Artem

I tossed the woman's lifeless body aside so it would land somewhere out of sight on the floor. I didn't want to believe what she said. I didn't want to think that Star wasn't here at all.

"Search the house." I told the four men that I knew were standing silently behind me. "Make sure she wasn't lying about them not being here. If anyone stands in your way. Bring them to me, I will deal with them."

I heard a collective gulp as every person in the room swallowed hard in fear. While the others set to work searching the house I took a look around. The only people I could see were women and children. I was not particularly happy about killing someone where the kids had seen, but I was also not in the right state of mind right now either.

While I searched I heard something shift by the door, or what used to be the door. The fallen door was moving and there was an old man trying to climb out from under it. I stomped over to him and pulled the heavy piece of wood, solid oak, off of him. He had taken the hit and stayed under the door during my discussion with the dead woman.

"I will apologize for hitting you with the door if you cooperate with me." I spoke gruffly to the old man as I pulled him to his feet and dusted him off. I was also showing the people around me that I was not completely heartless.

"I will cooperate, boy. I hate that upstart Howard, I always have." This man looked like he was well over a hundred and would stand no chance against Howard and his minions.

"What can you tell me about him?" I held the old man by the elbow, offering him some assistance when standing. I also noticed that his scent wasn't fowl like dead bitch number two over there. Dead bitch number one was her daughter. If my theory about scents was right then I could probably trust this man, at least a little.

"That bastard had been one of the driving forces behind our family's corruption. We never treated weaker wolves like the rest of the pack did, we were a fair and honest family. But then, one day out of the blue this new wolf shows his face and he starts poisoning the minds of those around us. The entire pack was already turning to shit because of that damn warlock that had been here so long ago."

"You know about that warlock?" I was hopeful, perhaps if this man knew about him we could get the talismans off the boys and Star.

"Aye, I do." His old gravelly voice shook for a moment. "I remember when he used to live among our pack. He was on the outskirts of town somewhere. So far that I never dared venture to his place. So many pack members disappeared and were never seen again. That warlock told everyone that they were all weak wolves and needed to be weeded out. He started paying people for their weak children, it was horrible."

"Old man, I need you to come back to the pack house with us, I need you to tell me more about this stuff. Do you know about the talismans as well?"

"I know them, yeah. I know that it was Howard's idea to lock my great great grand daughter away when my great grand daughter died, and it was his idea to put that damned thing on her when she was older. I know that he told everyone that since my great grand daughter had admitted the child's father was not a wolf that she would be weak. And I know that that bastard was the one who killed my great grand daughter. Vivian was no threat to anyone, and I had urged her to leave this pack. I don't know why she ever came back here, why she left her uncle's house. I had sent her brother there too, when he was younger. I didn't want this pack ruining either of those children."

"Why didn't you go with them?" I wondered, I needed to know why he would send them alone.

"Because I was trying to save the rest of my family. I was trying to get them all to leave here with me. I wanted all of us to leave this place and start fresh in another pack."

"How does Howard fit into all of this?" Just as I asked that though, there was a huge commotion behind us. Another of the women jumped forward.

"Stop it Daniel, don't tell them any more. This is none of their business!" She was nearly yelling at the old mad in her haste to speak.

"This most definitely is his business, can you not tell that he is the Alpha? He is the person in charge around here."

"No, Jesiah is the Alpha, and Howard is in charge around here."

"You've become so corrupted, my child. Where did I go wrong with you?" The old man was nearly crying as he looked at her and the way she was behaving. "They're not all bad, son, please don't punish the uncorrupted."

"If they pose no threat to me and mine, and are not a danger to us right now, then they will be fine. I only want to find Star."

"Are you her mate?" The man gave me a knowing look, eyes that told me he didn't even need to hear me say the answer to that.

"Yes, I am."

"I thought so, I can smell her on you. Treat her right, please. She deserves a good life."

"I will Sir, I will." I smiled softly at him before turning away. "Toby." I called for the man I knew was still on this floor.

"Yes, Artem?" He popped his head back into the room as he called out.

"Will you take Daniel here to the car and sit with him? I don't want anything bad to happen to him. He has information for us and he is not like the others."

"Yes, Sir." Toby took the man's elbow gently and helped him outside. In their absence I was going to beat more information out of the others, I mean talk to them. Well, I guess that all depends on them really.