Artem

It was already dark by the time we made it back to the pack house. The old man was treated like a guest, but until the others were vetted as good or bad they were locked up. All but the kids that is. They went to be bunked and watched by Ella and Sydney. Criztie and Dakotah were on their way over as well. They were going to help keep the house running until we got things back into proper working order. They were even closing the barkery for the next day or two.

I took the old man to my office where someone brought him dinner and a cup of coffee. He seemed to be happy to have someone appreciating him. I needed to talk to him and find out all that I could. It might help me in my search for my beautiful Star.

"Daniel, will you please tell me everything that you know about the warlock that brought those talismans to our pack. Can you tell me everything that you know and remember from those days. And also, tell me about Howard. I want to know everything about that scumbag and where he might be hiding."

"That's a tall order." The old man took a sip of his coffee before setting it back down. It looked like he was settling in for a long talk.

Daniel heaved a sigh and looked at me with firm and confident eyes. He was old but he was still sharp.

"When I was a boy, there was a warlock that lived among us. He basically ran the pack for us in lieu of our Alpha." I could hear a scoff in the old man's voice as he was remembering that past elder's folly. "I was no older than ten when I first came across the Warlock. I knew right away he was bad news. My family back then kept to themselves, same as we do now but we didn't buy into that hype about the weaker wolves. That man named Gannon told everyone that he knew how to determine a wolf's rank when they were young. He would hold a talisman to the forehead of a child, and if the talisman reacted the child was said to be below a certain rank. The pack refused to test the girls, as they were not often meant to fight, especially back then. But there was also the fact that the girls could eventually be used for increasing the population. They were never tested or treated differently than any of the others. The boys, though, that was a different story."

I could see that the old man was having a hard time saying all this, he probably lost countless friends to the curse of this town, the same as I had.

"It seemed like every week that mad man would come into town from his house in the forest, and he would always leave with some little boy. The town knew that he was using them for experiments, but no one ever seemed to care. He was making some type of beasts with them, monsters that I could sometimes hear screaming in the night. After a while he seemed to want to move on. He told us he would be back though, and that we were supposed to keep up the current practices."

"So he basically made you all live in fear of the day he would return."

"Yeah, pretty much. The whole town never stopped acting like they did during his days. But even still, there were families, such as mine, that never paid any attention to his words. I knew though, that if my family stayed here it would only be a matter of time before they became like all the rest of them. My children knew it too, and that is why they told their children to leave when they could. When my great grandson Griffin was about five years old, his father tested him. That man was a nasty son of bitch that came from a family that embraced the ranking system of this pack. Griffin was determined to be an Omega, so I had his uncle take him and flee into the night. Some time later I sent his sister along with him. I didn't want anything happening to those sweet children. But, about twenty years later Vivian came back and I didn't know why."

"Vivian was Star's mother?" I asked the old man just to keep the facts straight. "You said earlier that Star's father was not a wolf, what was he?"

"I don't know. Vivian never told me, she said that if she told then Star would be in danger. I think she felt that Star was in danger where they were and that is why she came back here."

"Could she have been threatened?" It was the only thing that I could think of. Someone must have made her think that she needed to come back home.

"I don't know, but I know that within a week of her returning home Howard showed up. He somehow proved himself to be a powerful wolf and earned himself a high position in our family hierarchy."

"Why didn't you try to stop any of this from happening? If your family never treated anyone like that before Star, why didn't you save her?"

"Boy, I was ninety-nine years old when Vivian came back here with Star in tow. And I swear the only reason they let her back into the family was her money. If she didn't come with a hefty bank account then they never would have let her back into the house. They felt abandoned and betrayed."

"Vivian's money?" I asked, curious about that part.

"Yeah, all the money that the family has now is Vivian's, well I guess it's Star's money now really."

"Interesting." Did they kill Vivian all those years ago for her money? "Do you really think that Howard had anything to do with Vivian's death? Did he follow her here because of her money?"

"I am certain he is the one that killed Vivian, there is no doubt in my mind. As for the money, I don't think so. Call me crazy but I think he was after Star this whole time. And, this is going to sound weird, but that man hasn't aged a day in the sixteen years I've known him."

"Are you telling me he has looked like he was somewhere in his mid thirties for close to twenty years?"

"That's exactly what I am saying, boy. He seems to be eternal or something. And I tell you, there are times he seems even older than he looks. Like he's been looking this age for a long time." Daniel took another deep breath before continuing. "There are times when he makes me think of someone who used to live with the warlock all those years ago. He doesn't look too much like him, but there are similarities."

"Are you saying he's over a hundred years old?"

"Probably a lot older."

What would this mean? If Howard was that old but still looked thirty that would be quite unusual for a wolf. It was not uncommon for us to live longer life spans than humans, and a lot of times the aging process varied, but I have never heard of a wolf that was that old and still looked like he was a young man, so to speak.

So, what does that make Howard? Is he actually a wolf? He smelled like one when I came face to face with him, and Kent said the same thing, but is he really? Neither of us saw him in a wolf form, but that doesn't mean anything. A lot of werewolves like to fight in their human forms, we are more rational that way.

Something about this was rubbing me the wrong way. I didn't like it, not one bit. And I still needed to find Star.

"Daniel, do you know where that house the warlock lived in was?"

"I know about where it was, but I never went there, ever." Daniel looked scared at the mere thought of that house.

"Do you think that Howard knows?"

"I'm certain of it. He seemed to head off in that direction from time to time and would disappear for a day or two at a time, sometimes even longer."

"Can you tell me where it is? Can you tell me where to go?"

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, boy." I didn't miss the warning in his tone, he was telling me that I needed to tread carefully. "If what I think is true, then he will have close to twenty guard wolves at that house with him, the men of this family that he has managed to corrupt."

"I will take my chances. I have a few people to take with me and they're not exactly weak."

"They'd better be strong."

Daniel's voice sounded ominous when he spoke those words. But nonetheless he still managed to tell me the part of the woods that he believed that warlock's house used to be. I gathered my men and we were ready to go. It was time that we went to save my mate.