People Like Us (bxb)

-Nathan’s POV-

“Will you be alright?” Alex asked while looking at me.

“Yes, don’t worry about me. You have a pack to take care of.” I told him, trying to keep him convinced into going back to check up on his pack. It has been a month since he was here, and his beta has been nagging at him to return in order to settle some Alpha matters. Dad fetched me Elder Olivia, and Alex to the airport while Ray and the twin are at school.

“Elder Olivia, please take care of Nathan.” Alex requested.

“Of course. It is my duty. Now run along and go check on your pack. An alpha is necessary for a pack to run smoothly.” Elder Olivia shooed Alex away. The airport started to signal for the last call for boarding and Alex reluctantly pulled away from us.

“I’ll be back soon! Be safe!” He shouted before rushing to get past the gate.

“Finally!” Dad sighed. “With how he was acting, you’d think that he was your mate.”

“Dad!” I whined, but he only laughed at me. Well, Alex is way better than Terui.

After watching the plane leave the airport, we decided to head back home. Elder Olivia insisted to stay for dinner before returning to the rental apartment that she lived in together with the twins. I was asking Elder Olivia about many things, about wolf packs, about ranking, and mostly about the Elder Society.

“…Unfortunately, despite the Elder Society was first founded to guide and protect packs, a lot of the Elders think that they are more important than they really are. For example…” Elder Olivia grumbled in annoyance. But she didn’t get to finish

Bang! The car dipped. Hsssss! Krrrr! It swerved and skid on an empty road. Dad growled in frustration and slammed the brakes. Elder Olivia had her hands around me just in time so I don’t get flung out.

“Get out! It’s gonna blow!” Dad screamed and we tried to wretch open the door. But it wouldn’t budge. A dark, red, symbol etched itself into the handle.

“It’s them.” Elder Olivia said darkly. We knew what she meant. More importantly, I knew who she was referring to.

“Dad, come to the back! Hurry!” I urged. Drip, drip. The sound oil leaking fuel caught my attention. There was no time. I only had a few seconds left.

Five. Dad quickly unbuckled his seat belt. Four. He stepped over but fumbled in his step. Three. He manages to stumble over, and I linked arms with dad and Elder Olivia. Two. I pressed my thumb over the ring on my index finer and channeled my energy into it. One.

Ka-boom!

Vibrations rocked the air, pieces of vehicle parts flew dangerously in various directions. Flames roared on site of the explosion and black fumes plumed up into the sky. Two figures emerged and stared at the explosion.

“You didn’t tell me that it was going to be this explosive!” The one on the left complained with a scowl on his face. He ran a hand in his dirty blond hair and shook it back and forth, trying to get the soot out from his hair.

“It shouldn’t be!” The one on the right complained. He was sure he had only placed a seal on the vehicle. And he was right. The explosion grew bigger not because of the seal but because of the ‘Reflection’ imbued in the ring.

“So, what now? We can’t just walk in a burning flame.” The blond hair guy deadpanned.

“Well, we should just wait for it to die down. According to Elder Tucker, he would be able to survive any circumstances.”

Neither of them was prepared for what happened next. A sabretooth tiger and a grey wolf leaped from the flames. The tiger did not waste any time, the moment his paws touched the ground, he pounced onto the blond dude and clamped his jaws down on his throat. The blondie was dead.

The grey wolf was much smaller than the tiger, she wouldn’t be able to reach the other man with one leap as the tiger did. The other man, frightened, took that advantage and started running. He was, after all, a successful experiment. He was stronger, faster than most of his own kind, and he could use powers that others could not. But he underestimated the grey wolf. She was known as the ‘Grey Lightning’. She instantly closed the distance between her and target in a matter of seconds and with a quick swipe of her claw, it was done.

I walked out of the flames and dismissed the barrier. The sabretooth tiger immediately came trotting over to my side and signaled me to get on his back. I carefully got onto the broad back and got myself seated comfortably. He growled lowly and shot off back to the direction of our house, the grey wolf tagging not far behind.

I waited in the living room with a badly shaken-up Ray, while dad and Elder Olivia went into separate rooms to shift and get dressed. Ray had been waiting for me in the front yard when we arrived back home. Elder Olivia, who hadn’t been introduced to Ray yet, though he was a suspicious individual and attacked him before we could try and stop her.

“Jesus christ, Nathan are you crazy? She’s a nut crack! Are you sure you trust your life with her?” Ray screeched in a soft voice. I guess having a werewolf holding you inside the jaw was a rather traumatic experience for a wizard.

“Hey, at least she let you go when we stopped her.” I tried to calm him down while stifling my laughter.

“Are you laughing at me? I can’t believe this! I thought you were my friend! If you hadn’t stopped her in time, I would be living my grandma and talking about how I accidentally died in front of Hades at this point.” He miserably pointed out, covering his face with his hands. I just rolled my eyes at him and looked up the stairs. Just in time, both my dad and Elder Olivia came walking down.

“Are you still upset about it, young man?” Elder Olivia said while she descended from the stairs. “Well, you would need to improve on your skills. But, let’s put that aside for now. We have a few things we must discuss.”

“Agreed, this Elder Tucker that they mentioned, it seems that he is in cohort with the hunters,” Dad said grimly. I flinched when I heard the name. I don’t remember anything about it but for some reason, the name doesn’t give me any good vibes. I look over and Elder Olivia wore a scowl on her face.

“Who is he?” Ray asked.

“Elder Tucker.” Elder Olivia started, “That old fart causes problems everywhere he goes. He is only a few years older than me and is the Elder of Darkvale Pack. Which if I’m not wrong, was Nathan’s pack.”

“Which means that we will not only be facing the hunters but also the Darkvale Pack,” Ray stated. It was not a good thing for a pack to be working with hunters. “Well then, if you ever need any help, you can be sure that the strongest team of wizards will be on standby at all times.”

“Thank you. I’ll need to inform the Elder Society about this, as well as the council. After all, it seems that the experiments involving demons have progressed further than we thought.” Elder Olivia said. We discussed a bit more about the issue before Ray left to inform his mum about the situation and request backup when needed. Elder Olivia went back to her room in her hotel to get in a call for a meeting.