All the Devils are Here

Among Us

Samael

Here we are; Mara, Asher, Dothan, Lex, and me. Deep in the woods in Hayride, we are on one of the highest rocks and we wait patiently for our summoners.

In the early hours of the day, Asher and Lex broke the news to me about my father’s demise along with the demise of the most senior Beta - Slade. The news broke me but, I had a plan on what to do next. I knew I had to talk to Mara first and it wouldn’t be immediately we’d be able to go to the south border where the accident apparently happened.

But before I could do any of these, I heard the howl. Apparently, we all did. Which is why we’re here. A howl like this one wasn’t an ordinary howl from a packmate or even an Alpha, it is almost a forgotten sound because of how rare it is to hear one like it. It’s a sound from the elders. The oldest group of werewolves in this city; many of whom lived through the war and understand more than anyone why peace is better than going to war with the humans.

I heard the howl but, I deliberately delayed before making my way down here. Unfortunately, my delay was for nothing because no one is here. Just us. I’d think it was a trap if not that it’s in the deepest parts of Hayride. Any Hunter lurking around these woods would be straight up suicidal. Plus how does one even fake an elder howl;

“Ugh my feet are starting to hurt”, Lex murmurs to himself but, we’re all werewolves here and we all hear him loud and clear.

Mara glances at him and back to the view in front of her. She has the facial expression of a person who has seen it all. Anyone who ever thought we were a boys club or any of that nonsense clearly hadn’t met Mara. She is and has always been the king of the boys. She seldom hung out around us because she was always so busy with Slade and my father but, whenever she was available; she was one of the most chill people to kick it with.

But now I don’t know if I can trust her. Why weren’t you in there with them, Mara? That’s what I want to ask. Why weren’t you in the explosion too? But, I have been holding myself from asking because of the off chance that I’m wrong. In my heart, I know I’m wrong. Mara would never set one of us up especially not the Alpha.

Almost as if she can read my thoughts and the distrust is all over my face, her eyes jam mine. She has a mean pair of eyes but, so do I. My stare probably makes her uncomfortable until she says;

“Just say it Samael. Whatever you have to say, get it over with”, what do you know! I guess she can read my thoughts;

“It’s a conversation for another time”, I say shocking myself and perhaps Asher. Look, I know how to control my tongue okay? I just prefer not to. Right now, however, the conversation I’d prefer to have with Mara is one on one and not in a group setting like this. Especially not when the elders will be here any moment from now.

It appears that I may have summoned them with my mind because shortly after, a pack of six werewolves of different colors makes their way towards us from different directions. The closer they get, the more human they become and by the time they’re with us, they’ve all fully transformed into humans.

Six of them - two female wolves and four males. In my whole life, I’ve only ever seen three elders together at once in one place and that was during the mating ceremony of an Alpha werewolf; I wonder what the occasion for this might be.

“Thank you for honoring our call”, one of them says. He appears to be the one in charge. Mara seems to be familiar with them but, the rest of us are not.

“Lucien, what is the matter?’, she asks.

“We heard about what happened to Xavier”, already? How? How does news travel so fast? Actually, I know how, people can’t keep their f*****g mouths shut.

Mara clenches her jaw and looks away regretfully as she says;

“Yes. We lost Xavier and Slade last night in a gas plant explosion in Mantem. It’s a small town just outside the city.”,

“I’m sorry for the loss of your leader”, he says sincerely and then looks at me and adds;

“And of your father. Xavier was a good man”. A good man? Maybe. A good father? Hardly. But, that’s not important in the grand scheme of things. It never has.

“The reason we have summoned you here is to express our concern. We may be silent and avoid getting involved in any matters outside of Hayride but we…..hear things. And they have not been pleasant”, he says and the woman beside him adds;

“Multiple packs; those significantly weaker than yours have brought reports to us concerning….kidnappings”, immediately she says this I think of Wren, the kid from Parker’s a pack. His name finally stuck in my head.

Lucien nods to what she said and elaborates on it; “Werewolves killings especially in the center of the city or Uptown is one thing but, kidnappings? We had an incident back in the day of werewolves going missing. Batches and batches of young wolves were tranquilized and taken away in vans.”,

“Did you ever find out why they were taken?”, my curiosity gets the better part of me and I blurt the question out.

“They were…..harvesting their organs”, he says grimly; “And when I say they I don’t mean Hunters or Sentinels or oblivious humans. They were werewolves. Like us”, this last statement runs shivers down my spine and I understand the implication of what Lucien is saying. Maybe this whole time, we’ve been looking in the wrong place. Maybe the people behind these happenings are among us. Maybe they are among us right now.

I slant my eyes towards Mara and she catches me. I don’t care. I want her to know that she’s number one on my ‘do not trust’ list.

“With all due respect, Lucien statements like these only breed suspicion amongst us and do little to bring us to the truth”, Mara says

“Perhaps you are right, Mara but this isn’t about breeding suspicion. Let me ask you this - how many packs are there currently in Northview?”, she is unable to answer this question and neither is anyone of us. I wonder where the old man is going with this;

“Exactly! You don’t know. Neither do I. Where do we begin? How do we go pointing fingers at the enemy when we are not even confident in our strength”,

“What are you saying?”,

“I’m saying that it’s time for us to unite. All of us. Every single pack in this city. Xavier is not the first Alpha to die mysteriously this year. And even though none of your wolves may have been kidn*pped, many others have. We cannot find the enemy divided like this. It’s time to become one”.