mean it.

Wait till your eighteenth birthday, everything is going to be a blast!

Grace shook her head, what was that? She thought turning around her team to see if anyone was affected by the noise. But she was wrong, no one seemed to have heard anything of that sort. She felt her face heating up when she recognized the voices in her mind.

Soon, the pack followed what seemed like their leader and stood surrounded at the foot of the tree. Suddenly, without warning, they growled in sync making Grace jump in fright. If it wasn't for Lucas, she was sure that she would've become dead meat. One of them, the black wolf with blood red pupils, howled with a strong aura and some other wolves followed behind. They tried to climb up the trees as they scratched and tugged on the bark. Grace was sure that her heart was going to fall out. Suddenly, the wolf that lead the pack there stopped growling and moved away from the tree.

He scanned the team up the tree and eyed every single one of them. It almost made Grace think that it smirked at Lucas and Malick and turned away, having the others follow behind. Once none were able to be spotted, Grace heard her uncle swear and take out a walkie talkie.

He pressed a button and called into it. "Ryne, you there? Over."

After a while, a cracking sound echoed along with a beep. "Yes, any problem? Over."

"We stumbled across wolves. Unknown ones." He paused but didn't let go of the button as he spoke. "They are heading over to the town. Get everyone to safety and find out where those bastards are coming from. Over."

There was a longer pause. "Okay, I'm on it. Be safe. Over."

"You too. Over and out." He finished the talk and put the device away. "Alright, let's get down and hurry this walk up."

"I still want to know why we can't run." Mathew grumbled walking away from the team. "You guys are trying to hide something from me."

"Stop trying to know everything Mathew. You're so stubborn sometimes that you forget about where you're at." Fred advised to him, but the other man ignored him. Mathew was already starting to hate the guy for getting close up with his girl. Wait, no, not his girl. "You're going the wrong way idiot. Use you senses."

"Whatever." He grumbled back. "It's not like you're being fair to the team, only half of your know what's actually going on. You ask the people to make a team and put their lives in danger, but you don't mean to share anything? I don't get it. I go away for a few years and turn back home to find everyone acting like, as if they are all human!"

"That's enough Mathew, come along, we need to talk." Malick dragged him away as he eyed the others to sort the mess to come. Once they were out of ear short, Malick turned to Mathew and gave him a pat. "Sorry that I hid things from you."

"Start explaining old man."

"Hey!" Malick laughed it off, pretending to be offended. "I'm not old. That's disrespectful to Lucas."

'I could still hear you guys.' Lucas interrupted. Mathew snorted lowly as Malick turned back to the team that was still far away and eyed the baker.

"Ignoring the old man," Malick continued making Mathew snort again. "I sent you to London with the help of our former leader because the mission was very important."

"Former leader?" Mathew gave his uncle a disgusted look as he returned an apologizing look. "What in the name of Jesus is going on Malick?!"

"Hey, watch your tough!" Malick scolded the young adult and bent down to put pressure on his prosthetic leg.

"You good?"

"Yeah," Malick turned his legs around to make sure. "Just have used the legs for such long hours you know…"

"I honestly thought that you'd leave it behind. It would've been easier. Which brings me to my next question: why aren't we running?"

"About the non-shifters, we didn't get time to discuss it. What did you find out? And why three years?" Mathew's eyes reflected how sudden Malick's subject change had hurt him, but tried to hide it.

"It was hard to find the right guy." Mathew hesitated before finally agreeing with himself that they were going to have to know about London soon anyways. "I went for the highest ranked pack as you told me to, but I needed a victim with me to find out about anything, so I left. I went around a few to find someone to share me the facts and I did. But he told me that he only knew the basics of it, and if I wanted to find out more, I had to find a non-shifter with experience, myself." Mathew watched his uncle react to the news, he himself had been very annoyed at the time but held on since he was very close to finding out about the non-shifters. They decided to walk and talk at the same time and followed the gang behind close enough for them to not hear the conversation. "Took me a year to find this non-shifter with experience. Once I did, he was all on board to tell me his experience, but he wanted something in exchange. He had a daughter," Mathew breathed a little.

"Anything I should be worried about Mathew?" Malick glanced at the boy and felt as if he should've sent more than one person for the information.

"No, she just needed some help with her future-to-be and to be true: it was fun. She's a sweetheart but the guy was a maniac. I had to fix him right…" Mathew chuckled as the past memories rushed in. "What a guy…"

"I'm sure." Malick roughly stated indicating to not get diverted.

"I went back to the BlackBlood Pack after I had the evidence," Mathew fiddled through his brain to remember what he'd research on. "And they had some wild history, something I personally thought was myths, legends… tales told to little children."

"They weren't…" Malick guessed and he got a nod back in response. "The tales were?"

"You know: The Hosts forming. The King of Supernaturals being placed on throne for the first time. One of The Hosts falling in love with a werewolf. A daughter. The daughter was-"

"The Queen Luna…" Malick finished him off.

"Yes, but then they also told me about Pureblood Warlocks, Yudurennes being different to all the supernaturals. They don't shift quiet like us, so…"

"Yudur-what now?" Malick's never heard of such term and honestly wondered where he could've missed such name.

"Yeah, I didn't know what they were too, but apparently they're real. Which kind of spooks me-"

"Mathew! Get to the point."

"Right, Yudurennes are like werewolves, but they don't shift. And it's not only that. The reason for their unique name is because they each have specific abilities and can teleport to places."

"Teleport." Malick couldn't hear what he was being told. Werewolves that don't shift? Specific abilities? It's like his whole lifetime was being lied to; hidden from the truth.

"Yes, teleport. Now catch up." Mathew didn't mean to sound cocky and Malick didn't sound it back. "Yudurennes are rare and only about three or four exists in the world right now. But, since they have so many abilities they also get really hardcore negatives. For example, they only live up to the age of eighteen: the reason why there's only a few left. They also can't roam at night. Kind of weird to me but it's like the vampires that we get told about. The vampires can't go out in the sun and the Yudurennes can't stand the moon light.

"It's funny don't you think? They're wolves even if they can't shift but they can't go out at night. Sucks to be them."

Malick stayed quiet, as he tried to wrap his head around everything. "So the guy you found…"

"He's a Yudurenne." Mathew confirmed.

There was a quiet pause again and Mathew decided that it was a large amount of information to understand quickly. So he let Malick fight in his own head and watched the group in front hike the mountain.

"So, the guy: what was his superpower? Or whatever he's capable of doing."

Mathew sucked in a breath as he knew he'd have to answer truthfully. "He reads numbers and situations."

"What?" Malick gave the boy a confused look and the younger man sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"He reads dates: death dates." If Malick's eyes weren't already popping out, then they were sure to now. "And he knows how the person dies once they've read the dates."

"That's not a gift."

Mathew shrugged, "more or worse, a curse."

"The daughter? I'm guessing she's also this Yudur…"

"Yudurenne? Yes." Mathew watched Malick as he spoke the next few words. "She's only ten and she could melt hearts."

Silence.

"Melt hearts?"

"She could mend them as well."

"Right."

"Yeah…"

"Death dates and melting hearts." Malick nodded as he forced himself into believing everything. He then realized that Mathew went through all of these discoveries by himself. "Thank you Mathew, I really appreciate it."

Once they finished their conversation, the jungle was darker at that point and the gang had started to fix little tents near the trees.

"Tell me again, why we're setting up tents instead of doing traditions like we normally do?" Mathew asked Malick in silence. He was not going to forget Malick trying to revert his mind. The older seemed to understand and pulled him closer to his mouth.

"Not everyone in our gang knows the real us."

"What do you mean?" The boy was confused. Three years had changed so much in his town. Him being shocked was an understatement when he'd arrived at the airport. His younger bother was the only one to great him and when he made his appearance at the main hall, everyone pretended as if they didn't know him and carried on with their work. It was the same place where he saw Grace after high school. He wasn't sure how the girl seemed to grow more and more into a beautiful woman. She had always fascinated him, of how she stood out differently in all the senses. Once he'd even asked his abnormal brother to see if he could point out anything in difference. The little guy had only said that she was different, but not in the way Mathew had explained to him.

It was their final year in school when he heard that everyone's lover were in town for the night. It was one of those get-togethers that the town did with the neighboring towns, every year. Normally, most of the pairs would be found in-between the towns, but that year, they had received notices from the Top Council saying that every one of them would find each other in the mess, young or old. Mathew didn't find his girl that night. She was there, he'd felt it, but he couldn't find or feel her, which only meant that she was younger than him. It was the same night when he'd noticed Grace, looking as beautiful as ever in her red dress. He'd remembered how it hugged her body like it was made for her as she floated through the garden, head raised in such authority. He'd wanted to go up to her and sweep her off of her feet. Tell her that she was too beautiful to be true and to show her the world with only their hands connecting each other.

But he'd stopped himself before he'd done something regretful. Mathew remembered scolding himself for thinking such things when his other half was somewhere in the same area as him. How could he go after someone else's girl anyways? That was also the last time he'd made eye contact with the said girl. He had stared into her starlight brown eyes, memorizing the features and the marks all from across the garden. His friends were the ones to stop the connection; they dragged him away to drink Glazers, a very strong drink made just for them, and to let loose.

After that night, Mathew avoided Grace like a plague. It wasn't tough work, they were never in the same social group to converse and met at any rate. The boy just turned to the other hallway when he senses the girl and made sure to sit far away when they shared the same class. He didn't want to get turned into a dying mess if her boyfriend or someone of that sort found out that he'd been liking her from afar.

A famine laugh brought Mathew back to his current position. Anne seemed to have found whatever her lover had said, funny and was very much grabbing attention of the night owls. He could see Lucas walking to them and hear the faint scolds he was giving the young couple. Mathew turned back to find Malick staring at his, but his thoughts elsewhere.

"What did you mean uncle?"

Malick gave out a sigh as he turned from his debate inside his head. "What I mean is, Grace doesn't know that she's one of us. She doesn't know that she's a werewolf."