Minne had called me.

I mean, usually we called each other once a week to just catch up and talk to each other about anything going on. Honestly, I didn’t fully understand most of what she ranted of when it came to the way witches lived, but that was a given, since I knew nothing of magic and spells and the fundamentals needed for that sort of thing. She never got into detail and I never minded not knowing it all from the view of an expert.

Though, I did have a bit of magic myself… considering I was a twin, and twins for the past forty years had been granted abilities by Minnie’s mother through some really complicated never-been-done-before spell… it wasn’t like I could actually do the magic stuff. It just happened – the thing I could do because of it was just a part of me.

I could shift into my wolf, my clothes melding into my fur through some kind of sorcery, vanishing for a bit, and then I would still be wearing my clothes when I shifted back. Great for my wardrobe and for modesty, bad for the washer and dryer. Hair was a pain.

Still… this was the third call this week. And when I answered, the hesitant explanation from our last conversation came to the front of my mind. Last time, she hadn’t known when, but she wanted to bring it to my attention.

Now she knew.

And it was a lot sooner than either of us had expected.

Days.

Literal days.

Not a week.

Days.

It was like all of those adventure novels when they just pick a chosen one out of their life and basically say, you have to go save the world, now. It was fun to read it as fiction, see how flustered they get, how they learn the ways of this exciting new world, level up and power up to be super awesome and then decimate the bad guy. It was all really entertaining. That is… when it was in fiction.

Except now I was living it.

And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

She said there was some kind of monster trapped in the land of wolves. Sent here a long time ago by the witches themselves. And then they just left it here?

To me, that made all of the things the witches were doing secretive and nefarious. They were things not done for lasting peace. Except Minnie. She was peeved by this whole thing, that this scenario even existed. She was so upset that we were being sent on this ‘hunting’ trip to find this cave that she ranted on for upwards of two hours about it. She barely stopped to breathe.

Apparently, the High Witch’s word was final. And it seemed on this one thing, her mother had been in clear agreement with their leader… which only peeved Minnie more.

I sighed and stared at the chat group I’d made between all of us.

We needed to meet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most feasible thing to get us all in the same place quickly. Thank goodness for technology. It was arranged that everyone up by the Norcell Castle would gather in one spot and make a video call down to us back in our home packs. Considering the security and the sheer number of us living in the Nealon Pack, we all agreed on getting together at Jane and Lee’s place. They had the space. And the lone four who weren’t here, were already up visiting each other in the north.

Minnie, with a bag slung over her shoulder and a weary look on her face, finally arrived.

“Hey,” she said as she walked up the front steps. “Mom sent me. There’s something we must to do.” Then, after setting her bag down, she glanced up at the house and then over at a nice big grassy patch with a few chairs just off to the left, next to a fire pit. She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “Can we sit over there to talk?”

She left her bag on the porch and walked over there without hesitation once everyone agreed. For a moment, we all watched her go.

“Does she seem… different?” Lee asked quietly after I’d already made my way down the steps. I paused at the bottom, listening to them, watching Minnie.

“A bit.”

“Almost sad.”

Jane and Lynn both added solemn notes to his question. I sighed.

To me, it seemed more like something was weighing heavily on her. An affliction of the heart.

She must be worried about her mother, I guessed silently, it was hard to leave someone who was struggling.

I joined her, sitting on the grass, opting out of the chairs and offered Minnie a gentle fist bump to tell her I was with her. She gave me a half smile as our knuckles knocked lightly.

The others came over and sat down, just as Lynn’s tablet started buzzing, notifying her of an incoming call. The call was answered and greetings were given all around as Will expertly moved a chair, setting the device on it so that everyone could see and hear each other.

“So, what’s this about Minnie?” Lizzie asked eventually, drawing everyone’s attention to the matter at hand.

“As you know already, certain events took place that left us with tracking someone down.”

We all fell into silence.

“Myrus,” Jane called the name bitterly.

Minnie nodded. We all knew what happened. And by the collective reaction to that name, it was clear we’d all been affected by it, directly or through each other. The name itself was almost like a curse to us.

Lee and his parents, abducted by Myrus’s son and given doses of something unknown. Noah and Fallyn, held captive and experimented on by Myrus and his two children, with Noah practically being turned into their slave for a while. Lizzie, manipulated by Myrus’s imprisoned son. Jane and Kat, on the beach, finding Noah, and nearly dying at the hands of Myrus’s daughter, whose death traumatized Jane. Lynn, captured by Myrus, and Will, fighting him to get her back, but in the process losing some blood to his horrible cause.

And me, watching all of these things happen to the people I cared for most, wishing I could’ve done something to help them.

Myrus still hadn’t been caught, despite the extensive search.

“I know where he was headed.”

Shock was felt through the group as we all picked up on her words.

“Was headed?” Will asked carefully.

“He’s dead.”

We all exchanged looks with wide eyes. What the heck? She hadn’t told me anything about that?!

“Wait, what?”

“How do you know?”

“Since when?”

“Where?”

The questions filled the air, layered atop one another, from the tablet and from those of us sitting around on the lawn.

She sighed. “My mother saw it.”

Oh.

So it wasn’t confirmed yet.

I was disappointed, rightfully so.

“He’s not actually dead-dead right this second, though?”

“No. If not today, tomorrow. He can’t have more than 24 hours left at this point.”

Silence helped those words sink in. He was going to be dead soon. But how would we know for sure? And was he capable of doing anything else before he passed?

That was what worried me.

That something else was going to happen.

Something horrible.

The conversation started to flow again and Minnie told everyone what she’d already told me. Only, just like before, she said it was what her mother requested of us. I distinctly recalled her telling me the High Witch was practically demanding this of her, as a sort of payment for her reading hobby. Of course, I didn’t say anything to dispute her words. If she didn’t want them knowing all of it, maybe it was for her own sake, trying to think of it as something her mom wanted – not a quest by her leader.

“Well, then,” Lynn started, catching everyone’s attention. She smiled. “Who’s all coming with on Minnie’s quest adventure?”

A few chuckles later, we began to seriously discuss it.

“Hector, Charles, and Peter all went up to Canada, so they’re for sure out,” Kat mentioned first.

Though they weren’t as present in our group talks or hangouts, we’d all grown up with them too. They were also kids from our parents large pile of friends who saved wolves all over the place. Peter was Alpha Jensen’s son, while Hector and Charles were twin boys belonging to Lee’s uncle, Danny. They weren’t exactly close in distance, so it had been years since we’d all gotten together.

Even I noticed Minnie’s glance at Jane, who met her gaze head-on.

“We’re coming.”

Even as Lee nodded his agreement, a sort of tense silence took over the group as we hesitated saying anything about it.

Bravely, Kat spoke up.

“Are you sure?”

Jane’s head bobbed up and down silently. Lizzie put her hands up on her side of the screen, surrendering, trying to diffuse some of the heaviness.

“I don’t need an adventure outside my books. I can’t fight like you all,” she joked, despite her being entirely honest.

Fallyn put his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m staying too.”

They exchanged one of those glances, with like sparkles in their eyes, that made me feel more than a little lonely.

“We’re gonna pass,” Kat said, speaking for her and Noah, shaking her head lightly. "After the last time… I don’t know how you’re able to get over stuff that fast, Jane.”

Jane smiled softly. I glanced down at her hands, how her thumb nail was pressing hard against her index finger. It wasn’t that she was over it. It was just that she needed to do something, needed to be helpful and use her skills for something good. That was it, wasn’t it? Erase the past, bit by bit, cover it up?

I sighed.

“I’m coming with.”

Lynn patted my knee a bit, a gentle worried smile on her face.

“Jo, you really don’t have to.”

I stared at her as she spoke firmly. What was it? That I was supposed to stay behind like a good little child? Really? Me? The look on Will’s face, or rather the lack of one… I narrowed my eyes. They talked about this before now.

Ugh.

I was tired of this.

Everyone else was going out and leaving, going places and getting hurt. Did they not realize how it felt to be the person always left behind? How the person who stays torments themselves on how they could’ve changed things, how they could’ve helped or prevented things?

My head occasionally swirled with those what-if scenarios.

“Will and I are going,” Lynn said softly, hoping to convince me.

I wanted to scream in frustration.

“I’m not staying behind this time,” I said adamantly. “I’ve had enough of that.” With a glance at Lizzie, I grinned. “Books don’t really do it for me anymore.”

Lizzie chuckled and shook her head.

Will looked around at the group and did the headcount for the rest of us.

“Alright. So, we have Lee, Jane, Josephine, Lynn, me, and you, Minnie. Is that enough?”

Minnie nodded.

“Sure is. We’re going to be taking a camper. Some people will have to share sleeping areas.” We all nodded our agreement. The way I saw it, we had two couples and Minnie and I could share a spot. “Be ready by tomorrow morning,” she said as she stood up. Glancing at the tablet, she nodded. “We’ll be in touch if we need help.”

She walked off, staring up at the sky.

Minnie probably missed her already, I thought to myself, she was probably worried about her mother.

The rest of us finished the call and said our farewells to Kat, Noah, Lizzie, and Fallyn.

A silence full of anticipation fell over us as we sat there on the chairs and grass, Minnie having climbed the top of the hill in the distance, the sun highlighting her hair and back as she looked to the west.