The Delta's Daughter Chapter 66

Lamia

The tension in my office was high as Rhett recounted his knowledge and findings of the creature that attacked the borough they visited along with a colorful image of the massacred borough they stumbled across. It sounds a little morbid but we began comparing notes on what we discovered with the small bear clan and the mutilated bodies Rhett and his team came across.

Luckily, Rhett had the foresight to take pictures as evidence and was able to describe the creature that attacked them in great detail; A lithe humanoid with grey skin, long claws and muscular legs. He described its face as distorted with deep crimson eyes and pointed teeth, like everyone of them were a fang and its nose was almost none existent, just two holes instead of a protruding nasal cavity and its cranium was larger where the brain would sit and narrowing down to the jaw.

What he was describing sounded an awful lot like how humans used to describe aliens way back when they thought they were real. Little grey men are what they called them in the history books. The difference was what Rhett had described sounded like some fucked up horror version compared to the human's description of their little grey men.

“No I’m not making this shit up!” Rhett glared at Travis who was riling him up and not taking his description and encounter seriously.

“Are you sure you didn’t hit the bottle hard that night, man? I mean come on, we all saw that classic movie, what was it again…”

Travis said clicking his fingers, trying to remember the name of some movie made hundreds of years ago.

“Close encounters” Hunji supplied. I rolled my eyes.

“I wasn’t fucking drunk, I know what I saw and so did Ria!” Rhett retorted.

“ENOUGH!” I bellowed, using my Alpha tone. They quickly shut up and brought their full attention to me. These three were making my brain hurt. Not so much Hunji, but the other two, dear Goddess, give me strength. “Alright Rhett, go see Mrs. Brown and ask her who could sketch your description. I would like to see what this creature is you are talking about. Travis, Get in contact with Ace. He is the closest pack, we can have some of the warriors go over there, do a full investigation and burry the bodies.”

“Yes Alpha”, they both replied.

“Oh and have Ace’s warriors see if they can talk with any other boroughs that were close by, maybe they have seen or know something.” I finished and waved my hand at them to shoo.

“Lamia, the boroughs are not part of our empire. We have no business talking with any of them or taking over.” Hunji said as he stood in his usual spot by the window, propped up against the frame.

Travis and Rhett paused at the door, waiting to hear out our conversation.

I sighed heavily and rubbed my temples. I was sure I was getting a head ache. “Your right Hunji, they are not part of our empire, however, this information should be concerning to all packs and it is our duty to not only inform other packs, boroughs and kingdoms, but it is our responsibility to follow up and take care of our shit! Our guys were the first on the scene and I doubt anyone else will step up to the plate and investigate any further. And I for one want to know what the fuck this thing is. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.” I glared at him, willing him with my eyes to piss off and get on with shit.

“Yes, of course, my Queen”. He bowed and headed to the door to follow Travis and Rhett out.

Was it too early to start drinking? I looked at the clock, 8am. Yes, definitely too early to start drinking.

“Uggghh!” I groaned out loud and spun around in a circle in my chair a couple of times, childish, but it was mostly out of frustration. I picked up the phone and dialed one of the many people I needed to talk to today and all this while I was waiting for Tawny’s arrival. Plus, Ria should be returning at some point today with the rest of Rhett’s team and even if I was excited to see both my best friend and Ria, who I thought of as a sister, I wasn’t sure I would be able to give them the welcome I was hoping too.

The phone rang twice before a powerful and gruff voice answered “Hello”.

“King Alexander, Its Lamia” I introduced myself, though I suspect he knew who it was before he answered.

“Lamia! What’s with the ‘King’?” He chuckled.

“Sorry Uncle, it’s just not a social call,” I replied, slightly embarrassed.

“Nonsense! Formal or not, I am always uncle to you. So what can I do for my favorite girl?” I could tell he was smiling and I could imagine him sitting there behind his huge desk, his blue eyes crinkling as he grinned widely.

“It has to do with the file I sent Kellen the other week.” I was sussing him out, firstly to make sure he knew what I was talking about, and secondly, I really didn’t want to put him in a bad mood but he was the only one I wanted to talk to first about everything. “I’ve just sent you an email containing information on a similar attack. My head council member came across a borough that had been slaughtered in a similar way to the Bear Clan near us.” I hit send on the email containing the pictures and a typed-up report I had Rhett put together earlier this morning before our meeting.

“Holy mother of the moon!” He gasped. “The whole borough was wiped out?” I hummed my confirmation. “Did you ever hear back from the Bear King?”

“No, and I’m kind of disgusted that they haven’t acknowledged the file we sent them. We have tried to call them but no ranked member ever called us back.” I crinkled my nose with disdain. I was getting the feeling that the King of the bears really didn’t give a shit about his people. He had a whole Clan wiped out and didn’t even have the decency to acknowledge it. Or at least they have never replied to us and, from what we know, they have never sent anyone out to investigate, just left it to someone else to handle their responsibilities and clean up for them.

“I hate to say it, but different shifter kingdoms work in different ways. I don’t want to stick up for the bear king, but maybe they never got your information?” I tapped my pen on the desk listening to Uncle Alex’s excuse for the sorry ass were-bear. I could hear the disgust laced in his voice at their ignorance.

“I don’t know, Uncle, but around here we all have a bad feeling about this. I know Kel would tell me if anything like this happened in your kingdom but I’m going to ask anyway…” He cut me off.

“No, nothing like what you found or happened in no man’s land. Just a few rogue attacks on some of the weaker packs in our kingdom, which unfortunately is not unusual, but we have it covered. Why?” He asked like he was waiting for me to drop a bomb.

“No reason really, this creature thing Rhett and his team ran into is bothering me and I just want to find out if anyone else has come across this thing. It’s freaking me out, Uncle” I admitted, now I was just chewing on my pen, as a thought occurred to me, “Hey you think maybe you could have someone hit the books and search your library for any mention of this creature?” I was hopeful, that maybe, just maybe these things weren’t so unheard of and one of the history books might mention them. “Maybe I should call my mom and dad and ask them to do some research?”

“Ugghh… well… your dad is on a mission right now.” I pursed my lips; I could hear the hesitance in his voice, like he really didn’t want to omit that, then some shuffling of papers.

“Where’s my Dad Uncle Alex?” I drew out the sentence slightly, I know he is hiding something, but what and why is what I want to know.

“Ahh, nothing for you to worry about, he is checking up on a lead regarding the rogue attacks on the smaller packs I just told you about.”

“Riiight.” Lies, he was hiding something from me. “Huh, mom never mentioned it, nor did Kellen.” I was baiting him now. He knew if he didn’t give me answers, I would ask elsewhere for them. I was giving him the opportunity to fess up.

“Lamia, he is fine, just doing some undercover work, your dad’s specialty. You know that.” He said, trying to cover up the lie in his voice.

“Yah sure of course, tell him to call me when he is back yah?” I would just have to get answers from someone else because obviously King Alexander wasn’t going to tell me, so I changed the subject instead. “No matter Uncle, I am hosting the ball at the end of this month so I will get to see him then. He can tell me all about his adventures and where he has been.”

“Yah, yah, I’m sure he would love to. I will not be attending the ball or the council meeting the day after. I’m sorry Lamia, but… I will be sending Beta Michael if that makes up for anything?” He was just trying to sweet talk me now.

“I will miss you, but how could I say no to my other favorite Uncle,” I laughed and I actually really wanted to see Uncle Michael. In the 2 years I have made MacTire my home, he has not come out here since the day I was rescued. I couldn’t wait to show him our territory and our army. I know he would be super proud of me and, of course, he would want to test our top warriors. After all, we now had the largest army in the whole realm, not to mention they were highly trained by Hunji and myself and would rival any kingdom or pack. I wanted to show him how far I had come. He has been my biggest supporter, more so than my parents, and encouraged me to strive forward.

After hanging up with the werewolf King, I went down my list, calling our other packs and the heads of law enforcement in the cities that we ran. By the time I had finished, it was well into the afternoon and the growling from my tummy reminded me I hadn’t eaten yet. I looked at the clock on my computer, Tawny would be here in a couple hours, I thought as I headed out to grab some lunch from the pack dining hall.

A silence fell throughout the dining hall when I entered and pack members began to stand, bowing their heads. I was sure my face was red, it felt flushed. I smiled as I passed by tables, making a bee line to the buffet of food. I don’t think I will ever get used to the attention.

“Alpha, Queen” people began acknowledging me, a little bit of awe and surprise on their faces. I hadn’t eaten with my pack since… Ever, I guess today would be a good day to start socializing with my pack members more. Now was the time to show a united front and I couldn’t do that when I was estranged from my subjects. The only time I had really interacted with them was training; I usually left all other liaisons in the hands of Hunji or Travis.

I piled my plate with fruit and a couple of sandwiches and decided to sit with some of the pipsqueak pack members, who apparently were also on lunch break from school.

“Alpha! Over here! You can sit with me and meet my new friends!” The dainty voice of Petra reached my ears and I beamed a smile at her and took a seat in the middle of the table next to her.

No sooner had I sat down, I was introduced to all the cubs, pups, and other children and the onslaught of questions began.

“Are you our Queen?”

“How big is your wolf?”

“Is Alpha Travis your boyfriend?”

“Can I be your boyfriend?”

“I heard you killed a king?”

The questions just kept coming and I tried to answer them all and half the time some of the questions had me in stitches. I didn’t know where these kids were getting their information from.

My lunch was so much fun that I made a mental note to join them for lunch as often as I could, and I somehow got roped into promising to play a game of tag with them on Friday. Ria was so much better with the kids than I was and I know she would be pleased to see me taking an interest and being involved with them.

*****

“It was nice to see you interacting in the dining hall, the whole pack is buzzing about it” A jubilant smile was on Travis’ face as he caught up with me on my way to my chambers.

“You look super pleased with yourself?” I smirked at him.

“Nope, just happy to see you taking more of an active role is all” he said with jest and pep in his steps. “Where are you off too?”

“To freshen up before Tawny arrives” I smiled, more to myself as the excitement grew at seeing my best friend.

Travis’ hand landed on the small of my back and leaned in close to my ear as we walked, his voice a low whisper and full of friskiness “Would you like some company?” He asked and I halted my steps, swinging around to face him with a perplexed look on my face.

“Travis” I sighed.

He held his hands up in front of him and gave me a lop-sided smile. “Hey, it’s OK if you don’t want to, I just thought a little romp in the afternoon would be fun, relive some stress, ya know.”

I nodded my head in understanding, understanding what he meant, not agreeing. This really needed to stop between us. Especially after last night, I still felt the guilt eating me up inside. I wasn’t sure what to say, or how to tell him. I suppose I should just do it, like ripping off a band-aid.

“Travis… I… Don’t think we should do this anymore.” There I said it, maybe stumbled over my words a little, but I said it. I looked up into his soft brown eyes expecting to see some kind of hurt, but all I saw was his grin and compassion. “This isn’t healthy” I pointed my finger between us both. “You have a second chance mate out there somewhere, I know you do and…”

“Hey no, I get it. And your right, I’m not sure about another mate, but I know we are just using each other for sex.” He scratched the back of his neck, ruffling the ends of his hair “Last night… Last night, I could tell you were somewhere else and I don’t know what’s going on through that pretty head of yours, but if you ever need to talk, I’m here for you, as your friend.” He moved is hands and placed them on my shoulders looking into my eyes and making sure he held my gaze firmly. “I can see it in your eyes Lamia, something is bothering you and I get the feeling it has nothing to do with these attacks.”

As soon as he said his last sentence, Travis drew me into his arms and gave me a bone-crushing hug “I know I’m not Kellen or Mike, but please remember I am here for you. Always.”

“Thank you.” I murmured, and pulled back from the hug “You’re a good man Travis Wertz, one of the best.” I smiled and patted his shoulder before turning and walking towards my room.