HERS

21. Bloodlines

"This," Bruce whispered into her ear, from behind. "Is where all your answers lay." His breath sent chills down her spine. Bruce looked at her in concern since she stood at the threshold in silence, "are you sure you want to do this, you may not like what you find out."

"I want to," she nodded her head eagerly, "I'm positive." She slipped her hand into his and walked into the room hand in hand with her best friend. Danica looked around in awe, couldn't believe so many books that could fill up libraries floor to floor but instead they lay around in heaps and stacks some occupying the all around shelves.

"Do you know where we are?" Bruce asked as he watched Danica's reaction amusement. Danica shook her head. "Believe it or not we're actually under the school all the mundanes go to."

"Really," Danica asked surprised.

"Yeah, come I'll show you the maps to this all." Bruce pulled her along to the back of the book filled shelf room to where there was what to Danica seemed like a discussion area with bean bags and tables and chairs and beyond that he led her to a door painted black with no sign or label what so ever.

Inside the room Bruce switched the light on, Danica took the sight in front of her. A boxed room with no window or any form of natural light to enter, the light above her buzzed, this room too was floor to ceiling with books on bookshelves with not a space to spare. In the centre of the room was a round wooden table with papers scattered all over, like they have been in use recently.

"I haven't been here in over a month or so," he informed her leading to the round table. "Look," he held up showing her. "This is the map of our town, that's a Birdseye view of where everything is and this sheet," he said as he moved the one on top. "Is the one of the underground plan of where every tunnel leads to and which one leads to a dead-end. This town was built by wolves for wolves not our type of wolves the proper werewolves that shift during a full moon, but as time went on we evolved into shape shifters which most people confuse us as werewolves our ancestors are actually werewolves half man half beast. There still are some that shift during a full moon by force into a half human half animal form, but that is rare to find these days. When they do shift on a full moon they do not remember their actions whereas we have control over ourselves and we know very well what we do. All shape shifters when in animal form have human knowledge and understanding that is also why we have to be careful.

Right now we're under the human's school, this school was built when the humans started to migrate into this city, long ago when this town was built werewolves ruled and this place was required so we helped them out and this is why this is located under their school also because its lot safe to keep what's precious to us associated with humans this way in some odd form it ensures security for these documents." Bruce explained. "This place is as safe as it gets, you know there is only two ways in and out of this place one is the way we came the other is a lot more difficult to find also that was done like that so if anyone was trying to sneak in and out would get caught a lot easily."

Danica explored the larger room leaving Bruce in the smaller taking in all the different books and categories some much recent than others. Danica climbed up the ladder with wheels on so it was easy to move. "Bruce!" She called out, "Bruce get here!"

"You yelled?" He stood at the door of the small room.

"Yeah, come push me," she grinned enthusiastically.

"Are you crazy?" He shouted. "You're going to get me killed and yourself!"

"Stop being a worry wart and live a little!"

"No! Alex will kill me if he doesn't Christopher and James definitely will!"

"You're such a baby, no they won't," she told him waving it off. "Okay maybe James he is the third strongest now Alex is here and Alex and Chris but Mason got nothing on you."

"Yeah, I don't think so." He snorted.

"What happened to the bad boy who was scared of no one, huh? The boy who vowed to have fun and nothing but fun to live his life to the fullest doing the stupidest things, regardless."

"I was drunk when I said that."

"Well, you weren't that drunk if you remember it!"

"I was totally smashed, I don't recall anything but you telling me about it the next day after I spent the night in the dumpster outside of school."

"You wondered off and how am I suppose to take you down?"

"But you were able to take pictures and post them online?"

"That's totally different."

"No it's not."

"Gosh, you're still not over that yet?"

"Hey, that emotionally scarred me now I can't go to a party and get wasted without the worry of having that done to me."

"Your problem," Danica shrugged carelessly. "Now listen up, Bruce, whether or not you help me go from one side of the room to the other, you will get in trouble regardless since you are an accomplice by letting me in here so you might as well help out and get in trouble for something you've done than being blamed for it and we all know when it comes down to it, it will be my word against yours."

"You wouldn't," Bruce narrowed his eyes at her.

"Want to put your theory into action?"

"I'd rather not," he muttered, "We do this once, okay?"

"Twice"

"Once"

"Twice, two times got it?"

"Little blackmailing..."

"yeah, yeah, yeah, now come on."

As said after two goes she got off the ladder and followed Bruce back to the boxed room where he was already bent over the round table face buried deep in it, she stopped when she came across the word 'Bloodlines '. The word was written in gold into a leather case of a book. She pulled the worn out yet well care taken book out the shelf. She ran her fingers across the large word, there was nothing else on the plain cover apart from the pack crest, a design that was a select group of loops and turns all connected, as it was a symbol for the pack motto 'always find your way back home'. Danica took a seat into one of the chairs in the far corners and opened the book and began reading out of it. It had the information of the first founder and the heritage of the family onwards.

Danica quickly scanned over the first page. "Bruce get here, there's information on my family and the family tree." She called out in excitement. Bruce joined her looking over her shoulder as they read the book. The family tree flowed starting with the founder.

Nikolas Raul IV and his mate Rebekka Raul of Greenland Pack: Children Nikolas Raul V

Nikolas Raul V and his mate Emile Roisin Raul: Children Nikolas Michael Raul VI

Nikolas Michael Raul VI and his mate Hanna Madeline Raul Children: Michael Nikolas Raul

Michael Nikolas Raul and mate Elizabeth Marie Raul: children Alexander Michael Raul and Danica Elizabeth Raul.

"Nic," Bruce called her name. "You're the first daughter in four generations you're the fifth generation to have a female from the Raul bloodline."

"So?"

"Do you have any idea what that means?"

Danica shook her head, confusion clear in her face.

"Firstly not only can those bitches no longer push you around you are of alpha bloodline if Alex hadn't returned you would've become Alpha, not Chris. Plus you are the first girl in ages, that's something," he let out a low whistle.

"Maybe this place will have the answer to why I haven't shifted yet." She scoffed. "How crazy is that, first girl in generation and I can't shift, my wolf is nowhere to be seen."

"Hey, come on Nic." Bruce said rounding on her. "You got a wolf, it'll come around."

Danica turned to face him, "what makes you so sure?"

"You gotta have faith."

"Hmm," Danica thought, looking anywhre but at him, the way he was looking at her she was sure he could see into her soul. "I'm going to explore." She said bouncing off away from him.

Danica skimmed through the books on the shelves, taking in the names hoping one of them would pique her interest.

The sound of broken glass reached Bruce's ears making them perk up followed by a fluent string of curses only Danica would use, instantly he was by her side where she had walked into the corner of a table causing the lamp to topple over onto the floor breaking into tiny pieces. "Are you okay?" He asked in a hurry quickly examining her body for any cut and damages, their previous fight not moments ago quickly forgotten.

"I'm okay, nothing more than a bruise tomorrow." She assured him picking up the books she had dropped.

"Hello?" A deep male voice called from outside the door they had entered from. "Anybody here," He called the voice was a lot clear since it was inside the room with them thankfully they were hidden out of sight thanks to the tall stack of books.

"Shit." Bruce cursed under his breath. He pulled Danica along with him back into the small square room. He picked up his papers that were scattered all over the table top into a rucksack near the table.

"Wait, wait, wait." Danica said rushing towards the voice.

"Where are you going?" Bruce hissed.

"I forgot the books." Danica said weaving around the room and grabbing the two books: the one about her family history and the pack history titles; Blue Moon Pack. She held them close to her as she hurried back.

"Have you lost your mind?" He took the books out of Danica's hand and stuffed them in too. "Pull your hood over your head." He ordered as he did the actions.

"Who's in here?" The voice asked from the other side of the door.

Bruce glanced at the door, before muttering, "s**t," under his breath. He slung the rucksack over his shoulder with one last glance he pulled her along through the shelves covered door that was in the small room. The door shut with a soft audible thud, which didn't go unnoticed by the wolf in the other room. "This is the second exit." He told her, as they speed down the pipe covered passage way.

The door opened behind them, light flooding into the dark passage. "Hey! You, come back here!" He yelled.

Bruce didn't bother looking back instead the duo broke into a sprint trying to get as far as they could away from the fuming man behind them who's footsteps echoed behind theirs. Hand in hand, Bruce leading the way, Danica blindly ran behind him, keeping up with him without a worry, following the twist and turns of the passage way unlike the other tunnels and passage ways they had used which had one simple passageway, this had misleading hallways too which wasn't as simple as the others. Danica had to keep close by with Bruce in order to not get lost or busted by the man who they had lost by now, but being a werewolf, Bruce just ran the extra mile putting more distance between them just to ensure they don't get busted otherwise all this sneaking around and running would be gone to waste.

Bruce came to a stop, catching his breath. Danica too took this moment to do the same, once she had her breath back she looked around the place where they had stopped. "Bruce we're at a dead end." Danica stated frowning, her voice echoing throughout the passage.

Bruce shook his head, "Shh, he might be lingering around." He whispered. "Don't worry we're not at a dead end."

"Why do I have the feeling you've done this before?"

"Why do I have the feeling you've been in similar situations before?"

"Touché," Danica nodded, this wasn't his first time and it wasn't her first either.

"You have a knack for getting into trouble." Bruce said grinning.

"So do you," she pointed out. They sat in the dead end passage and let silence fall over them, Danica was too deep in thought to realise Bruce was calling her. He pushed her off her seat which revived her from her though track. "What?" She hissed pissed that he pushed her onto the ground.

"What were you thinking about?" Bruce asked with an innocent look on his face.

"I thought we were out in the dead of night, so how can we possibly get caught?"

"Firstly we didn't get caught, we just got seen-there's a difference." He stated looking at his watch. "Hey, what do you know," he said in surprise. "We've been out here for a while, it's almost ten."

"Really, so we've been out for...wait when did we leave?" Danica asked trying to figure out what time.

"It's around half past five."

"So we've been out for a while."

Bruce chuckled, "time sure does fly when you're having fun."

"Come on, let's get out of here and get some breakfast or something to eat."

"Are you asking me out?"

"Course I am and you're paying."

Bruce turned around facing her, stepping into her personal space. "Since we're going on a date, does this part also count as part of the date?" He asked smirking, leaning in brushing his lips slightly against hers.

A smirk played on Danica's lips, "yeah, sure, whatever you want," she said pushing him away. "Just get us out of here."

Bruce turned away grinning, he walked up to the wall that was the dead end it had a metal wheel on it connected to what looked like water pipes, after spinning the wheel 1800C anti-clockwise he pushed the wall open, revealing a small dark room on which the wall opposite the two had a metal rusting ladder stuck to the wall.

"I doubt they can hold our weight." Danica said sceptical analysing the rustic ladder.

"Just climb, they will hold." He urged her. "Do you want us to get caught?"

Danica huffed as she began to climb leading the way, leaving it to Bruce to bring up the rare. She pushed the ceiling above in removing the floor tile, Danica pushed herself into the room followed by Bruce who put the floor tile back in place as if they hadnt just emerged from the ground.

"Where are we?" She asked looking around.

"The schools supply room." He told her wagging. "You know what goes on in these rooms." He leaned in burying his head at the crook of her neck, she let out a low moan when he sucked at her neck gently, that was the last thing she had expected from him.

"M-move," she stuttered, a blush rose to her face embarrassed that he had gotten a reaction like that out of her.

Smirking he moved away not taking his eyes off of her. He twisted the door knob and slowly opened the door, light from the other side poured into the room. With the site clear of human activity, Bruce stepped out of the caretakers closet into the dimly lit corridors of the school across town, no werewolf had ever step foot in. Bruce had his hands in Danica's who followed behind hand in hand and closed the door shut.

Their exit hadn't gone unnoticed as they had hoped. "Hey, you two should be in class!" A teacher shouted, speeding up his pace to catch up with the two who had frozen in their spot. Both of them turned around slowly facing the teacher. They looked between themselves and at the teacher, without a word the grip on each other tightened and they broke into a sprint.

"Have you been here before?" Danica asked.

He just flashed a grin.

"Of course you have," she muttered to herself. "Why did I even ask?"

"We're on the second floor," he told her. "We need to get to the ground floor. Come, this way's the quickest." He pulled her down the staircase.

"Dude, we're going the wrong way," said Danica after noticing the sign.

"Doesn't matter," he brushed off as the bell went off signalling the end of the period, students flooded out of the class room and into the corridors filling the staircase causing a problem for the two as they battled their way down.

"You two," The same teacher from earlier shouted raising his voice above the students chatter, silencing them. "Stop"

His confrontation had Bruce moving faster. "I thought we lost the retard."

Danica shrugged not knowing what to say. "I guess not." The students parted to both sides giving Bruce and Danica a clear path to go down without a problem unfortunately for them this also gave the teacher a clearing allowing him to be hot on their trail.

Bruce shoved the double doors open and into the quad running across the quad to the other side through another set of double doors leading them to a long corridor which he exited by going through another set of double doors which led to the play ground where he made a run for the green gates which were open with the delivery lorries coming in, the two snuck by without getting seen by the workers who were posted by the gates.

"Why didn't you stop them?" His angry voice yelled in the distance, the two picked up, they had gone through a grove cutting corners leading to the busy road ahead of them.

Danica looked around at the unfamiliar territory, "do you know how to get back?"

Bruce scanned the area, "don't worry," he said with an easy carefree shrug.